'Top Tier' Competition Winning Baozhong 2023 Winter

Precise. Well executed. This tea represents what judges are looking for when grading Wenshan Baozhong at competition. Color is clear, concentrated jade-gold. Scent is snappy and fresh leading with a singular floral note and powdery marzipan like texture. Broth is light and viscous at the same time, easily coming together to form a concentrated brew. Pretty, bright, fragrant and focused with a clean finish.

So why do we call it 'Top Tier' Competition tea? This tea comes with a funny story. Strictly speaking, this batch of tea won third place at the Pinglin Wenshan Baozhong competition this year. However, because we know the farmer and the backstory, we know the same tea was entered twice and the other entry actually won first place! Same exact tea, same exact plot of land, farmer and day of harvest. But this one came back at the end of the competition in third place boxes, so the tea maker couldn't sell it for the high price tag of first place tea. This is where our luck comes in! When we tasted it, we were impressed by the clean, precise taste and were able to pick it up for a fraction of the cost of what it almost was.

So what exactly is this tea? We'll let you decide for yourself once you've tasted it. Along with our standard Competition Winning Baozhong (honorable mention winner) it would make for an informative tasting on how competition grading works. In any event, this is a great example of clean, fragrant Baozhong that would usually be prohibitively expensive. This is also a chance to taste what judges would consider 1st place winning tea without paying the price.

Facts

• Harvest Location : Pinglin, Taiwan
• Harvest Date : November, 2023
• Cultivar : Qing Xin
• Farming Method : Conventional