Tea: Xigui Gushu Maocha
Type: Raw Puer (生普洱）
Harvest: April 2026
Region: Manglu Shan, Xigui, Lincang, Yunnan
Tasting Notes: Guava, Honey, Sage, Butter, Rock Sugar
Xigui is one of the top three names in modern puer production. There is even a popular saying about the three mountains: Xigui Xiang, Bingdao Tian, Lao Ban Zhang Ba Qi (昔归香，冰岛甜，老班章霸气）which means Xigui is fragrant, Bingdao is sweet, and Lao Ban Zhang is powerful. Xigui was one of the first mountains we visited in Lincang and it remains one of our closest contacts of the three top tea mountains. We have been to the Manlu Shan, the core region, every year since 2023 and have even tried our hands in the wok and documented the whole process.
While the Qiaomu, or old arbor is typically too expensive to press into a single origin cake, the Gushu is a treat we can only afford a hundred or so grams of every year. The tea soup is thick and fragrant with a quickly passing bitterness that transforms into a deep and lasting Huigan. The leaves are large with plenty of stem, as the ideal puer tea pick is one bud and three leaves. There may be a few more older leaves in this batch of tea as we picked out the huangpian outselves, Alex, Derek, and Xiaoyan.
When the dry leaves are placed in the warmed gaiwan, they exude an intoxicating scent of warmed honey, butter, and tropical fruit. Xigui is famous for its powerful fragrance, and these notes will become more and more floral as the maocha ages. When compared to Lao Ban Zhang and Bingdao, the fragrances in this tea are much more engaging, though they do fall short of the wild flower bouquet we get in the Guafeng Zhai gushu.
The brew is a rich green gold that leaves the tongue tingling after each infusion. There is the promised bitterness up front, but it almost immediately melts into a sweetness like rock sugar or fruit compote. We get tropical fruits like guava and even mango in the flavors as well as something savory like sage and mineral like rock sugar.
2026 was an excellent spring for this tea, with a nice bit of rain to start off the season, then a very long dry spell while the leaves grew and distilled their flavors. If we could have bought more, this would be a year to save and age.
