Ripened Zhang Xiang (Camphor Wood Scent) Pu-erh Mini Brick

We all know that puerh tea has many different fragrance types, such as the ripened puerh, the common ones are chen xiang, jujube aroma, ginseng aroma and zhang xiang. While this mini brick tea has the unique zhang xiang.

There are several hypotheses on the producing of zhang xiang. Some people believe that tea trees and camphor trees grow in the same area, and that the tea made here will have a camphor wood scent.It is also said that the main chemical component of zhang xiang is "linalool", which has a sweet and elegant taste. In various storage circumstances, the concentration of "linalool" steadily increases with raw tea aging, while other scent components in puerh tea diminish, and after a given length of aging, "linalool" holds a prominent position in the aroma components of the entire tea. At this point, aged puerh tea will have the "zhang xiang (camphor wood fragrance)".

	Cup Method		Chinese Gongfu Method
	Teacup: 12oz / 355ml		Gaiwan: 3.8oz / 110ml
	212℉ / 100℃		212℉ / 100℃
	1 piece tea		1 piece tea
	Brewing time: 5 - 8 mins		7 steeps: rinse, 60s, 50s, 50s, 50s, 60s, 100s, 150s
			Rinse time is 10 seconds

The region of Fengshan area in Yunnan is a prominent place with Arbor tea trees. There’re lots of old tea trees that are aged to a few hundred years and some are even up to a thousand years old or more. Fengshan, joint Xiaowan town to the East, Sanchahe to the South, Menyou and Desili to the west, and Dasi to the North, is a main area in Fengqing that cover more than 50 000 mu tea planting with mainly above 1900 meters altitude.

The old people and young children, who should enjoy comfortable life, but are still picking tea leaves among tea tree lush foliage or climbing on the tea trees laboriously. However, they are enjoy this kind of task and always with smile when picking tea leaves skilfully. Life with tea, picking tea, drinking tea are the most important parts in their life - impoverished but joviality.

Tea pickers is busy picking tea leaves under blue sky and white clouds.
Fresh and fat tea leaves stand straight on old trees under sun.
It is such harmonious and beautiful scenery.

An authentic Yunnan farmer, Mr. Zhou has been avidly contributing to the tea business for over 20 years. A short chat with Mr. Zhou revealed his passion and insistence of the traditional tea process. He values the quality inside tea and his experience came from spending most of his time on tea mountains. Mr. Zhou is passionate about bringing out the nature of tea to share with tea lovers around the world and claims that the best environment for growing perfect tea trees is in Fengqing.

This Ripe Pu-erh Cake is from the representative Pu-erh production area Fengqing which is located in the south of Dianxi Longitudinal Valley. Fengqing is a county locates in the northwest of Lincang, one of the four famous Pu-erh production areas (Xishuangbanna, Pu’er, Lincang and Baoshan), and is one of the first origin places of tea in the world. It is also famous for being the hometown of Yunnan black tea in Lincang. Fengqing has a long history of planting, producing and drinking tea and it contains a throng of mountains alternated with rivers.

The tea leaves used to make this Puerh cake tea Teavivre carefully selected are picked from 50 to 100 years old Large-leaf Arbor Tea Trees. The trees are naturally growth without any fertilizer and pesticides, only need manually loosen the oil and trim branches and leaves. The tea leaves are hand-picked and selected on April, 2008. It contains many golden buds which ensure the high quality of this puerh cake. The sexual propagation, arbour, super large-leaf means this big plant can reach over 6 meters tall. In 1984 the Fengqing large-leaf species was certified by the Chinese Government as national grade and was numbered as “Huacha NO. 13 (GsCT13)”. This species contains an abundant amount of tea polyphenol and catechin. The formation of these teas in the spring is 2.9% amino acid, 30.2% tea polyphenol, 3.2% caffeine and 13.4% catechin.

Pu'erh tea is one of the oldest types of tea in China, with a history stretching back over 1,700 years to the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the tea was called Jing Cha. Pu'erh is named after the town of Pu-erh in Yunnan province, which was the early trading center for this tea. In this teas early history it was used as a bartering currency in south west China. In south west China the famed Cha Ma Gu Dao - “Tea Horse Road” - was built especially to transport this tea through the Himalayas to other countries and areas in Tibet.