Price range: $16.00 through $115.00
The core tea production arena in the Wuyi Mountains referred to as 正岩 zheng yan "true cliff" is regarded as the highest pedigree of terroir when it comes to Rock Oolong. In this area jagged, idyllic cliffs harbor tea gardens between them, feeding the soil a consistent runoff of a special cocktail of minerals, able to be experienced through a sought after dimension of texture, aroma, and flavor within its finished tea called 岩韵 yan yun "rock charm".
Over the last 25 years, the prestige, production skills, and prices associated with Wuyi Mountain teas have pushed limits, optimized, and at times ballooned into excess. With limited yields comes higher prices with gatekept access, as well as an incentive to leverage hype to boost average garden prices as well as to produce counterfeits. Considered a complex 水很深 connoisseur jianghu with hidden risks, to avoid getting taken advantage of buyers must be well-connected, have an ability to taste with skillful discretion, and be educated about market prices.
photo taken inside the park during the first Wuyi trip in 2019
Over the last seven years of traveling to, developing relationships in, and continually learning about and tasting rock oolong, I'm now confident in curating a lineup of high quality, genuine, true cliff Wuyi teas.
on offer is a full array of all 10 in one box as well as mini boxes containing sets of two session packets of one type of tea. Each packet contains 7 grams.
Let's dive into each of them individually:
All of these teas have had an optimal 1-2 years of resting after their last roasting, allowing for necessary 退火 "retreating fire"
this one is featured as the tea displaying qualities of both yanyun and congwei "thicket taste" in the box set Old Thicket 2.0
As a producer who likes to age his yancha, this is 17's favorite varietal to work with due to its ability to maintain its distinctive aroma-flavor characteristics in storage longer than others. A heritage cultivar with a history of over 100 years representing some of the earliest genetic lines of breeding in the Beiyuan tribute tea area, this cultivar likely was named after its smaller leaf, densely branched, lower to the ground, scrubbier growth pattern.
The heaviest roasted tea featured in our flagship Wuyi box, THEA BOHEA
The darkest, most roastiest yancha (with a nice ripened bit of age on it as well), this high fire Da Hong Pao is arguably the most rich and layered of the bunch. Pure Mrs. Trunchbull's cake. Also featured in the FIRE SET box.
If you're curious to learn more about the deep world of Rock Oolong, Tea With Neldon just released an amazing Yancha-pedia that's 100% worth checking out.
Meet the tea producers
Shengfa is a third generation tea maker, and produces some of the smoothest Rougui I've tried (I'm hard to please when it comes to Rougui). Coupled with material from legendary Dao Shui Keng, this man's DSK Rougui is an absolute treat.
Asong is one the most adept tea producers I have ever met. He married well: his wife's family is one of the 13 original Hui Yuan Keng families, and owns (and doesn't contract out) around 50亩 (over 8 acres) there.
Shiqi "17" is a charismatic and well-connected leader of a tea project that contracts for fresh leaves from highly sought micro terroirs in core Wuyi. Mostly from areas around Shui Lian Dong and Hui Yuan Keng, many of his teas are lao cong, feature a heavier roast, often semi-wild seed grown teas, and from tea gardens that are not pruned. His specifications are stringent.
having some laughs between filming takes in Dao Shui Keng
exploring forgotten Rougui gardens with Asong
Old bush Meizhan harvest
DHP High Fire was one of the best Oolongs I ever had. It's up there but it certainly is worth ever Price Per Gram. Too often folks use heavy roasting to mask not enhance the flavor and thats exactly what this one did. Getting more to have in case I need to be reminded what a good DHP is supposed to taste like.
I've deduced that the all-10 box set has 140 grams (2 packets of 7 grams x 10 different types).
But how many grams are in the individual offerings?
Pretty sure the set with all 10 has one 7g packet of each tea, and the "mini boxes" are the individual teas, with 2 packets of 7g each.
the mini boxes haves two session packets, 7 grams in each packet