Highlights:
- 100% pure 1st spring pick ancient tree leaves
- Sweet, soft, refined Bingdao taste and aromas
- Rich taste and sweet aftertaste
- Very pure and elegant, low astringency
- Peaceful Qi
Buy this tea! If you care about puerh this is a tea to have at this price. It’s extremely rare to find a pure ancient tree BingDao with this standard (1st spring pick, oldest trees in the garden, classic varietal, no pesticide) at anywhere near this price.
We debated for a long time whether this should be a Benchmark or Gold Mark standard tea. In the end we chose Gold mark because there is indeed slightly better BingDao out there – the thing is it costs, literally, over 5 times as much for tea that’s better than this cake. And 1st spring pick is hardly available, generally all the Bingdao sold is just 2nd spring pick (more astringent, more caffeine, less Qi… just not as good).
With the typical Bingdao sugar sweet, mildly floral taste (full and rich in the mouth), complex aromas, sweet aftertaste, good patience and the peaceful “sinking” Qi to match, this is a great example of this terroir. The tea comes from our partner’s long-term rented land, and that’s why we can offer it at this very moderate price for what it is.
Terroir explanation
The very best tea is from BingDao LaoZhai (old village). It’s nearly impossible to get 100% 1st spring pick ancient tree and frankly there’s no value there, it requires having people watching the trees all the time, and the price is just too high (we could get it, but decide not to, it’s much more expensive than LaoBanZhang and FengHuangWo single tree which are at least as good teas).
After that, DiJie and NanPo are the better terroirs. BaWai and NuoWu are not nearly as good, they just happen to be near BingDao but the tea is really not that interesting (despite prices still being very high). These are the 5 BingDao villages (LaoZhai, DiJie, NanPo, BaWai, NuoWu).
Our tea comes from a small cluster of ancient trees located roughly between ShangBaka and DiJie (~3-4km from LaoZhai), altitude over 1700 meters. It’s slightly better quality than BaWai and NuoWu (and slightly below DiJie and NanPo). DiJie and NanPo 1st spring pick ancient tree tea is also really expensive (over 5 times this price). In fact you can’t even buy 2nd spring DiJie and NanPo at this price (costs still over twice as much as this tea), let alone LaoZhai 2nd spring which again comes at over 5x as much.
We are very excited to offer this tea, quality is outstanding and is a no-compromise benchmark standard: 100% 1st spring pick, oldest trees in the garden, standard varietal trees only, from clean and healthy trees.
We have only produced Lincang tea from massive single trees so far, this is the first time we offer an ancient tree cake from Lincang because the quality really warrants it: the tea is bright and with enough aftertaste and texture to be very engaging, which is extremely rare in Lincang.
Puerh.uk Gold Mark Tier 5 Series Introduction
- Pure ancient tree puerh from clean natural tea gardens
- The very best of what real tea masters make for themselves and their friends
- Exclusive pressings only obtainable with relationships (guanxi)
The best tea is not for sale, it’s available only through relationships. Tiny productions made by real puerh masters for themselves and their friends, originally in white paper or with minimal wrappers.
Tier 5 is about 0.01% of available Puerh, with pure ancient tree leaves and with all taste qualities present in overwhelming amount, tea that is basically only found in elite asian circles and via private connections.
For years now I’ve asked real lovers of Puerh to share with me their own not-for-public-sale productions. These tend to always be very very good, but so far only 3 teas, among the many I’ve had the honour to try, have made the cut for Gold Mark Tier 5 Series.
Years of relationships (and months of negotiation) went into obtaining small amounts of this tea. Because it’s not commercially available we’re able to offer it at a very friendly price for the very high quality (particularly to allow as many people as possible to try a real Tier 5 tea). The only catch: we can generally only get a few cakes, rarely few tongs.
200g cakes.
David Parrish (verified owner) –
This is my first Bingdao. I’ve tried ancient tree material (truly) from only Xishuangbanna ancient mountains (east and some west) until now, hence my anticipation. I will say that the description of this tea is spot-on. While I have no frame of reference for other Bingdao area shengs, this one tastes exactly as described. The closest comparison I have is to Yiwu, but lighter sugar notes, more subtle floral, and less depth. This is excellent tea leaf material, mostly intact leaves and some buds included. Low bitterness (almost none) from the get-go, and very little astringency. The taste has an oily mouthfeel indicative of high-quality ancient tree material, and the huigan, while not as long-lasting as some other teas i’ve tried, starts early (2nd infusion for me) and is persistent for multiple infusions. Cha qui is calming.
A very enjoyable tea even for those who don’t think they like sheng pu’er. It would be interesting to compare this tea with a more recent version, but I’m glad for the years of aging. By the way, I’ve received a number of samples from you, and they all show that you care deeply about what you sell, down to how the teas have been stored. Bravo! Thank you.
Nick M. –
Mild candyfloss aromas with appealing background hay notes, a deep yellow-orange soup that darkens with each steep. An immediate sense of purity, a bright mouthwatering ‘attack’ that really pops, and a thickly textured soup coats the mouth. After a touch of structural firmness early on, it sweetens up considerably with a fruity profile, enduring texture and long lasting flavour. A calming tea yet seems to add clarity to perceptions!
Tim P –
An instantly striking tea – rhubarb notes for me as early as the lid aroma of the first infusion, continuing through several more rounds. Very low bitterness throughout, sweet, and with classic “ice (bīng 冰) land” cooling character. Seamless, very pure and cleansing and with a nice relaxing qi to boot. I’ve only had the one session with it, so shouldn’t judge too soon, but this session, at least, was comparable to some of my favourite “benchmark” teas.