SPIRIT TREE | VIETNAMESE WILD WHITE TEA

Sweet nectar!   

In January 2022, a good friend of Lầu (see below), stumbled upon some tea flowers while hunting in the rainforest.  These flowers were at the base of a giant tree, easily identifiable as 'tea' if you're a squirrel... but very well camouflaged for people who walk in the forest.  In March, Lầu came back with climbing gear, and respectfully harvested a few leaves from this beautiful tree. 

Experience: Hazelnuts, spruce tips, subtle muscatel

Handcrafting:  sun drying

Origin:  Vi Xuyen, Ha Giang, Vietnam

GPS:  22.8°N 104.8°E

Harvest:  March 2022

Tree type:  wild

Tea Artisan:  Lầu TV  (pronounced 'Lo')

Lầu was born and raised in the highlands of Ha Giang.   Beyond the ancestral tea knowledge of the local Dao people, Lầu learned tea handcrafting skills from his uncle, who lived and worked both in Yunnan and Fujian.  Rooted in tradition but not bound by it, Lầu strives to create tea that will fascinate the drinker. 

One of those old tea trees.

No fancy equipment, simply delicious 'mountain' tea.

The next generation:  she who enjoys delicious tea, made at home.

Brewing Suggestions:  pour 110ml of water at 90°C on 5g of tea leaves; steep for 30".  After about 10 steeps, you may boil the leaves in 200ml of water to extract one more, delicious brew.

As much as hot tea can be nice, in the summer months we found this tea to be even better as a cold brew. Using 10g of tea for 1L of cool water, we will typically leave cold brews for 1-2 days, but happy accidents happen, and we found 5 days made this tea pop with flavour.