White tea nectar from Yunnan - sweet and syrupy goodness with that unmistakeable spicy hum from old tree assamica trees.
Since 2020 we have been releasing one White tea cake per year made from the old tea trees growing in Nan Nuo forests. These trees are usually reserved for making top-tier PuErh.
The joy is making a White out of potent and terroir-heavy leaves to add spice and ancient energy to this easy-sipping tea type.
Flower Crane came first - made out of larger pickings with a darker processing to give a sugared black tea character. We followed up with Peony Chirps, with its greener spice and finer, buddier pickings. Both of these have sold out.
Feather Maiden is a mix of what we loved about its predecessors. We have taken the finer picking style of Peony Chirps to add herbaceous spice and a more punchy body sensation, but then tempered that character with a longer withering, to add more fruits and sweetness.
The result is an explosion on the nose of contrasting yet harmonious profiles. Imagine stumbling upon a traditional English tea house in a hot tropical countryside - sweet black tea, strawberry jam, clotted cream and rising dough mixed with the exotic oomph of saffron, bay and cassia.
There are fruits here too - heavy on the cherries, cooked down and jammy with a little fermented headiness.
Add in a syrupy texture and a cream candy sweetness to turn up the indulgence and again, contrast that with a walk through tropical forests - humid woods and mineral streams
White teas from Yunnan have always been good but these old-tree pressings are becoming the essential taste of Yunnan Whites rather than an imitation of the Fujian styles.
The more oxidised processing chimes perfectly with the assamica cultivars and rich Yunnan soil - rounding out and sweetening these potent leaves into a tea which shows off the character of this iconic province.
