$10.50 – $45.00
A small batch autumn harvest Yunnan white tea commission of king peony (1 bud - 1 leaf) pickings from Dá É's old tea gardens that were seed-propagated back in the 1930s. Same garden as spring 2024's Nannuo Big Tree sheng pu'er, different expression because of different leaf treatment.
This tea is more warming, with a mouthfeel less tall and spaciously structured as its Fujian counterparts of this release — this one thickens up quick, filling out the spectrum with notes of sun-dried grain, clove, vanilla, and honey. Big tree Yunnan musk with throat and exhale effects add dimension.
Whereas Fujian whites experience a brief oven baking above 80° C (175°F) to fix the leaves at a desired oxidative range, this level of control isn't able to be achieved with the traditional low-tech sun drying methods in Yunnan. Therefore, Yunnan white teas, often called 月光白 yue guang bai "Moonlight White" feature more variation of oxidation across its leaves: the bigger the leaves, the more enzymes they'll have that could potentially oxidize. In addition to complexity in aroma and flavor expression, these darker oxidized leaves contrast with the silvery downy buds to create some of the most visually mesmerizing material to press into a tea cake. As these leaves were harvested on October 1st, the trees were flowering — if you're lucky you might occasionally whittle off a dried tea flower waiting to be released off of the pressing.
In the late 1930s a project was undertaken to seed-propagate over 300 acres of new tea plantations in the Nannuo Mountains. While much of it was eventually replaced with other crops over the decades, a few of these original tracts remain outside of 向阳 Xiàngyáng Village right down the road to Dá É's factory that she built in 2019.
photo taken from a vista near this garden we stopped at
During their younger years, these tea gardens were annually pruned in the late spring to manage their height at a more harvestable level, the treatment that typical "tabletop" 台地茶 táidì chá plantation bushes get. Since then they have been left to grow, unpruned and unmanaged by conventional agrochemicals. This has become a common treatment that we see implemented in recent years that is known as 生态 shēngtài or ecological tea farming. At almost 90 years old, this is a mature Shengtai garden.
Dá É only owns less than two acres of these gardens (10 亩). It doesn't produce much per season, and therefore she treats this garden as a source for experimental materials. She asked us what we'd like to produce from this garden, and aside from spring sheng pu'er every year, we will continue to commission her to make micro experimental batches of tea each autumn like this one.
While staying with her in spring 2024 we made this 1 bud 1 leaf white tea to demo what we were looking for. 1 bud 1 leaf pickings are unusual; most tea pickers paid by weight are used to the standard 1 bud 3 leaf harvests, so anything more tedious necessitates a higher rate for the same weight. For such a small batch, Dá É went out to harvest this tea herself.
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.
beautiful leaf and warm, almost woodsy but still young taste. loved the feel and colour of its soup!
Such a special and meaningful tea experience. I was surprised at the flavor and beauty of this tea on multiple steepings. Thank you for making it possible to enjoy these kinds of unique teas.