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old world teas

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New Autumn Pu'er

verdant thickness from new and interesting terroirs
Drops January 1st 7:00 pm EST

2021 Rock Oolongs

expanded Wuyi yancha collection from the Yue family

Winter High Mountain Taiwanese Oolong

The Yung family's Long Feng Xia

King grade Bai Mu Dan

Zhenghe county Mu Dan Wang:
plucking grade one bud, one leaf

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?

Autumn Puerh, here for the New Year

Our most ambitious release to date, and a truly collaborative production on multiple fronts... though this stunt wasn't pulled off without some casualties. What lessons are to be learned?

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 winter time may not be the most inspiring, inn

The winter time may not be the most inspiring, inner-fire aflame kind of season, yet this is precisely why implementing tea and a tea practice in your life can be especially beneficial during this time From this environment of the quiet, the cold, and the still — once fully embraced and accepted — one can begin to emerge and cultivate poise, knowingness, finesse, a kind of complementary yang to this yin. And there is no better ally in this than intaking good tea prepared with skill. #riversandlakestea #gongfucha #winter #fiveelements #chadao #yixing #oolong #puerh #teamaster #teahouse #teainnature #innerfire #selfcultivation #meditation #teatime #camelliasinensis #teapractice

Low stock! 😮‍💨 Quite the reception for th

Low stock! 😮‍💨 Quite the reception for the autumn Ban Pen from y’all — this is surely one of the best shengs we’ve ever tasted, and it seems like the secret’s out. Look out for more tip top Banzhang village productions from Mr. Yang in the near future 🔥 #riversandlakestea #banpen #laobanzhang #rawpuerh #shengpu #gushu #gongfucha #chadao #camelliasinensis #banzhang #menghai #xishuangbanna #yunnan

Last call for 奇丹 Qídān Da Hong Pao at 10% of

Last call for 奇丹 Qídān Da Hong Pao at 10% off. All other oolongs (including winter Taiwanese gao shan cha) are also discounted — take us up on it until midnight EST. This was a good enough excuse to show off more photos from my trip to Wuyishan right? #riversandlakestea #wuyishan #rockoolong #yancha #wuyimountain #oolong #tea #camelliasinensis #gongfucha #chadao #teatime

Gus and @miles__cramer in the Da Hong Pao valley v

Gus and @miles__cramer in the Da Hong Pao valley visiting one of the DHP mother trees (top of the frame) in 2019. During our time there, we found ourselves questioning what is Da Hong Pao anyway? Someone in our group was told that any Wuyi rock tea could be called a Da Hong Pao. More discouraging was that one producer told us any tea made in the larger Wuyi area could advertise it was 正岩zhengyan ‘from the core’ — a delineation typically reserved for teas grown within the famous unesco heritage scenic park. Experiencing a rise in fame & economic interest, Da Hong Pao in recent years has nearly become synonymous with Wuyi rock oolongs in the minds of many Chinese tea drinkers. To broaden its appeal and capitalize on this fame (+ save money), tea producers and sellers have nearly divorced Da Hong Pao from its confines as merely a special varietal grown from a specific cultivar, expanding it to a kind of exemplary regional blend, usually of 水仙 Shui Xian and 肉桂 Rougui varietals. So even though Da Hong Pao is known as one of the 四大名丛 four great cultivars alongside Tie Luo Han, Shui Jin Gui, and Bai Ji Guan, it is now more commonly sold as a blend to connote the charm of the Wuyi mountains. But what about true Da Hong Pao? In the 1980s a project was undertaken to take cuttings from
the remaining original DHP motherbushes and encourage Wuyi farmers to propagate them. This variety has become known as 纯种大红袍 Chún zhǒng ‘Purebreed’ Da Hong Pao, or more commonly as 奇丹 Qídān. At the time, Yue Jun’s mother secured some Qidan bushes and transplanted them in the higher elevations near the peak of the mountain that overlooks their family’s gardens. This steep area, difficult to get to, is a wild-simulated area that they only go up to for spring harvesting. Now 40 years later, these Qidan Da Hong Pao teas of the Yue family offers us a taste of a more true Da Hong Pao experience without the hype, marketing, and hefty price tag of Zhengyan teas and their imitations. We just released this tea last night — find it and all of our other oolongs 10% for the rest of today. #dahongpao #riversandlakestea #bigredrobe #qidan #rougui #shuixian #wuyishan #wuyirocktea #yancha #岩茶

In the 1980s, Yue Jun’s mother climbed up the mo

In the 1980s, Yue Jun’s mother climbed up the mountain, high above their family gardens, to propagate purebred Big Red Robe she had obtained from one of the original Da Hong Pao motherbushes. This variety is known as 奇丹 Qídān and is about as close as you can get to a true Da Hong Pao experience from a cultivar standpoint. As you know from following us and our relations with the Yues, we covet this family for not only their skills as farmer-producers but for the ideal location of their gardens — pristine, mountainous, and close but just outside of the famous scenic park enough to not be outlandishly expensive. This best of both worlds aspect is what allows us to source this lush environment nearly feral grown Qidan Da Hong Pao without breaking the bank. Harvested back in May, medium charcoal roasted the following months, this tea — along with all of our other 2021 rock teas — have now rested for six months, an ideal time to allow the roast to settle into the leaves for optimal enjoyment. Just released on the Rivers & Lakes site, find this Qidan varietal as well as all of our other Oolongs 10% off for a brief 24 hours to commemorate its drop. Percentage automatically applied at checkout. Lovely @m.e.cotterman teapot used in these photos. #riversandlakestea #dahongpao #bigredrobe #qidan #yancha #rockoolong #wulongcha #岩茶 #纯种大红袍 #奇丹 #gongfucha #tea #chadao #rocktea #wuyishan #wuyimountains #teatime #teahouse #teaprocessing

Looking forward to getting snowed in with this sul

Looking forward to getting snowed in with this sultry beauty, as a blizzard is projected to hit our mountains in Western North Carolina tomorrow ❄️☕️🔥 Shou Pu’er tea is a tonic suitable for this time of year — the winter/yin/water element season. The constitution of this tea provides to us an opportunity to sync to the natural qualities around us as we ground down during these colder, slower times, eventually assisting in a more forthright and natural expansion during the coming spring/wood/yang times ahead. This tea — the 2018 Bada Ripe Pu'er — is a product of our earnest quest to find a top tier shou to fill the shoes of our now extinct Nannuo Yun ripe tea. Hailing from 曼迈 Mànmài village in 巴达山 Bada Mountain in western Xishuangbanna, mighty close to the Myanmar border, this tea was produced by Nán Hé, a Bulang ethnicity woman, from her family gardens, eventually with the help of her contacts to the Tianming tea factory in Meng Hai, who oversaw the wet-piling process. This is the only shou pu released during our recent Yunnan tea drop. We hope you get to try it! #riversandlakestea #shoupuerh #puerh #shupuerh #ripepuerh #heicha #gongfucha #chadao #tea #teatime #chinesemedicine #fiveelements #yintonic #tcm #taoistmedicine #waterelement #woodelement

Photos I snapped during our 2019 visit with Mr. Ya

Photos I snapped during our 2019 visit with Mr. Yang in Lao Banzhang. Having been in further discussion with him lately + y’all’s resounding reception of the 2021 Autumn Ban Pen Raw Pu'er has led to some developments whose springtime fruition will be very very exciting! Details forthcoming, yet still hush hush for now. Funds going into springtime will need to be strong, and as this limited autumn release approaches a nearly sell-out status, there is no better time to throw some support behind this project and secure some good leaves for your stash. Carry on,
Gus #riversandlakestea #laobanzhang #shengpuerh #puerh #gongfucha #chadao #gushu #bingdao #yunnan

Camellias are still blooming in the Wuyi Mountains

Camellias are still blooming in the Wuyi Mountains

Spotlight on Autumn Stone Village 💡 Our pu’e

Spotlight on Autumn Stone Village 💡 Our pu’er offerings from 石头寨 Shítouzhài “stone village” of southwest Nannuo mountain range are always from Dá É’s mature old growth trees, inherited from her father’s side. The sheng pu made from these trees has come to define good old growth tea for us, and the benchmark of quality to which we compare all other pu’er teas. Teas from this garden tend to be among our very favorite every season, and this production certainly makes that cut. 2021 Autumn Stone Village Raw Pu'er has what compels and mystifies the tea drinker about old growth sheng pu: it's not necessarily the surface flavors of the tea that one seeks to appreciate and playfully deconstruct; it's a deep, almost pheromonal essence that straddles the perception line between flavor, mouthfeel, and qi. All delivered with charming balance and character: invigorating as well as grounding + nourishing, soft as well as strong, punchy yet resilient… With this 100 gram presentation we wanted to offer the most economically approachable gushu experience on the market right now. Great tea doesn’t have to be expensive (read that again). There’s also a blank white wrapper version of this cake (last slide). Dá É had left over mao cha from this production and pressed it into cakes to store for herself, yet accidentally gave us some of these blankly wrapped cakes. It’s the same material, same production, same nei fei, same everything except its wrapper. Find these blank wrapper cakes at an even more economic rate by themselves, or we’ll toss one in your box for free when you buy all 3 cakes of our other releases:
2021 Autumn Ban Pen Raw Pu'er
2021 Autumn Pasha Raw Pu'er
2021 Nannuo Moonlight White + Tea Blossoms #riversandlakestea #stonevillage #nannuoshan #nannuomountain #gushu #autumnpuerh #chadao #bingcha #gongfucha #puerh #rawpuerh #rawpuer #shengcha #teatime #teahouse #tea #yunnan #xishuangbanna #menghai

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