• handmade item

• materials: big-leaved arbor tea leaves from the mountain of Kunlu

• shape: cake

• dimension: diameter 18.5 cm / 7.28 in

• weight: 357 g / 12.59 oz

Handmade with tea leaves picked from Kunlu mountain in the spring of 2010, this sheng pu-er brews golden-yellow liquor; it gives a smooth mouthfeel and sweet aftertaste.

Kunlu Mountain is located within Ning’er Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture counties in Pu’er City. Kun means “valley,” and lu means “sparrow” in the Dai minority group’s language; together, Kunlu means a valley inhabited by sparrows. Kunlun Mountain sits at the end of the Wuliang mountain range, where the Lancang and Honghe Rivers divide. Kunlu Mountain’s altitude ranges between 1410 and 2271 meters and is considered one of the higher mountains within the Pu’er city region. A combination of early-cultivated and wild-grown trees forms the ancient tea tree forest, which covers 6.75 sq km on the mountain.

Kunlu Mountain once served as an imperial tea garden for the Qing emperors for over 200 years. After the successful bureaucratization of Cheli Xuanweisi in 1729, E’ertai (Ortai), the governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou-Guangxi tri-province, established a tribute tea factory in Ning’er village, Pu’er Fu (known nowadays as Xishuangbanna). Every year, the villagers send the best and most delicate tea buds harvested from Kunlu Mountain in early spring to this factory. The workers carefully pressed the processed tea buds into shapes or processed them into a paste. These products were carefully supervised by feudal officials and guarded by soldiers and were finally presented to the Qing emperors after a 6-month, 4100-km route done solely on horseback.