Master's Collection
This is our fifth master series release - a curated offering of small portions of aged teas from a byegone era. Rare leaves, gathered over the years of travel and personal connections across China and Taiwan, usually just a few tins of each tea available in total. This is a unique chance to glimpse back in history, learn and appreciate tea in its beauty. We strongly advise to treat these teas as a tea experience, not as a mere drink - taking enough time and attention, making many steepings from the same leaves, using best available water (be it natural spring water collected by yourself, or good quality bottled / filtered water) and a small teapot in less than 200ml size to preserve the aroma, flavour and essence. Generally these teas are packed in amount for 2-3 special tea sessions.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 1988 ALI SHAN CLOUDGATE
A beautifully aged oolong from 1998 from Ali Shan, Taiwan obtained through a publisher in Taiwan. It has been stored airtight in dry conditions, allowing the tea to mature and develop and hasn't been reroasted. It is a true explosion of aroma, the flavour is roasty, woody, slightly cedar- and oak-like, with a deep introspective character.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 1970'S STRUCK BY GOD LIU BAO
1970's monastery grade Liu Bao originating from Suiyuan tea factory in Wuzhou, Guangxi. It was produced for the Sien Zen Temple, as noted on the original packaging. While the outer protective wrapper was replaced in the early 2000s - a common practice for aged teas - the fragile, near-disintegrate inner paper seal and the deep, aged character of the leaves support the tea's claimed vintage. Crafted using traditional fermentation and basket aging, the tea exhibits the classic hallmarks of true old Liu Bao:
* A rich, dark leaf structure with visible twigs and natural irregularities
* Presence of tea seed shells, pointing to old-style, hand-processed packing
* A deep, earthy aroma with camphor, betel nut, and antique wood notes when brewed
* Smooth, mellow flavour and astounding energy, refined by over four decades of meditation (by the tea :))
This is not a factory-numbered commodity batch, but rather a special-grade allocation produced for ceremonial temple use. True 1970's Liu Bao baskets are exceptionally rare, and even more so those with preserved contents and provenance. After steeping, please also boil the steeped leaves of this tea if possible, it is really worthwhile to do so.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 2000 YICHANG HAO SHENG PUERH
2000 Yichang Hao is a contemporary classic. The tea was made by Changtai tea group that started in 1998/99, just as we stepped into the "newborn" era of puerh described by the privatization of the puerh market, a greater focus on batch-based and single garden tea, an era of boutique style tea makers with greater interest in old and often abandoned tea gardens (as well as a greater appreciation of and processing shift towards young more green type of raw puerh consumed directly after production and not meant for long term storage). Changtai has produced many of the collector cakes of the current era and is highly esteemed among aficionados. We managed to procure a few of these cakes years back and been occasionally sharing them at some special tea events. It has become a very pricy tea over the years, with Poly Auction House in Hong Kong recently selling a batch of 84 cakes (30kg of tea) in original unopened wrapping for 50 000 eur.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 1970'S ANCIENT LIBRARY SHENG PUERH - An aged loose leaf 1970's sheng puerh - being a sheng or raw puerh, the fermentation process hasn't been sped up by piling methods that used for ripe puerh, that change the tea quickly but in absolute terms also break down the leaf lowering it's quality compared to raw puerh. This is why aged raw teas drive a much higher price on the market, they are deeper and more complex.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 1980'S DOWNPOUR SHOU PUERH - An aged loose leaf Gong Ting "Imperial Grade" ripe puerh from 1980's, composed solely of the smallest buds of the tea plant.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: LATE 1980'S BIG LEAF SHOU PUERH - A stunning aged loose leaf Da Ye "Big leaf" ripe puerh from late 1980's.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 1990's JIN GUA GONG SHOU PUERH - An aged Jin Gua Gong ripe tea from the 1990's. Jin Gua means "Golden Melon" and Gong translates to "Tribute", referring to a very high quality leaf grade that has been compressed into melon-like shape that have been associated with Qing dynasty tribute tea, tea meant for the imperial court.
MASTER'S COLLECTION: 1990'S WILD TREE SHENG PUERH - A beautiful aged loose leaf raw puerh from the 1990's, mixed leaves including stems.
The five teas above are from a private tea collector and tea teacher in Taiwan whose teas we have found to be just absolutely stunning. If I were to describe them, I would say that it's the kind of teas where everything is just right (as is with all of his teas), everything from the selection of raw materials, to processing and to the impeccable storage. As such old teas are becoming very scarce in time, many of the ones still left are often of lower leaf grade, processed unwell or stored in far from ideal conditions over the years, after all, historically puerh tea hasn't always been as valuable as it is today, so it is always so exciting to find very fine ones! His teas are of shocking vibrancy, opening beautifully from steeping to steeping. High quality old-growth material.
