A loose Puer tea from a tea garden in Xiao (Jing Hong) Meng Song to the south of Bulang Shan near the Myanmar border. This sun dried tea is made from tea from a garden of ancient tea trees at an altitude of around 1700 meters.
The tea's aroma ranges from honey-caramel to floral-vegetal with some forest-mushroom notes. It has a slight bitterness but very little astringency. The kou gan is decent - smooth with some thickness - and has a little hou yun.
Yunnan Shai Qing Mao Cha or sun dried loose leaf tea is not yet technically Puer. Only once the tea has been steamed and pressed does it enter the phase of becoming Puer tea. None-the-less, the tea is still in a process of continual change and, even though it has not been steamed, it will continue to change as it ferments/oxidises and ages, varying 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.
Price range: $12.00 through $22.00
About Agrochemicals
I do not get all my teas routinely tested for agro-chemicals. I am extremely careful about which gardens I source from: tea gardens that are in a diverse, natural environment where there is no need for the use of agro-chemicals and which I am confident are all free of herbicide and pesticide traces.
In recent years anthraquinone in tea has become a talking point. I do not generally test tea for anthraquinone and, whilst I try my best to minimise the potential for it, I do not prioritise that over other factors. You can read more here.
