Tea: Tree Spirit 2021 Spring Huazhuliangzi Raw Puer Type: Raw Puer (生普洱） Harvest: April 2021 Press Date: April 2021 Region: Boatang, Huazhuliangzi, Mengsong, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan 2023 Tasting Notes: honeycomb, sweetgrass, camphor, rock salt The price of this tea reflects what it is, an unmixed pure production of huazhuliangzi gushu, made in a wood fired wok, naturally sun dried, and pressed tighter than our Lincang cakes to help facilitate long-term aging. This pure-gushu production starts off very heavy and mineral rich, and sweetens up as the session lengthens. As a common feature of the terroir of this area (the Huazhuliangzi ridge is just one mountain valley away from the beloved Naka region), this tea has an ever so slight saline quality in the brew, which undoubtably comes from its unique mineral-rich growing environment. Already with two years under its belt, this tea is rich and deep with mineral notes that trigger a lasting huigan. There are some pleasant camfor notes entering the broth and a noticeably mellowed and mature character compared to tea made this spring. As this tea was aged for two years in Tan’s production facility of the Baotang Village, wither level of heat and humidity have changed the tea noticeably in just these two years. This tea offers a good look into what the 2023 Huazhuliangzi cakes can become in part with a little bit of thoughtful aging, though the 2023 Huazhuliangzi is a 50/50 blend of Gushu and old arbor, so it should have a little more fragrant punch in its youth. We offer this tea in 25 gram samples (chunks lovingly pried off the cake), whole 200 gram cakes, and a set of 5 cake tongs wrapped in bamboo leaves and totaling 1000 grams. If you're interested in sampling this year's full flight of puer pressings, check out the Yunnan Flight, a set of 6 dragon balls from different regions each pressed in 7 gram balls for convenient brewing. We recommend brewing this tea gongfu style in a gaiwan or Chinese teapot. We use 6 grams of tea in a 100ml brewing vessel with boiling water, steeping 5 second for the first few infusions and adding 5 seconds after ever subsequent infusion. Most of these puer teas can be re-infused over 15 times, when brewing in this gongfu style. Curious about these Chinese puer tea terms, check out our growing appendix of Chinese - pinyin - English translated terms here. Never bought a cake before, learn how to break it up with a tea pick on our YouTube.
