Historic Hei Cha (fermented tea) taken to the most extreme quality levels and unlike any other ripe tea out there. Ridiculously sweet and rich with a tongue-boggling array of transportive tastes and captivating minerality. Plus a body sensation which will have you flying.
I have to control myself here because, while I am passionate about all of the teas that I select and can pen earnest love-letters to each of them, this Luxe Frontier gets me a bit giddy. So forgive the perhaps overly-effusive words that follow.
Oh how I love this tea! I love it for its unbridled funk, its uncompromising character, its transportive aromatics, its intensity of taste, its never-ending finish and its mad tea-drunkenness.
OK, now that's out of my system, here is a little more information about this Hei Cha.
Yaan in Sichuan has been making tea since the beginning of tea. Sichuan and Yunnan always compete over which areas really started tea cultivation. We won't dive into that argument but one thing is certain - Sichuan has been making Hei Cha way before Yunnan and Yaan claims to be the place where fermentation processing first matured to make a consistent type of Hei Cha.
So Yaan Zang Cha is probably the first type of Hei Cha ever produced at scale (yeah that makes me love this tea even more).
The majority of the Yaan Zang Cha produced was historically sent along the old tea trade routes up into the mountains of Tibet and, even in modern times, this tea is considered a 'Border Tea' mainly used for export to those high altitudes.
The tea would mostly be transported in brick form to Tibet where it would be used to to brew up strong and sustaining butter or milk tea to help with active lifestyles at high elevations.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with this type of rougher brick tea - it has many fans (including myself) for its rugged brews, powerful taste and great affordability. But, I have never chosen a Yaan Zang Cha for Mei Leaf because they have not wowed me enough - a bit too 'rustic' I guess.
So let's turn on the spotlights and introduce Luxe Frontier.
Take a good look at the dry leaves. Delicate buds and young leaves rather than the rough and large leaves of most Zang Cha. Instead of the matt texture of those bricks , this Luxe Frontier tea is hand-rolled until the leaves are glistening and oily. I have rarely seen a Yaan Zang Cha of such fine-quality.
But this tea is not just a looker. The aromatics and taste are delicious and transportive, whisking you around at dizzing speeds so fasten your seat belts!
You will be walking through huge libraries stuffed with leather bound books and laquered woods before being whisked away to a cold and damp farmyard with a campfire burning in the distance and animals bleating at your arrival.
But don't stop, because now you are in a wine cellar with the smell of fruit-soaked woods fermenting under the earth. Blink and you are in the open fields of China surrounded by fermenting soybeans in large clay pots.
Slow your breath and suddenly you pick up the warmth of chocolate and you are suddenly in a country kitchen with a babka baking in the oven and a stove laden with bubbling fruit preserves.
Step outside and there is a pine-wood sauna for you to relax with a stranger who breaks the tension by offering you a glass of a strong cherry liqueur.
I could go on and talk of river hikes, sweet shops with bags of wine gums and mountainside restaurants serving crusty bread dipped in fig vinegar.
But I will stop and summarise by saying that this tea takes me places.
The aftertaste of Luxe Frontier is ridiculous - long and sweet as though I have a little strawberry jam factory in my saliva glands. It is also cooling and fresh with a lively minerality dancing a sweeping tango on my tongue.
But BEWARE. With all of these heady sensory delights you may find yourself slurping this tea with gusto. Slow down because when the body sensation hits you it may take you over the edge.
Tea drunk, warm, rushy, airway opening and and slightly loopy. Luxe Frontier tea will certainly put a spring in your step and you will get stuff done but the springs are slightly over-srpung (and a little wonky) so expect a wild day of bouncing around with your love ones and colleagues giving you quizzical looks.
But hey, they don't know the travels that you have been on.
Tea of the year? No doubt at all that this is in the top 5.
