• handmade item

• materials: big-leaved arbor tea buds from the village of Mangnuo

• shape: cake

• dimension: diameter 13.5 cm / 5.31 in

• weight: 200 g / 7.05 oz

Handmade with premium first flush leaves of 2015 spring from Mangnuo village, this sheng pu-erh brews bright golden with a vegetal, minty and honey flavour. The tea is filled with powerful chaqi and the aroma of freshly mown grass. There are hints of astringency in the initial steeps, which are quickly replaced with a honey aftertaste. The liquor is heady because of the concentrated nutrients in this tea.

Compared to our signature sheng pu-erh, Mangnuo Tengtiao from 2014 First Spring, this year’s version possesses a litter lighter fragrance and aroma. Due to an unusual rainfall in the winter of 2014, the spring buds grew a lot faster than before, resulting a milder taste in the 2015 spring harvest.

Grown only in the ancient tea gardens around town of Mengku, located in Shuangjiang county of Yunnanprovince in China, these 200 to 300 year-old trees have distinct branch shape differentiating them from the rest of the tea trees in China. The name Tengtiao "Cane Tea" was coined by Zhan Yingpei, an acclaimed scholar specializing in Yunnan tea culture. The name implies that the shape of branches of this type of tea trees is similar to cane or rattan. Since the Qing dynasty, these trees have been shaped using a special technique that trims off all the excessive sub-branches and bigger leaves, leaving only two fresh tea buds per branch. Over generations of painstaking care by the local tribes, the branches have grown long and slender, similar to the shape of cane or rattan, hence the name. The technique for growing, trimming and picking the tea, concentrates all the tea nutrients within the two tea buds in every branch, creating fragrance unseen in most pu-erh. Local tribes only pick one tea bud from each branch at a time, leaving the other one to grow for next round’s harvest. The production of this tea is very low as a result of the painstaking trimming and picking methods – many more trees are needed to collect the same amount of buds. However the harvested tea buds are very neat and delicate, without any tough stalk or old leaves. Each of the sun-dried tea buds is covered with very dense fine hair that shimmers under the sun. The final product – Qizibing Cha is presentable and highly sought after for collection.