Lao Cha turned the little tuocha in his fingers before breaking off a piece.
His young disciple looked at the bird's nest shape. – “Why press tea like this?”
– “The shape matters. That deep, cavitied, hollow center gives the tea more room to breathe. Air moves through it more easily, and as the tea rests, the aroma has space to deepen.”
The disciple watched Lao Cha struggling to break off a piece. – “And why is it pressed so tightly?”
– “This is Xiaguan's signature compression. They press tightly. It stores well and loosens slowly. A tea like this is meant to keep unfolding through many infusions.”
This Xiaguan Tea Factory Ripe Pu-erh from GuShu material is crafted to commemorate a piece of pu-erh history: the long relationship between China and France built around tuocha tea.
Xiaguan Tea Factory invented the bowl-shaped tuocha (沱茶) in 1902 (then operating under the name Yong Chang Xiang (永昌祥)) and has remained the most decorated tuocha producer in China ever since. Their pressing technique is registered as intangible cultural heritage. The deep-bowl shape of the tea is no accident – it promotes airflow and gives the aroma room to develop as the tea ages.
This 100g pressing is Xiaguan's 2024 commemorative tuocha, released under their Gan Pu-erh Label (甘普洱 – “Sweet Pu-erh”) to mark the 60th anniversary of Sino-French diplomatic relations – established on January 27th of 1964, when France became the first major Western State to recognize the People's Republic of China. In 1975, Xiaguan developed a specific recipe for ripe Pu-erh tuocha called Xiao Fa Tuo (销法沱) – literally "the tuocha for selling to France". Regular exports to Paris began the following year, and Xiao Fa Tuo went on to win the World Food Gold Medal three times. French and Chinese tea drinkers came to share one particular taste-memory: the classic caramel aroma that this tuocha line has carried across continents.
The leaves come from the ancient tea forest of Dapingzhang (大平掌) on Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er. In 2023, UNESCO inscribed Jingmai's ancient tea forests as a World Heritage Site – the first ever UNESCO site dedicated to a tea cultural landscape, recognizing more than a thousand years of tea-forest coexistence, in which tea grows within the natural rainforest.
In the cup, the liquor pours deep mahogany-red and clean. The signature caramel and cherry aroma rises from the gaiwan, joined by warm wood. In the taste, there are baked apples and dark dried fruits with cherry on later infusions. The mouthfeel is thick and refreshing. The finish is lightly sweet and delivers a cooling sensation that marks a well-fermented Shou. Like a true GuShu Pu-erh, it opens up gradually, developing with every infusion. – A commemorative tea, and simply a very good shou tuocha.
Brewing guidelines:
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212℉ / 100℃
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1 g per 70-100 ml
3-5 min -
1 g per 20 ml5 sec + 5 sec for each subsequent infusion