• handmade item

• materials: big-leaved arbor tea leaves from the village of Mangnuo

• shape: cake

• dimension: diameter 13.5 cm / 5.31 in

• weight: 200 g / 7.05 oz

This is WYMM’s signature tea. It is a sheng pu-erh that brews bright golden with a rich and sweet flavour, and with the aroma of fresh-cut grass in the morning. For the initial 6 steeps, there is a pronounce bitter taste that lingers in back of the tongue with hints of astringency, which are slowly replaced with a bold honey aftertaste. The liquor is heady because of the ultra concentrated nutrients in this tea. Each serving of this tea can be steeped up to 20 times.

This single state tea is sold nowhere else; grown only in the ancient tea gardens around town of Mengku, located in Shuangjiang county of Yunnan province in China, these 200 to 300 year-old trees have distinct branch shape differentiating them from the rest of the tea trees in China. The name Tengtiao "Cane Tea" was coined by Zhan Yingpei, an acclaimed scholar specializing in Yunnan tea culture. The name implies that the shape of branches of this type of tea trees is similar to cane. These trees are shaped using a special technique that trims off all the excessive sub-branches and bigger leaves, leaving only two fresh tea buds per branch. Over many centuries of painstaking care by the local tribes, the branches have grown long and slender, similar to the shape of cane, hence the name. The technique for growing, trimming and picking the tea, concentrates all the tea nutrients within the two tea buds in every branch, creating fragrance unseen in most pu-erh. Local tribes only pick one tea bud from each branch at a time, leaving the other one to grow for next round’s harvest. The production of this tea is very low as a result of special trimming and picking methods – many more trees are needed to collect the same amount of buds. However the harvested tea buds are very neat and delicate, without any tough stalk or old leaves. Each of the sun-dried tea buds are covered with very dense fine hair that shimmers under the sun. The final product – Qizibing Cha is presentable and highly sought after for collection.