We don't know when or if this item will be available.
“So I was looking for a place that sold decent quality Qimen given I had not tried this tea in any loose leaf form before. I am pleased with their Qimen. I stumbled across The Sweetest Dew as a...” Read full tasting note
Old trees, high elevation and wild cultivars come together to make this bright, flavorful, relaxing tea.
This tea is a Gong Mei. This means it’s a heirloom cultivar. The tree are more than 50 years old and stretch about two meters tall. Its from Zhe Rong, which at about 700m, gives you warm days but cool nights, ideal for tea.
The flavor like Egyptian Chamomile. There is a soft woodyness to it paired with a rich dark honey sweetness and a floral aroma.
Other Notes include chrysanthemum and Starbursts.
This is probably one of the most unique teas I have found.
Company description not available.
So I was looking for a place that sold decent quality Qimen given I had not tried this tea in any loose leaf form before. I am pleased with their Qimen. I stumbled across The Sweetest Dew as a result of my search, and decided to buy from them, partially because this white tea was also intriguing to me. I had seen this vendor in the past, but did not have an excuse to purchase from them until now.
Anyways, the term Gong Mei here is not used to denote a “third grade” tea, but rather an “heirloom cultivar” of tea. I was enticed by this description, so I got some and I am glad I did! It is certainly a different flavor compared to most other white teas I’ve tried, though in a way that is hard to describe. The tea also comes as long stems with multiple leaves per stem, which is the most unusual presentation of tea leaves I have seen.
I was unsure whether to trust this vendor on the story of the change in meaning of Gong Mei, but on further research his claim is valid. See below from Rivers & Lakes regarding one of their Gong Mei cakes:
“This tea is a true Gong Mei, which now has less to do with the plucking grade bud-to-leaf ratio and is defined by its propagation. Gong Mei can now be thought of as an heirloom varietal synonymous with the preexisting names 土茶 Tu Cha “landrace tea”, 群体种茶 Qunti Zhong Cha “thicket grown tea”, or 菜茶 Cai Cha “vegetable tea”. In short, any tea plant that has escaped cultivation and propagates itself through cross-pollination and natural seed dispersal (as opposed to asexual clonal cutting propagation) can now be recognized by as a Gong Mei. Especially in more matured garden ecologies, it is common for the garden to become feral, with new generations of mixed-cultivar plants escaping into the surrounding habitat. In this new age of reclaiming abandoned tea gardens and selling their tea as 荒野 huang ye Wild, this new categorization aims to simplify the semantics as well as make room for the plucking grade defined expressions of Bai Mu Dan and Shou Mei to be built out further.”
Flavors: Floral, Green Wood, Sugarcane, Sweet, Tropical Fruit
