200g cake of Spring 2016 raw/sheng ancient tea tree puer tea from a tea garden above Ban Po Lao Zhai on Nan Nuo Shan.

This tea comes from the same tea garden as the 2015 Ban Po tea and was made by the same 'tea farmer'.

The broth of this tea is smooth, rounded and full-some. It turns sweet in the mouth quickly and there is a good balance between sweet and bitter flavours accompanied by some mild astringency.

The tea has good thickness and some nice honey and fruit fragrance. The 'hui gan' is good and is accompanied by a lingering fragrance. It's starting to show some depth and complexity which promise well for the future.

Unless stated otherwise, all Puer teas are hand picked, fired and rolled, or sometimes machine rolled. They are sun dried. Cakes are stone pressed.

2026 Update:

The wet leaves have hints of mushrooms and something herbal - maybe rosemary? Later there are note of petrichor and a menthol-like note. The gaiwan lid has some slight floral notes and the gong dao bei has notes of flowers and honey. The tang gan is smooth and a bit oily. The tea has a clear but not strong bitterness with very little astringency. The tea has some good sheng jin and some decent hou yun.

Please be aware that raw Puer tea is a 'post-fermented' tea and is in a process of continual change: as it ages, but also from season to season and even day to day, so the description here is a snapshot of the tea's quality and character, which should not differ significantly, but which none-the-less can change.