This bundle includes five 25g bags of aged oolong tea for 125 total (20 sessions). Master Zhang Rongde has been making oolongs for over fifty years. Over the course of his career he has championed sustainable farming, taught finishing techniques to all of Daping Village, and researched ancient and nearly lost fishing techniques. He has also set aside some of his favorite harvests over the years for long term aging- taking out these precious Tieguanyin reserves and re-roasting them yearly to meticulously control for moisture.

This tasting kit is a chance to truly taste Zhang Rongde’s life work- Tieguanyin aged from the 90's all the way through the early 2000’s. His oldest teas have picked up deep complex cooling herbaceous complexity and deep sweet aftertaste. Taste them back to back to see how extra years transform Tieguanyin- and to see how Master Zhang has preserved their deep aromatic floral core through over 30 years. Thanks to a long friendship and partnership with Master Zhang Rongde, he continues to open his precious reserves to us so that he can share true Tieguanyin with the world.

Expect deep, complex, evocative oolongs that are profoundly settling, with long aftertastes and powerful aromas.

This limited 1990 harvest of aged Tieguanyin stands out as unique from the others because the leaves were hand-processed by Master Zhang using traditional Oolong Revival style, where one end of leaf is slightly curled and the other is extended. Master Zhang describes the shape as a ‘dragonfly’. These leaves were turned and fluffed three times the normal standard for modern Tieguanyin. The result of this unique processing and the 25 years of age creates a deep shu pu’er-like earthy flavor most similar to the clean fermentation of Xingyang shu pu’ers. We have never tasted anything like this in an oolong. It has the foresty richness of shu pu’er but the sweet caramel aftertaste of oolong.

Master Zhang is making some of the finest Tieguanyin in the world. Based in Daping village at the very highest peaks of Gande, Anxi. His terraced fields are overgrown with wildflowers, and fed by naturally sweet and clear mountain spring water. Master Zhang rarely releases such mature aged Tieguanyin, but when he does, the result is intensely rewarding. The slow and subtle roasting and aging process adds deep lingering spice to the Tieguanyin florals.