Product Overview
Hand-Rollled High Mountain Ancient Tree Yunnan White Tea is a rare and amazingly complex, completely hand-plucked and hand-processed tea from the high mountain of Yunnan. Cultivated from tea bushes that grow at an elevation of approximately 2200 meters, an environment untainted by pollution fosters remarkable biodiversity. It is skillfully hand-picked and hand-processed in small quantities. The tea is picked with high picking standards in March each year from natural-grown ancient tea trees and processed according to a centuries-old family tradition.
For many types of tea, the leaves are gently rolled during production. The rolling process breaks the leaf’s cell walls, allowing oxygen to come into contact with the leaf’s essential oils and enzymes.
Leaves can be rolled in various ways and form various shapes—ranging from needlelike to curls to pellets to pearls—each imparting specific flavor nuances. Rolling the leaves around the delicate bud protects it. While rolling can be mechanized, hand rolling is still preferred in China. Yunnan Ancient Tree White Tea is crafted using the leaves of centennial trees, adhering to the techniques of white tea production.
Whether you look at this as a science or an art, these techniques are crucial to the final product and have been honed through the ages to yield incredible teas.
When brewed, the rolled leaves unfurl to yield a medium–bodied, bright, flavorful and smooth infusion with sweet notes of molasses and fruit and deep, rich notes of cacao. These leaves reveal a harmonious sweetness that finds a gentle balance with floral notes of white wildflowers and fruity notes of juicy apricots ripened under the sun. The mouthfeel is smooth and velvety, while the tea body goes from a light, clear transparency to a deeper, darker gold. The taste is sweet, floral, and well-balanced, with no bitterness or astringency, even when strongly steeped. This tea can be steeped so many times, that it can easily last a person all day and into the next.
Brewing Guide: Use about 3-4 grams of tea leaves per cup of water. Let the water cool down to around 190-194°F. Steep the leaves in hot water for 2-3 minutes. Strain and serve.