To the east of Yiwu, close to the border of Laos is one of Yiwu area's most famous villages - Guafengzhai. Guafengzhai has 5 main tea growing areas - Cha Ping, Bai Sha He, LengshuiHe, HeiShuiLiangZi and the most famous, Cha Wang Shu (translated as "King of the Tea Trees"). We pressed tea from this garden first in 2011, then again in 2013. It has long been a favourite for us, with good strength, silky smooth elegance, long aftertastes and good concentration.
Although in recent years, Guafengzhai farmers have planted some small trees in this area in the forest, this cake is made from pure, unblended ancient tree material. The price for such tea isn't cheap unfortunately, but we really wanted to press a high end cake and highlight why this area is so sought after. This has been many years in the making, with developing contacts, visiting farmers, turning down maocha year after year when it wasn't up to our standards. Finally this year, we got the tea that we've been waiting so long for. This is the best cake from Guafengzhai that we've made to this date.
