Nannuo Sticky Rice Sheng

Grower: The Li Family

Crafter: The Li Family, Li Shu Lin

Origin: Nannuo Mountain in Yunnan Province, China

Cultivation: Natural, Ecological

Harvest Date: Spring 2015

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The intense mineral and herbaceous flavors of sheng puerh are accented with a sweet sticky rice fragrance. Tea leaves are handpicked from Mr. Li's ecological trees, then sun-dried and fired to make sheng puerh. This sheng puerh is then blended by hand with a local herb called nuo mi xiang, or "sticky rice fragrance", in the style of the local Dai Minority. This puerh is a "maocha", or loose-leaf version. It could later be pressed into the typical cakes and bricks, but this pressing is not necessary, and the tea is ready to drink on its own. The tea trees on Mr. Li's land have never had any added manures, pesticides, or soil additives of any kind, and thrive completely on their own in their natural environment. The local tea growers believe that this gives the tea a more genuine character. This sheng puerh is harvested from relatively young trees, less than 20 years old, which Mr. Li planted himself to add to the older trees on his land. Sticky Rice Fragrance puerh, or "nuo mi xiang", are produced in a number of forms throughout Yunnan, many of them in factory settings. Mr. Li's version is produced, like all his teas, in small batches. This allows him much more care and control over the final product. He began to produce sticky rice puerh to suit the tastes of the local Dai minority, from which the style originated.

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Recommended Brewing Instructions: Use 3tsp (~5g) of leaves per 4oz (120ml) of water. Rinse, then brew for 3 seconds, increasing the seconds with each steep, up to 8-10 steeps.

- 205-212F for a full extraction of the many layers of flavor.