Big Snow Mountain Green Pu Erh 2011 Vintage

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This younger brother of our 2010 Spring Harvest Pu Er tea cake hails from the Big Snow Mountain (Da Xue Shan 大雪山) in MengKu, Yunnan province. It stands near Mengku in the Shuangjiang area of Yunnan province in southwestern China. Like its younger brother, this 2011 green Pu Er has been taken straight from Yunan to London in Spring, 2011 and has been carefully vintaged since.

Shuangjiang means ‘double rivers’ and refers to the Rivers Lancangjiang and Xiaoheijiang which criss-cross each other down in the valley. The area is well known for its Pu Erh teas.

The Big Snow Mountain has long been known as the home of some very old tea trees, but it was only in 1997 that scientists, investigating the effect of that year’s drought on the region’s plant life, climbed the mountain and discovered one of the true wonders of the world: 2,000 acres of the most ancient, wild forest of tea trees, a perfectly preserved, dense concentration of trees averaging 2,500 years of age. Living fossils, witnesses to history, and most probably the very origins of the tea tree itself!

This Pu Erh tea cake is harvested from tea trees of at least 2000 years old and the maturity of the tea tree shows in the mellow, full bodied yet refreshing flavour of this tea. It is a pleasure to drink any time of the day.

Big Snow Mountain Pu Erh tea cake is a very special tea as it is unusual to have such a young green pu erh to taste so mellow. This is green pu erh definitely worth vintaging yourself; that is if you can resist drinking it!

• read tea adventure blog post: world’s oldest tea trees