2022 Spring Farmer's Choice Baozhong

Story

Baozhong is brightly fragrant, open leaf oolong. Leaves are long, spindly and deep forest green. Although the floral, green profile is similar to high mountain oolong, Baozhong is more direct and straightforward.

This Baozhong is made by our longtime farmer friend Mr Chen in Pinglin. We have been working with him since 2005. He was born into a family of rice farmers, and he switched to tea when he was 17. He is a delightful, hard working and upbeat man. He has an experimental attitude about tea farming, and does every step of the processing in house, instead of outsourcing as is common practice now.

Farmer Chen processes this tea to give it a heavier body and more fruit notes. It is not made to win competitions; that would require delicate processing, floral notes and a jade colored broth like the Smooth Water Baozhong. 

Apparently the land on which this tea grows is hard to get to up on a hill, so Mr Chen the junior doesn't often go to feed the plants nutrients or spray pesticides. They said they only sprayed once this year. These plants are technically conventionally grown, but they are really not too far from growing without intervention. Shows in the broth, it feels very clean.

Description

Notes of pineapple and cooked zucchini fill out the sweet profile of this old fashioned Baozhong tea. Lots of young fruit in the fragrance, with a surprising little hint of flowers. Broth is well balanced and spreads over the tongue in a mouth filling way. Mr. Chen's Farmer's Choice is more brothy and just a tinge heavier bodied than its sister tea, Competition Style Baozhong. The brothy texture and down to earth taste make it a very comforting tea to drink.

An easygoing, happy oolong.

Facts

• Harvest Location : Pinglin, Taiwan
• Harvest Date : May, 2022
• Cultivar : Man Zhong
• Farming Method : Conventional (almost no pesticides used)