Kokang 2017

This pu'erh comes from an unusual place for tea cultivation, which is why we consider it experimental. Kokang is a remote and mountainous region in Northeastern Myanmar, sharing a border with Yunnan Province. The entire region is surrounded by the magnificent Tibetan Plateaus.

On account of its remote location and lack of modern transportation, much of Kokang remains undeveloped. It is characterized by great expanses of ancient forests, where an abundance of wild growing arbor tea trees continue to grow undisturbed.

This pu'erh is crafted from the leaves of 200 year old trees, situated at around 6000 ft above sea level. The tea is made by a young craftsman, Li Jiakuan. Li's ancestry is Dai-Chinese, however he lives with his family in Kokang. To learn the traditional craftsmanship of pu'erh tea he traveled to Menghai in Yunnan and studied intensively with a master there for 6 months.

Applying what he learned in Yunnan to a varietal of pu'erh trees native to Kokang has yielded something very interesting to us. The unique terroir of the Tibetan Plateaus gives this pu'erh soft and gentle notes, to the extent that the first couple infusions of it remind us of a white tea. The depth of this tea's character comes out gradually, and yet it still behaves very uniquely: the lingering floral impressions captivate the attention of our mouths in a way we wouldn't expect in a pu'erh from Yunnan, which is usually more about sensation than flavour.

We would enjoy this tea on a sunny morning, when there is a want to be refreshed, and brought into the day gently. It will simultaneously answer a desire for nuanced, sensory experiences on one's palate, and a desire for the groundedness that comes from an ancient tree.