NYC Tapwater 2024 Bangdong Gushu Orb

We're very excited to release this pure Spring tea made exclusively from ancient trees in the mineral-rich terroir of the Bangdong Village, just across a mountain valley from our beloved Xigui.  We first visited these sandy slopes in Spring of 2023 and were utterly astounded by the incredible number of ancient trees in these hills.  Thier thick trunks and roots that reach around boulders through the red earth, the way Sister Meng hopped from rock to rock across dry ravines, here old broken-roofed home in the mountains with the ancient tea trees providing shade, really all feeds into our wonder of this tea, and our excitement to do this region the honor it desrves by showcasing their gushu.

The leaves are surprisingly beautiful (gushu tends to be a little ugly) with a large amount of silver white buds peeking out between the darker green leaves.  When placed into a warmed gaiwan, there is an unquestionably fruity fragrance that arises with hints of something more saline beneath.  As is typical with a lot of pure Gushu teas, this is not a fragrance-forward tea, but rather one that is better understood in the realm of body sensations and mouthfeel.

The brew is thirst quenching, rather sweet, with savory notes redolent of Japanese nori.  The modest yellow brew coats the mouth in an oily fashion leaving a lot left over to taste between infusions.  The dominant expression of this tea in the early infusions is its intense minerality.  This sweetens up through the session creating a good dozen infusions of rock-sugar sweet water in the teas later half.  For us, the true joy comes in this second half of the session, wherein this tea becomes sweeter and sweeter as we refill the kettle with another 1.5 liters of water and continue on, really long-lasting session if you're present for it.