Verdant Tea

This special bundle includes four 25g offerings and a 27g cake of white tea from across China for 127g total (about 25 sessions). China is going through a white tea renaissance of sorts - a pivotal moment in the history of an incredibly unique kind of tea thanks to surging popularity and innovators across the country bringing new techniques together with ancient tradition. On the one hand, old-school white tea craft is all about locking in the freshest most aromatic flavor possible from buddy da bai varietal leaf. On the other hand, modern white tea pioneers are taking that fresh flavor and aging it, pressing it into cakes, and even scenting it or blending it with other ingredients. This tasting kit is a chance to explore both traditional white tea and modern explorations from all across China. You’ll taste the delicate young spring buds of the Wu Family’s wild-arbor groves all the way to Yunnan white tea cakes and white tea jasmine.

This bundle includes two 25g offerings and one 100g cake of white tea for 150g total (about 30 sessions). The Wu Family has been growing tea for generations, with bushes scattered across the mountainside between groves of bamboo and evergreens. With white tea’s recent surge in popularity, the family is rediscovering groves planted generations ago left for years untended, and picking them without introducing pruning or intervention. The Wu Family's white tea craft is all about non-intervention. There is no firing process, no heat applied at any stage. The fresh buds are rushed into a special drying room with continuous circulation to lock in the fresh vegetal floral complexity you'd get tasting a fresh leaf picked in the field. Mr. Wu combines this commitment to non-intervention with a meticulous background in engineering, crafting special fans to control air circulation and get the freshest most aromatic tea without heat or sun exposure.

This bundle includes two 25g offerings and one 100g cake of white tea for 150g total (about 30 sessions). The Wu Family has been growing tea for generations, with bushes scattered across the mountainside between groves of bamboo and evergreens. With white tea’s recent surge in popularity, the family is rediscovering groves planted generations ago left for years untended, and picking them without introducing pruning or intervention. The Wu Family's white tea craft is all about non-intervention. There is no firing process, no heat applied at any stage. The fresh buds are rushed into a special drying room with continuous circulation to lock in the fresh vegetal floral complexity you'd get tasting a fresh leaf picked in the field. Mr. Wu combines this commitment to non-intervention with a meticulous background in engineering, crafting special fans to control air circulation and get the freshest most aromatic tea without heat or sun exposure.

The Wu Family's oldest prized tea bushes growing among wild trees, flowers and bamboo are picked once in the extreme early spring for a bud-only harvest, and then allowed to build up nutrients until they are picked a second time when delicate leaves begin to unfurl. This second harvest of buds and leaves is what makes their fine Bai Mudan- full of the complexity that later season sunlight brings but the sweetness and texture of the early cold-weather buds.

This is the Wu Family's masterpiece offering, the pride of Wuyang Village. The oldest most established wild plants, growing among rich biodiversity on a mountainside fully devoted to organic practices are carefully selected and the first budding of the year is hand-picked and meticulously finished to lock in the sweet complexity of the terroir, the early harvest nutrients, and the natural quality of the established deep-rooted bushes.

Shou Mei is the biggest, boldest, most flavorful expression of White Tea, picked from late season larger leaves that are packed with the flavor and complexity that a wild, biodiverse landscape brings to the Wu Family’s old-growth Da Bai varietal bushes. The Shou Mei grows even deeper, sweeter and darker with age like pu’er, and this year, the Wu Family pressed their Shou Mei in mini wafer cakes to protect them for transit and long term aging.

Bai Mudan, or White Peony tea from the Wu Family represents their most balanced expression of the wild mountain terroir, with both flavorful leaves and tender downy buds for a tea that shows off whiet tea’s iconic sweet smooth texture and a deep wild forest quality. The Wu Family finishes these leaves under a special shaded air circulation process developed by Mr. Wu to lock in the freshest most aromatic flavors possible. This year they pressed a Dragon Pearl individual steeping size Bai Mudan to protect the leaves even better in transit.

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.