Spring Lincang

This wild-grown raw Pu-erh from Xiao Hu Sai village presents a powerful and pure profile. Expect a thick, mouth-watering liquor with initial notes of astringency and bitterness that evolve into a ling. It leans thick, astringent and sweet.

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 2016 harvest.

Starts at $14.25 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.34/g. A 25g package gets you around 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $2.04 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.