2021 Gua Feng Zhai Sheng Pu'er Bing (刮风寨生普洱餅, Guā Fēng Zhài Shēng Pǔ'ěr Bǐng, "Gua Feng Zhai 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. 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 Xishuangbanna. 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.
Gua Feng Zhai is located in the Yiwu mountain range in the southeast of Xishuangbanna, very close to the border with Laos. This cake is the "flashiest" of the 6 cakes, with a distinctive "butterscotch" note that we've rarely experienced in sheng pu'er. The mouthfeel is light, bright, and clear, with a refined and narrow flavor profile. One of the standouts of this 6-cake batch due to its uniqueness.
