We're excited to collaborate with all of you on this forthcoming P'u Ming release! This will be the third and final pressing for one of our and your favorite teas. (What we don't reserve in the coming days is promised to a family friend.)
And so, as the weather cools and we anticipate upcoming holiday gatherings and gifting, we are inviting you to join in this upcoming tea pressing. This is an opportunity to store away an ample supply of this precious tea to enjoy now and with the passing of time.
On offer are our one kilogram tongs (five cakes for the price of four), single-serving tokens in full and half kilo amounts, and, for the first time, loose material. (For collectors and purveyors interested in larger quantities for cellaring or for branding to your label, feel free to contact us for additional information and discounts.)
This promotion goes through October 5. We apologize for the short notice, as we were only just informed that the loose material is about to be sold out. Fulfillment is expected first week of November.
We've already set aside a small amount for pressing. Your support will go into supplementing this quantity so as to ensure future availability. And, while we can't imagine Dr. Su won't produce this tea again, there is nothing quite like the virtue imparted upon Pu'er tea with the passing of time.
Thank you for your support!
Brian & Yimu
From the original P'u Ming description:
When Yimu's father, indigenous herbalist and 'barefoot doctor' Su Wenxin, decided that for health reasons he should begin drinking more shoucha, it was natural he should craft it himself. Doctor Su understood that to impart complexity to a single-village tea he would have to source leaf from several different gardens and adapt his pan-frying technique to account for subsequent pile-fermentation. His understanding of pile-fermenting came from a long time friendship with Lancang Ancient Tea Factory's former fermentation master Li Meiying. It's not a coincidence that she is also responsible for overseeing the fermentation of our Xiangtu material, as she is respected throughout the region for her knowledge of Jingmai Mountain tea.
Pile fermentation took place in early 2022, followed by an adequate period of loose storage prior to pressing. We couldn't believe this tea tasted so good at such a young age and our first round of cakes sold out shortly after release. The second pressing benefited from the additional loose storage time.
Theasophie is a family-based tea agroforestry project, and we could not be more pleased to offer this latest shoucha production. During our travels and talks on tea, we often allude to the fact that, historically, upland tea cultivators never consumed Pu'er tea. So, for an indigenous herbalist from one of the oldest tea producing villages in the world to take on shoucha, an accelerated fermentation developed in the early-1970's, is a truly remarkable achievement.
