Autumn 2017 Zao Qiao Di

Old natural tea gardens, Jinggu town, Zao Qiao Di Village Harvested in Autumn 2017 Processed by hand in Yun Jian tea factory, Jinggu Available in 357g cakes and 20g samples Jinggu is a city located in the middle of Yunnan. North-West of that city, there's a town with the same name, we call it 'little Jinggu' to make the difference. Around this town are a lot of tea mountains, this is what's known as Jinggu area. Zao Qiao Di is a village located east of Xiao Jinggu, at an altitude of 2000m. It started tea cultivation about 200 years ago and has gardens all around the village. There is no forest covering the gardens, the tea trees are unshaded and take full advantage of the high altitude sunlight. They are pruned in a distinct way called 'Teng Tiao'. Most of the lateral branches are cut off during pruning, the ones remaining are allowed to grow long and tall, If unreachable, they are just reoriented in order to grow toward a reachable area. Since the trees have a thick trunk it is possible to climb on it, the crowns are about 5m high. Our friend, Li Chao, grew up in little Jinggu, he is the third generation to make tea. When he was 17, he left home and traveled all over China to sell the family tea production. He went on to expand his business and now has a well established tea shop in Pu'er City. He specializes in tea from Jinggu area. The cooking was made at fairly low temperature, which results in reddened stems. While we don't use this method in our Jingmai factory, some material benefits from having such a process. East of the Mekong river (Yiwu, Jinggu, Phongsaly...) , that red processing is more common than in the West (Menghai, Mengku, Jingmai...). The aroma is floral and herbaceous, compared to the spring version, the autumn tea has a more high-pitched fragrance but less complexity. It doesn't feature the medium bitterness of the Spring tea and has a slightly higher astringency, but that one remains low compared to Jingmai or Menghai teas. Some people will prefer the autumn version over the spring one because of its different fragrance and lighter profile.