2021 Pretty Lady Shu Pu'er Bing (美女熟大餅, Měi Nǚ Shú Dà Bǐng, "Pretty Girl Shu Big Bing") - A smooth, earthy Nannuo Mountain small-pile shu pu'er from Nannuo Mountain that was pressed on June 10 2021. Li Shulin sent these to us unbidden, as he is wont to do. This is a small batch of small-pile fermented Shu Pu'er that was at the bing-pressing factory when his house burned down and all the rest of his vintage tea was destroyed. It is sourced from the Duoyi Patch, essentially making it a 2021 harvest of Vanilla Obscura.
It comes wrapped in the same wrapper as another 2021 tea he sent us in the past, 420 Sheng Pu'er. The wrapper features his daughter wearing traditional Akha clothes. The Akha are an ethnic group found throughout southwestern China and northern Southeast Asia. Many of the inhabitants of Nannuo Mountain including Li Shulin are part of the Akha ethnicity. They are very proud of their rich and ancient culture and wearing Akha traditional clothing is one of the ways they express that cultural pride.
On the invoice, this tea was called Měi Nǚ Tú Shù Chá, meaning "Pretty Lady Picture Number Tea". This was a typo, because when inputing Chinese using pinyin "shu" (meaning ripe/cooked as in "shu Pu'er" ) is typed the same as "shu" (meaning number).
