Pinglin Natural Farming Shui Xian "Snowy Nectar Dragon" Bug Bitten Oolong Tea - Winter 2021

Nature continues to surprise us this winter. Not only was the general yield of this winter extremely low, it also brought us exceptional teas like "Frost Earl" and "Monarch Nectar of Lily." Like the monarch, this is yet another bug bitten tea, and this time a Shui Xian varietal. 

As with our other "Dragon" series teas from this plantation, we again picked our raw material in Pinglin and then drove all the way down to our Beipu factory for processing. We had not expected any further harvesting after our Ice Dragon, but then were notified by Mr. Feng that a "winter rhythm" harvest would be taking place. Though it is unusual for us to make two successive harvests from the same plantation in one season. We eventually decided to make a bold decision to process it again to see what surprise we may encounter, and so the creation of this tea. 

Compared to the previous spring's "Water Dragon," which used the same raw material and processing style, this snowy beast proved much more difficult to tame. Since processing takes place directly after picking, we are accustomed to staying up late into the night processing the tea. This tea was a completely different story. Due to the wild nature of this varietal, kickstarting fermentation on this tea ended up taking over 24 hours, making for a sleepless and cold winter night as we patiently reined in on this magnificent, wild tea. 

This "Snowy Nectar Dragon" is in a league of its own which "Ice Dragon" could not match. If brewed perfectly, it will demonstrate the character of the highest quality Dancong you may find from China but with a Taiwanese soul. The potent yet tender character will carry that young ginger and milky red bean flavor to the whole drinking experience, so a quick brew is suggested for this tea in case of over steep. 

Harvest Season: Winter 2021 / 冬 貳零貳壹

Varietal: Shui Xiang / 水仙

Elevation: 400 M / 肆佰 公尺

Region: Pinglin / 坪林

Fermentation Level: 40% / 分之 肆拾

Roast Level: 1 / 壹 分

 Water is boiling!

This tea with its other dragon brother from the winter lineup took a while to awaken from their deep slumber of processing hibernation. Now brewing after almost a year there is such a joyous flavor and feel. This “nectar dragon” has lychee fruity flavors with a lot of body and complex characteristics. I used a chazhou clay pot and did quite quick steeps for a beautiful series of small cups of tea. Excellent.

 It was almost like a gamble to the team when we were deciding whether to get this material or not, and we glad we made the right decision. As one may see in the photo, This is a completely different tea from "Ice Dragon" despite harvested from the identical land not just because of its bug bitten character, but just the overall material "power" was way stronger than we originally anticipated. It took us nearly 40 hours to get this tea to its final stage which was only seen on wild arbor tea before. This is one of the most powerful teas we created this season, so don't overbrew it!