Rougui 2018
The magnificent Wuyi Mountains, a protected Nature Reserve in Fujian, is home to some of the most treasured and highly sought after oolongs in China. An UNESCO World Heritage site, it famously consists of 36 peaks, 72 caves and 99 cliffs. Tea from this area is called yancha 岩茶, "cliff or rock oolong." True yanchas are rare, as they come from the limited number of tea trees located within the Nature Reserve that are harvested according to ancestral rites.
The Shuilian Cave is the largest cave in the Wuyi Mountain Area. The cliff that the cave is located in is more than 300 feet tall, with two springs at the top casting over its edge. Clear water runs from these springs, passing over the mouth of the cave, year-round. From below, they appear like two floating dragons spraying ambergris over the mountains.
The name of this cliff, Shuiliandong 水帘洞, is made up of three characters: shui is water, lian means curtain or bead, and dong is cave. And so the cliff is named for this falling water which hangs, like a beaded curtain, over the mouth of the cave. With the constant streams of water filtering through the cliff, continually feeding into the vibrant foliage below, we can imagine the mineral available to the roots of the tea trees there.
This rich soil is well matched by the more robust varietal of oolong, rougui, that grows here. These rougui trees are around 25 years old. They grow on a small plot of land that belongs to the family of Pei Liyan; generational tea farmers who have ancestral rites to their land inside the Nature Reserve. The tea was crafted by her father, who has been crafting Rock oolongs for over 4 decades. It is made following traditional techniques, which includes being roasted in 5 rounds over the course of 4 months.
This tea has the distinct delineating architecture of all rouguis. It seems to open on the palate like a structure built inside a cave. Inside of this mineral construction we taste purple flowers and peach notes. Its subtle complexities appear one after another, in a string of references, and continue for a long time, much like the beads of water that make up Shuilian's curtain.