Spring Ailao

This young raw Pu-erh from Wu Liang mountains offers a pronounced orchid aroma and a strong, lubricated mouthfeel, providing a persistent warmth. It brews consistently across many infusions, a testame. It leans floral, full-bodied and developing.

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 Camellia sinensis var. assamica cultivar. This batch is from the Spring 2020 harvest.

Starts at $10.25 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.22/g. A 25g package gets you around 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $1.32 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.