Spring Ailao

This dark from Yunnan, China offers a distinctive drinking experience. This aged raw Pu-erh presents a robust and mature character, reflecting its origin from older tea trees. It offers a wonderfully rounded aged taste, with a comforting presence that hints at its carefu. It sits in the "Earthy" and "Woody" and "Smooth" flavor families, so expect a cup that leans earthy and woody and smooth.

Aim for water around 95–100 °C (203–212 °F). Western style: steep for 3–5 minutes in a mug or teapot. Gongfu style: use 5–7 g per 100 ml, 10–20 s steeps (10–20+ infusions) for multiple short steeps — this way you can taste how the flavor evolves. Give the leaves a quick rinse with boiling water before your first real steep — it wakes up the flavors and removes any storage dust.

This dark is grown in Yunnan, China. This particular batch comes from the Spring 2007 harvest.

Prices start at $17.25 through Yunnan Sourcing — that works out to about $0.46 per gram. A 25g package gives you roughly 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which puts each session at around $2.76. You can compare prices across all vendors carrying this tea on the Teadar product page.