Spring Ailao

This semi-aged raw Pu-erh from Wu Liang Mountain offers a wonderfully clean and mature profile. Expect a delightful orchid sweetness to emerge, complementing its characteristic aged depth and a balanc. It leans aged, sweet and floral.

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 from the Assamica cultivar. This batch is from the Spring 2006 harvest.

Starts at $9.00 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.24/g. A 25g package gets you around 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $1.44 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.