White Butterflies, Sweet, Exotic Aroma Ya Bao Buds 2024

ORIGIN & HARVEST TIME

China, Yunnan, Simao, 2024

CHARACTER

A very intensely fragrant, very rich, sweet and tasty tea. Its vanilla and spice brew becomes more and more perfumed with repeated infusions, with an almost infinite aroma. It is complex, with thousands of flavours and aromas, resinous, citrusy, sweet, floral and fruity, a true exotic. The long, lightly sandalwoody, green banana, refreshing finish is particularly enjoyable.

Wild harvested bud tea, a rare WHITE variety of “ya bao ye sheng”. It is a hand-picked, freshly opened branch shoot of the forest tea tree, which is air-dried. It has a perfumed fragrance, a special drinking experience and an unusual, exotic flavour. You can feel all the evaporation of the tropical forest, from the ground cover to the flowers and foliage. The familiar pear flavour is complemented by dense aromas of tomato and pineapple, and intense scents of rose and sandalwood. Infused a minimum of 15 times, it can be brewed for up to two days. It can be aged, but its unique aromas are best enjoyed fresh, up to a year old. Its lily-like spots are due to a pigment called anthocyanin, which is also found in berries and is a powerful antioxidant and an anti-inflammant.

Ya Bao is an increasingly popular type of tea, considered by many to be white tea and by many to be puer tea. It is actually a sun-dried bud tea from Yunnan, harvested mainly from wild trees in the mountain forests, and is only picked at certain times of the year, in early spring. There are crimson and silvery-white varieties from different subspecies, but they are similar in shape, tightly interlocked, iron-feeling buds that are already grown on the branches and woody parts of larger (older) tea trees. The best known, silver-white variety is Camellia sinensis var. Assamica subspecies, while the purple budded variety comes from a taller tree called Camellia taliensis. Its sweet, aromatic brew makes it one of the easiest teas to make and love.

BENEFITS

Sweet, Exotic, Inspiring, Floral, Easy to prepare, Easy to drink, Not sensitive, Happy tea

STRENGTH-CAFF: 2/10

DOSAGE & BREWING GUIDELINE

A) Traditional way in a gaiwan/clay teapot: 3-5 grams + 150 ml water. According to the Gongfucha, it can be boiled several times at 95°C, with 2 minutes infusions.

B) Modern brewing in a jug: 3-5 grams + 300-500 ml water.  It can be infused with 95 C° water 2-3 times after 2-3 minutes of brewing.