DUE TO HIGH DEMAND, THIS TEA IS SOLD OUT.
A young monk and the wise tea master Lao Cha was once sitting atop a Wuyi Mountain in Fujian province, slowly sipping Shou Mei White Tea and admiring the sunset. The entire time the monk kept talking, endlessly asking the master questions and telling him one meaningless story after another.
— Slow down. Listen to the tea. You will hear the mountains, the fog, the streams, the changing seasons… If you listen carefully and intently you can hear the microcosm of this area, you will be able to feel the space being filled with minerals. This tea is too precious to waste on trivial chatter. This tea is a journey.
This tea from the 2011 harvest only gets better with age, so it has been compressed into the cake form. This way of processing allows white tea to mature well. With time, the taste only becomes smoother and sweeter.
This Shou Mei comes from the original birthplace of white tea — Fujian Province. Zhenghe County in Northern Fujian is one of Fujian's two most important production areas for white tea. It is a mountainous area with abundant rainfall. Fog and mist always shroud the slopes in a thick white veil. The tea garden is situated in an old forest on the mountain ridge with fertile soil and lush tea trees. The mineral-rich soil and fog add lots of micronutrients to the tea plants.
Chinese compare white tea to a cherished treasure and drink every sip of it consciously and with great appreciation. Tea is only the beginning of the journey, and with age, it transforms into medicine. There is a famous saying for white tea in China: "Tea, in its first year, is still a tea. In its third year, it's a treasure, and in its seventh year - a medicine". Indeed, white tea has a rich history tied to its medicinal value. In fact, only a few decades ago, aged white tea was only sold as medicinal tea. At the end of the last century, the craze for "aged" tea started. It was then that the aged white tea acquired collectors' value and fully revealed its marketing potential.
Our "Nickel" Shou Mei Tea Mini-Cake is a high-mountain tea growing 800m above the sea. The ripe leaves form a smooth, lustrous ochre to cocoa brown cake surface, with strikes of white hair-covered buds showing here and there. Its delicate, sweet fragrance features a light "aged aroma" (Chen Xiang – 陈香). A full-bodied, mellow mouthfeel emerges as the clear soup gradually changes from light to deep yellow. The sweet taste hides notes of ripe fruits and honey. They melt in a sweet, satisfying finish, lingering on the throat and the palate.
The name of the Shou Mei tea comes from the shape of the loose tea leaves. They are said to resemble the long eyebrows of Shouxing, the god of longevity.
The convenient size of these mini tea cakes, together with their rich history and medicinal properties, makes this tea a great travel companion!
- Place of Origin: Deng Yuan, Zheng He County, Fujian, China
- Altitude: 800m
- Harvest Time: April 2011
- Pressed on: 2017
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Picking Standard: Three leaves
- Aroma: Delicate, sweet fragrance
- Taste: Mellow, full-bodied, sweet with a long-lasting finish
- Cultivar: Da Bai Hao
Brewing guidelines:
185℉ / 85℃ 
1g per 50ml 
3-5min
1g per 20ml 10sec + 5sec for each subsequent infusion