We have offered this material as loose leaves whilst waiting for cakes to be pressed. Those beautiful leaves come from at least 300 year old trees growing on misty slopes of Da Xue Shan mountain (大雪山) at elevation of around 2500m.
Pressing helped to preserve floral notes that have been nearly completely gone from loose leaves, even before we have added them to the shop. Tea is still smooth and very fruity, with all its layers and complexity. Notes of fruits, herbs and spices seem more rounded and with more obvious florals. Juicy touch of bitterness and astringency is also still here, again seems more rounded. It looks like pressing have made this tea a bit less fresh, and green PuErh freshness have warmed up, making flavor a bit more punchy.
This tea is very powerful and stimulating. While it’s calming and helping to focus, it is bursting with energy and it’s most obvious aspect of its character.
We are quite familiar with this material and while it’s great to drink now, it have proved to age very well. It is nicely pressed and removing whole leaves is very easy whilst cakes themselves are firmly holding together. Those come with Nei Fei of factory that have pressed them for us, double wrapped and every outer wrapper comes with exquisite hand calligraphy made by Vicky on special hand made paper created for PuErh.
If you are interested in comparing this cake with exactly same material in loose leaf form, then you can find it here:
https://thechatong.com/collections/sheng-puerh/products/2020-da-xue-shan-loose-leaves
Season - Spring (first flush)
Picking - one bud and three leaves
Elevation - around 2500m