Gongfu Leaves in a Bowl Sidehandle Forest Path is a blend of maocha from the late 1990s sourced from trees in the greater Yiwu region. Most aged loose-leaf sheng are blends. This is why we often put the dates of such teas in quotes on our website. This is also the reason that such teas are so much cheaper than their cake cousins: they lack provenance and vintage. This tea has only ever had one owner who stored the tea from then until now. He is a good friend, and someone we trust, so this tea is a bit different from most loose-leaf aged sheng puerh teas, and allows us to pin a date on this tea we ordinarily cannot do, which can influence how we date and evaluate all other loose-leaf aged sheng as well. It is nigh impossible to store loose-leaf sheng in Taiwan or Hong Kong without it being what is called “wet storage.” (This is another reason why cakes are better.) There are two types of wet storage: natural storage in more humidity and “traditional Hong Kong storage,” which involves intentionally cellaring. Wet-stored puerh is a world in itself. Forest Path is damp and musty. This may not be to everyone’s taste (we love wet-stored teas). If it isn’t to your taste, do a longer rinse. Remember, the last thing in is the first thing out. Since this tea isn’t crazy old, it should lose some of the storage flavors as the session unfolds. Forest Path has a very specific direction and unfolds, steeping to steeping, in a progressive way. It is more like a quick walk through the woods, staying on the path, as opposed to getting lost. If you want to explore the energy of different teas we have an energy set with Forest Path and Forest Floor, as these teas are identical physically—from the same region, with the same processing and storage conditions—but they have completely different Qi (energy), so they are the perfect teas to use to learn about energy variations in tea.
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