Wild puerh in Wenshan plantations

 Obviously, the first tea I brewed surrounded by these plantations was a Wenshan Baozhong.

For my second tea, I wanted something special to mark the occasion of enjoying tea outdoors in the Wenshan Baozhong area.

So, I chose my spring 2017 top wild, old arbor puerh. The rather loosely pressed cake is easy to flake. This helps to preserve the integrity of the beautiful buds that make up most of this cake.

The reason for this choice is that I wanted a tea with a maximum of energy, chaqi. And it should also feel young and fresh to connect with the leaves in front of me.

There's sweetness in the air and there's sweetness in this puerh (despite its young age). That comes from its quality and because the leaves have been well processed. They are not greenish, but rather yellow with red edges. And they are very thick.

There's sometimes a fear that if we drink a tea that is too good, we won't be able to enjoy simpler (and cheaper) teas in the future. This would render all our current stash worthless! And this risk is real! Most of us (readers of this blog) are not drinking tea bags anymore, not without a gun to our head or a piece of pie in the mouth!

But on the other hand, for this tea, this risk is similar to liking caviar (or Opus One) so much that it becomes your daily entrée! It's not going to happen for financial reasons (even if 6 USD for a session with this tea remains very affordable). 

The purpose of a very good tea is not to make you feel bad about teas of lesser quality. It's there to show you what good quality tastes like. It gives you more choice to match a special occasion. It also puts pressure on the brewer, because it's more difficult to blame the tea! It makes you aware of how much pleasure you can experience with tea. I just love the clean fizz feeling I get on my tongue with this tea!

And as I'm drinking the 10th brew or so of this puerh while writing this article, I'm struck with a new flavor in my cup: white chocolate!
Great teas never cease to amaze!