Bardo 2.5 - 2023 Sheng Puer Cake
The 2024 spring harvest season in Xishuangbanna was tough. It was the second year of spring drought and while 2023's limited rain resulted in some great tea, the stress on the plants this year proved to be too much. We spent five days there drinking through a number of maochas and everything we cupped had an intense bitterness, without the body, dynamics, rich structure and flavor that we had come to expect from gushu puer.
We left Yunnan empty handed and for the first time in a decade, couldn't find a tea worth pressing. Deflated, but still holding onto a sliver of hope, we spent the next few months periodically drinking these gut churning samples, in hopes they might improve with time. Still none of them ended up meeting our standards for what we had pressed in the past.
Ready to throw in the towel and declare this to be a lost year for pressing a Bardo sheng cake, we decided instead to make the proverbial lemonade and shift our focus from buying a new tea to buying maocha from last year. We knew that 2023 was a good year for quality and with a little luck we still might be able to find someone holding onto material worth the price. Thankfully a friend of ours in Jinghong had a tea that once we tried, we couldn't stop drinking. And thus Bardo 2.5 was born.
The Menghai Mengsong mountain region is probably most famous for its tea from Naka and Huang Zhu Liang, but Man Xi Liang is an area not to sleep on. Its trees are similar, consisting mostly of a middle leaf varietal, giving this tea a slightly softer quality than some of its more assertive Menghai counterparts, however, this tea won't back down without a fight. Although it starts sweet and gentle with notes of yam, marigold and vetiver, the bitterness and astringency begin to kick in within a few steeps and balance these flavors. As one would expect, hou du (thickness/body) and dynamics are present throughout.
Having drank through quite a bit of gushu puer over the years, it is always the subtle details that end up separating the good from the great. This tea captures that essence and is a worthy addition to any sheng puer lover's collection.
Farmer - Xiang Shuai.
Location - Man Xi Liang, Mengsong, Menghai, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province
Altitude - 5,900'
Harvest Time - Late March 2023. Pressed in Jinghong in September 2024.
BREWING INSTRUCTIONS
- Gong Fu - This tea works great in both porcelain and semi porous vessels. Since it is a cake, we recommend breaking off a piece and separating the leaf gently with your hands. Fill about a third of the vessel with dry leaf. Grandpa style is possible, but with the recommendation of less is more.
- Western - We strongly believe that this tea is best suited for Gong Fu style brewing. If you are not familiar, yet still interested in this tea, we suggest doing a little research on equipment needed and overall brew philosophy before jumping in.