You Le Zhi Chun (攸乐之春 aka “Spring of You Le”) is the second tea cake created under the new Yunnan Sourcing / Rui Cao Xiang label. This label is a co-project between Yunnan Sourcing “Yun Zhi Yuan” (云之源) and our Korean counter-part “Rui Cao Xiang” (瑞草香). During our extensive travels and mao cha tastings in Banna during the Spring of 2009 we came across this exquisite first flush mao cha. It is entirely first flush of spring 2009 mao cha from 100-200 year old trees on You Le Mountain in Xi Shuang Banna. You Le Mountain (aka Ji Nuo mountain基诺山) is situated east of Jing Hong city about halfway between Jing Hong and Yi Wu. The tea was picked and processed entirely by hand by the growers themselves in the the village of Long Pa (龙怕). The tea is tippy and healthy and is covered with downy silver fur. The raw material is almost entirely intact leaf and bud sets and so stone-compression was used to preserve the natural beauty of this tea. The brew itself is full and round. The very characteristic You Le taste is present, fragrant with some floral notes… sweet and full in the mouth but with a vegetal bitterness present. An excellent single-estate Long Pa tea! Just 100 kilograms produced in total! Net Weight: 357 grams per cake (7 cakes per bamboo leaf tong) Compression date: June 4th, 2009 Harvest time: March 2009 Harvest Area: Long Pa village of You Le mountain, Jing Hong Shi, Xi Shuang Banna prefecture of Yunnan Total Production amount: 280 cakes
