The tea cultivar used for this tea, Camellia taliensis, is particularly special, as it is also associated with world-renowned and highly sought-after Pu Erh teas. Unlike the conventional tea plants most commonly cultivated around the world, this cultivar grows not as a shrub but as a tree, with some of these trees living for up to several thousand years. Camellia taliensis is native to the region spanning China, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, with its Chinese habitat located in Yunnan Province. Yunnan is closely associated with the earliest history of tea cultivation, which is why it is often referred to as the “cradle of tea”.
In Yunnan’s ancient tea forests, no two trees are alike. Each has its own individual growth and is home to different communities of mosses and fungi, giving every tree its own distinctive character. As the trees age, their roots penetrate ever deeper into the soil and underlying rock strata, where they can access a rich variety of minerals and trace elements. The buds and leaves of old, wild-growing tea trees are therefore particularly prized and highly sought after.
Every bud used for our Ya Bao is picked entirely by hand. Reaching the higher branches and crowns of these trees sometimes requires ladders to be placed against their trunks. The picking is traditionally carried out by members of Yunnan’s local ethnic communities, many of whom have worked with tea for generations.
The buds come from the precious first harvest of the year in March. Tea farmers decide from day to day when the first picking should begin, relying on the intuition gained through many years of experience. The faster temperatures rise, the earlier the first buds emerge. This tea was picked in mid-March and consists exclusively of buds from the year’s first harvest.
After picking, the buds are loosely spread out and carefully withered indoors in the shade for around three to four hours. They are then gently dried in the open air, avoiding direct sunlight. This slow drying process can take up to four days. Finally, any remaining leaves, grasses or other irregularities are meticulously removed by hand.
