2012 Gao Jian Shan "Qian Liang Cha" Hunan Hei Cha Tea

Gao Jia Shan production made from 2012 Spring tea leaves. Pressed into a huge 36 kilogram column called "Qian Liang Cha" (aka 1000 catty tea) and then aged for 7 years before we purchased a whole column and then cut into slices and re-packaged into white wrapper 680-780 grams cake. (If you want to get a whole "cake" choose the 800 grams option and you'll get a whole cake + some pieces to get the overall weight up to 800 grams. (Example: you might get a 710 gram "cake" and a few chunks totaling 90 grams). We are also offering small cubes of this tea for sampling. They are roughly 10 grams each but can vary by weight and size, and as such are sold by weight. Qian Liang tea is compressed in a long column (typically 36kg) through a laborious process that involves steaming the leaves and funneling them into a three layered cylinder of woven bamboo. Then a team of 5 to 8 people will simultaneously compress the tea using leverage and then tighten each section with thick bamboo stripling. Once firmly compressed the Qian Liang "logs" are dried in the sun and then finally cured for months in an indoor warehouse. In this form they can be aged for decades or even centuries without molding, only improving in taste, aroma and complexity with each passing year! You can watch this video here to see just how amazing Qian Liang processing really is! Another video shows how the Qian Liang log is opened and prepped for the cutting stage when it's moved to the consumption stage. The taste is spicy, sweet, thick, with hints of brewer's yeast and mushrooms. Really kind of difficult to describe, so we would encourage you to purchase the lesser amount first to see if you like it. Gao Jia Shan is both a place and the name of the tea factory brand that produced this lovely tea. Gao Jia Shan as a producer doesn't have as long of a history as Yi Yang and Bai Sha Xi tea factories but nonetheless produces very high quality Fu Brick tea processed in the traditional manner. Spring 2012 harvest tea leaves, stored as a 36.25 kilogram column in An Hua County of Hunan until March 2019 when it was cut up into "cakes" and moved to Kunming. ALLERGEN ALERT!!! ** Because there is a possibility the golden flowers were inoculated using wheat flour we cannot guarantee this tea is safe for those with Celiac Disease or those that have severe gluten induced allergies **