No, that's not a typo, this year’s Secret Forest Black is from Lào Cai province although technically only a few kilometers from the border of Lai Châu.
 
This year, our good friend in Lào Cai started making teas from some high mountain wild varietal trees. The area that these trees are growing in is part of the same mountain range (Hoàng Liên Sơn) as the area where the raw material for the Lai Châu Secret Forest Black teas have come from in prior years. The tea trees and raw material suggests that these are the same tea tree varietal as the ones in the wild tea tree areas in Lai Châu although we can’t be 100% sure without the proper research.
 
Producing this tea requires a long walk into the ancient tree gardens at over 2200m in elevation. Picking the leaves to make this tea is also an arduous task as some of the trees here grow over 20m tall!
 
The raw material used to make this tea comes from a non-Sinensis tea tree varietal that has leaves that can be red/ purple/ dark green in color.
 
This tea brews up into a viscous pale copper colored soup. The flavor is really complex. You'll notice a woody- tree root, sweet-slightly sour tamarind like flavor that starts building in the throat after a few cups. I like brewing this one with a lot of leaves at 90-100 degrees for long steeps.
 
Strong qi and lasting sweet tamarind-like effect in the mouth and throat that lasts well after the session has ended.
 
This year's tea was 100% sun-dried and will continue to improve with age as many sun-dried black teas do.
 
Season: Spring 2024
Picking Standard: 1 bud-2-3 leaves
Region: Bát Xát, Lào Cai
Elevation: 2200-2500m