The Li family’s position as community leaders and environmental stewards gives them the special privilege to pick from an old wild grove of tea trees, including the wildly propogated Xingcun Xiaozhong used to make the most oldest style of black tea in the world. Wuyishan is home to the first black tea ever made, and indeed, many of the living trees in the Li Family’s small grove are over 100 years old. This handful of special trees yield tea with a stunning complexity and commending textural sensation. The deep roots pick up huge volcanic minerality, while the mossy wild environment encourages the tea to put out tons of polyphenols, meaning bigger flavor and aroma. The result is a tea so commanding that Li Xiangxi will readily admit that it is her personal favorite tea to drink daily in the family’s whole collection. This tea is lovingly finished at the family workshop in the Tongmu protected region using sun roasting for oxidation and careful hand firing for the roast.