B-Ball - 2023 Bada Shan Shu Dragon Ball
Conventional wisdom until recently was that the larger the shu puer factory, the better. The thinking was that the larger factories had a better handle on the safety measures needed to keep the fermentation process from going wrong.
As with everything in current Chinese tea culture the status quo could no longer hold. Over the last few years, some people who worked at these larger shu puer factories, armed with the know-how to safely make shu puer, have begun to set out on their own to try their hand at making smaller artisanal batches.
We met Mr. Huang, who had started making shu puer on his own a few years earlier, on our last full day in Yunnan back in April 2024. Using purple leaf da ye from Bada Shan, he made this shu puer in the modern Chinese style, a full ferment through 28 days, followed by a two month drying down period, resulting in an easy drinking, smooth tea for all levels of tea drinkers.
We bought the maocha and then had it pressed into 7g dragon balls (long zhu) in Menghai. Notes of baguette, pipe tobacco and autumn leaf pile.
Maker - Huang Shi Hu
Harvest Time - April 2023
Cultivar - Purple Leaf Da Ye
Location - Bada Shan, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province & Gou Gan, Myanmar
Pressed in Menghai September 2024
BREWING INSTRUCTIONS
- Gong Fu - This tea works great in both porcelain and semi porous vessels. Grandpa style works great with this too.
- Western - One wrapped ball per 12 to 16 oz serving. Using filtered or spring water at boiling. steep for 5 minutes. May be resteeped again by adding another 2-3 minutes to the steep time.