Village Style Black Tea (Laoshan)

Flavor: This black tea reminds me of malted chocolate, figs, caramel, toasted grain, cherry, and hazelnut.

100 gram pouch (3.53 ounces)

The dried leaves are potent and robust, yet the tea liquor brews surprisingly golden-copper light in color with less red than other premium quality Chinese black teas.

Harvest: 2024. Laoshan village near Qingdao in Shandong, Yunnan, China

The Story Behind This Tea:

Village Style Black Tea is grown by the Liang family, who have a small family farm growing and processing Laoshan tea. 100% of the processing is done by themselves on their farm. Their tea is grown undercover of greenhouses which are fully covered in the winter to protect from frost. They leave the covers on the greenhouses during early spring as the leaves are starting to sprout. The coverings are removed during the middle part of the first flush growth stage so the tea bushes grow with maximum sunlight until plucking during the first week of April.

This delicious black tea is very small and “tippy”, without the white pekoe style hairs that typically give Chinese black teas their gold color. Village Style Black Tea is grown from Long Jing #43 and the dry leaf is small, spindly and has a brown-black shiny appearance. The tea liquor is more gold in color with much less red than a typical Chinese black tea. The taste of Village Style Black Tea is amazingly sweet with pronounced chocolate notes.

Village Style Black Tea is harvested from 1st and 2nd flush leaves during the first week of May, and then again in Autumn. The tea is picked, withered briefly, lightly pan roasted, rolled and then allowed to wilt under the sun in cloth bags for 2 to 3 days. The tea is then roasted in a hot air tumbler after the wilting is complete.

Tea from Laoshan is gaining popularity rapidly due to its unique characteristics gained as a result of being grown at a higher latitude than most other tea in China. The environmental conditions at that high latitude helps create a full and complex taste.

Brewing advice -

Water temperature: 200-208 degrees (just below boiling)

Number of infusions: 2 to 5 depending on your tea brewing skills. Each infusion creates a unique flavor profile.

This tea is shipped to you in it's own hermetically sealed, reusable zipper pouch.