For you lovers of Gua Feng Zhai, we decided to share a few vintage cakes from our personal collection. This tea was made by our friends Shun Shi in the Spring of 2009 in the Cha Wang Shu "Tea King" grove of Gua Feng Zhai. True to it's namesake it's a big boisterous forest tea, you have to pay attention & play with the brewing parameters to get it under control. It's a unruly wild beast that needs to be tamed. The gaiwan lid offers an aroma of vege stew, wild herbs & pine needles, with the earthiness of forest floor and the dry smokiness of an old hearth, finishing on a high sweet note of cotton candy. The flavor is thick, bitter & astringent, mushroom predominates for the first few infusions, but settle it down, and some apricot character emerges. This tea is still a teenager, with characteristics of both young & old tea. The tea liquor is a dark orange amber, with a reddish hue that will deepen in coming years. The mouthfeel is thick, almost oily with a dry malty base that lingers at the back of tongue & throat like a fine tannin powder coating. The emptied cup carries a whiff of brown sugar. Notice the rising Chaqi that concentrates in your upper chest, warming & tightening. This tea is not for beginners but offers a fun challenge to afficionados who appreciate the wildness of GFZ, and a counterpoint to our more recent GFZ releases.

This pu'er cake was produced in the Spring of 2011 by the Rongshi tea factory in Mengku, from tea leaves grown in DaXueShan 大雪山, which translates as "Great Snow Mountain." Aged in Shanghai since release, the aroma is of smokey aged wood, musty old books, dried mushrooms & Chinese herbal medicines, finishing with forest floor, and sweet brown sugar. The tea brews a viscous, dark amber, which can be very thick and pulpy if oversteeped. The tea flavour is of aged camphor, mushroom soup, smoke, potsticker char with a syrupy nectar note that binds it throughout. There is very little bitterness or astringency, it's so easy & fun to drink. The aftertaste is slightly silty, there is some bitterness and smoke, but it turns sweet quickly. A sweet toffee note lingers in the empty cup, and in later steeps, sweet huigan appears at the back of your throat. It has some giddy chaqi to it too. Overall, very good price to performance and makes for an attractive gift with a large huangpian pressed into the top of each 500g cake.

This is a blend of the best from different villages in Manzhuan, and the resulting cake is the highlight of our 2017 tea sourcing trip in Yiwu. The maocha was really well processed and the dry leaves are very aromatic. Once infused, there is an aroma of sweet granary, with sticky rice. The flavor is still juicy fresh, light apricot with barley, a touch of grass, floral with a sweet high note. The mouthfeel is relatively thick for yiwu tea, the huigan appears quickly, and lingers at the back of throat. Top notch Manzhuan.