Autumn Lincang

This powerful 2014 Autumn harvest raw Pu-erh offers an intense 'cha qi' experience. Expect a floral and pungent profile with notes of orchid, balanced by a moderating astringency and bitterness from i. It leans floral, pungent and intense.

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 Da Ye Zhong cultivar. This batch is from the Autumn 2014 harvest.

Starts at $17.25 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.45/g. A 25g package gets you around 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $2.70 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.