hello world!

unique origin-sourced
old world teas

recent arrivals

2021 Raw Pu'er

verdant thickness from new and interesting terroirs

2021 Taiwanese Oolongs

choice April and May harvests from the island

Aged White Teas from Zhenghe County, Fujian

teas, medicines, & treasures in various styles

Mu Dan Wang "King Bai Mu Dan" Zhenghe White

fresh fujianese imperial bai cha

recent words

Dimensions of White Tea, an Introduction

You might have heard of White Tea: "one year tea, three years medicine, seven years treasure.” But what allows white tea to transform so remarkably — into medicine, and then treasure as they say — after just a few years?

Yiwu Part I: At a Glance

Not just a township, but a larger area and even a mindset, we look at why Yiwu occupies an inimitable cornerstone of the pu'erh experience. Series by Gus

Tea as Ritual

Tea scholar, educator, and Rivers & Lakes community guest writer Miles Cramer pens an essay providing a tasteful glance at tea's journey through time as a ritual communion.

riversandlakestea

the raw pu’er class of 2021 🎓sale is now live

the raw pu’er class of 2021 🎓sale is now live — all are 9% off + any two cakes will come with a chonky bag of Manzhuan mao cha. 5 terroirs are represented and a range of entertaining experiences for the imagination (and a chi buzz for the body) await. Psyched. #riversandlakestea

So here it is — our entire spring raw pu’er li

So here it is — our entire spring raw pu’er lineup for this year 🎩 Explore 5 distinct terroirs, 2 expert producers and a variance of production styles that pulls out the best in each tea. Right now find them 9% off. If you grab two or more cakes, we’ll include a bag of Manzhuan mao cha (pictured front and center) on us ❤️ Starting on left, going clockwise: 🍃 Banpo Village ancient trees (100 grams)
Dá É’s mother’s side has rights to old growth gardens on these acclaimed slopes. The most famous and defining terroir in Nannuoshan. 🍃 Stone Village ancient trees (200 grams)
Dá É’s home base gardens she personally tends to, inherited from her father’s side. These gardens face west (Banpo faces East), and these leaves were processed slightly less green than this year’s Banpo, giving it a fun and juicy texture along with its signature Nannuo punch. 🍃 Zhangjiawan Fire Garden (200 grams)
The Hé family sourced leaves from this remote ecology whose trees had been burned down to the ground from a fire and had the established roots and resiliency to grow back. Signature soft and expansive vibrancy; classy af. 🍃 Yibang Mansong (100 grams)
Historically acclaimed terroir outside of Yibang mountain. These relatively younger growth trees were harvested mid-March and processed relatively green, making an elegant, biscuity tea with excellent mouthfeel. 🍃 Manzhuan Mao Cha
Fragrant, powerful leaves hailing from old growth trees on the remote and coveted tea mountain of Manzhuan. Toss these long spindlies in a gaiwan or grandpa style glass for a fun, expressive brew full of chi. These teas capture our imagination and take it to the jungle. It’s our honor and privilege to share these teas with you while supporting these talented farmer/producers. We hope you’ll get a chance to partake. #riversandlakestea

Instagram post 18245222035033325

Instagram post 18245222035033325

When living trees are cut down to the ground, they

When living trees are cut down to the ground, they typically send up slender boughs that network above the trunk. In forestry this is called coppicing. Some permaculturalists will coppice willow for cordage, and other hardwoods for ideally sized firewood. For people in Yunnan coppicing a tea tree is a way to eventually reset an old growth tree to a more manageable harvesting height, while also utilizing the after growth’s newfound pliability for flexible harvesting once it grows up out of arms reach. This is called 藤条 téng tiáo — Rattan Tea or Wicker Tea — as the network of slender boughs emerging from an old growth stump resembles the weavings of a basket. Seen as a technique in parts of Yunnan like Mengku to produce more higher fragrance tea, Zhangjiawan is also known for its wicker tea growth. Yet in this example it’s because the old growth trees were burned down to the ground by events from a tumultuous recent history. Trees with strong enough root systems were able to survive the fires and are now producing incredible tea we proudly source through the Hé family of Yiwu. They call it 火烧茶园 Fire Garden Tea and we’re stoked to add this tea to our terroir focused lineup of sheng pu’er this year. And today it is 18% off. We hope you’ll get to enjoy this remarkable tea with us!

New tea on the site 🌔 2021 Zhangjiawan “Fire

New tea on the site 🌔 2021 Zhangjiawan “Fire Garden” — a remote northern Yiwu area village whose ancient arbors were at one time ravished by fire. Trees with strong enough root systems managed to survive and are now in a thriving ecology. Oh, and for today it’s 18% off. 🔥 #riversandlakestea #rawpuer #shengcha #terroir

New School Pu’er, part iii Last post we discuss

New School Pu’er, part iii Last post we discussed how recent trends in drinking sheng pu’er younger and unaged have began to influence how tea producers process their leaves, and how this could significantly impact the ageability of the new school of post-factory-blending; of niche farmer-producer-origin-terroir-focused teas. Some producers are experimenting by specifically catering to the newest palates on the scene, those that for various reasons have developed their love of pu’er by way of the intoxicating green cruciferous edge of unaged sheng pu’er. They’ve done this — either intentionally or unwittingly — by raising the temperature of the wok during the partial sha-qing phase, one of the most critical and defining steps of making pu’er tea. Compare this to green tea or oolong processing where sha-qing temperatures are generally higher and sustained for a longer time. This renders the immediate experience of the leaves as a bit more fragrant, nutty, textured, and robust, yet for an ephemeral window of time. A partial sha-qing with a lower temperature deactivates only some of the enzymes responsible for oxidation, leaving a portion of them alive. These enzymes are dried within the leaves and will slowly oxidize, transforming the tea and its user experience, potentially sending it on a multi-decade trajectory of complexifying, often with the addition of significant market valuation. Here for the sake of example, I’ve documented a vertical session with sample teas I received from two producers. One processed their leaves with a lower sha-qing wok temperature, the other with a higher temp. The differences are interesting. Neither of these teas are carried by Rivers & Lakes Tea. We should cite the market trends as the reason behind these differing techniques, and it should be noted that the tea on the left side is a tea from Yiwu. Teas in this area are by and large designed to cater towards a connoisseur market that ravenously covets this terroir for its ageability. CONTINUED IN COMMENTS 👇 #newschoolpuer #greenpuer #oolongpu #shengpu #gushu #普洱茶 #gongfucha #teatasting #teaeducation #chadao #teaceremony #teaknowledge #teastorage #agedpuerh

Thanks for all the positive feedback on New School

Thanks for all the positive feedback on New School Pu’er and the writings in general lately, y’all. Cooking up some pointers on leaf assessment in regards to greener processed pu’er — sharing soon. I hope you’re enjoying some good tea in your life right now ☁️

New School Pu’er, part ii Last post we discusse

New School Pu’er, part ii Last post we discussed the prospect that the new wave of origin-focused, small batch sheng pu of the last 10-15 years could lead us to some of best examples of aged pu’er that we’ve ever experienced. And that the values of the market at large have evolved, and with a bit of patience and stewardship of a collection, the long term benefits may be of an unprecedented and sensational caliber. But raw pu’er drinkers have began enjoying their teas younger and younger, finding and eventually craving a narcotic green hit from fresh big leaf Yunnan sheng pu — 青味 qīng wèi While drinking pu’er relatively young is common + traditional in the tea mountains, this trend in consumers is somewhat new and merits a look at how it has shaped production techniques. Interestingly, the modification of certain production techniques to support the trend towards young sheng consumption may be the very thing that threatens the tea’s ability to be aged well, or at all. The most critical & defining step in making pu’er is the partial kill green process, 杀青 shāqīng. Whereas enzymes within the leaf are completely deactivated by a high heat, thorough pan-frying in green tea + oolong production, pu’er tea is exposed to an abbreviated version of this step: lower heat and often a shorter amount of time exposed to the wok. As we know by tasting green tea and jade oolongs, a thorough kill green process achieved by high heat + sustained exposure renders the buds and leaves fragrant, vegetal, & deliciously nutty, yet will produce a tea whose shelf life is ephemeral. No enzymes there to oxidize the leaves and add layered complexity + sweetness in the years following, just an immediate fresh taste bound to fade. In efforts to appeal to new school drinkers that will drink unaged pu’er, some producers have increased the temperature of their shaqing woks, deactivating enzymes important to the aging process to add more immediate zest, not unlike green tea and oolong. Sometimes referred to green pu’er or even oolongpu, these teas and their sippers represent a new diversification in an already split arena of pu’er heads. Continued in comments 👇

New School Pu’er 🍃 As discussed in our previ

New School Pu’er 🍃 As discussed in our previous post, acquiring good pu’er — whether aged or unaged — starts with leaves from a clean and fecund ecology that a skilled producer renders into young raw pu’er. Here I’d like to discuss how these values play into the modern market. ☁️ The last two decades have put unprecedented attention and money into all aspects of the pu’er scene, from growing + harvesting, to production technique, to marketing, to aging. The economy and what the Chinese government will allow has also shifted, giving way to more small farmer-producers becoming intimately involved with all aspects of their teas rather than relegated to selling raw materials to state owned factories. Whereas the methodology in the factories’ heyday involved blending various regions and mountains’ tea together formulaicly, the recent transition to a smaller farmer-producer paradigm has granted us more nuanced insight and opportunity to tasting distinct terroirs and single origins. For a growing sect of the pu’er market, the emphasis has excitedly microscoped down to the level of the mountain, the village, the producer techniques, the garden, hell even to the level of specific individual trees (and yes expensive single tree pu’er is available as 单株 “dān zhū”) I was discussing this recently with @do_shrimps_go_to_heaven the prospect that this new school will give way to more variation and hopefully exceptional quality examples of aged pu’er as time progresses. That we may be on the precipice of discovering that our fascination with and procurement of niche, quality young sheng may graduate to surprising aged teas that we couldn’t have anticipated having only tried aged factory teas that have somehow survived years in a domestic market of voracious connoisseur appetites. However enticing & promising this seems, there’s one very interesting emerging trend that could completely remove all possibility of this prospect. Next post we’ll discuss. Continued in comments 👇 #riversandlakestea #普洱 #工夫茶 #puerh #puertea #yixing #chadao #teadrunk #cha#чай#茶#çay#gaiwan #laobanzhang #yiwu #nannuoshan #manzhuan #yibang #차 #shengcha #rawpuerh #gongfucha #laomane

Follow our adventures

© 2021 Rivers & Lakes Tea