As the hottest months of Summer burn on, the season for cooling drinks and light snacks has arrived. When you have tired of cold-brew green tea and silver needle, we invite you to join us in trying out 3 (or 4) pressed little pillows of our newest treat: Zhangping Shuixian.
This is a sweet little tea snack in liquid form, and most of them do indeed taste like you are brewing up a little osmanthus rice cake. It is a style of tea where freshness, sweetness, and aroma take the front seat in place of body. Hence, the brewing ratio of one ~8ish gram pillow to 120/ml is strongly encouraged. You can and should hit it hard for at least three infusions. Watch the video below for more information.
Once you have got the teas, click here and share your feedback about the numbered samples received. Come October, we will share the results and settle on a final tea to source based on your feedback.
The anonymized contenders include:
Fall 2024 Dangkeng Orthodox (x2)
This tea was made by a young producer within the core-production area's lesser known Danggkeng Village, and is intended to be a lighter, more sweet orchid product. For him, this is the ideal orthodox version of this tea for first time drinkers.
Spring 2025 Dangkeng Roasted (x2)
This tea was made by a young producer within the core-production area's lesser known Danggkeng Village. It is a custom-made product intended to suit the tastes of Northern Fujian tea drinkers who grew up on Yancha.
Spring 2024 Nanyang Orthodox (x2)
This tea is made by a veteran, award-winning producer of 40 years who lives in Nanyang Township proper. Although rougher in shape, it is a fuller osmanthus body and stronger aroma, ideal for an established local drinker.
(DLC - Limit 15 Orders) Fall 2024 Shuangyang Orthodox (x1)
An optional add-on, this is a Shuangyang sourced tea from a Zhangping city-based tea assessor. It is another smooth orthodox fall tea, but with slightly most robust aroma.
I brewed Darjeeling Autumn flush red tea gongfu style. The floral notes in the initial pours were like the fragrance of the last blooms of a lily that opened before the frost or a magnolia that had one totally out of season flower. Later pours brought out flavors of freshly boiled cane syrup with a hint of newly cut hay. Towards the end, the flavor became more sage-like with a little bit of dry tree bark. The progression of the flavors of this tea unfold in the same way summer moves into autumn and autumn into winter. I hope you are able to offer this tea for regular purchase.
Great packaging, and even greater tea! So far I've tried the green shoumei and it's a delight! This box is a great way to see how things change with age and is more curated than trying to figure out what to get yourself. Highly recommend!
A very mild green tea, almost like a less punchy premium feeling longjing.
For the cost its fantastic, i am only subtracting one star because it does have some grassy notes if pushed. In my experience this means it could have been pan fired a tiny bit longer or hotter (however, it really is very mild, not a dealbreaker by any means).
Fantastic tea cake, great value and interesting aromatics.
I brewed it right away and it had some very fascinating jammy notes as well as the tasting notes described. Ill store it broken into chunks for a month and taste it again later.