A full flavour Sheng Gushu PuErh from a lesser-known mountain made in a Single Tree style. A spectacular balance of aromatics, tastes and textures that seems to bring all that we love in Raw PuErh together in one experience.
This tea comes from Da Hei Shan further North from the more famous mountains in Southern Yunnan in between Lincang and the Myanmar border. In our broad experience, tea from these more northern areas have a bright aromatic character but may sacrifice the depth and warmth of teas from around Xishuangbanna in the South. Not this tea! One sip of Calamansi Swooper and you will be met with an overflowing generosity of aromatics from zesty and refreshing to warm, sweet and even slightly buttery. It somehow manages to capture it all. The finish is so very long with orange and jasmine and a fabulous pithy bitterness which slowly dissolves to flood the mouth with juicy sweetness.
This tea is made in ‘pure single tree’ style which means that the cakes have been pressed purely from a micro-lot of estimated 300-500 year old Gushu trees without any blending with any other nearby tea. This is different from a strict single tree tea which is pressed from only one individual tree (and madly expensive). Therefore you are really tasting a very defined character of the terroirs and micro-genetics of that particular patch of mountain. For some areas, this focussed character may not be desirable if the land and trees do not have enough complexity but clearly this is not the case for this micro-lot because these Gushu trees give such a wide palate of flavour and textures that their roots seem to be spanning the whole of Yunnan!
Yes, I love this tea and I am fighting the urge not to keep it all for myself!