2018 Shoumei

The leaves of this tea show a lovely mixed coloration of green, dark green, and light brown: it is visibly caught in a moment of transformation from fresh tea into aged tea.  According to the Chinese saying “1 year tea, 3 year medicine, 7 year treasure” this tea is right in its first stage of transformation from tea into medicine.  This tea, like all of Master Zhang’s offerings, has been charcoal roasted and rested prior to pressing.  This conditions the tea much better for long-term storage.  

The aroma off the wet leaves is very different from that of the 2021 Green Shoumei, while it still has quite a bit of umami body, the dominating fragrances are berries and flowers, something like daffodil and goji.  Smelling the wet leaves of this tea between each infusion and the residual aroma left behind in the empty cup is one of the biggest delights of the session, it might be our favorite smelling tea we carry, and why we wanted to press and save it.  

The liquor is a few shades richer than the 2021 Green Shoumei, with much more amber in the body.  The mouthfeel is just as thick, and the huigan just as deep, but the tea at this stage of aging has just begun to trade its vegetal notes for something sweet and floral.  The color of the brew, the thickness of the liquor, the smell of flowers and faint sweetness all lead us to think of drinking warmed clover honey.

While this tea will continue to transform with age, it is at a perfect drinking age at the moment, and we fear we will drink through it before it can reach any other age benchmarks.  

As with all our white teas, we brew 6 grams in a 100-120ml gaiwan with water right off the boil.  You can experiment with different water temperatures, cooler temps give the tea a little more floral nots, higher temps bring our more umami.

Never bought a tea cake before?  Check out our video on how to break it apart!

For storage tips, check out our blog post on how Zhang stores his teas!