FatBat Private Pressing Raw Puerh
南糯山 拔玛小高杆古树
A classic expression of forest-style Nannuo gushu, rustic root-vegetable sweet, yet richly layered. Common Nannuo teas abound but finding truly high-end, interesting ones require profound attention to sourcing. It's taken a few years for us to be satisfied enough to produce a premium Nannuo tea, but the wait was worthwhile.
This is a 100% pure gushu picking of selected trees known as "little tall pole", referring to their extended upward-reaching trunk structure. The naming indicates that although these are tall and strong gushu trees, they exclude the several tallest ones, which are typically reserved for exorbitant "single-tree" pickings.
At its peak between 2015 - 2020, Bama tall-pole material fetched increasingly higher prices but the moderation of market prices in 2025 has allowed us to produce a superb pressing of this material at more reasonable cost. We are very happy with the result, a tea that promises to develop beautifully with age in the years to come.
TASTING NOTES
Warm leaf gives off an aroma of roasted beets and lemon zest. The soup is full-bodied in texture, yet very delicate in flavor. Caramelized roasted carrots, drizzled with vanilla-spiked icing sugar. The qi is sneakily powerful, creeping up in gentle, energizing blanket. This is a tea that has power in reserve, elegant now but with good potential to exhibit great complexity after a year or two of age.
TERROIR
Bama is the premier village in Nannuo Shan, located at the highest elevation on the mountain. With Nannuo Shan's proximity to Xishuangbanna's capital city, the mountain has been developed as a major attraction for tea tourism, resulting in an increase in popularity of its tea and tourist foot traffic in the more accessible villages.
With this in mind, Bama remains our single preferred village in Nannuo Shan for top grade pickings. The remote location and high-elevation gardens mitigate the impact of tourist traffic and overproduction which sometimes affects other villages on this mountain.
The gushu groves of Bama village grow deep in the high-altitude primeval jungle and are considered "forest-type gushu" (森林体系古树), a growing environment rarely seen throughout the greater Menghai region, much less on Nannuo Shan itself. This results in a tea with a strong "deep forest" character, which is sought after among aficionados for its palate complexity and body feel.
TECHNICALS
| Growing Region |
Nannuo Shan |
| Micro Region / Tea Garden |
Bama (拔玛) |
| Picking Time |
First flush Spring, 7-8 April 2025 |
| Tree Grade |
Gushu "Little Tall Pole" Selected Picking (小高杆古树挑采) |
