Spring 2022 Wen Shan Ding

A blend of large tea trees grown in the forests of Wen Shan Ding. Juicy mouthfeel and well-layered aftertaste. A great comfort tea. This is a blend of twenty large tea trees from Wen Shan Ding, the tea area east of Little Jinggu. It was sourced and processed by Luo Kai Yin. The tea features a pleasant, muffled, opening fragrance. The core of the enjoyment lies in the mouthfeel and the texture of the soup, as the tea goes down the throat. It's the kind of tea that calls for another cup due to the Hui Gan (sweet aftertaste) that builds up over the session. No bitterness, low astringency, this is definitely a soft one. It is best enjoyed gongfu style, but a grandpa session in a large glass is also suitable. The subtle fragrance will linger in the back of your mouth after the session has ended. Our trip to Jinggu Mountain Jinggu, the forgotten tea mountain Jinggu is often overlooked by the tea enthusiasts, and yet, you might have had great teas from there without knowing it. Indeed, a lof of Yiwu cakes contain Jinggu material, because they have comparable tasting profiles in some way. Located between Lincang and the massive Wuliang Mountain range, Jinggu county is made of hills as far as the eye can see. You won’t find imposing peaks there, nor any specific landmark. It’s a region that doesn’t attract tourists and it might partly explain why Jinggu tea has always grown in the shade of other terroirs. In the county, the town named ‘little Jinggu’, located north of the county capital, has the most to offer to the avid tea enthusiast. You’ll find three types of tea gardens there. Three types of gardens Da Bai Cha Jinggu county is famous for its Da Bai Cha varietal, which produces large furry buds. It sells well in the mass market thanks to its good look, but it’s a whole different industry, and the avid tea enthusiast would be disappointed by its weak taste. Teng Tiao Besides the Da Bai Cha, the farmers of Jinggu also grow the ‘old varietal’, a more orthodox large-leaf, seed-propagated tea tree, which is picked and maintained with the Teng Tiao technique. In most of the tea gardens, the farmers want to promote lateral growth. It allows for more shoots growing in a shorter package, you have your picking table made of short branches and a lot of shoots. In Jinggu, the farmers have taken the opposite approach, they want few long branches. The tea grows on the sides of the branch without growing more woody parts. To achieve this, they pick the axillary buds that would produce new branches on the side of the main stem. This results in a specific look of the tea trees that you’ll only find in Jinggu and in some parts of Lincang. Forest tea The last type of tea garden is the most interesting one. If you visit Jinggu, you won’t notice it. It is hidden in the forests on the higher slopes. In a similar fashion as Eastern Yiwu or Northern Laos, these gardens are only accessible through small roads and can take a couple of hours to reach. This forest tea is of the same varietal as the commonly found Teng Tiao, but the ecosystem of the forest and the shade give the brew a special character. The tea has a soft and yet powerful tasting profile, with plenty of sweetness and a calming body feel. It’s a great tea to relax and meditate. This is what we like to source. A long history of tea making Just like Yiwu, Jinggu has a long history of tea making, and the producers never lost the skill of puerh tea making through recent history. We work with two of them. Luo Kai Yin has set up a small factory in his native village called Xin Cun. He sources fresh leaves from forested tea gardens and processes them himself. Tea trade is quite fluid in Jinggu, the local producers can go to places far from their home base to get good leaves. To purchase material that suits his high standard, Luo Kai Yin likes to go to Wen Shan Ding in the East, and far in the North, to Ba Da Ye. We also work with Mr Dong, who lives in a village, South-West of Little Jinggu. He grows forested tea gardens on Tang Fang Liang Zi Mountain.