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Our 2016 Plum Beauty ripe puer is a special tea in our lineup. Using the same Mengsong old tree material as our 2017 Plum Beauty Silver, this tea is of much higher quality than most commonly found ripe puers, which is immediately noticeable from the first sip. It also adds an additional level of comparison with the rest of our Plum Beauty teas, allowing a direct comparison of old tree Mengsong material processed as raw and ripe puer. This tea brews up thick and smooth, and features a dried plum sweetness and gentle wood scent. Having been taken off the pile in October 2016 and pressed in October of 2017, this is an exceptionally clean ripe with minimal “dui wei” or offensive flavours. As this tea is quite thick, we recommend using slightly less leaf than normal and/or ensuring short steeping times (fast in, fast out) for the first several infusions. However, if you like your shou puer nice and thick, just carry on as usual! The garden for this tea is located in the northern region of Mengsong (Menghai county), just a few kilometers south of Naka, at an altitude between 1800-1900m. Mengsong is noted for its small leaf varietal tea trees. We worked together on these teas with a friend (Mei) who has been leasing these gardens for the past 10 years and has a contract that extends well into the next decade. Her conscientious approach to maintaining the land and meticulous oversight of these teas’ production made them an easy choice for pressing. $0.51/gram