Semi Wild Buddha's Hand

This oolong comes to us from tea historian and forager, Mei, who seeks indigenous and forgotten Shuixian and Buddha's Hand growing throughout the jungles of Yongchun, Fujian.

The origin of Buddha's Hand tea can be traced back to an ancient temple on Shifeng Cliff, Yongchun. Fingered citron, a very fragrant and unusual looking citrus fruit, is a common offering in temples. Soon after the temple was built in the late 1600's, monks planted fingered citron trees to worship Buddha. They also planted tea trees, as they drank tea daily while meditating. The story goes that, one monk thought it would be nice to have a tea with citrus scent. He grafted branches of a tea tree onto the fingered citron tree, carefully cared for it, and successfully made tea from the leaves. It is said that these tea leaves were "as big as Buddha's hands," and carried the natural scent of fingered citron. There are still 89 mother Buddha's Hand trees, all over 300 years old, surrounding the temple today.

This Buddha's Hand is from old groves of tea trees on Yinshi Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Yongchun. The trees were planted in the 1940's, and only discovered a few years ago. Because of the high altitude and remoteness of its location, these tea trees had been left to grow in the wild, with no human intervention.

To make this tea, very young leaves were harvested on the second day of the season, as these tender leaves produce tea that is exceptionally sweet and milky. The fresh leaves are foraged by a small group of nine local villagers, and handcrafted by Mr. Liu, one of the most earnest and dedicated tea makers we've ever encountered.

The resulting tea is one of our all-time favourite oolongs. It is sweet, smooth, floral, milky and complex. All of its attributes are very well balanced, giving this tea depth and an integrated profile. It opens with floral and nutty notes, reminiscent of roasted sunflower seeds and fresh fava beans. Later infusions reveal fruity notes, like apricot and pear, with a mouthcoating sweetness similar to an ice wine.