Kunlu Shan area, North of Pu'er City 40 year-old reclaimed tea gardens A great mix of fragrance and mouth intensity We featured this tea in 2019 and many of you thoroughly enjoyed it. In October 2024, we visited Li Wen Bo, the owner of the estate. Mr Li had acquired this abandoned garden in 2018, at the time of the first release in 2019, he had just started the process of reclaiming the gardens from the weeds. Then came covid, and the economic difficulties that ensued. This slowed down the project of recovery, it kept going, albeit at a slower pace. Over the years, Mr Li has gained a better understanding of the gardens and offered different qualities of tea. We picked the best one, from Spring 2024. It comes from a garden with a good soil, no environmental features distinguishes it from the others, but its leaves taste better. Though more expensive than what we released in 2019, this tea punches above its price. The soup is very present and you can feel it flowing over the tongue and down the throat. It has a medium viscosity and a slight astringency, somewhat like Jingmai tea. And yet, it also has an Yiwu character, a lingering heavy sweetness that builds up in the mouth over the session. Some Huigan can also be felt, although it's not the main characteristic of this tea. The fragrance is complex and intense, it is felt from the back of the mouth rather than in the nose. Unsuprisingly due to its geographic location, the tea tastes a lot like Kunlu Shan, which can be described as a mix between Jingmai and Yiwu taste. A really interesting tea! Here is the 2019 version description: This tea comes from a mountain adjacent to the prestigious Kunlu Shan in Pu'er County. The mountain is located in the North-West of Mohei town and is only accessible through a tiny dirt road. Conventional tea plantations were established in the 1980s. Following the 2007 Pu-erh crisis, the local factory went bankrupt. The tea farmers having no buyers, they abandoned the gardens and looked for other works. In 2018, someone acquired the factory and is restoring tea production on that mountain. This tea comes from plantations that have been recultivated this year only, it is the first time tea was picked in ten years. Despite the relatively young age of the trees, the tea has plenty of sweetness and a rich aroma. The tasting profile is similar to Kunlu Shan tea. Somewhat a combination of Jingmai and Yiwu, also similar to Jinggu tea. Not much bitterness, easy going, very good for beginners. More information on the mountain in this video: https://youtu.be/KsewNtEtMYA
