A naturally-aged autumn-harvested shou mei grown in the mountains of Guanyang, just north of Fuding.

A comforting aged white tea and treat for the senses, the dry leaf in the warmed gaiwan greets you with an olfactoral symphony: dried plum, forest mushrooms, petrichor, slightly burnt cookie, tobacco.

The addition of hot water perspirates another layer of aroma and flavor out as the session finally begins: herbaceous notes, dried granny smith, dark cherry juice; the broth sweet with a woody porridge texture.  Cassia, raisins, creamy oatmeal, and burnt sugar reveal from the 3rd steep on, and thicken up as the tea reliably yields this core essence as long as you'd like the session to sustain.

In an arena ground zero for the artificially-aged 新工艺白茶 "new technique white tea", we're grateful to have been able to send the remainder of this limited stash of naturally-aged shou mei from the Chen family to the press.  A lineage nearing its 30th generation of tea farming, young Ninghua proudly carries on his family heritage through this time of unprecedented growth and opportunity in his home region outside of Fuding.  Surely bound for crowd favorite status, be sure to partake in some of this vintage while it's around.

The tea cake inkwork for this release was penned by our friend Green, a tea friend we met in 2019 during our travels in northern Yunnan.  Him and his girlfriend are artists that run a teashop in the small town of Shaxi.  Each cake features a drawing of one of his favorite birds in China.