Verdant Tea

2021 Zun Sheng Dragon Pearls

2021 Zun Sheng Dragon Pearls

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Hand-shaped Dragon Pearl 
from sweet early spring sheng
The Zun series is made from sweet, tender early buds wild-foraged from 500-1000 year tea trees, a portrait of this ancient tea forest’s beauty. Notes of peony, sandalwood, apricot, snap peas, and oat with a tingling mineral aftertaste.
April 2021 ♦ Mt. Ailao, Yunnan
Hand-shaped Dragon Pearl 
from sweet early spring sheng
The Zun series is made from sweet, tender early buds wild-foraged from 500-1000 year tea trees, a portrait of this ancient tea forest’s beauty. Notes of peony, sandalwood, apricot, snap peas, and oat with a tingling mineral aftertaste.
April 2021 ♦ Mt. Ailao, Yunnan
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Crafted by the Dongsa Cooperative

True zero-intervention wild tea, foraged from ancient tea forests in one of the most remote tea growing regions in the world.
 
The Dongsa Cooperative was founded to promote responsible stewardship of these tea forests and pass on old-school pu’er hand-crafting techniques that yield incredibly complex tea.
    • DATE OF PICKINGApril 2021
    • QianjiazhaiMt. Ailao, Yunnan
    • ELEVATION1800 m
    • Qianjiazhai AssamicaTea Varietal

    Zun, or ‘revered’ is the name the Li Family of the Zhenyuan Dongsa Cooperative gives to the tea picked from their tea trees aged between 300 and 800 years old. This name is a reminder to them of the value of these old trees and of the respect that humans should pay to a living thing that has persisted for so long. Their sustainable foraging lets the trees continue to grow for future genertations to enjoy. The Dragon Pearl pressing of their 2021 Zun sheng pu’er is full of spice and cooling camphor, and steeps out consistently as the ball unfurls over time.

  • true
    80
    peony
    true
    80
    coriander, galangal, sandalwood
    true
    100
    muscat grape, aloe, apricot
    true
    50
    arugula, sugar snap peas, tulsi
    true
    50
    oat, rye
    true
    crisp, minerality, tingling

    Tasting Profile

    • floral - peony
    • spice - coriander, galangal, sandalwood
    • fruit - muscat grape, aloe, apricot
    • vegetal - arugula, sugar snap peas, tulsi
    • savory - oat, rye
    • texture - crisp, minerality, tingling


the Dongsa Cooperative also recommends:

  1. Gong Ting Shu Dragon Pearls
    Gong Ting Shu Dragon Pearls

    The Cooperative's first-ever shu pu’er dragon pearl pressing, this tea is made with beautiful little 2014 buds, allowed to ferment slowly under natural moisture conditions for a sweet and clean flavor profile that shows off the herbaceous side of Qianjaizhai. The loosely pressed. dragon pearls are compact enough for long-term aging and small enough to allow for single brew sessions without having to break apart a bigger cake of tea. The loose hand-twisted compression allows for better and more even aging than anything a machine could achieve.

  2. 2022 Crassicolumna Yabao Black Tea
    2022 Crassicolumna Yabao Black Tea

    The Li Family and other members of the Dongsa Cooperative sustainably forage from towering crassicolumna trees to harvest the early spring woody buds that make this brand new black tea. Camellia Crassicolumna (厚轴茶) is a wild near-relative of tea native to Qianjiazhai; because this plant currently a protected species. one of the cooperative's responsibilities is to protect these trees from poaching. The incredibly-sweet. flavor-packed buds are traditionally piled and allowed to oxidize fully in the Mt. Ailao sun without heat treatment, locking in the natural flavor and aroma of the region. Crassicolumna is naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants.

  3. 2022 Wild Crassicolumna Black Tea
    2022 Wild Crassicolumna Black Tea

    This unique black tea is picked from the early spring leaves and tender buds of the Camellia Crassicolumna tree, a close relative of the tea plant native to Qianjiazhai. Crassicolumna is naturally caffeine-free and high in antioxidants. Since Crassicolumna is native to the Qianjiazhai region, there are many examples of staggeringly old Crassicolumna trees. Mr. Li of the cooperative is actually employed by the local government as an environmental protection officer to make sure these ancient trees are protected from poaching, where outsiders would sneak in in the cover of darkness to cut the tall trees and quickly harvest their precious leaves. Mr. Li has found that the best way to protect the trees is to allow sustainable wild foraging by the people living in the protected region in exchange for their help watching over remote Crassicolumna groves. This extremely rare and labor-intensive to harvest offering is allowed to slowly sun-roast to oxidize and finished as a unique black tea with a rich fruity but wild flavor, all without the caffeine you’d see in camellia sinensis. 

  • 'A single eight hundred year old tree can yield up to three kilograms of finished dry leaf. The Dongsa Cooperative picks each of these trees and keeps their leaf material separate. The finished sheng pu’er maocha can either be sold as a single tree lot, blended with other 800 year trees for a single age statement pressing, or blended with 300-500 year leaves for Zun pressings.'

  • 4
    6-8
    205
    30 seconds
    15-30
    4
    6
    205
    10 seconds
    10-30
    4
    12
    room temp
    8 hours

    Steeping Instructions

    Western

    4 g.6-8
    oz.
    use 205° watersteep 30 secondsresteep many times
    add 15-30 sec. each infusion

    Gongfu

    4 g.6 ozuse 205° watersteep 10 seconds
    add 10-30 sec. per steeping
    enjoy many steepings

    Iced/Cold

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

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