Highlights:
- Extra tall (gaogan, 15+ metres) ancient trees in state protected forest
- Maximum estimate tree age (average): 500 years.
- Extraordinary forest Qi (energy)
- Complex aromas (wild forest, wild fruit, berries)
- Powerful long-lasting aftertaste, salivating and sweet
- Savoury-sweet taste profile with really high flavour density
A deep forest tea that both Qi lovers and experts will love.
This is excellent tea with powerful aftertaste, what most expert drinkers search for to quench their thirst for a complete tea.
This is for you if at least one of the three is true:
- you value Qi very highly
- you value aftertaste and purity very highly
- you enjoy the forest energy and profile
Fine wine lovers will also find this tea extremely interesting (see reviews).
How old are these trees?
All tree ages are approximations, and one should always doubt when an age is given as a single number. There are no certain scientific methods to identify the age of a tea tree. The only possible way to tell how old (and healthy) a certain tree is is by drinking its leaves and comparing it to its neighbours: the older the tree is, the thicker the soup and the more comfortable the ChaQi and your body in general.
The consensus among the most reliable tea experts about the age of the oldest standard puerh varietal trees in Youle is over 600-700 years (some people say less or more than this too). However people, even experts, have very different opinions about what age of tree is in a specific area.
So there always is uncertainty in this topic and we won’t pretend otherwise, we simply say: If you or your favourite expert think there are 500+ years old in Youle, these are such trees. This is a genuine Big ancient tree and accordingly this is one the very best available trees available in the area. Best largely means oldest, but healthiest/biggest is also very important.
You can find more details about reference tree ages on the Benchmark ancient tree introduction under “Age of trees”.
Puerh.uk Benchmark Ancient Tree Series Introduction
- The best possible ancient tree tea that can be obtained in a given specific garden
- Our most significant contribution to making available a type of puerh that was not available before
- Super strict quality criteria (standard puerh varietal only, classic puerh areas only, 1st spring pick, extremely clean environment, ancient trees that have never been cut, healthiest and biggest trees only chosen for single trees production)
The best tea is not for sale, it’s available only through relationships. Tier 5 is about 0.01% of available Puerh, with ancient tree leaves only with all taste qualities present in overwhelming amount, tea that is basically only found in elite asian circles and via private connections.
Benchmark ancient tree Puerh is the top section of Tier 5, and particularly means: this is highest expression of ancient tree puerh from a specific garden, so it can be used as “benchmark” to tell whether other puerh is truly ancient tree or not.
Puerh of this quality has never been made before in history (only in the last 10 years), this is the most exciting frontier of tea at the moment as far as we’re concerned. Please see the full Benchmark ancient tree introduction page for more info.
30g ceramic jars (a bit more than 1oz) containing chunks of cake, 200g cakes.










Nick M. –
Cooper coloured soup, aromas of rock and white flowers, background note of vanilla bean. Powerful and complex, firm intense flavour goes deep into the throat, a charge of polyphenols keeping a lid on the expressiveness of this tea, for now. Well balanced nonetheless and impressive for its latent power, one for the future that has all the elements for a long life, and no doubt will develop considerable complexity with time as the elements resolve. Drink now for its knockout Qi.
Nick M. –
To give you a sense of the patience of this fabulous beast, the following day, and already into double digit steeps, the tea has opened out with pronounced apricot to the fore, and notable sweetness. It’s a very impressive young tea, with all the elements, and one I would love to revisit in half a few years’ time.