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Qianjiazhai Gu Hua Sun Dried Black

Qianjiazhai Gu Hua Sun Dried Black

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Master Zhou’s favorite harvest,
finished as a black tea.
The Cooperative uses traditional finishing techniques on their early autumn harvest, skipping a final roast for flavors that deepen with age. Notes of nectarine, barley, cinnamon, and rose.
Autumn 2023 ♦ Mt. Ailao, Yunnan
Master Zhou’s favorite harvest,
finished as a black tea.
The Cooperative uses traditional finishing techniques on their early autumn harvest, skipping a final roast for flavors that deepen with age. Notes of nectarine, barley, cinnamon, and rose.
Autumn 2023 ♦ 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 PICKINGAutumn 2023
    • QianjiazhaiMt. Ailao, Yunnan
    • ELEVATION2140 m
    • Qianjiazhai AssamicaTea Varietal

    This is the jsut the second year this tea has ever been made. The Gu Hua harvest is an early autumn picking possible only in the cool high elevation mountaintops of Qianjiazhai, favored by Master Zhou for its fruity, rich flavor. In years past, this has been used exclusively for sheng pu’er. This year, a small portion was set aside to sun-oxidize as a black tea. The results are stunning! It has all the juicy flavor of the sheng pu’er but with a creamy nutty depth only possible in a black tea.

  • true
    80
    orange, nectarine
    true
    80
    mint, cinnamon
    true
    50
    rose
    true
    60
    barley, brown sugar
    true
    40
    grape leaf
    true
    crisp, lingering sweetness

    Tasting Profile

    • fruit - orange, nectarine
    • spice - mint, cinnamon
    • floral - rose
    • savory - barley, brown sugar
    • vegetal - grape leaf
    • texture - crisp, lingering sweetness

Master Zhou also recommends:

  1. 2023 Qianjiazhai Sun Dried Black Tea
    2023 Qianjiazhai Sun Dried Black Tea
    This tea is wild-foraged by the Li Family of the Dongsa Cooperative within the Mt Ailao National Forest Preserve. The silvery buds and twisting golden leaves are picked from ancient tea trees between one hundred and eight hundred years old scattered between other evergreens, and wildflowers on the rocky mountainside. This labor-intensive tea to harvest is actually allowed to sun-roast and oxidize without applying heat in a wok. Because more moisture is retained in the leaf, this black tea is a fantastic candidate for aging like traditional sheng pu’er. Only a high-elevation remote place like Qianjiazhai can count on enough sunlight in the spring for this old but rare finishing technique. The result is a tea with the sweet malt of a black tea but the staggering complexity and herbaceous undertones of a sheng pu’er. A true standout!
  2. Qianjiazhai Gu Hua Sun Dried Black
    Qianjiazhai Gu Hua Sun Dried Black

    This is just the second year this tea has been made. The Gu Hua harvest is an early autumn picking possible only in the cool high elevation mountaintops of Qianjiazhai, favored by Master Zhou for its fruity, rich flavor. In years past, this has been used exclusively for sheng pu’er. This year, a small portion was set aside to sun-oxidize as a black tea. The results are stunning! It has all the juicy flavor of the sheng pu’er but with creamy nutty depth only possible in a black tea.
  3. 2023 Qianjiazhai Hand Fired Black
    2023 Qianjiazhai Hand Fired Black
    The Dongsa cooperative wild-forages the leaves for their hand-fired black tea from trees well over one hundred years old, growing on the cool high elevation slopes of the Ailao National Forest Preserve. The biodiversity and well established root stock makes for deeply nuanced and complex tea, normally reserve for pressing and aging as sheng pu’er. This experimental offering is a new project by the cooperative to hand fire over low heat in a wok for a more classic Dian Hong style. The application of heat makes this more closely related to other Yunnan Black, and indeed it shares a rich sweet potato thickness similar to our Yunnan Golden Fleece, but with Qianjiazhai’s signature tulsi complexity and touches of citrus, and florals.

  • 'However much moisture the tea wants to release, that is how much evaporates…. If you roast it at high temperatures, you are changing what it wants. The tea wants to hold on to a little moisture, but the [high] heat forces it out...'

  • 5
    6-8
    212
    20 seconds
    10
    5
    6
    212
    10 seconds
    2
    5
    12
    room temp
    8 hours

    Steeping Instructions

    Western

    5 g.6-8
    oz.    use 212° watersteep 20 secondsresteep many times
    add 10 sec. each infusion

    Gongfu

    5 g.6 ozuse 212° watersteep 10 seconds
    add 2 sec. per steeping    enjoy many steepings

    Iced/Cold

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

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