"Dragon Pearls" Qing Long Zhu Raw Pu-erh, 2024
The young monk held a tightly rolled little ball pu-erh tea – "dragon pearl" – in his palm – Sifu, why dragon pearls? – The mountain is called Qinglong – "Green Dragon". And a dragon shares its pearls one afternoon at a time. • Place of Origin: Qinglong Mountain, Mangpan, Linxiang District, Lincang, Yunnan, China • Altitude: 1500m • Harvest Time: March - early April 2024 • Picking Standard: one bud and two leaves • Tea Tree: Yunnan Da Ye Zhong (云南大叶种) • Aroma: Orchids & Honey • Taste: Baked green apples and honey. Plums and orchid on later infusions. Long-lasting sweet and cooling finish Dragon pearls (龙珠 – Long Zhu) is pu-erh in single-session form: rather than a 357g cake or a 200g brick, the leaves are hand-rolled into compact pu-erh dragon balls of roughly 7g each – one Gong Fu session per pearl. This is the tea you reach for when you want to brew outdoors without packing a scale, or when you'd rather not chisel tea off a cake and try to get the perfect weight. – This weight is already perfect:) These dragon pearls are rolled from early spring 2024 leaves picked at the Qinglong Mountain Tea Garden (青龙山茶园) – an organic-certified garden in Mangpan, in the Linxiang District of Lincang, Yunnan. Lincang is one of the three classical pu-erh regions of Yunnan. The garden lies at around 1,500 meters, planted with trees of the native Yunnan large-leaf cultivar (云南大叶种), now around eighty years old – old enough for depth and structure to show in the cup. Leaves were picked at the one-bud-two-leaves standard and rolled by hand. Drop a pu-erh pearl into a heated gaiwan, and the cup fills with a rich, bright orchid aroma. With the first infusion, the cup carries baked green apple and honey, with a floral note. Later steepings shift toward green plum and orchid, sharper and brighter than the opening. A small bitterness rides the front of the palate but fades almost immediately into sweetness. Hui Gan (回甘 — "returning sweetness") follows fast, and a clear coolness opens in the throat – hallmarks of good Lincang material. One pearl, one session. Tuck a few into your backpack, and you are set for the trip. Brewing guidelines: 212℉ / 100℃ 1 g per 70-100 ml3-5 min 1 g per 20 ml Discard the first two flash steepings. Then, 10 sec + 5 sec for each subsequent infusion
14 pearls (~100g; $0.24 per gram), 7 pearls (~50g; $0.30 per gram), 4 pearls (~28g; $0.36 per gram)