We thought we’d found our teas for this year with the four other cakes we pressed…. then we tasted this. It was collected by a friend of ours from a Lahu village to the north-west of Menghai. He met an elderly lady from there while filling up at a petrol station, began chatting somehow about tea and she invited him to come to the village to see her 400 year old tea trees. The village is very remote, only recently connected to the power grid and isn’t on the list of destinations for the many tea buyers crowding Xishuangbanna. As such, the trees haven’t been overpicked and the quality of the tea is excellent… bright and vibrant.
There is some smoke, from the rudimentary processing equipment (just a wok on a fire!), but this should settle and evolve over the next few years, and isn’t overpowering at the moment. The tea is thick and full in the mouth and throat, fizzing with energy on the tongue. The aftertaste lingers and evolves… still present over half an hour later. For those who like thick, meaty puerh – this is the tea for you.