Tea: Kunlushan Dashu Sheng Puerh Maocha

Grower: Fan Hongwei from The Fan Family

Origin: Kuanhong Village in Kunlushan (Kunlu Mountain). Yunnan, China

Cultivation: Natural (Organic, but no certification)

Harvest Date: April 2014

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A bittersweet, herbaceous sheng puerh maocha, made from 20-year-old trees on Kunlushan. The 20-year-old trees on Mr. Fan's farms are relatively young for the area, but they grow tall and make a very energetic, fresh sheng puerh. If left to age, the tea will mellow out and become more smooth, developing deeper complexity.

Sheng puerh refers to the uncooked, raw style of puerh tea, while maocha refers to puerh that is still in loose-leaf form, and has not undergone pressing yet. This harvest from Spring 2014 is not yet aged, and has a profile closer to a green tea. While this tea is already ready for drinking, it can also aged, or be used for pressing into puerh cakes.

Puerh from small family farms is always sheng puerh, because shu puerh is only processed in very large batches of leaves in large factories. The Fan Family easily sells their entire harvest to the factories because their leaves are of such high quality, but they sold this portion to us because they were excited to share their tea with an international audience.

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Recommended Brewing Instructions:

Standard Brewing: Use 1.5tsp (~4g) per 250ml cup. Rinse the leaves quickly with boiling water, and pour out the rinse infusion. Brew for 1 minute at 205F. This tea can be re-brewed up to 5 times, with hotter water and longer infusions.

Gongfu Brewing: Use 2tsp (~5g) per 100ml cup. Rinse the leaves quickly with boiling water, and pour out the rinse infusion. Brew for 15 seconds at 205F, and re-brew up to 12 times with gradually increasing infusions.