TSNG068 - Hongtupo Gushu Shengcha 2025

Product detailed description

Fresh sheng puer from Hongtupo village (红土坡) at Mangzhi Tea Mountain (莽枝山). Hongtupo village is located approximately 25 km (aerial view) from Xiangming town (象明乡), an important transportation hub between Mangzhi (莽枝), Yibang (倚邦) and Manzhuan (蛮专) Ancient Tea Mountains in Mengla County (勐腊县). Tea was harvested and compressed in Spring 2025. The tea leaves come from ancient tea trees over 100 years old (gushu 古树) and were collected across Hongtupo tea gardens at the elevation between 1300-1500 m.a.s.l.

This tea was generously provided by Zhoujie and Mengmeng, tea producers living in Jiabu village (架布) at Yibang Tea Mountain (倚邦山) who source their teas from Six Ancient Tea Mountains (Guliudachashan 古六大茶山). During our work trip to Xishuangbanna at the beginning of 2025, we spent quite a lot of time travelling and exploring several tea gardens and tasting various teas from the Mengla area (勐腊).

Aroma:

• Wet + dry leaf (Shicha 湿茶 + Gancha 干茶) - light flowery scent with wood tones
• Cup aroma imprint (Guabeixiang 挂杯香) - noticable nutty and honey tones

Color:

• Initial phase (< 5 infusions) - transparent white-yellow shades
• Development phase (> 5 infusions) - brighter golden-white shades

Taste:

• Initial phase (< 5 infusions) - blooming flowers (white lilies, syringa) and stone fruit (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries) with tones of fresh cut wood and sugar powder
• Advanced phase (> 5 infusions) - marmelade (mix of red currant and black currant), herbs (plantain and lemon grass and fresh nuts (hazelnuts) with thick  flower nectar tones (black honey flower),

Body: 

• Thickness (Naipao 耐泡) - solid vitality, which will allow you to make more infusions compared to other teas in mature tea tree quality (qioamu 乔木)
• Texture (Chunhounongyu 醇厚浓郁) - smooth and very delicate layers (ideal for archivation and fully indulging the tea for several hours)
• Astringency (Se 涩) - little bit astringent in initial phase (typical for any new harvest), yet, in advanced phase marginal or almost fade away (typical for Mengla area)
• Character (Kutianjiaozhi 苦甜交织) - similarly like most of the teas from Mengla area, this tea has very mellow and gentle body, which gradually covers your mouth by amazing sweeteness. Yet, unlike other teas from Ancient tea Mountains, its distinctive orchid-honey taste, which has a signature character of the Mangzhi Tea Mountain
• Balance (Zonghe pinghengdu 综合平衡度) - differences between particular layers of flavours are gradual and symmetrical (i.e. no suprise changes in between the infusions)

Aftertaste:

• Sweetness (Huigan 回甘) - intense sweeteness within hours
• Mouthful feeling (Shengjin 生津) - intense mouth-water-feeling within hours
• Energy feeling (Nenglianggan 能量感) - suprisingly more relaxing feeling in the advanced phase (sort of relieve similar to sauna) rather than boosting your inner power (typical at fresh harvest of shengcha), which can last for several hours