2024 Guafengzhai - Leng Shui He

 FatBat Private Pressing Gushu Raw Puerh

刮风寨 · 冷水河 古树

Leng Shui He (“Cold Water River”) is a micro-region located in the broader Guafengzhai growing area, where the tea groves directly cross the China-Laos border. The jungle here is deep, wild and impenetrable, with an overwhelming proportion of tall-pole variant tea trees.

For this production however, we picked fresh leaf from trees on the Laos side of the border. These groves are ecologically the same ones as those owned by Chinese farmers, with the same terroir and micro-climate (they are a single patch of jungle, only divided by the national border). They retain most of the characteristics that Chinese collectors pay big money for, but at a fraction of the price. To ensure top quality, we processed the fresh leaf under our full control, in our partners’ facilities on the Chinese side in Guafengzhai village.

Classic Guafengzhai character of floral nectar, tree sap, wet moss and gigantic fern, with a soft cottony sweetness coating the tongue, persistently. Leng Shui He is known for being the more intense of the GFZ-region teas, but this always manifests as a soft refined strength, a steel fist in a velvet glove. A distinctive minty, cooling sensation gathers in the back of the throat and the upper palate. 

TERROIR

The Leng Shui He tea groves are one of the most remote and difficult to reach of the famous Guafengzhai gardens. Hidden deep within the protected forest reserves, hours away from the village by motorbike, the terroir is steeply sloping. Due to its remoteness, the trees here have never been dwarfed or stunted and a sizable proportion are of the tall pole variety. Annual production is minuscule, controlled by several families, resulting in Chinese-picked material fetching astronomical prices within collector circles. The tea here is prized for its distinctive “wilderness” taste profile (not to be confused with wild tea tree species!) and extreme purity of Yiwu deep jungle character. 

TECHNICALS