2025 Gushu Lushuitang High Mountain Raw Puerh

This 2025 spring pick comes from Lushuitang / 绿水塘, a small and highly sought-after tea area in the Mengku region of Lincang, Yunnan.

Lushuitang is not a large production area, and that matters. Many famous puerh names become broad labels over time, but the most impressive Lushuitang teas are tied to a very small growing environment with clean mountain air, forest coverage, and limited ancient-tree material. This gives the tea its signature combination of fragrance, sweetness, depth, and wild mountain character.

This tea grows at around 2200m elevation, one of the highest elevations in the area. That high-mountain environment plays an important role in the tea’s quality. The cooler climate, stronger day-night temperature difference, and slower leaf growth help create a tea with greater clarity, fragrance, sweetness, and depth. You can taste the high-mountain quality clearly after drinking it: the tea feels clean, refreshing, airy, and deeply energizing, with a sweetness and cooling sensation that continue to open in the throat.

The proximity to Bingdao is also part of what makes Lushuitang so interesting. Many puerh drinkers like to compare Lushuitang to Bingdao Laozhai because both can show that elegant Lincang sweetness, cooling sensation, and clear high-mountain fragrance. But Lushuitang expresses those qualities in a slightly different way. It can feel like a smoother, more refined version of Bingdao: softer on the palate, lighter in body, and more airy in the finish, while still carrying the sweetness, clarity, and returning energy that make this region so famous.

As a spring harvest, this tea shows a more concentrated and structured side of Lushuitang. After winter dormancy, the leaves carry more stored nutrients, giving the tea a fuller body, stronger aroma, clearer sweetness, and better endurance across infusions.

This is also a Gushu / 古树 tea, meaning it comes from ancient tea trees older than typical Dashu / 大树 material. Compared to younger-tree or plantation material, Gushu tea usually brings greater depth, thicker texture, stronger returning sweetness, more layered bitterness, deeper throat feel, and better endurance across infusions.

In the cup, you’ll find a bright orchid-floral aroma layered with honey-like sweetness and a clean mountain freshness. The first impression is elegant and fragrant, followed by a gentle sweetness and salivation. The body is smooth and silky, with a refreshing clarity, lingering sweet herbal finish, and soft cooling sensation in the throat.

For Leo, one of the most beautiful things about this tea is that it reminds me of Taiwanese high mountain oolong, but carried in the body of a raw puerh. It has that same lifted, floral, misty mountain feeling: clean, elegant, fragrant, and airy. But instead of the creamy, rolled-leaf softness of oolong, Lushuitang brings the structure, returning sweetness, salivation, and slow-building energy of gushu sheng puerh. It is floral and graceful, but still has the depth and endurance that make raw puerh so compelling.

If you’re looking to experience a rare high-mountain Lincang gushu raw puer with orchid aroma, honey sweetness, strong huigan, clean energy, and a refreshing body, this Lushuitang delivers that character beautifully.

Brewing Recommendation (Gongfu Method):
Use 5g of tea in a 90–120ml teapot or gaiwan. Use near-boiling water around 205–207°F. Give the tea a quick rinse before brewing.

Start with a short first infusion of about 7–8 seconds, then steep for only 1–2 seconds for the following infusions. After the 6th infusion, gradually increase the steeping time.

You can expect 20-25+ infusions, with the tea continuing to evolve throughout the session.