Yuzu & Gold Guanyin

There is an unmissable floral quality to the scent of yuzu, while it references almost every citrus imaginable — grapefruit, sweet orange, bergamot, lime. The complexity of its scent is so beguiling we want to keep returning to it, like a puzzle one can never quite solve.

Yuzu is believed to have originated along the Yangtze River in China. It is a hybrid of an ancient lime, called Ichang Papeda 宜昌橙, and a sour mandarin orange. Depending on its ripeness it appears in many vibrant colours - yellow, orange, or green - with dense, dimpled peels. Yuzu first arrived in Japan, where it is now far more common, during the Tang Dynasty over 1000 years ago. While yuzu has since become widely cultivated in Japan and integrated into Japanese cooking, it is very rare in China, with only a few farms still growing it.

We are amazed to have found this Gold Guanyin black tea scented with yuzu from one of the few farms in China that still grows it. This tea is extremely rare, not only for its use of Chinese yuzu, but also for the meticulous process in which the black tea is scented by hand.

For this tea the scent of both unripe and ripe yuzu have been transferred to semi-wild Guanyin tea leaves from Longquan. Through the careful scenting process, this rich black tea has captured and preserved the intense, aromatic oils of the citrus.

To do this unripened, green yuzu was harvested early in September. Each yuzu was peeled by hand, their rinds were broken apart into pieces, spread out on wide, bamboo trays, and then layered with tea leaves. The tea and peel rest in the open air for 12 hours like this, then the trays are baked at low temperatures to ensure all of the citrus' oils have transferred to the tea leaves. This process is repeated with the sweeter, and riper, orange yuzu near the end of October. The tea was then transferred to a sealed container and combined with dried peels, both green and orange, that have been crushed into very small pieces. When you prepare this tea you will see the little pieces of citrus peel reanimate, looking almost fluorescent amongst the dark tea leaves.

Saturated with aromatic oils from the yuzu peels, this tea is intensely fragrant. On the palate the bright citrus taste comes first, then finishes with sweet, caramel notes from the black tea. This tea is as compelling as yuzu is, balanced by the soothing and earthy qualities of the semi-wild Guanyin. It is also tireless: the scent of yuzu lingers in the room after many infusions.