Dan Zhu pu-erh tea is collected only from the single tea tree
For making regular pu-erh tea, the fresh tea leaf is collected from multiple numbers of tea trees. The tea garden in Yunnan does not consist of the homogeneous age of tea tree unlikely to tea gardens in Japan, India or Taiwan. It consists of various kinds of tree such as old tea tree, younger tea tree, some of them grown under the shade while other expose to direct sunshine, some of them grow faster while some grow slowly. As tea is collected from entire garden, the quality, flavor and taste are averaged out.
The Dan Zhu tea is different from regular raw pu-erh tea. It is exclusively made of the single and a selected tea bush. We collected tea only from the old tea tree aged about a few hundred years old. The yield from the big tree was as much as 5kg. No doubt, Dan Zhu pu-erh tea gives very distinctive taste and character.
Ye Fang Dan Zhu Pu-erh Tea
In early spring of this year, during our stay in Yunnan, we spent a lot time venturing from mountains to mountains of South West Yunnan (near Myanmar) to look for the tea bush that was grown without fertilizer and pesticide. These areas consist of many villages that altitude is as high as 1900-2200m. In particular, we looked for the tree left in the wild for a long time. In Chinese, it is called Ye Fang Dan Zhu Pu-erh (野放単株茶). Ye Fang means, “left in wild”. These Dan Zhu pu-erh teas give extraordinary long-lasting aftertaste. The finishing of the flavor is extremely long and the taste is very deep.
Every Dan Zhu Pu-erh tea has different genetic trait
In Yunnan, the old tea trees were all grown from seed. Following the Mendelian inheritance, each tea tree carries different genetic trait. For example, it has a distinctive character in terms of shape, color, size of leaf, flavor and taste. Some of the tea trees have undergone natural mutation and it gives an interesting flavor.
A well-trusted relationship made a good outcome
To produce the ideal quality of Dan Zhu Raw Pu-erh tea, there are three important things to look into:
1. Find the tea tree that age is old enough and grown under the ideal environment.
2. Find the owner who is willing to sell their fresh tealeaf to us.
3. Strictly manage the processing to ensure no cross-contamination between different teas.
The reason that we succeeded to obtain the ideal tea is that we worked with the tea manufacturer who is a skilled tea producer mastering both the process and production management.
In the past eight years, every year in early spring we consistently visiting Yunnan and staying there for a month. Through our years of tea expeditions, we are very clear about the ideal tea production area, and we have built a trust relationship with tea manufacturers after many years of collaboration. The harvesting date was carefully set after a continuous good weather. It required several farmers to pluck the fresh tealeaf and processed it in a day to make a specific batch of Dan Zhu Raw Pu-erh mao cha.
Usually Dan Zhu pu-erh is introduced in non-compressed form
We brought Dan Zhu tea in loose form. In China, Dan Zhu pu-erh tea was commonly sold in loose instead of a compressed tea cake. Since each batch of tea is collected from a single tea tree, the Chinese tea lover generally wishes to observe the consistency of the tea leaf and ensure that the characteristic is homogeneous.
Nevertheless, some of the batches which consist of larger quantity of tea leaf can be made into tea cake.
The tea leaves of Dan Zhu gives very identical characteristic in terms of the shape, the color and size. None of them are exactly the same.
The more quantity you order, more types of tea you will get
If you get 100g of Dan Zhu raw pu-erh tea, we will supply only one type of Dan Zhu raw pu-erh tea. However, if you get 200g of Dan Zhu raw pu-erh tea, we will supply two different types of Dan Zhu tea. Likewise, 600g consists of 6 different Dan Zhu teas, and 1000g consists of 10 different types of Dan Zhu Raw Pu-erh. So, if you purchase 1000g, you will be able to experience as many as 10 different Dan Zhu teas.
The combination of different tea trees is random. If you happen to order more than 1000g, some of the tea tree will be overlapping.