Ben Shan is one of Master Zhang's oldest varietals, with tea bushes growing on the sides of his high elevation mountain plot originally planted by his grandparents nearly one hundred years ago. Over the years, Master Zhang has used Ben Shan varietal as the center of his research on ancient finishing methods, as a more traditional old-school choice than modern Tieguanyin. This Ben Shan oolong shows the plants age and provenance with incredible complexity, deep creamy texture and encompassing aromatics. 

Master Zhang is a true innovator. He doesn’t make tea to follow trends. He experiments and takes risks to make tea better for the generations to come. This Original Wulong Revival uses the older Ben Shan varietal leaf and undergoes three times more careful hand turning and fluffing than modern Anxi oolong. For finishing, it is loosely rolled in the oldest style of oolong making that is half strip style and half ball, with many of the leaves more strip-style than rolled. Master Zhang describes the shape as a dragonfly. This hand processing and shaping yields a different tea - a genre of its own outside of Wuyi style, Guangdong style or Anxi style. The light roast is rewarding and brings out a unique savory sweet complexity we don’t see in other teas from Master Zhang.