Description

Using the same left-to-grow material as our annual Year of the Dragon Yiwu raw puer, this tea delivers a gentle wildflower fragrance and exceptionally sweet soup at a budget-friendly price. Compared to our previous Tiger pressing, this version stands out even more with a sugary sweetness.

Similar to its puer counterpart, this tea demonstrates the difference a good environment and well tended (or rather untended) land can make in terms of the final product.

Pick up both the raw puer and black tea versions in order to compare the same material with different processing.

$0.12/gram

As we highlight each year, a big draw with this tea is the quality of material used. The trees were planted by this farmer’s family over 45 years ago, at which point plantation style terraces were more common. However, since the 2000s, these trees have been converted to fangyang (放养, or “left to grow”). This means no pesticides, weed killer, pruning, fertilizers or over-picking.

While this style of farming isn’t ideal for producing maximum output, it does contribute to much higher quality tea than neighboring taidi productions, which adhere to conventional farming methods. The other downside is that the trees left to grow taller on their own tend to compete for space and may require relocation, which isn’t always successful. Additionally, manual weeding is a laborious task that takes at least a month each year to complete. Picking tall trees, even if they’re only middle-aged, is also a more difficult task than pruned bushes.

But if we had our way, every tea would be like this. The deeper roots and more concentrated yield produce a tea richer in fragrance and flavour than typical plantation productions in this price range. And of course, all this without the presence of any pesticides or harmful substances.

Additional information