Tea: 2010 Anhua Heicha (安化黑茶）
Type: Hua Zhuan Anhua Heicha 花砖安化黑茶
Fermentation Level: Heavy
Harvest: Spring 2010
Press Date: Autumn 2010
Press Size: 1000g
Region: JIuhuachi Village, Yuntai Region, Anhua County.
Producer: Seven Bowls Tea House
Tasting Notes: Tree Bark, Moss, Black Pepper,
Maybe one of the most traditional Anhua Heicha teas we carry. The traditional processing of this tea is to completely make the tea, then break it down, steam it again, and compress it into incredibly tight 1kg bricks. The tea is then allowed to ferment in a warm and humid environment for over 10 years. This creates the fabled golden flowers, a type of fungus prized in this kind of heicha.
The 2010 Golden Flower Brick has been sawed into small 7 gram increments for easy(er) brewing. This tea still requires a few long steeps to wake up the tea, and we use a tea pick after a few infusions to help break up the little brick and allow for a more even and complete brewing experience when brewing gongfu.
Once opened, this tea is incredibly pungent, with deep earthy aromas. To use the cliché, it really does smell like a forest after the rain, breaking sodden branches underfoot, flipping over stones, slipping on leaves. This is the iconic fermented forest tea of your dark imaginings. While we brew it gongfu style, it is well suited to boiling, perhaps with a dollop of Yak butter, a pinch of salt, and what ever other herbs grow on the high Tibetan Steppe.
