Tea: Smugglers Cove 2021 Wild Harvest Shoumei
Type: Yesheng Shoumei (荒野寿眉)
Harvest: Spring 2021
Press Date: August 2025
Region: Diantou, Fuding, China
Producer: Qiu
Tasting Notes: Honey melon, brown sugar, toasted coconut, dates, vanilla
As the common adage goes when talking about aging white teas: the first year its tea, by the third year it’s medicine, by the seventh year it's a treasure. This wild shoumei is well on its way to becoming a treasure, and is flying through the medicinal transformations. It has lost most of its vegetal freshness and is already turning darker, with more complex flavors.
When the dry leaves are placed in the warmed gaiwan, we get fragrances of stewed dates and honey melons with some brown sugar hiding in the background. When infused with hot water, the leaves begin to transition into their more earthy side, giving off notes of toasted coconut and hints at the vanilla with will surely become much more prevalent as this tea ages through the years.
Since this is a spring shoumei that was made with care, it is in the green style of the category. As a result, the brew is still a bright gold even though it has four years under its belt. Even when pushed this tea soup simply becomes a deeper, richer gold, not yet red or amber.
The taste of the tea is likewise very clean and refreshing. The toasted coconut comes through in the brew and sits oily on the tongue. As this is a wild-harvested shoumei, meaning the tea bushes are not pruned knee-high, but left to grow into trees several meters high, the roots reach deep to pick up many more minerals than other white teas, as a result there is a minerality to this tea that is almost saline, reminding us of the secret beaches and inlets to the ocean found deep inland in Diantou and Fuding.
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.
This is a micro-pressing of the larger 200 gram Smuggler's Cove tea cake, made of the exact same material.
Huge thanks to Anj for creating the Wrapper Artwork. Follow their instagram @gushustudios to check out all their handmade teaware!
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