This shu puerh is truly unique. It’s not often that you come across a shu made from wild material. For us, it’s the first time, even though we’ve seen quite a lot.

In 2022, the master decided to run an experiment, choosing raw material from wild tea bushes and trees (Camellia taliensis) aged 100-200 years for this tea. It was a combined harvest from several tea gardens in Qianjiazhai. Here, as in many other mountainous areas of Yunnan, local ethnic minorities traditionally transplant wild tea seedlings from the forest closer to their villages. They form tea gardens from them on convenient slopes, often intermingled with cultivated varieties.

Using wild raw material for Wo Dui (the accelerated fermentation process) is indeed an atypical decision. Normally, sheng maocha made from the cultivated variety Camellia sinensis var. assamica is used. This has been the classic approach since the 1970s, when shu puerh first appeared. Therefore, in this “wild” tea, behind the seemingly typical fermentation notes of shu, an entirely non-typical profile is hidden.

Usually, teas made from wild material age more slowly than those made from cultivated plants due to certain biochemical characteristics. This is especially noticeable during the storage of wild sheng puerh and white teas. The same applies to accelerated fermentation as well. In this case, it took 60 days of Wo Dui for the master to be satisfied with the result.