Spring Lincang

A deeply aged raw Pu-erh from the Mengku Big Snow Mountain area, this tea offers a smooth, full-bodied experience with a lovely sweet and spicy character. The reddish liquor and brownish leaves attest. It leans smooth, sweet and spicy.

Water around 95–100 °C (203–212 °F). In a mug, steep 3–5 min. For gongfu, use 5–7 g per 100 ml, 10–20 s steeps (10–20+ rounds). You'll get to see how the flavor changes across multiple rounds. Rinse the leaves once with boiling water before your first real steep. It cleans off storage dust and gets the flavor going.

Grown in Yunnan, China. This batch is from the Spring 2004 harvest.

Starts at $13.25 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.38/g. A 25g package gets you around 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $2.28 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.