Verdant Tea

The Cheng Family's pristine, high elevation plot near the famous Huangshan yields nuanced, complex, mineral-driven teas. The Cheng family picks the tender buds for this Ding Gu Da Fang green tea at just the right moment of early spring and instead of giving them a Mao Feng style finish, they carefully press the leaves flat in a wok. Ding Gu Da Fang is arguably China's earliest flat pressed style, bringing out more crisp texture and rocky minerality compared to the Mao Feng form. As it brews, the tea comes to life with unique notes of peony and cherry blossom florals, juicy lychee, delicate green chervil, and complex sarsaparilla root.

The famous Huangshan Maofeng is all about beautiful, perfect buds that dance in the teapot like silver needle white tea or Dragonwell. The Cheng Family picks their early spring buds on their high elevation mountain plot near Qimen and Huangshan entirely by hand to preserve their perfect shape, and works to quickly finish the buds with minimal heat and withering time, locking in fresh flavor and deep minerality that shows off the textural complexity of one of the finest green teas in the world.

Huangshan, the home of Qimen Black Tea, is almost as famous for its scenting craft, specifically with jasmine-scented Huangshan Maofeng. It is no surprise that the Cheng Family would tap into this scenting tradition to give an even deeper more honeyed complexity to their reserve-level Qimen Black using golden osmanthus blossoms. The blossoms are spread through the black tea as it dries so that they fresh leaves can absorb all the natural aromatics of the osmanthus.

Qimen is famous specifically for it's tiny buddy black teas like this one. It takes an incredible amount of labor to pick enough buds for even one pound of Reserve Qimen, but the results are so exquisite that Master Cheng shares it as his pride and joy every year. The buddy quality gives this tea a very thick feeling on the palate and potent, powerful flavor and aroma.

This tea is meticulously arranged and tied to blossom in hot water like a flower - a true flex from the Cheng Family to show off the stunning beauty of their Maofeng green tea buds. While most flowering teas are scented, this is purely early spring reserve-level Maofeng green buds, brewing up with soft velvety texture and deep complexity.

The iconic Houkui style, inspired by Taiping Houkui, these leaves are picked from a more remote, pristine and perfect terroir than their famous namesake. This flat pressed style is all about the beauty of the leaves unfolding and the drama of presenting the tea before brewing. Houkui green tea has always been a famous tribute tea, even in modern business gifting or new year gifting since its value is so stunningly apparent even before the first sip.  The finishing style yields a rich brew that almost leans towards the sweet green flavor of a fine Japanese Gyokuro, but with the restraint and minerality that can only come from hand picking in the rocky mountain soil above Guixi.