Big Magic Forest

Take a look at the girl on the wrapper — she is dressed in the traditional costume of the Jinuo ethnic group. It was this very people who harvested the tea leaves from our old garden on Da Long Shan Mountain in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, during the spring and autumn of 2021. We use no pesticides or chemical fertilizers; the plants grow in a completely natural environment. This triggers their own defence mechanisms, which in turn shape a distinctive flavour, aroma, and overall character in the tea.

The plantings in this garden date back to the 1960s, with additional hybrid varieties introduced later in the 1980s. The second half of the 20th century saw the establishment of the first large-scale tea factories in Yunnan. At that time, the gardens on Da Long Shan were the only source of terraced plantation tea leaves in the region, making them the primary supplier of raw material. This tea captures a pivotal moment in history — the rise and golden age of ripe pu erh production technology during the last two decades of the 1900s.

High-quality leaves, combined with the classic fermentation techniques honed over decades in Menghai, give birth to the benchmark taste of ripe pu erh tea. Listen closely to the warmed tea leaves — subtle notes of moss, wood, and wildflowers from the subtropical forest gently emerge, carrying us into the fairy-tale world depicted on the wrapper.

This is classic tea with a definitive taste. There is nothing superfluous about it; it possesses all the qualities that connoisseurs cherish in ripe pu erh tea: no dryness in the mouth, a clean bitterness that transforms into sweetness (known in Chinese as huigan), and a liquor that glides down the throat as smoothly as silk, leaving behind a lingering sweetness (shengjin). All of this testifies to the superior quality of the raw material and sufficient aging, which has shaped its unique and refined flavour.