大绿印 Da Lü Yin 66

Da Lü Yin 66 means 'Big Green Seal' — Menghai-area material harvested in 1999, fermented and pressed in 2005 by Liu Da Cha Shan Tea Co., the historic Six Great Tea Mountains company of Xishuangbanna, in cooperation with Yunnan Tea Leaf Import & Export Company. This cake has spent over twenty years in dry storage. Long dry-storage transforms ripe pu-erh in a way that no amount of fresh fermentation can replicate: the earthy, mushroom-like notes of younger shu gradually give way to camphor, dried wood, dark dried fruit and a warming mineral depth. The liquor deepens in colour and the mouthfeel thickens. What was originally a solidly-made but straightforward factory shu has become something considerably more interesting. Liu Da Cha Shan is one of the oldest institutional names in Xishuangbanna tea — their involvement with the CNNP (China National Native Produce) system in the 1990s and 2000s makes this cake part of a documented production lineage. In the cup: camphor, aged wood, dark plum, and a clean sweet finish that lingers. No off-notes, no earthiness — only the clarity that decades of proper storage produce. Worldwide delivery.