Yunnan Rose Dragon Ball Black Tea

This tea uses material from Yunnan old arbor trees combined with Phnom Penh rose, expertly rolled together into a large pearl shape. The type of rose used is a speciality among Yunnan’s edible foods: compared with other roses, Phnom Penh is generally smaller and lighter in taste, but the taste is noticeably sweeter, with a more delicate fragrance. Because of this, it is more than capable of covering the strong taste and occasional bitterness from the old tea tree leaves.

	Cup Method		Chinese Gongfu Method
	Teacup: 12oz / 355ml		Gaiwan: 3.8oz / 110ml
	194℉ / 90℃		194℉ / 90℃
	1 piece		1 piece
	Brewing time: 3 - 5 mins		8 steeps: rinse, 25s, 20s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 80s
			Rinse time is around 5 seconds

The fresh leaves for this tea come from the Jiu Tai Po tea garden in Pu’er City, at a peak elevation of just above 2000 meters. This tea garden is surrounded by a variety of other ecological tea plantations, such as the Taidi Cha (plantation tea) growing area, and old and ancient tea tree reservations. The latter two of these are located at a relatively higher elevation in Jiu Tai Po tea garden, thick with forests.

This garden is located at an altitude where no cars can pass nearby, so it must be accessed by climbing the mountain on foot; this means that the tea is growing in a natural environment here, without human intervention. Poultry manure is considered one of the best plant fertilizers up here, and it is used abundantly.

In recent years, Jiu Tai Po tea garden has begun to grow Taidi Cha, which comes from the Jinggu Dabai Cha varietal. The leaves from Daiba Cha are more expensive than those from older tea trees, so you don’t need to worry about buying a half-fake tea mixed with Taidi Cha and old tree leaves.

With more than thirty years of experience in making tea, Mr. Yang, as well as the other farmers of Huidi village, make their living by selling tea. Mr. Yang was the first to produce dragon ball black teas with fresh flowers, and when we asked him about this, he told us, “There is already a very special blend of pu-erh with rose and chrysanthemums, which is where I got the idea for doing the same thing with black teas.” After this, he started his experiments to do so, and eventually found that Dian Hong black tea is perfect for rolling into the larger dragon ball tea.

Following this success, he began to challenge himself in making other types of dragon ball teas, many of which include other kinds of flowers. Some of these include rose, chamomile, jasmine, and forget-me-not dragon ball black tea. This ancient tree dragon ball pu-erh tea is the result of one of his experiments using pure tea leaves, another of which is Moonlight Beauty dragon ball white tea.

Simao-Dian Hong

Pu’er City, formerly called Simao, is a prefecture-level city in the southern Yunnan province. The elevation here ranges between about 300 and 3400 meters above sea level, and the area has a vast range of ancient tea trees. This city was identified as the hometown of pu-erh tea, and is well-known as the ‘birthplace of tea’ in general, and the heartland for tea trees in the world. It has a rich variety of resources, which can generally be divided into three types: original wild ancient tea trees, and wild tree populations; transitive-type ancient trees; and cultivation-type ancient trees.

These trees grow in high altitudes among ancient forests, and all of the region’s natural ecosystems have been well-protected to ensure quality. According to the 2007 satellite survey results, these old tree resources cover more than 100mu in Pu’er City.

Kunming- Phnom Penh Rose

Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan province, also called the “Spring City” due to its weather. Its climate is one of the mildest in all of China, with an average temperature of about 15℃. With its near-perpetual spring-like weather, the ideal climate for plants and flowers is maintained here, also giving it the name of the “Flower City” due to it being covered with blossoms and lush vegetation basically year-round.

Our Jasmine Dragon Ball Black Tea is made from Yunnan large-leaf old tea trees between the ages of 50 and 300 years old; trees older than this are referred to as ancient tea trees.

Old trees have long roots piercing deep into the ground, and are mostly found in favorable mountain ecosystem conditions; this means that the damage caused by diseases and insects is reduced, and teas grown here are more likely to be regarded as natural teas due to the lack of pruning or manual management needed. This is why the output is lower than Taidi Cha.

These trees tend to have an exuberant metabolism, producing a large concentration of amino acids, protein, and tea polyphenols through a series of chemical reactions. Although tea from younger trees still has a mellow, fresh taste, they can have a weaker aftertaste than tea from these old trees.