2021 Chen Xiang Bing Dao Sheng Pu'er Bing ( 陈香冰岛生普洱餅,Chén Xiāng Bīng Dǎo Shēng Pǔ'ěr Bǐng, "Mature Fragrance Ice Island Raw Pu'er Bing") In the summer of 2021, our Yunnan tea farmer Li Shulin lost his home and all his tea processing equipment when his house burned down. Lacking the ability to produce tea in Nannuo Mountain, his home, he traveled to the farms of various friends and relations around Xishuangbanna and beyond. There he produced small batches of autumn-harvested tea from his friends' farms, mostly sheng pu'er but also some shu. Some of these farms are located on famous tea mountains, some are more obscure, but collectively they represent a tour of Yunnan. In the winter of 2021 he pressed these limited production batches into 40 gram bings, which we are excited to be able to offer now after a year and a half of aging.
Bing Dao means "Ice Island" and is one of the most famous tea mountains in Mengku county, Lincang. The prefix "Chen Xiang" means "Mature Fragrance", and alludes to the fact that this tea tastes older than it is. This cake is the most "shengy" of the 6 sheng cakes, displaying a deeper and more concentrated profile than the others. This tea has excellent hui gan (returning sweetness), is distinctively darker than the other 5 in the series, and has a brothy, almost umami character.
