These smaller cha tou are from a 2010 wet pile batch of Jinggu harvested tea! Aged in Jinggu town from 2010 until 2024, these are well aged with little/no wet pile taste! Creamy, chocolatey, smooth, and sweet ripe tea that lasts many many steeps! Nice warming qi and lubricating mouth-feel from start to finish! We highly recommend brewing these "grandpa style" in a vacuum tea flask to get the best extraction! We recommend using one of the three products below, and steeping 10 grams for 60 minutes or more using just off boil spring water. SAMA "MC09" Insulated Thermal Flask with Cup for Brewing Tea SAMA "MC05" Insulated Thermal Flask with Cup for Brewing Tea Titanium Flask for Brewing Tea If brewing gong fu style we recommend using a pure silver teapot and long steeps of several minutes. Region: Jinggu County of Simao (Yunnan) Harvest time: Spring 2010 Cha Tou is a kind of tea nugget that forms naturally from the pressures of compression and heat that occurs during the fermentation process. Typically during fermentation process to make ripe pu-erh there is a pile of tea about 1 meter high. It is kept wet to allow the fermentation process and the pile is turned every few days to allow for an even degree of fermentation, moving the tea from the bottom of the pile (where it is hotter and wetter) to the top of the pile where it is cooler and drier. The "cha tou" are the leaves that ball up and get stuck together. The best cha tou are ones that have not been over-fermented and are smaller in size (like these).
