Yìwǔ - China - 2012

Late autumn harvest tea from wild arbor tea trees (between 60 and 80 year old) growing in the area of Yi Bi village of Yi Wu county. Entirely no spray tea from one family's tea garden. Hand-processed from start to finish, but without any smokiness! Classic Yi Wu taste, thick and full in the mouth. Sweet after-taste with some grass and mushroom notes. Qiu Yun (秋韵) means "Song of Autumn"

This cake is made from high quality gushu leaves sourced from Luo Shui Dong 落水洞 - a famous puer producing village in Yiwu. The farmers here are primarily Han ethnicity, known for their excellent hand-processing technique. This early spring tea produces is a clear bright yellow liquor, with a sweet, buttery mouthfeel. Because it is easy to drink when young, Luo Shui Dong is a good entry point for those new to sheng (raw) puer, or those who don’t like bitter or astringent flavors.

pressed by stone mold into 250 grams cakes, autumn maocha Massive sweetishness in the back of the mouth, already like in throat, fruity tones, buttery-biscuit like texture. The exact whereabouts of this tea garden is not known even to my 'buyer' friend in Jinghong

Our Yiwu gushu for this year comes from an old village in Mansa area - Zhang Jia Wan Lao Zhai （张家湾老寨）. Zhang Jia Wan Lao Zhai is a village more than 30km away from Yiwu town, and 13km from Zhang Jia Wan Xin Zhai（张家湾新寨）, bordering Laos in the south. There is big area of ancient tea trees garden. Many of them was chopped down or burned around 1981. The stance to "gu cha shu" was very different at that time. Maocha cost only a fraction of today's price and old high trees were a...