This variety is a special old growth puer from Wangong mountain called Longju 金竹林 from producer YongXing. This tea is picked from a forest garden with 400 year old trees. Imported directly by me, who spent several days with the farmer tasting many teas from the YiWu region and visiting the gardens.
弯弓 Wāngōng is the major leagues of connoisseur tea. While the remote micro villages and territories of far east Xishuangbanna have come to symbolize the more primitive, fecund, unspoilt side of pu'er, among them Wangong stands as an elite trophy.
Formerly a prosperous trading hub and production core of the Mansa region, historic 弯弓大寨 Wangong village gradually succumbed to conflict, disease, and fire and has been left to be swallowed by the jungle. Old arbor plots, many of them multiple hundreds of years old, freckle the remote mountain sides, and those intrepid enough to motorbike, hike, and even bushwhack and creek-walk to some areas may or may not be rewarded with a Helen of Troy of tea.
