Bao Dao Shan Ripe Pu-erh Tea is made from naturally grown tea leaves harvested from Bao Dao Shan, a mountain located in Zhenkang County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province, China.
Due to thorough production management, this tea has none of the musty or earthy smells often found in low-quality ripe pu-erh teas, making it a tea that even those who dislike ripe pu-erh tea should try.
Enjoy the rich aftertaste and deep lingering flavor similar to high-quality raw pu-erh tea, along with a mild sweet fragrance.
High-quality ripe pu-erh tea is never musty.
Some people dislike ripe pu-erh tea because it smells like "old furniture," "rotten wood," or "mold." However, such musty smells indicate very poor-quality ripe pu-erh tea with issues in the fermentation process or raw material.
With good quality tea, you can feel a certain level of excitement when you drink it. At HOJO, we repeatedly taste test a substantial amount of tea to ensure we introduce good quality products.
About Ripe Pu-erh Tea >
We sourced ripe pu-erh tea made from Bao Dao Shan (Baotao Shan), a mountain located in the southwestern part of Zhenkang County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province. As you can see from the map below, it is very close to the Myanmar border.
Rugged Rocky Mountains Like Saw Teeth
Bao Dao Shan is a famous mountain known to everyone living in Zhenkang County, characterized by its extremely steep rocky appearance.
In any case, the steep appearance resembling a blade is a common feature. When I first saw Bao Dao Shan, I never thought that tea was produced on this mountain.
However, in reality, tea gardens are widely distributed, and many of them are naturally grown without fertilizer. The tea we sourced this time uses materials from naturally grown, pesticide-free tea gardens.
For more about naturally grown tea, please refer to "Golden Tea."
Rich Aftertaste Like High-Quality Raw Pu-erh Tea
Bao Dao Shan Ripe Pu-erh Tea is made from mao-cha harvested in 2016, compressed into a 357g cake.
As you can taste with this Bao Dao Shan, it features a rich aftertaste and soft drinking experience, similar to high-quality raw pu-erh tea.
By frequently stirring during the pile fermentation process, our producer promoted fermentation by aerobic bacteria, resulting in a sweet fragrance similar to dried jujube.
This tea has none of the earthy or musty smells often found in many ripe pu-erh teas in recent years, making it enjoyable even for those who generally dislike ripe pu-erh tea due to its mild sweet fragrance.
Focus on Sourcing Naturally Cultivated Tea
Since 2010, we have been visiting Yunnan Province every spring. Over the years, we have built connections with many famous tea regions. However, our focus is not on a region's fame, but rather on tea with transparency and a long-lasting aftertaste. To achieve this, we focus on remote mountain villages, selecting tea gardens with ancient tea tree, high altitudes, and no fertilizers, sourcing through unique logistics channels. For more details, please visit the following page.
In Yunnan, teas claiming to be from famous regions are produced in thousands of locations, using leaves from other areas, and can be found everywhere—from airports and convenience stores to supermarkets.
What complicates matters is the surprising phenomenon where imitation teas made from leaves in remote areas are of higher quality than the genuine articles. This is especially common with Pu-erh teas from Lincang, and it is a well-known fact among professionals involved in sourcing locally. For more details, please visit the following page.
In Yunnan Province, there are long-established brands like Dayi and Zhongcha. These brands are renowned because their teas produced before 1990 are highly valued.
So, why are these older teas considered special? Many people assume it's due to long aging, but in reality, the tea leaves used at that time were naturally grown without fertilizers, resulting in their superior quality.
Therefore, even if current teas are aged for a long time, they will not reach the same quality. For more information, please visit the following page.
