Intriguing and old school pu-erh made from Qiaomu trees growing on Naka mountain.
You can see the leaves are much more darker than most of fresh pu-erh you can find on the market. They are more oxidized and traditionally processed with quite strong sha qing on wood fire.
When tasting this Naka you will find all those flavours that were typical for young pu-erh 20 and more years ago: fresh hay, smoke, some mushrooms and forest aroma mixed with pleasant but strong herbal bitterness. It’s still fresh and “juicy” at the same time of course!
I would say the key things, apart from getting a little smokiness in there are, not too long a wait before frying the fresh leaves, a fairly high frying temperature and fried pretty briskly. The tea gardens are relatively close to the village which is quite different from some villages in the Yiwu area, for example where the “tree to wok time” can be considerably longer.
Excellent and long lasting aftertaste.
One of the most interesting pu-erh of the season. It’s not gushu (ancient tree) but the energy coming from this Naka is surprisingly powerful.
Origin: natural garden on Naka Mountain , Mengsong, Menghai, Yunnan, China.
Vintage/Harvest: April 2019
Tea vartietal: Camellia Sinensis var Assamica (“zhong ye zhong” – small leaf varietal growing in Naka area)
Tea trees age: around 50-70 year old trees