DETAILED TASTING NOTES

Smell of dry leaves: fragrant and slightly sour, fermented lemons, lavender
Smell of wet leaves: lemon-vanilla cream, lemon thyme
Texture: medium-thick, full-bodied
Taste: tart sorrel, lemon thyme, sauerkraut, slightly soapy (strangely pleasant), rhubarb yogurt, kiwi
Finish: pleasantly fresh, increasingly sweet-juicy and aromatic, exceptional huigan (returning sweetness) — like a lemon sorbet
Smell of empty cup: peach candy
Aftertaste: sour lemon candy
Body sensation: light, calm, refreshed

Category: Sour Tea - Other Tea (some would say raw pu'er)
Original name: 景迈酸茶
Harvest: Spring 2024
Origin: Nuogang Ancient Forest, JingMai Mountain, Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Pu'er City (Simao), Yunnan Province, China
Cultivar: Da Ye Zhong (Large Leaf)
Altitude: 1,500-1,650m

This is one of the most unusual teas I've encountered, and virtually impossible to find outside of a few very specific villages in Yunnan. Despite excellent body and aroma, what keeps me coming back is the finish. The slight tartness transforms into an almost inimitable sweetness that settles and lingers on the palate long after the last sip — this fresh, sweet return (huigan) is simply out of this world.

I personally prefer to drink it fresh, but I've been observing for a while how a 2023 batch from my private collection is aging, and both are excellent. Like any pu'er, this tea will change with time — and I think it's worth exploring. If you're looking for something truly new, give it a try.

GongFu Infusion:
95°C
6g /100ml
1st infusion: 10sec, subsequent: +3sec/infusion
10 infusions

JingMai Mountain in Yunnan is home to some of the largest ancient tea forests in the world — five of them, covering about 1,180 hectares. These are not monocultures, but true living ecosystems, where tea trees have grown for centuries. We visited producers in many villages on the mountain and sourced two that stood out, both in Nuogang, JingMai's best-preserved Dai ethical village.

This tea comes from the second producer we found there: a discreet young man who is gradually taking over his parents' gardens in the Nuogang forest. His trees range from 50 years old to clearly ancient (GuShu), with trunks about 70 cm in circumference, probably 300 years or more. He harvested old and young trees together in a mixed pick (HunCai).

Sour tea (SuanCha) is something we've only encountered in Nuogang so far. Our producer told us he adapted a recipe from the Bulang people of a neighboring village, who traditionally pound sour tea with salt, garlic, and chili and serve it with rice. Yes, like a condiment — a bit like sauerkraut. He seems to have transformed the recipe into something drinkable. The process follows the standard steps of a raw pu'er: withering, rolling... but instead of being sun-dried at the end, the leaves are packed into bamboo tubes or clay jars — with nothing added — and left to ferment anaerobically for a season to a year. They are then taken out and sun-dried.