Blue Sea Bingcha

Take a late afternoon stroll along the shore with this refreshing sheng pu-erh: the sweet-savory interplay of roasted nuts, jaggery and dried fruit—with a hint of salinity—evoke a beach side picnic. The initial light steeps quickly gain complexity as the leaves open, revealing a brisk mintiness and pleasing mouth-drying astringency. The plentiful golden tips in the densely packed cake indicate a careful spring plucking at its birth in 2004, in the Menghai region. Dry-stored since then in the U.S., it’s a well balanced example of this style of pu-erh aging conditions. Country: China Region: Yunnan Province Tasting Notes: dried peach, sugared pecan, shiitake Year of Production: 2004 250 grams -- 210º F 5 grams, 3 minute steep ⅓ full, 30 second steep