Heavy hitting PuErh! Rich and bustling with character, this exclusive tea is not messing around with a mad depth of flavour and a body sensation to send you places!
When you hear the words 'Ancient Tree Gua Feng Zhai PuErh' you may already feel a little flutter in your body (before even drinking the tea).
Nestling up against the border of Laos, Gua Feng Zhai is the most famed village in Yiwu - the region known as the Queen of PuErh. This village in Yiwu is singled out as one of the most characterful places on Earth to make PuErh with a rich Cha Qi.
Joy Rider is made from Spring pickings of ancient trees estimated at 150-200 years old growing in Gua Feng Zhai. This is madly sought and fought-over tea, representing the highest tier of PuErh out there.
We managed to sample the Maocha (raw tea) in 2022 and reserved as much as we could before it was snapped up the WeChat inner circle of teaheads in China. The plan was to craft a 200g cake to follow up on the hugely popular Tub Highness.
But then, in 2023, we began experimenting with Dai tribe bamboo roasting and commissioned a load of test roasts to be made from a wide variety of ripe and raw teas (which led to the glorious Hip Cuddler). In a preposterous and almost sacrilegious act of exuberance, we asked for some of this Gua Feng Zhai to be added to the test roasts.
The bamboo test roasts arrived in London and we began blind sampling. They were all good but one tea shined so high above the rest like a star above streetlights. I kind of knew what to expect next - when we unblinded the session this Gua Feng Zhai was that star.
So, decision time. Were we really going to take one of the World's most sought-after teas and stuff it into bamboo for roasting?! Yep and yep.
Joy Rider is a journey in taste, texture and Cha Qi.
The texture was already mega but the roast has amped up the thickness, with a soft and oily start which settles on the mouth and throat with a cooling, resinous, syrupy, spiced sweetness.
As for the aromatics and taste - well just flick your eyes over to the tasting notes on this page and you will see a wild ride of notes.
The predominance is a baked-in fruitiness with strawberry leathers and wood-fired roasted apricots. These dance with a bubbling pine resin and frankincense headiness as if the forest is your church.
Spicy dark chocolate, herbaceous charcuterie and zingy citrus defy logic to enter the mix seamlessly - how does this all work together? I have no idea but is a bold yet surprisingly elegant harmony.
There is next to no bitterness (tempered perfectly by the roast) and yet the tea still tastes powerful. So what about the body sensation?
Joy Rider has a potency which is hard to put your finger on. It shifts and moves on a whim and almost feels like it can be directed by the drinker.
It can be giddy, excitable and rising but also deep set and chilled. It is dizzyingly high but remarkably clear and lucid instantaneously. It seems to direct its power however you wish much like a Joy Ride in a luxury car - go slow and smooth or hit the accelerator and fly.
I never want the ride to end and I am hoarding this beauty.
A NOTE ABOUT THE PRICE
This tier of tea sells at high prices. Joy Rider is a genuine bargain (I know that it does not look that way at first glance) for this echelon of tea.
We are under-pricing the tea simply because we know that these PuErh's are often kept for ageing and we have no idea of the ageing potential now that it has been roasted. Should these age well then we will be radically increasing prices for future bamboo sheng PuErh.
ABOUT BAMBOO ROASTING
The tradition of roasting tea in aromatic bamboo dates back thousands of years.
The Dai and Bulang minority groups in Yunnan are especially known for this technique which first involves cutting fragrant, green bamboo and cutting it into sections. These are then stuffed with finished tea and roasted over fire which steams in bamboo fragrance and softens the leaves. The soft leaves are stuffed deeper into the bamboo and the sections are topped up with more leaves.
The roasting/steaming and stuffing process continues until the bamboo is filled and the bamboo has had adequate roasting. They are then sealed and left for a month or two to dry completely.
We do not know how this roasting will change the ageing potential of the tea but I suspect that it will continue to age albeit slower than if the tea was left raw.
