Dried dates, warm wood, and a quiet earthiness that deepens across a long session. Titan Log '12 is a hei cha (黑茶), a style of Chinese dark tea that goes through microbial fermentation and years of aging until the rough edges fall away. This one spent fourteen years inside a bamboo-wrapped cylinder, and the patience shows in every steep. What You'll Taste Think dried dates and warm cedarwood with a toasty sweetness underneath. The liquor pours deep amber-brown with damp wood and old bamboo in the steam. First steeps land smooth and round, coating the mouth with sweet grain and gentle earth. Later rounds shift toward dried fig and a clean mineral note that settles quietly at the back of the tongue and holds through the finish. Fourteen years inside a bamboo cylinder — that patience is in every steep, and the date sweetness just keeps deepening. Where It Comes From Gao Jia Shan sits at 950 meters in the mountains of Anhua county, Hunan, one of China's oldest hei cha regions. Cold nights and mineral-rich soil slow the leaves down, building the layered sweetness this area is known for. The lot was picked in April 2012 from the local large-leaf cultivar, a Yuntai lineage variety that grows thick leaves built for compression and long aging. How It's Made Qian liang cha means "thousand tael tea," named for the weight of the original logs. Workers pile-ferment the leaves, then pack them tight into a bamboo cylinder wrapped in palm bark and hand-press them with wooden levers until the density is extreme. That compression forces a slow internal fermentation that has barely changed in Anhua for over a century, building flavor over years rather than weeks. How It Ages Fourteen years of storage have rounded the edges here. Fresh qian liang cha starts rough and smoky, but time draws out dried-fruit sweetness and a woody calm. Hei cha like this continues to mellow for decades, so what you taste now will keep shifting year by year. A 25-gram pouch gives around five sessions to explore how the flavor changes across steeps and decide whether you want more. If you have tried shu pu-erh and want something in a similar space but with its own distinct character, this is a good next step. How to Brew Brew 5 grams in 100 milliliters of boiling water (100°C) for 30 seconds, roughly a tablespoon of broken pieces. Rinse once with hot water before your first real steep to wake up the compressed leaf. Each session stretches to eight or more steeps as the dense leaf opens gradually with each pour, releasing something new along the way. The flavors shift from earthy sweetness toward a quiet woody calm by the final rounds. FAQ What is hei cha? Hei cha translates to "dark tea," a category of Chinese tea that goes through microbial fermentation after drying. The process shares some ground with shu pu-erh, but hei cha predates it by centuries and comes in regional styles across Hunan, Sichuan, and Guangxi. How is Titan Log different from Golden Flowers? Both come from Anhua, but the formats create different cups. Golden Flowers is a fu zhuan brick with jin hua fungus, giving it a lighter, grain-sweet flavor. Titan Log is a qian liang cylinder with no added cultures, denser and more woodsy from bamboo compression and longer aging. How long can I store hei cha? Decades. This tea already has fourteen years behind it and will keep mellowing in a dry spot away from strong odors. The microbial activity that shapes the flavor continues slowly during storage, building deeper sweetness and a rounder body over time. No rush — hei cha is built for patience. Is hei cha an acquired taste? The earthy, woody quality can surprise drinkers used to lighter teas, but most people find aged hei cha approachable — especially after fourteen years of storage, which has smoothed the rougher edges. Start with short steeps and work up. If you drink shu pu-erh or dark oolong, this will feel familiar.