This is a traditionally crafted raw bamboo Pu Er, as enjoyed by the Hani nation of Yunnan; it was not meant for export. We purchased a few kg of this very interesting tea back in 2009. Men Er is the brother in law of our late friend and mentor, Yang Si. While learning about old tree tea in Nannuo Shan, we stumbled upon a batch of this bamboo (young tea bush) tea that was meant for local consumption. The flavours were very interesting. Back then, we had no idea about a couple of things: how this tea would age, and how different each chunk may taste (depending on the diameter and thickness of each bamboo piece); since the tea was for local consumption, Men Er did not really strive for much consistency. This tea was wood-fired on a wok, stuffed in fresh pieces of bamboo and sun-dried. More than ten years have gone by and we stumbled upon this case of tea, hidden in our warehouse. It turns out, the tea has aged very nicely! Every little chunk that we've sampled is still a bit different, but each one has been very enjoyable. TYPE Pu Er (Sheng | Raw) ORIGIN Ban Bo Lao Zhai, Nannuo Shan, Yunnan GROWER Men Er HARVEST March 2009 | Tea Bush TASTING NOTES Freshly-rained-upon-rainforest, baked wild honey, smoked bamboo WATER 100ºC | 120ml TEA 8g GONG FU GUIDE 8" | multiple steeps | 'stew' the tea after ~10 steeps EQUIPMENT Gaiwan or Yixing Teapot This is Men Er's aunt.
