The He Family’s Most Popular Tea. This cool autumn season harvest black tea is packed with flavor and aromatics, fully oxidized and roasted to achieve the iconic malty, chocolatey, honeyed Laoshan Black flavor.

Laoshan Gongfu Black is one of the most difficult finishes for the He Family, requiring flat-pressing and hand-twisting and curling to achieve the final shape and finish. Mr. He saves this technique for his finest spring harvests, and for the third year in a row, the He Family has reserved a small harvest of a very special grade of Laoshan Gongfu Black. The hand-twisted 'pine needles' are made with the buddy early harvest shade-grown picking, while the tea plants are still protected from the early spring cold of Laoshan's unique northern climate.

This tea is the earliest curled Laoshan Black from the He Family of 2025 - carefully crafted with hand-picked early spring shade-grown buds. After picking the buds are oxidized slowly to bring out sweet, chocolatey flavor. The He Family is offering this early Laoshan Black harvest to show off the wonderful flavor that their craft in roasting and oxidizing brings to tiny budset Laoshan tea. The stored sugar and nutrients of these early "Da Peng," or shade-grown pickings has more sweetness and lingering aftertaste than later harvests.