Immortality

Immortality is named after the peach in Heaven that grants eternal life, for it comes from Peach Village (桃子寨, Taozizhai), located deep within Manzhuan (蠻磚), one of the ancient tea mountains of Yunnan. This is an unfinished spring maocha (毛茶) from this year, leaf that has not been blended or pressed into cakes, offering a rare chance to taste a single garden just as it left the mountain.

The trees of Peach Village are special. Locals call them "tall-pole trees (高杆古樹)" because they had to fight for sunlight in a dense, primordial forest canopy. Never pruned or dwarfed by human hands, they grew straight up like poles, often reaching over ten meters, and harvesters must climb to dangerous heights to pick the leaves. Manzhuan teas are famously thick, deep, and heavy, but because Taozizhai tea grows completely wild amid rich forest biodiversity, it develops a profile all its own, with notes of deep forest moss and wildflowers.

This gorgeous tea is wonderful in the summer. You can drink it in a sidehandle, as leaves in a bowl, or even boiled. It is breathtaking and uplifting.