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Qianjiazhai 2014 Gong Ting Shu Brick

Qianjiazhai 2014 Gong Ting Shu Brick

CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK
(250g pressing)
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Wild tender bud shu pu’er,
250g brick pressing
The Dongsa Cooperative aged this tiny bud gong ting shu pu'er for a decade before pressing into 250g bricks. Notes of cedar, molasses cake, honey and fig.
Spring 2014 ♦ Mt. Ailao, Yunnan
Wild tender bud shu pu’er,
250g brick pressing
The Dongsa Cooperative aged this tiny bud gong ting shu pu'er for a decade before pressing into 250g bricks. Notes of cedar, molasses cake, honey and fig.
Spring 2014 ♦ 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 PICKINGSpring 2014
    • QianjiazhaiMt. Ailao, Yunnan
    • ELEVATION1900m
    • V. AssamicaTea Varietal

    Master Zhou works with his students in the Qianjiazhai Dongsa Cooperative to introduce shu pu’er fermentation and crafting techniques more widely across the mountain. This buddy, clean, and rich pressed is crafted from pre-Qingming harvest 'gong ting' buds. This tea was allowed to age loose for a decade before pressing into 250g bricks, giving it a nuanced, engaging and extremely clean profile. The bud material yields a thick rich mouthfeel with sweet, lingering spice.

  • true
    80
    marigold, honey
    true
    65
    fig, dried citrus peel
    true
    70
    ginger, cedar, basil
    true
    75
    molasses cake
    true
    sweet lingering spice

    Tasting Profile

    • floral - marigold, honey
    • fruit - fig, dried citrus peel
    • spice - ginger, cedar, basil
    • savory - molasses cake
    • texture - sweet lingering spice

the Dongsa Cooperative also recommends:

  1. 2014 Shu Pu'er Nuggets
    2014 Shu Pu'er Nuggets
    This tea is a new experiment from one of Master Zhou's former students, another member of the cooperative. Qianjiazhai one hundred to three hundred year wild-picked leaves and buds are pile-fermented until they clump together in tight balls in the heat. The balls ferment and age differently than loose tea and yield a rich vanilla-heavy flavor that is impossible to steep out.
  2. 2014 Loose Gong Ting Shu
    2014 Loose Gong Ting Shu

    Qianjiazhai Gong Ting Shu Pu'er is still a very new practice, made only by one of Master Zhou's students in the cooperative. Using the giant buds of Qianjiazhai's wild trees between 100 and three hundred years of age, this tea is carefully and slowly pile fermented to bring out a deep rich sweetness unlike any other shu pu'er out there. Master Zhou was so excited by this experiment he is sharing the technique across the cooperative and encourage more members to keep developing the craft.
  3. 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.
  4. 2014 Qianjiazhai Yi Ji Shu Pu'er
    2014 Qianjiazhai Yi Ji Shu Pu'er
    Master Zhou works with his students in the Qianjiazhai Dongsa Cooperative to start introducing shu pu’er fermentation and crafting techniques more widely across the mountain. This stunningly clean, rich and foresty example is crafted from pre-Qingming harvest maocha picked from one hundred to five hundred year trees. Even with only three years of aging, it displays the clean rich complexity normally only seen on shu pu’er a decade old or older.
  5. 2018 Qianjiazhai Tea Flower Gong Ting Shu
    2018 Qianjiazhai Tea Flower Gong Ting Shu
    For a few extraordinary weeks at the beginning of autumn, every wild tea tree in Qianjiazhai puts out deeply aromatic golden blossoms. In recent years the Dongsa Cooperative, led by Master Zhou, has experimented with picking small amounts of the rich evocative tea flowers to blend with their wild-picked ancient-tree teas. Qianjiazhai Gong Ting Shu Pu'er is still a very new practice, made only by one of Master Zhou's students in the cooperative. Using the giant buds of QIanjiazhai's wild trees between 100 and three hundred years of age, this tea is carefully and slowly pile fermented to bring out a deep rich sweetness unlike any other shu pu'er out there. Master Zhou was so excited by this experiment he is sharing the technique across the cooperative and encourage more members to keep developing the craft. This is the first time Master Zhou has blended tea flowers with Gong Ting Shu, and the result is a beautiful visual contrast, along with a floral boost to the textural complexity and nuance of this budset shu pu’er. The clean natural fermentation preserves the herbaceousness of the tea, and the florals bring it out even further.
  6. 2014 Yi Ji Shu Pu’er Tea Flower Cake
    2014 Yi Ji Shu Pu’er Tea Flower Cake

    The cooperative’s sweet, dessert like Yi Ji Shu is given even more sweet rich complexity with the addition of tea flowers. Yi Ji or “top grade” is a buddy harvest from 2014 that the cooperative has been carefully aging for almost a decade now. The 2014 harvest was their first experiment with shu pu’er, done completely naturally without the addition of moisture beyond what was in the fresh tea leaves. The warmth and moisture kickstarted the aging while preserving an incredibly clean flavor that has room to get even deeper now that it is pressed with tea flowers.
  7. Qianjiazhai Gong Ting Shu + Tea Flower Cake
    Qianjiazhai Gong Ting Shu + Tea Flower Cake

    Qianjiazhai Gong Ting Shu Pu'er is still a very new practice, made only by one of Master Zhou's students in the cooperative. Using the giant buds of QIanjiazhai's wild trees between 100 and three hundred years of age, this tea is carefully and slowly pile fermented to bring out a deep rich sweetness.

    This new blend of 2014 gong ting shu pu'er and Autumn 2020 tea flowers was pressed in the cooperative's small 100g cake stone mold. This is the first time Master Zhou has pressed tea flowers with Gong Ting Shu in a cake, and the result is a beautiful visual contrast. The floral boost to the textural complexity and nuance of this budset shu pu’er is a welcome addition. The clean natural fermentation preserves the herbaceousness of the tea, and the florals bring it out even further.
  8. 2014 Gong Ting Shu Cake
    2014 Gong Ting Shu Cake
    Master Zhou and his students in the Qianjiazhai Dongsa Cooperative hand-carved a 100g cake stone mold for their collaboration with Verdant and selected a beautiful 2014 looseleaf Gong Ting harvest to hand-press. This Gong Ting cake is made from only small buds picked from trees around one hundred years of age in the early spring before Qingming festival. This tea was allowed to age loose for two years, giving it a sweet and extremely clean profile. The bud material yields a thick rich mouthfeel.

  • 'This Spring, we were lucky to return to Qianjiazhai to meet more of the talented people behind Qianjiazhai’s old tree pu’er and black tea. Through the cooperative, these families and individuals can work together the share resources and knowledge, teaching and learning from each other while protecting and acting as stewards over tea trees in the oldest tea forest in the world'

  • 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