2017 Yunnan Sourcing "Bang Dong Zi Cha" Purple Raw

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Bang Dong Village (邦东寨) is located in the county Mengku, Lincang prefecture. Bang Dong is a small village situated at an altitude of 1600 meters. Our production is made entirely from the tea picked by three families from their small ancestral tea gardens. The tea trees have 80-200 years of age and are growing naturally.

This is entirely Bang Dong Zi Cha (Purple Tea). The tea is not from cloned purple plants but rather is collected from the purple tinged leave and stem trees that grow alongside the non-purple tea trees in the same garden. This area of Bang Dong is very sunny and high altitude with southern facing slopes and as such has a high incidence of naturally occurring purple mutations (around 15-20% of the trees in this area).

The purple tea of Bang Dong is not quite the same as Yi Wu and Jinggu area purple teas that are more purple when fresh and darker black in color after processing into mao cha. The Bang Dong area “zi cha” (lit. purple tea) has purple stems and some purple tinging on the leaves. The taste is distinctive from the non-purple mutated trees growing in the same area (often side by side), with less bitterness, more sweetness, and a fruity character. There is still bitterness like our Bang Dong Village Raw cake from the same area and harvest year, but overall it’s less pronounced and sweeter.