Verdant Tea

  • Sign In
Menu
Toggle Nav
My Cart 0
Search
• NOW ARRIVING: the first 2024 Spring Dragonwell green teas! >> 🌱 Get started for as little as $5 - check out tea samplers at a special discount! 🌟 Free Tea Sample in Every order! | Free shipping for orders $45+ 📦 • New arrival: tea tools, clever storage + more to complete your tea set ✨

2018 Wuyishan White Tea Cake

2018 Wuyishan White Tea Cake

$58.00
(350g / 12.35oz)
banner
Genre-Defying White Tea 
Pressed for Aging
The Li Family applies old-school white tea craft to Da Bai varietal leaves for a striking, mineral-driven tea packed with cooling aftertaste and notes of rice wine, cream, lychee, honey and vanilla.
Spring 2018 ♦ Wuyishan, Fujian
Genre-Defying White Tea 
Pressed for Aging
The Li Family applies old-school white tea craft to Da Bai varietal leaves for a striking, mineral-driven tea packed with cooling aftertaste and notes of rice wine, cream, lychee, honey and vanilla.
Spring 2018 ♦ Wuyishan, Fujian
Loading...

Crafted by the Li Family

Hand-picked and traditionally hand-finished within the true Wuyishan Ecological Preserve on forested biodiverse, rocky, mountainous land for distinct Wuyi minerality.
 
The Li Family is an award-winning, highly respected force for sustainability, hand-firing craft, rare varietal preservation, and tea education in Wuyishan.
    • DATE OF PICKINGSpring 2018
    • Wuyishan Ecological PreserveWuyishan, Fujian
    • ELEVATION600 METERS
    • Da BaiTea Varietal

    In an historic first, Li Xiangxi and her family have begun to cultivate Da Bai varietal in the cool, rocky, and singular terroir of their old growth fields in the Wuyishan Ecological Preserve. Using traditional sun-drying and airing techniques, the Li's have crafted their first finished white tea and pressed it into beautiful 350g cakes for aging. At a glance, it looks like a classic Shou Mei, but a tasting reveals how much the Wuyi terroir impacts the flavor of Da Bai. This tea is packed with deep minerality, balanced complex texture, and cooling foresty notes that you would not find in classic Fuding white tea. The biodiversity, soil, and water of one of the most famous tea microclimates in the world makes this a fantastic new way to experience what white tea has to offer.

  • true
    70
    deep minerality, cooling cedar
    true
    65
    rice wine, cream
    true
    50
    lychee, lemongrass
    true
    60
    honey, vanilla

    Tasting Profile

    • spice - deep minerality, cooling cedar
    • savory - rice wine, cream
    • savory - lychee, lemongrass
    • floral - honey, vanilla

the Li Family also recommends:

  1. Hua Xiang Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong
    Hua Xiang Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong
    While Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is usually smoked, the same leaf material and finishing technique can be used without the final smoking step. Hua Xiang means floral fragrance, referring to the natural but subtle floral notes in Xingcun Xiaozhong varietal that are brought out through the Li Family’s expert hand-processing. When smaller leaf material mixed with delicate buds is used, rich vanilla undertones can develop, accenting the savory nutty flavors. The main difference between this tea and a classic Wuyi Gongfu Black is that Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is not necessarily curled and twisted as thoroughly, giving it a more open structure suitable for incorporating that smaller bud and leaf mixture that wouldn’t work in the tight twists of Wuyi Gongfu Black, but both are very traditional calls back to the very earliest black teas in the world.
  2. 2023 Wuyi Gongfu Black
    2023 Wuyi Gongfu Black

    Li Xiangxi works with her brother and cousins in the Wuyi Ecological Preserve to harvest this propagated-from-seed Xiaozhong varietal leaf and process it using traditional heap oxidization techniques and curling to bring out the tea’s natural complexity. Grown on a hillside in a ravine that collects a pocket of natural mist all morning, the tea buds slowly, yielding an incredibly sweet brew. The tea picks up mineral texture from the rocky volcanic soil and the natural spring water running through the Li Family’s plot. Deeper complexity comes from the natural genetic variation of allowing their Xiaozhong tea to grow from seed instead of cuttings, creating a rich multi-layered taste experience.
  3. 2023 Wuyi Gongfu Black
    2023 Wuyi Gongfu Black

    Li Xiangxi works with her brother and cousins in the Wuyi Ecological Preserve to harvest this propagated-from-seed Xiaozhong varietal leaf and process it using traditional heap oxidization techniques and curling to bring out the tea’s natural complexity. Grown on a hillside in a ravine that collects a pocket of natural mist all morning, the tea buds slowly, yielding an incredibly sweet brew. The tea picks up mineral texture from the rocky volcanic soil and the natural spring water running through the Li Family’s plot. Deeper complexity comes from the natural genetic variation of allowing their Xiaozhong tea to grow from seed instead of cuttings, creating a rich multi-layered taste experience.

  • 'Wuyishan is incentivized by the market to keep producing the teas that make them famous. Yes this year, the Li Family surprised us with something totally different - white tea. ... Paradoxically, it is the long shadow cast by tradition over tea culture that sparks the most innovation. By studying the past, farmer-researchers can draw on the oldest techniques for inspiration'

  • 5
    6-8
    208
    20 seconds
    10
    7
    6
    208
    5 seconds
    3
    4
    12
    room temp
    8 hours

    Steeping Instructions

    Western

    5 g.6-8
    oz.    use 208° watersteep 20 secondsresteep many times
    add 10 sec. each infusion

    Gongfu

    7 g.6 ozuse 208° watersteep 5 seconds
    add 3 sec. per steeping    enjoy many steepings

    Iced/Cold

    4 g.12
    oz.    use room temp. waterrefrigerate overnight
    8 hours    add ice & enjoy

Product Photo Gallery

Copyright © 2013-present Magento, Inc. All rights reserved.