- Production year: 2024
- Storage: Hunan
- Cake weight: 100g
- Price: USD 20 / cake
- Availability: In stock
Sidao (思道) is an interesting company, in many ways defined by dualities. They have productions under their own brand name as well as being an OEM (代工) for many of the smaller brands on the market. (Readers with exceptional memory will remember their mention in the listing for the 2019 Meishan Wuyu “Dichen” Heizhuan). The current line-up under their own name is divided between some really nice orthodox style Anhua heichas on the one side, and some absolutely frightening “golden dragon pillar” (金龙柱) jinhua teas on the other (because everybody’s gotta make a living…).
Tianjian pressed into cakes is a relatively new thing, although it dates back to at least 2005 it wasn’t a very common thing until a decade or so ago. This tea is fragrant, with notes of fruit, hay, grains and honey-like sweetness. Wulongshan (五龙山) material.
Brewing notes:
I normally use a good deal less leaf when brewing tianjians than other types of Anhua heicha. Although I haven’t yet run this tea through the full range of my available clay profiles, my sessions with it so far suggest that it benefits from a little bit of muting. Green label zini and vintage chaozhou have yielded excellent cups.
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.
