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.

Mr. Cheng’s curled Mao Feng is made from the same buds that he uses for the more famous Huangshan Maofeng. Where classic Maofeng is a flatter style where the bud shape is preserved, the curled shape of this Maofeng produces an entirely different tea. Mr. Cheng personally loves this curled process, which takes significantly more work. The result isn’t always valued as highly in the domestic market since the shape of the buds is not preserved, but the benefit is deeper, richer, creamier flavor that comes from the extra care and processing.

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.