This is our second tea from Tả Củ Tỷ and the first one made at our new producer friend's factory.
 
Tả Củ Tỷ roughly translates to “Big Rice Field” and is a culturally diverse area in Lào Cai including people from the Dao, Mông, Tày, Nùng and Phù Lá ethnicities. The geography of this area is also varied with rocky mountain cliffs, large boulder gardens and fertile clay rich rice growing areas.
 
This tea was made in early September from a mixture of medium, older and ancient trees growing in a few different gardens around the area. One of the most interesting parts of this tea is the varied terroir inputs. Some of the raw material was collected from higher elevation rocky/ boulder field gardens and some from lower elevation more clay-rich soil gardens.
 
This tea brews up quickly into a clear green-golden soup. The flavor is punchy with vegetal mossy and deep forest floral notes. Bitterness and astringency are moderate with a quick floral sweet huigan that develops after the first cup.
 
I like brewing it at 90-100C for short and then longer steeps.
 
I believe this is a good candidate for aging as the raw material is good and its aggressive edge should round out nicely after a couple of years.
 
200g cakes ($0.18/gram)
 
Season: Autumn 2023
Picking Standard: 1 bud, 2-3 leaves
Region: Tả Củ Tỷ, Lào Cai
Elevation: 1000-1300m