- Production year: 2008
- Storage: Hunan
- Brick weight: 250g
- Price: USD 18 / brick
- Availability: In stock
This is a higher grade Zhongcha (中茶) heizhuan. 2005 material, pressed in 2008.
A couple of other things sets this apart from most big-factory productions from that era: The relatively tender material used (seems to be dominated by gongjian material), the grade consistency throughout the brick (no “finer exterior wrapped around a crude core” trickery here), the relatively small brick size (a big reason I decided to put these up in the first place) and a very penetrating almond note with a bit of minty coolness.
A robust tea, the highlight for me of both this and the 2007 brick is the clean aged taste and body feeling they produce.
PS: This tea can be a bit finicky to brew due to the compression of chopped (and tender) leaves. I recommend breaking it up to smaller chunks and start with 1-2 long steeps, followed by shorter steeps once the chunks have properly loosened up.
Note: This tea may contain golden flowers (Jinhua/金花), a perfectly natural occurrence in certain heicha teas. Their development depends on factors like microbial activity, storage conditions, and time. However, individuals with Celiac Disease or severe gluten allergies should exercise caution, as we cannot guarantee that no wheat-based materials were involved at any stage of production.
