Tea: Arbor White (大树/乔木白茶)
Producer: Yan Sandan
Date: 2024 White Tea
Location: Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Menghai County, Zhanglang Village
Tasting Notes: Berry, Peach, Floral, Cork.
There is a spectrum of Yunnan white tea between astringent cardboard and fruit salad. This is safely on the fruit salad end of the spectrum. A relatively young white tea from old trees (80~ years), this tea offers Puer sweetness and an elderly tree mouthfeel with almost zero sharpness. The closest parallel we have experienced is blueberryish Hainan brown shoumei, but this particular white tea has a more enduring fragrance, thicker soup, and a slightly cork/barky edge.
Bada Mountain, a bastion of Bulang and Hanni culture for thousands of years. With a pristine natural environment, thickly rooted small tree; tall and towering Gushu, groves of sheltered Dashu, this mountain has some gently powerful tea. Coming from these Dashu, this white tea was produced by Bulang local Yan Sandan. It is somewhere in pick size between Baimudan and Gongmei, and the surviving greenness in the final product is a testament to Yan's skill in an area where jet-black Yueguangbai is not uncommon.
The complexity of this tea makes Gongfu style an obvious first choice, but this is also a tea that stands up well in conventional / grandpa brewing.
