Verdant Tea

Qianjiazhai Wild Yue Guang Bai

Qianjiazhai Wild Yue Guang Bai

Regular Price $36.00 Special Price $32.40
(100g cake)
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Wild White tea
from the world's oldest tea forest
Hand-picked ancient tree white tea inspired by Yue Guang Bai "Moonlight White" and shows off notes of gardenia, cardamom, whipped cream and a velvety texture.
Spring 2022 ♦ Mt. Ailao, Yunnan
Wild White tea
from the world's oldest tea forest
Hand-picked ancient tree white tea inspired by Yue Guang Bai "Moonlight White" and shows off notes of gardenia, cardamom, whipped cream and a velvety texture.
Spring 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 2022
    • QianjiazhaiMt. Ailao, Yunnan
    • ELEVATION2140 m
    • Qianjiazhai AssamicaTea Varietal

    This is the Dongsa Cooperative's first ever white tea, wild-picked from ancient tea trees in the world's oldest tea forest, deep in the mountains of the Ailaoshan National Forest Preserve. Inspired by the famous Yunnan Yue Guang Bai or Moonlight White style white tea, this mix of buds and leaves is dried without heat in bamboo baskets outdoors on breezy days fro quickly lock in teh deep complexity of the tea as it tastes picked fresh from the tree. This first batch was rested for a year before gentle steaming and pressing into 100g cakes, and then aged for several more years before release for deep complexity.

  • true
    80
    gardenia, rose
    true
    80
    pear, citron
    true
    80
    pine, cardamom
    true
    40
    whipped cream
    false
    true
    velvet

    Tasting Profile

    • floral - gardenia, rose
    • fruit - pear, citron
    • spice - pine, cardamom
    • savory - whipped cream
    • texture - velvet


Master Zhou also recommends:

  1. 2023 Qianjiazhai Single Tree Sheng
    2023 Qianjiazhai Single Tree Sheng
    Qianjiazhai is home to some of the oldest tea trees in the world. Once again, we are extremely lucky this year to be able to offer a single-tree harvest from the oldest tree on the Li Family’s high elevation plot, estimated to 1300 years based on its trunk diameter. Located at 24°16'13.6"N and 101°12'19.6"E, this single tree needs to be carefully climbed to sustainably harvest about ten kilograms of leaf per year. Growing out of a rocky mountainside, and surrounded by a biodiverse wild growth of evergreens, tulsi plants and flowers, this tree benefits from cool misty air, and mineral-rich soil. It takes three people with linked arms to circle the trunk! The deep roots and thousand plus years of fighting for survival give this tea an incredible complexity full of yun cooling sensation and aloeswood incense undertones. The Li Family works with Master Zhou to dry this tea in bamboo baskets in the sun, and hand finish the maocha for traditional stone pressing. Even within a microclimate like Qianjiazhai, each mountaintop and valley has its own unique qualities, and the cooperative selected this tree as worthwhile to finish separate from their blended cakes to show off the stunning terroir and the complexity that is possible with ancient tree stock. Set aside a few cakes for aging and the yun cooling and tingling qualities continue to develop over the years. We’ve been following this tree for six years now and have been blown away with the development we see in cellaring. available this year in 5g dragon pearls, 100g tea cakes and 250g pressings
  • '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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