Yiwu (易武) is famous for its raw puerh, but the same large-leaf tea trees can also produce an incredibly distinctive white tea. This spring 2023 harvest was rested for a full year before being pressed into 200g cakes in April 2024, allowing the tea to settle while preserving the freshness and sweetness of the spring material.
Yiwu's mountainous environment—with high elevations, dense forests, frequent mist, abundant rainfall, rich mountain soils, and dramatic day-to-night temperature changes—creates a very different environment from the famous white-tea regions of Fujian.
The large-leaf tea trees found here also bring something special to the finished tea. Their leaves tend to be thicker, with substantial stems and richer internal material, producing a white tea with considerably more body and depth than the delicate style many people associate with Fujian white tea.
And yet, despite all that richness, this tea is incredibly soft, which is one of the qualities we love most about Yiwu raw puerh. Somehow it comes through beautifully in this white tea—even though this isn't puerh at all.
The aroma is sweet and fruity, with notes of poached stonefruit, subtle malt, and soft woodiness. The tea unfolds with remarkable complexity inside an incredibly full, oily, thick body, while the texture is almost impossibly soft—like a cloud filling your mouth. There's notes of poached white peach and raw honey sweetness, a subtle cacao-powder nuttiness and depth, a rich cacao-butter-like texture, and soft hay and straw notes that give the tea a grounding quality. A lingering sweetness reminiscent of white peach and wildflower remains in the mouth, but instead of becoming heavy, it feels soft, refined, and almost weightless.
It's the combination of richness and softness that makes it so compelling—thick and oily, yet refined; complex without being overwhelming; sweet without becoming heavy. Luxurious is the best word we can think of for this tea.
If you already love Yiwu puerh, this is a fascinating way to experience the same terroir through an entirely different processing style.
Gongfu Brewing
Use 5g per 100ml with 195–205°F (90–96°C) water.
Rinse the cake first, then steep the first infusion for 30–40 seconds to fully open the compressed leaves. Follow with 3–10 second infusions, gradually increasing the time as the leaves weaken.
After 8–10 infusions, boil the leaves in a glass pot with fresh water. Boiling extracts even more sweetness and body, revealing a deeper, richer side of the tea while remaining remarkably smooth and low in astringency.
Harvest: Spring 2023
Pressed: April 2024
Cake Size: 200g
Origin: Mahei, Yiwu, Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan, China
Notes: Poached White Peach, Raw Honey, Cacao Powder, Hay, Wildflower
