2017 Zhenghe Old Tree Aged White Tea Cake

This is a carefully aged white tea from Dongping Town, Zhenghe County, Fujian, a region known for producing robust and long-aging white teas. Made from Zhenghe Da Bai cultivar, this tea was harvested in spring 2016 from old tea trees grown at 400m elevation in an environment with over 85% forest coverage, contributing to its distinctive depth and resilience. The tea was hand-picked following a one bud and three leaves standard, ensuring a balance of young buds for sweetness and mature leaves for structure and complexity.

After careful natural aging, the tea was compressed into 357g cakes in April 2017 using the ideal level of compression for long-term storage and aging. The result is a tea that has continued to evolve in depth and richness, offering a flavor profile that has grown thicker, smoother, and more complex over time.

Now with over eight years of aging, this tea presents a rich and layered taste experience. The liquor is smooth, dense, and full-bodied, with an initial sweetness and velvety mouthfeel that deepens into notes of dried fruit, aged wood, and medicinal herbs. Hints of warm spice and a lingering honeyed aftertaste create a tea that is both soothing and invigorating. The characteristic Zhenghe high-mountain charm is evident, with a pronounced huigan (returning sweetness) and salivation effect that lingers long after each sip.

Highly resilient to multiple infusions, this tea is an excellent candidate for further aging and is a prized collector’s tea for white tea enthusiasts. With its carefully selected old-tree material, traditional processing, and exceptional aging potential, the 2017 Zhenghe Old Tree Aged White Tea Cake is a rare and limited-edition tea that embodies the best of Zhenghe’s white tea tradition.