Alluvial Fields
One River Tea
Regular price
$62.00
Sale
This is a region that has been on our Puer bucket list for a while now: Naka. A small village nestled in the folds of Xishuang Banna’s tallest mountain, Huazhu Liangzi. The tea here is fragrant, small of leaf, and grown in some of the sandiest rockiest soil we have seen. To call the resultant tea mineral-rich is underselling it quite a bit. The mineral taste of this tea transcends into a rock sugar sweetness that ages beautifully with time.
We were lucky enough to meet a Naka farmer out in Yiwu this year while we were sourcing the Guafengzhai, and we eagerly accepted a ride to this sought after region. Sister Luo is of a large Lahu family living on the Northside of Huazhu Liangzi. They have uncles and brothers and cousins with gardens scattered throughout the slopes, even in the rocky ridges of Naka. The price of tea on the mountain has gone down these recent years, and thus we were able to secure some very nice Dashu, or or big old tree, material for a reasonable price.
When the leaves are placed in a warmed gaiwan, we are greeted with notes of citrus and pine, this fragrance becomes creamier and sweeter when infused with hot water, with notes of honey and fruit compote in the leaves. As the tea grown in Naka is of the Small Leaf varietal, the leaves themselves are much more fragrant than their larger leaf cousins in the rest of Yunnan.
The tea is a nice clean gold with plenty of minerality. Naka is often defined by its saline nature, this rock-tea like essence creates a powerful sweetness in the cup if brewed properly. There is a power to this tea if brewed with a heavy hand, and a gentleness too if restraint is used when brewing. Despite the bright floral and fruity notes from the leaves, the brew stays rooted deep in the rocky earth and sandy soil.
Tea from Naka is highly not only for its ability to age beautifully, but also for the long lingering sweetness of the later infusions. After about a half dozen infusions, the sweetness stage kicks in and each infusion becomes sweeter and sweeter.