Verdant Tea

Master Zhang’s classic Oolong Revival is full of deep rich cozy toasty overtones, enveloping the palate with a thick texture. This year for the first time, Master Zhang is complimenting all these cozy flavors with a deep dark roast which caramelizes the sugars in the leaves and produces beautiful dark sweet dessert flavor to the forefront. As always, Master Zhang’s expert roasting preserves the vibrant floral and fruity “core” of the tea without overpowering, a difficult feat to achieve after a full 24 hours straight of withering, turning and fluffing that is highly variable and dependent on each day’s specific weather.

Crisp, fruity, floral, nuanced - the new 2021 harvest is here! This year's Zun harvest is offered both loose leaf (5g, 25g) and in two pressings: 100g cakes and 250g Xiao Jin Gua. Zun, a designation chosen by the cooperative, means ‘reverence’ of the ancient Qianjiazhai tea trees themselves, an awareness of the human collaboration with a living tree that has existed for generations before us and hopefully will continue to exist for generations after us. The Zun series cakes use the first early spring growth from only the old-growth (500-1000 year) wild trees above the Li Family’s home high in the mountains, and accessible only on foot. The wild nature of this tea’s provenance come through as a flavor texture and aroma experience that is both reverent of its source, and worthy of reverence for its commanding beauty, full of honey and dried apricot with a hint of wild mountain tulsi, and intense textural depth.

This tea is sustainably wild-foraged from ancient Camellia Crassicolumna (厚轴茶) tree, a close relative of tea native to Qianjiazhai. This year's tea is available both loose and in 100g cake pressings. Crassicolumna is naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants. The giant leaves and buds picked from this wild-growing tree stock are allowed to gently sun dry without any heat processing to keep the most natural flavor. Wild crassicolumna trees can be anywhere between several hundred and over a thousand years old, and are incredibly tall and difficult to climb to harvest these precious leaves, but the rich nuanced flavor and lingering aftertaste is worth the effort. Master Zhou pressed the leaf material from part of this years harvest into 100g cakes and 205g Xiao Jin Gua perfect for aging and long term storage.

This extremely limited offering is crafted from the Chun Lan varietal, rarely seen outside of Wuyishan. It was originally selected by Li Xiangxi as a reserve tea to share with our CSA-style tea club members. Hand-fired Chun Lan combines all the big orchid flavor of Qilan with incense spice and cooling yun. The "Yun" sensation in this tea builds with each infusion over time. After several steepings, this Yun begins to dominate as a lingering physical sensation that strengthens the growing mineral texture and flavor.

Huang Ruiguang’s Ji Long Kan Dancong is an incredibly unique high elevation tea. The Ji Long Kan tea tree gets its name from its similarity to a "chicken pen" in appearance. Huang Rui Guang and his sons hand picked and hand processed over 24 hours of continuous intensive labor to bring out all the nuanced fruit and florals. The biodiversity of the region and unique microclimate lends a cooling ‘yun’ sensation to this tea for a persistent and commanding taste experience. Master Huang's work in Dancong tasting and agriculture has won him countless awards and recognition, a biography in a 2015 published book on the history of Dancong, and leadership in every convention and tasting event in Guangdong. This tea represents his personal selection to represent the absolute best of what his family produces, and only a few kilograms are available each year. We are excited for the chance to share this incredibly rare tea.

Jin Suo Shi or "Golden Key" has been cultivated in Wuyishan on a small scale for almost one hundred years. In the last few decades Jin Suo Shi has been the subject of substantial research for its natural cold and drought resistance. Master Zhang cultivates a small grove of Jin Suo Shi, planted from seedlings picked up during his years of research on Wuyishan's growing and finishing techniques. The terroir of Daping and Master Zhang’s expert finishing bring out fruity notes in this uncommon cultivar, along with a building intense sweetness.

#43 Varietal Dragonwell was specifically bred and selected to bud even earlier than classic Dragonwell in Shi Feng and yields yellower plumper buds that make for gorgeous steeping in glassware. While classic Dragonwell is all about rocky mineral texture, the new #43 is a crisp, bright focused experience centered around stronger flavor and aroma and more pronounced sweetness. Mrs. Li's first picking of the year is full of all the nutrients and sugars stored by the plant all winter long and offers a more complex, sweet and subtle taste experience. It has a longer aftertaste and thicker texture than later harvests. The soil is full of quartz and white sand while the water comes from natural mountain springs, yielding a flavor that simply can’t be matched outside of Shi Feng itself.

This early spring tea is all about a fine and subtle sweetness, and a long, drawn out aftertaste and crisp texture. Cool spring weather produces a small harvest of truly sweet tea. This is Mrs. Li’s first picking of the season, carefully hand-finished by her husband, Shui Huamin. Her true original cultivar Dragonwell (Longjing Qunti) grows on the mountain slopes of Shi Feng and draws in sweet mountain spring water.

Rock Milk or Shi Ru is an uncommon varietal that the Li Family cultivates on their mist-shaded, mountain spring-fed biodiverse plot within the Wuyi Ecological Preserve. The naturally rocky elements of this tea come through even stronger as they take in the deep minerality of the volcanic rocky soil. As a rare offering, Mr. Li takes the time to bring out the rich mouthwatering lingering yun sensation of this tea through the hand firing at low heat for hours needed to bring out the very best. This varietal is an excellent chance to taste the terroir of the region.

Bai Ji Guan is a rare and unique varietal in Wuyi. The Li Family cultivates a small amount of Bai Ji Guan on their mountainside plot. This extremely light, beautiful, almost Dancong-like tea is full of the mineral notes that define Wuyi. It is thick and packed with unique vegetal undertones and florals. The Li Family's careful cultivation and roasting means gorgeous giant light-colored leaves and a bright crisp brew.

The Qilin is a mythical Chinese creature associated with wise benevolent rulers that has been compared to the unicorn, and the giraffe. This year’s harvest is remarkably spice-forward with incense aromatics and a tingling quality that builds up on the tongue over multiple infusions. The spice and complexity of the varietal and the tremendous microclimate within the Wuyi Ecological Preserve are heightened even more by Mr. Li’s generous hand-firing in the finishing process.

Fo Shou, or "Buddha's Hand," varietal is an aromatic and luscious tea in the Li Family collection. The Fo Shou is a wonderfully nuanced citrus fruit, and this tea gets its name for its Fo Shou citrus aromas. The citrus is bolstered by a cinnamon and sandalwood spice, a beautiful compliment brought out through slow hand-firing over low heat. The uniquely large leaves of the Fo Shou varietal unfold beautifully over many infusions.

Sparrow's Tongue, or Que She is named after the shorter, smaller leaves of this distinctive and uncommon Wuyi tea varietal. Sipping Que She is a strong example of "Yun": each infusion brings out more and more of an almost electrical tingling sensation on the tongue and back of the throat. This sensation is inherent to the highest quality leaf from older established tea stock growing in the right rocky conditions in Wuyishan, but it is brought out by slow low-temperature firing in bamboo baskets for fifteen hours at a time, resting several weeks and repeating four to six times. Fruity, rich and cooling, thsi year's Sparrow's Tongue Oolong has notes of dried mango, rose, chestnut and nutmeg. 

Master Zhang's work has won awards at conferences in Fujian and Guangdong for his incredible craft in traditional Tieguanyin finishing. This autumn, we are excited to once again offer his reserve designation harvest with a traditional finish, undoubtedly Master Zhang's favorite tea to make and share with friends. Master Zhang's award-winning technique brings out the deep fruit and dark florals that don't have a chance to shine in greener, more modern finishes. Instead of simply designating his higher elevation teas as "Reserve," Master Zhang holds back this title to only the very few pickings that meet his criteria of intense aroma, lingering pervasive aftertaste, rich deep florals, light cooling sensations, and creamy texture. The conditions while picking and processing only rarely come together to facilitate a tea that hits every thing that Master Zhang strives for. This limited harvest embraces his award-winning ideals for a stunning brew.

This is arguably Daping Village’s most “classic” tea. Mao Xie varietal is native to the area and grew on the mountains above Daping long before Tieguanyin was planted. Master Zhang’s labor-intensive traditional finish hearkens back to the style before the modern green oolong trend became popular and all Anxi teas were finished with at least a light roast and oxidation. Mao Xie translates to “hairy crab,” a reference to the appearance of the leaves. A classic traditional finish on Mao Xie brings out the iconic savory notes in the varietal and makes it taste almost pastry-like.

Laoshan Roasted Oolong is the most technically-demanding and labor-intensive tea that the He Family produces. As one of the first people in Northern China to take on oolong craft, Mr. He is defining the flavor and value of this new tea for the entire region. He starts with tender hand-picked leaves from his mountain-spring fed ocean-facing plot, and allows them a full two days to oxidize before beginning the critical kneading and shaking stage that brings out deep rich fruit and florals not normally present. These flavors are locked in with a heavy roast for a tea with the satisfying body of Laoshan Black but with the subtlety of the fine oolong.

Craft and terroir have come together beautifully for this 2021 early autumn harvest from Qianjiazhai's wild tea trees. The Dongsa Cooperative wild-forages buds and tender leaves from tea trees between one hundred and three hundred years of age for this loose sheng pu'er blend. Every hand-picked leaf is withered and sun-dried in bamboo baskets, with little or no heat exposure to lock in the most wild and natural flavor of one of the most remote growing regions in the world.

This tea is wild-foraged by the Li Family of the Dongsa Cooperative within the Mt Ailao National Forest Preserve. The silvery buds and twisting golden leaves are picked from ancient tea trees between one hundred and eight hundred years old scattered between other evergreens, and wildflowers on the rocky mountainside. This incredibly labor-intensive tea to harvest is actually allowed to sun-roast and oxidize without applying heat in a wok. Because more moisture is retained in the leaf, this black tea is a fantastic candidate for aging like traditional sheng pu’er. Only a high-elevation remote place like Qianjiazhai can count on enough sunlight in the spring for this old but rare finishing technique. The result is a tea with the sweet malt of a black tea but the staggering complexity and herbaceous undertones of a sheng pu’er. The loose Maocha is lightly steamed and then meticulously rolled and shaped one pearl at a time by Master Zhou without the use of molds or machinery to preserve the delicate complexity of the tea.