As 2024 comes to a close, this sampler is a love note to a tea that has reached the end of its life cycle: Mapo (Horse Slope). It was included in our first Yellow Pill sampler as the antithesis of yellow tea, and won a place in some of your hearts for its unique, peppery kick. Later shipments from our OG producer, Wei, never seemed to quite have that original spice, and the tea slowly drifted off of our radar.
A few months ago, we went back to the street vendors of Jianshi County and visited a producer in the Horse Slope production area to try and again find that missing zest. We did just that. The outcome of this trip are two very different versions of Mapo that we can share with you:
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Premium Mapo (25 grams)
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Mapo Spice (25 grams)
“Premium Mapo” is the final form of what Master Cui, a retired forestry department employee with a small factory on Horse Slope, has honed over the last three decades. Even now, the rich umami, brilliant emerald leaves, savory sencha sweetness, and creamy thick mouthfeel all represent what oven made green tea in China can taste like under the very best conditions. It is similar to certain Maojian style teas in the area, but packs almost no citrus.
Mapo Spice is precisely what producers like Cui have worked to get away from. It possesses a very peculiar form of astringency that the locals liken to numbing Sichuan peppercorn. This is the singular sensation that this tea has on offer. The astringency coats and stimulates the tongue, providing an electric, almost numbing experience. Notes of raw grass and white pepper strike and vanish with equal quickness.
Between these two extreme examples have been the Mapo tea we have been drinking and selling over the last five years. With the future of spicy Mapo and Mapo as a production style altogether very much in doubt. This our warm goodbye to an old friend.
