Since 2019, tea master Lin Zhenwen has made between 10 to12 Dinosaur Eggs each year, depending on how much fresh tea he can forage from his grove of semi wild Golden Cassia Oolong trees in Southern Fujian. Every stage of the process that results in this remarkable heritage tea, from harvesting the leaves to shaping it, to bundling it in canvas cloth, is done skillfully by hand. Its craftsmanship showcases both the beauty of the 60 year old semi-wild trees it comes from, and the endangered practice of handcrafting oolongs in the Anxi region. Dinosaur Egg tea is so rare because it can only be made by the tea master Lin Zhenwen himself, and each step is extremely labour intensive. Aside from the skilful and repetitive rolling, kneading, pressing and rubbing done to gradually shape it into an egg, the charcoal roasting that finishes it is done in 6 rounds, each lasting over 20 hours. Roughly six pounds of fresh tea leaves will make one single one-pound Dinosaur Egg. The tradition of making this egg shaped oolong started in the Qing Dynasty, but the craft has nearly disappeared over the past 30 years, as a younger generation who grew up with tea machinery no longer knows how to knead tea by hand. This tea is crafted so that it could be aged for hundreds of years, but even in its youth its complexity is striking. Beneath its delicate mouthfeel is an immense depth of character. It is fruity and floral and, although its low notes haven't fully developed as they one day will, it delivers a powerful and saliva invoking "taste of the grove." Dinosaur Egg offers us a warm and gentle experience of time travel, incensed by the woody notes of Golden Cassia oolong. This 2024 harvest brews a crystal clear, champagne coloured liquor that tastes light, but leaves a lasting impression in both our minds and our mouths. This is an excellent tea for aging, that you will enjoy checking on periodically as it matures. The longer it is aged, the smoother, sweeter and more complex it will get. It is known to have a noticeable transformation in its character every 5 years.
