Mr. Cheng preserves some of the region's oldest and most renowned styles in his workshop, like this unique flat shaped Liu An Gua Pian. This was a tribute tea in the Ming dynasty and added to China’s National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in recent years for its utterly singular look and flavor. This tea is uniquely made with leaves instead of buds. The leaves themselves are carefully trimmed to remove any trace of stem to control for flavor and texture and to eliminate astringency. Its higher heat firing brings deep nutty flavor and sweet drawn-out aftertaste.

The culture of Huangshan green teas is all about showing off the most beautiful leaves and buds in the cup, and this Jing Xian Lan Xiang Green is no exception. The tiny slender buds unfurl with a delicately evocative and cloud-like orchid fragrance. Made from the rare Lanxiang No. 1 varietal, this tea is full of complex notes of daffodil, fenel, and chervil.

This special grade offering from the Cheng Family is actually a newer style of tea, first pioneered in the 1990’s for its floral aromatics. Huang Shan Mao Jian takes advantage of the mountain’s big temperature swings and the biodiverse landscape for a brew that has all the clean crisp elegance you’d expect in a buddy tea, but with a deeper, more cooling complexity that reflects the character of the mountain itself. While this may be one of their most labor intensive teas, the Cheng Family is proud of the deep rich flavor and texture with notes of peony, semolina, and cardamom.