This lot comes from a small grower Amgalan has worked with through the Russian–Mongolian trade-route network for the better part of a decade. The bushes sit on a terraced shoulder above Huiyuan Valley in the northern Wuyi protected zone — around 620 metres of elevation, where the morning fog burns off late and the rock face below the plot holds heat into the evening.
The trees here are roughly fifty to seventy years old. Not the centuries-old lǎo cōng of legend, but old enough that the trunks have gone mossy and the leaves carry the woody character serious yancha drinkers chase. The grower harvests once, in early May, picking only the third and fourth leaf for proper yancha structure.
Processing follows the traditional Wuyi sequence — withering on bamboo, hand-rocking through the night to bruise the leaf edges, charcoal-fired in two passes with a three-week rest between roasts. Amgalan personally cupped this lot in August 2026 against three other Shui Xian micro-lots before selecting it.
His note from that session, paraphrased: the roast is medium-heavy but already integrated; the cōng wèi (old-bush character) is present without being theatrical; the throat-feel is the part worth sending out. He recommends drinking it through autumn 2026 and into 2027, though it will likely continue to settle for another year in a sealed tin.
We send a 5g sample so you can run it through a full gongfu session — eight to ten steeps if you pace it.
The leaf, brewed
Old wood, orchid, and a slow cool throat
dry leaf
Long twisted strips, near-black with cinnamon edges. Aroma of toasted grain and damp pine bark.
wet leaf
After rinse: warm orchid, struck flint, faint wet-stone moss. Leaves unfold thick and pliant.
liquor
Deep amber with a copper rim, oily surface, fully clear by the second pour.
aroma
Roasted orchid over old wood — cedar, honeyed tobacco, a thread of stewed apricot underneath.
taste
Thick, almost broth-like. Charred floral up front, then a mineral spine that turns sweet around steep four. Light bitterness only on long infusions.
finish
Long mentholated cool down the throat, returning sweetness of brown sugar and orchid after a slow minute.
Brewing
A method, not a recipe.
Method
gongfu
Ratio
5g / 100ml
Water temp
100°C
First infusion
8s after a quick rinse
Subsequent
8–10 steeps; add 3–5s each pour, push to 30s by steep seven
Use a small porcelain gaiwan or seasoned Yixing. Rinse twice if roast feels sharp — the second pour opens the orchid.
