Perhaps less menacing than the name or packaging would suggest, this tea is our attempt at offering a Laomane tea that most can enjoy. For those who are averse to bitterness, there’s probably no such thing, since bitterness literally comes with the territory. But for those who don’t mind a little pain, this tea embodies what we feel is a palatable representative of the area, with a bitterness that hits the tongue, but dissolves. Often combined with Banpen material in order to dial in a “Laobanzhang” flavour, this tea is predominantly composed of the Laomane local “sweet varietal” of tea tree. Although more bitter than many teas from other regions, this varietal is still much milder than the local bitter varietal. By now you probably already guessed that you’ll experience some “kuwei” (pleasant bitterness) with this tea, but the fragrance and sweetness that follows up in the throat is another key feature, not to mentioned a very noticeable chaqi/energy. With pressings from 2018, 2019, and 2022 in our long term storage, we can confirm that this tea ages well with proper storage, and has even consistently been one of our favourites to return to. $0.39/gram Region: Laomane, Bulang Shan, Xishuangbanna Prefecture Picking period: April 2-8
