This spring harvest pre-Qing Ming white tea is traditionally scented and made with Da Bai varietal white tea. This white tea is not sprayed with artificial oils or aromas. Instead, it is dried together with fresh jasmine blossoms scattered among the buds, allowing the natural aroma of the jasmine to absorb over several days into the tea itself. The process of adding fresh wild Yunnan jasmine blossoms is repeated six times over six days to get a full rich and creamy infusion that holds its intense sweetness and natural potency over many steepings. The creamy dessert-like Yunnan silver needle white tea is the perfect delicate pairing with Lincang's local luscious jasmine.
This spring harvest Yunnan black tea gets its name to honor the soft, rich textural experience of tasting this beautiful small harvest tea. Golden Fleece is hand picked from wild growth (unmanaged) Yunnan Da Bai tea bushes over forty years old. The biodiversity of the growing region and deeper roots mean a more complex flavor and aroma. Only the most perfect large tender buds are hand-harvested, and carefully hand-finished. The down from the buds infuses into every cup, yielding a uniquely thick mouthfeel. This year's harvest is full and complex with cooling cedar, and spiced nutmeg and cinnamon undertones to bolster the luxurious creamy base.
This spring harvest Yunnan black tea gets its name to honor the soft, rich textural experience of tasting this beautiful small harvest tea. Golden Fleece is hand picked from wild growth (unmanaged) Yunnan Da Bai tea bushes over forty years old. The biodiversity of the growing region and deeper roots mean a more complex flavor and aroma. Only the most perfect large tender buds are hand-harvested, and carefully hand-finished. The down from the buds infuses into every cup, yielding a uniquely thick mouthfeel. This year's harvest is full and complex with cooling cedar, and spiced nutmeg and cinnamon undertones to bolster the luxurious creamy base.
This unique buddy black tea offering from Wang Yanxin is only possible because of her deep connections in both Henan and Laoshan. Her farmer friends produce extremely tiny bud Xinyang Maojian, a fine downy showstopper of a green tea. The second picking of the year is still all delicate downy buds, but tradition dictates only the first harvest is used for Henan's iconic buddy green tea. Wang Yanxin works to rush-ship fresh tea leaves the day they are picked from Henan all the way up to Laoshan Village, where they are allowed to traditionally oxidize in the sun to make a black tea, and then finished using Laoshan's extremely honed-in roasting and finishing techniques to combine the buddy steamed bun texture of Jin Jun Mei with the chocolatey goodness of Laoshan Black. This cross-province collaboration continues to prove that the world of tea is still full of innovators, pushing the boundaries of tradition.
This special sampler includes six 25g samples from larger 357g cakes normally unavailable in smaller sizes for 150g total (30 brewing sessions). Get to know both classic and obscure sheng and shu pu'er from workshops all across Yunnan. Exploring the world of pu'er can be difficult if you need to invest in full 357g pressed cakes before getting to try them. This sampler is a chance to try both single origin and blended workshop cakes and get to know what you like most. From cooling, tingling foresty sheng pu'er to cozy rich caramel-spice shu, you'll get to see how much variety there is in pu'er. The cakes sampled are all 'best of their class' examples, some with substantial aging, generally from smaller workshops dedicated to direct farmer partnerships. If you've been looking for a way to get a real deep dive in pu'er, this is it!
The #6676 blend shu pu'er from Hongfu Workshop is about sweetness and balance, with notes of grains and sugars supported by vanilla and a hint of cedar and nutmeg. Over ten years of age have mellowed this classic tasting profile for beautiful sipping now. The decade of careful storage in relatively dry northern China lifts the sweetness with spiced depth, and adds a thick rich texture that can only continue to age into even more complexity over time.
This special Fu Shou Xiang series from Tiandiren Workshop highlights the unique single-origin flavor profile of Bulangshan. While Bulangshan is always texturally nuanced, this standout has a unique orange and clove profile that is reminiscent of simmering cider, along with brown sugar cake and deep vanilla florals.
Liu Bao Hei Cha is a unique relative to pu’er from Guangxi that gets a deep oxidation before classic fermentation technique is applied. The slow oxidation and clean relatively-dry shu pu’er style fermentation yields a deliciously rich, clean and smooth tea with sticky rice aromatics, and cooling woody foresty aftertaste.
This small production pressing features tender young leaf material for a stunningly sweet brew packed with juicy apricot notes, nutmeg spice and a touch of floral aromatics. The nearly ten years of age give this cake a rich almost 'oaky' quality, thanks to Wang Yanxin's careful constant humidity cool temperature cellaring.
Some of Wang Yanxin’s favorite cakes in her collection are the ones that evoke sweet aromatic sticky rice, and she often holds onto these standouts for decades at a time so we were surprised when she decided to release this limited 2007 pressing from Fu Hai. This tea is packed with aromatic sticky rice flavor, vanilla, ginger, and goji berry; a beautiful flavor that has nearly 15 years of slow aging in drier cooler conditions to build complex nuanced aftertastes.
This organic-certified pu'er cake from Li Ming Chen Workshop carries their Ba Jiao Ting mark, a designation of their finest pressings. The old tree leaf material combined with over a decade of aging makes this a deeply complex, richly-spiced tea, packed with minerality and depth.
This refreshingly crisp Shu Pu'er from the smaller Zhi Chun Feng Workshop was picked in 2015 and pressed in 2019. The beautiful mix of golden downy buds and deep dark tender leaves makes for a perfect balance of deep fruity undertones, foresty sweet spice, and savory biscuit bread qualities. The aftertaste has a slightly cooling quality that is sure to get deeper with age.
Yang Ji Tian Yuan Workshop has selected wild arbor high elevation tea from old-growth trees for this deeply complex and generously-aged offering. Sweet cinnamon, cooling tingling mint and floral aromatic rose and vanilla come together for a classic juicy tingling Shu Pu'er packed with nuance and textural depth
Yongming Workshop makes elegant and supremely drinkable Pu'er. This Bulangshan offering is unusually floral with notes of violet and tropical jasmine balancing out the dark molasses and thick lingering texture. Expect a cooling aftertaste and complex spice profile that will get deeper with age.
Yiwu is famous for its cooling foresty Pu'er, and this cake is no exception. Notes of fresh mint and cardamom show the best of classic Yiwu with extra nuance and complexity of tulsi, juicy muscat grape and a deep rye flavor. This depth comes from the "yuanshengtai" designation which means that the tea was harvested in a balanced ecosystem with forest cover and wild plants left intact.
Banzhang region is famous for its sweet, numbing spiced sheng pu'er with its iconic ringing aftertaste. Yet, it is rare to get to try a Banzhang tea so freshly-pressed. Old-school Banzhang was often too smoky to taste young, but Xingyi workshop relies on careful low-temperature finishing for a sweet, dessert-like sheng pu'er that is ready to drink less than a year after picking. A tea this good at this age is destined for even more complexity and nuance over the years to come.
This younger sheng from Xingyi workshop is packed with beautiful herbaceous spice and floral notes. With basil, mint, chervil and rose, the first sips are like a Mediterranean garden. As the tea opens up, it reveals a deep juicy cooling mouthwatering quality that hints at incredible complexity that will continue to develop for years to come.