Pine & Moon Pu'erh Raw

松月生普洱

Harvest
April 2023

Origin
Jinggu, Yunnan

For the past few years Tang Wang has been looking for abandoned pu’erh tea trees in the mountains and jungles by his tea farm. He has experimented with harvesting their leaves and making them into different pu’erh raws. Last year he released the first small batch this pu’erh, made entirely from leaves he collected on his foraging trips.

He has made teas from two different groves of trees he discovered – one is facing north, and the other one is on the southern side of the mountain. The roads leading to both of them are very rugged and only accessible on foot. 

The trees for Pine & Moon are 5 km away from Mr. Tang’s tea farm. They grow wild in a state-owned forest where they were abandoned a very long time ago.

This pu’erh is named Pine & Moon because there are many towering khasi pine trees in the forest. The tea trees have grown beneath and amidst these khasi pines for over 100 years.

Every spring the leaves of these trees are collected by villagers. The 20 km hike into the forest takes them 3 hours, and they collect only a few pounds of fresh leaves each day. In this part of the forest they rarely encounter any people, and step gently, only in the presence of the birds and the mountain trees.

Once gathered, the fresh buds and leaves are spread out on bamboo mats to dry until they develop a floral, honeyed fragrance. Then they are pan-fried in a charcoal-fired iron work. After sitting for a few hours they are kneaded and shaped, and then finally, dried in the sun.

This pu’erh is a perfect tea to enjoy regularly, offering a great ‘opening’ energy that lands centrally in the body. It has a smooth and relaxing mouthfeel, with a taste that registers as grounded and undistracting. All the while it is very pretty, carrying the subtle scent of wild flowers and, as we might expect, pine.  

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Brewing guide