Verdant Tea

2014 Yi Ji Shu Pu’er Tea Flower Cake

2014 Yi Ji Shu Pu’er Tea Flower Cake

$17.50
(100g cake)
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wild shu pu’er pressed 
and aged with tea flowers
Aromatic tea flowers give the Dongsa Cooperative’s classic Yi Ji Shu even more depth and complexity. Notes of toasted chestnut, cinnamon, and apricot.
Spring 2014/Aug 2022 ♦ Mt. Ailao, Yunnan
wild shu pu’er pressed 
and aged with tea flowers
Aromatic tea flowers give the Dongsa Cooperative’s classic Yi Ji Shu even more depth and complexity. Notes of toasted chestnut, cinnamon, and apricot.
Spring 2014/Aug 2022 ♦ 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 / August 2022
    • QianjiazhaiMt. Ailao, Yunnan
    • ELEVATION2140 m
    • Qianjiazhai AssamicaTea Varietal

    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.

  • true
    85
    toasted chestnut
    true
    90
    cinnamon, clove, cedar
    true
    60
    apricot
    true
    55
    hibiscus
    true
    ringing, juicy

    Tasting Profile

    • savory - toasted chestnut
    • spice - cinnamon, clove, cedar
    • fruit - apricot
    • floral - hibiscus
    • texture - ringing, juicy


the Dongsa Cooperative also recommends:

  1. 2019 Gu Hua Sheng Xiao Jin Gua
    2019 Gu Hua Sheng Xiao Jin Gua
    Master Zhou's Gu Hua harvest is a careful blend of maocha from trees aged between one hundred and three hundred years old, picked for a balanced and rich full body and aroma. Gu Hua is the very early autumn harvest prized for its rich flavor and intense aroma. These truly wild trees grow in one of the oldest and most remote tea forests in the world, on Mt. Ailao. Every leaf is hand picked and carefully sun-dried with minimal time on the wok for a more natural and pure flavor. The maocha is finished with careful stone-pressing in a custom 100g mold carved by Master Zhou. While much of Yunnan has experienced difficult rain and heat in recent years, the high elevation microclimate, and well-preserve forest of the Mt Ailao National Forest Preserve has granted Qianjiazhai spectacular growing seasons, making their new 2019 harvest a great choice for long term aging.
  2. 2022 Tea Flower Gu Hua Sheng
    2022 Tea Flower Gu Hua Sheng

    Gu Hua is Master Zhou’s favorite tea harvest, a small picking from 100 to about 400 year old tea trees that the cooperative does in early autumn as the weather shifts and the nights are cool again. This tea is rich, fruity, juicy and incredibly sweet. It almost drinks like jasmine tea! The tea flowers add a texture and honeyed sweetness. The tea itself was pressed into a cake in an old-school carved stone mold, weighted with a block. No hydraulic press used here! This means looser compression for even and beautiful aging.

    $19.75
  3. 2022 Huang Pian Black Tea Cake
    2022 Huang Pian Black Tea Cake

    Master Zhou loves the distinctive flavor of "huang pian" or golden leaves that are normally left out of sheng pu’er cakes for a consistent aesthetic. These leaves have an intense, juicy, fruity flavor unlike anything else, and Master Zhou decided to show off their beauty in a special, fully-oxidized black tea pressing that is just as beautiful to drink now as it is for long term aging.

    $17.50
  • 'Mr. Deng got in touch with old classmates and raised enough money to build his own workshop, inviting friends and neighbors from his home town to pick tea when they weren’t picking walnuts. He passes on his knowledge and offers a generous price to anyone who can help him pick tea, remembering his own hardship as he got started as a wild forager. He officially joined the Dongsa Farmer’s Cooperative five years ago, and his craftsmanship has been getting better every year under Mr. Zhou’s watchful eye'

  • 4
    6-8
    208
    20 seconds
    10
    5
    6
    208
    6 seconds
    3
    4
    12
    room temp
    8 hours

    Steeping Instructions

    Western

    4 g.6-8
    oz.
    use 208° watersteep 20 secondsresteep many times
    add 10 sec. each infusion

    Gongfu

    5 g.6 ozuse 208° watersteep 6 seconds
    add 3 sec. per steeping
    enjoy many steepings

    Iced/Cold

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

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