I broke a lot of rules today. Some of them were my rules. Some of them were tea rules. But everything came out okay!
The first rule I broke was – no tea on an empty stomach. This is my rule. I have a sensitive stomach, a dodgy esophagus, and I can get heartburn looking at a bowl of chili. I wasn’t hungry and I wanted tea, so RULE DISREGARDED.
The second rule I broke was – rinse puerh leaves and discard the rinse water. I confess I break this rule a lot. Sometimes I am glad, sometimes not. This time – oh yeh, glad. That first steep was delish. I kept it oh so short and sweet. Golden color, scent of menthol, smooth, and sweet.
Steep two – didn’t time it! Another broken rule! This is golden and rich in color and LIVELY on the tongue. So much energy in this tea! Like a precocious but adorable pre-teen that you love spending time with but who maybe wears you out a little in big doses.
Steep three – ah, you are a nice tea with a bite of thin cinnamon cookie. Still golden. Still lively.
Steep four – with lunch now. A bit mellower and lovely with food. Hay, white tea-ish but with a vibrant energy. Bright and raw. Go to their website to learn in depth about each tea they carry!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Wymm Tea
Description
This sheng pu-erh brews a bright golden liquor. It has notes of cut hay and earth in its aroma, complimented with a bold almond, buttery flavour.
We were lucky enough to obtain some of these huangpian which give insights into the highly sought after Bingdao Laozhai sheng pu-erh. Bingdao Laozhai is a place renowned in the Yunnan tea industry. Situated at 1400-2000 meters mountaintops, it is the one and only high altitude village occupied by Dai minority group in the Mengku town region. The price of pu-erh from this village would go into the thousands due to the extremely limited supply. Please visit our Bingdao Laozhai pu-erh blog post to learn more about it.
These huangpian are picked from the same trees as the Bingdao Laozhai, the only difference being that it is less aesthetically pleasing; the bigger leaves (huangpian) are filtered out so that the remaining leaves are neat and symmetrical when pressed into cakes. These bigger leaves are often kept by the tea farmers for personal consumption and are rarely found in the market. Even though the huangpian do not have the tidy appearance of its counterparts, it possesses similar taste characteristics and are sometimes considered more flavourful as the leaves spent longer period of time growing on the trees.
