2019 Yunnan Sourcing "Bang Dong Zi Cha" Purple Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

Bang Dong Village (邦东寨) is located in the county Mengku, Lincang prefecture. Bang Dong is a small village situated at an altitude of 1600 meters.  Our production is made entirely from the tea picked by three families from their small ancestral tea gardens. The tea trees have 80-200 years of age and are growing naturally.

This is entirely Bang Dong Zi Cha (Purple Tea).  The tea is not from cloned purple plants but rather is collected from the purple tinged leave and stem trees that grow alongside the non-purple tea trees in the same garden.  This area of Bang Dong is very sunny and high altitude with southern facing slopes and as such has a high incidence of naturally occurring purple mutations (around 15-20% of the trees in this area).  

The purple tea of Bang Dong is not quite the same as Yi Wu and Jinggu area purple teas that are more purple when fresh and darker black in color after processing into mao cha.  The Bang Dong area "zi cha" (lit. purple tea) has purple stems and some purple tinging on the leaves.  The taste is distinctive from the non-purple mutated trees growing in the same area (often side by side), with less bitterness, more sweetness, and a fruity character.  There is still bitterness like our 2019 Yunnan Sourcing "Na Han Village" Old Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake from the same area and harvest year, but overall it's less pronounced and sweeter.

A total of 40 kilograms in total was produced.  We pressed these tea cakes with a stone-press and used low-temperature drying to preserve the integrity of the tea.

Net Weight:  250 grams per cake (7 cakes per bamboo leaf tong)
Harvest time:  April 2019
Harvest Area:  Bang Dong village, Bang Dong county, Lincang Prefecture
Total Production amount:  40 kilograms

Wrapper Illustration by Patrik Benedičič

This tea has been tested in a certified laboratory for 191 pesticides, and is within the EU MRL limits set for those 191 pesticide residues. For a full list of the 191 pesticides we tested for and more information about MRL testing and the EU Food and Safety commission click on this link.