Bulang Mountain 2021

This pu'erh ripe is crafted with tea leaves from 2 villages: 100 year old trees from Bulang Mountain, and 200 year old trees from the ancient village of Nanben in Menghai. The cake is a custom pressing, crafted under the supervision of Taiwanese tea veteran, Zeng Zhixian.

Zhixian is a highly regarded tea scholar famous for his book, The Fate of Fangyuan: Deep exploration into Pressed Teas, which has had a profound influence on today's pu'erh industry. He opened a small studio in Hangzhou with his sons in 2019 where they could put their deep knowledge and understanding of tea into practice, crafting small batches of custom pressings of pu'erh raw and pu'erh ripe. This one, Essence of Bulang, is from their limited release in 2021.

The tea cakes are made in small batches, with the entire fermentation process happening off the ground on wooden pallets. It was fermented for 6 months, which is on the lighter side for this style of tea, and then aged for 6 months before being pressed into cakes.

This is a very satisfying pu'erh, especially considering how young it is. The liquor has a glutinous texture, coating the palate with a mellow sweetness, and its grounding notes of dates, wood, and dense earth are expressed in a refined measure. This tea offers gentle, sweet and fortifying company.