This is a Presale product that will be sent out on April 5th. This presale means, you, the producer, and us are all getting a guaranteed price on the earliest picks of the teas we know are consistently good. All presale teas are discounted 10% off until April 1st.
Tea: Orchid Buds (Xiù Yá 秀芽）
Type: Oven Roasted
Harvest: Early March 2025
Region: Chongqing, Yongchuan, Chashanzhuhai Village
Producers: Lingyun - Chongqing Agricultural Institute
Tasting Notes: Chestnut, Cabbage, Taro, Celery
With Sichuan to the west, Enshi to the east, and Guizhou to the south, Chongqing has long been working to create a tea to match the strong tastes of its local hot pot enthusiasts. Always a green tea city, Xiuya is the vanguard in Chongqing's effort to develop a tea of its own. Just as early and pretty as Sparrow's Tongue, rich and thick like Dragon Well, down forward-like Golden Green, and yellower than all of the above.
With its double kill green processing (microwave+electric oven), light kneeding, prolonged piling, and slow two-day final drying, this is "new style" a green tea that has a creamy taro aroma closer to some yellow teas than most green teas. Local producers pride themselves on their "chestnut" flavor, but it is clearly more robust and umami than a typical Dragonwell. It is a distinct, delicious new entry into Chinese green tea that is the culmination of sixty years of research.
