What makes this one different Head-pick, first flushThe first leaves off the bush in early April, before Qingming. The same tender spring pick most people only make into green tea, taken all the way to black. 1,100m at Wildbrook VillageOur Flowit Garden sits at 1,100m. Most Enshi gardens are 600 to 900m, so we are well above them. Colder nights, slower growth, more flavor packed into each leaf. 50-year seed-grown bushesThe local Taizi heirloom cultivar, grown from seed since around 1975, not clonal cuttings. Deeper roots, older plants, more of the mountain in the cup. Fully oxidized by handWithered, rolled, fully oxidized, and dried by hand. The spring leaf turns honey-sweet and fruit-forward instead of fresh and green. Selenium-rich soilEnshi is one of the few places on earth where tea carries natural selenium from the ground it grows in. About 100 kilograms a yearOne small garden yields roughly 200 jin (100kg) of this tea a season. When it sells out, it is gone until next spring. "Lichuan Black feels like a summer orchard near dusk. Honey in the air, ripe fruit opening up, and that quiet part of the evening when the heat finally starts letting go." First you get honey in the air. Bright and warm. Then the whole thing starts opening up. Rose. Ripe nectarine. Apricot. Lychee. The fruit has that full, late-summer sweetness, but there's still some lift to it. Give it another moment and something cooler shows up. A touch of mint from dew that hasn't dried yet. Damp wood. This isn't a loud summer tea. It's softer than that. Still full of life, just slower. Flavor profile Sweetness 90% Floral 80% Roasty 80% Fruity 80% Sweet potato 80% What happens in the cup First steep Warm entry. Honey, sweet potato, a little caramel. Then fruit arrives: apricot and lychee, ripe and full. Rose rises through the middle, and the finish settles into damp wood, dark chocolate, and just a touch of mint. Second steep Darker in tone. Chocolate moves forward, honey pulls back. Rose and the lychee-apricot notes stay, but damp wood gets heavier. Less plush than the first steep. More shape to it. Third steep Sweetness shifts to rock sugar. The minty coolness and damp wood stand out more, while lychee and apricot move to the background. Lighter body, slight chocolate bitterness, but that clean rock-sugar sweetness stays at the end. Who grows this tea I'm June. This tea comes from our Flowit Garden, high above Wildbrook Village in Enshi, from the same seed-grown trees that give our green tea, and from the women in our village who pick it leaf by leaf every spring. We grow the way small tea families here always have. By hand, by season, on rainfall, no shortcuts. When you buy this, you are buying it from the person who grew it, not from a chain of traders who never saw the mountain. That is the whole point of what we do. Finished by my senior in the craft · 30+ years The leaf is finished by my senior, trained under the same master I studied with, and recognized as one of Enshi's leading handcraft makers, a prefecture-level inheritor of the craft. For this black tea he takes the same first-flush leaf through withering, rolling, a full oxidation, and a slow dry, coaxing out honey and ripe fruit instead of the fresh green. Handwork the whole way. Perfect moments for this tea 🍰 Afternoon tea with something sweet It already carries honey, caramel, and ripe fruit, so with cake or cookies, the flavors stack instead of fighting. That darker chocolate note helps hold the whole pairing together. ☀️ Mid-afternoon, instead of coffee The ripe fruit and that small minty lift bring you back gently. Not a hard jolt. More like clearing the fog a bit so you can keep going without feeling pushed. 🌆 Late afternoon, slowing down Rose opening slowly. Damp wood underneath. A little dark chocolate weight. Then returning sweetness and that clean mouthwatering finish. Good for sitting still and doing absolutely nothing for a while. How to brew 4g Leaf per 100ml 90°C Water 194°F 8s Steep first infusion 5–7× Resteep +5s each round Add about 5 seconds with each later steep. The flavor will gradually move from honey sweetness toward a thicker chocolate profile. Keep the first steep quick for the lychee-honey opening. For a smoother body, push the water slightly higher, around 92–95°C. Organic, and independently tested This tea is organic, grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, on mountain rainfall alone. It comes from the same trees, in the same Flowit Garden, as our Enshi Yulu green tea. To prove the leaf is clean, that green tea, this spring's harvest, went to Eurofins, one of the largest food-testing labs in the world, screened for roughly five hundred pesticides using the European reference method (EN 15662). Every one came back non-detect. Same soil, same trees, same hands. We can tell you exactly which garden the leaf came from and who made it. Wholesale buyers can ask us for the test summary. Specifications GradeHead-pick first flush, hand-picked before Qingming HarvestEarly April 2026 Elevation1,100m Cultivar50-year seed-grown Taizi heirloom bushes (local group cultivar, since ~1975) TestingSame garden and trees as our Enshi Yulu, tested by Eurofins (EU method EN 15662), all screened pesticides non-detect, June 2026 ProcessingWithering, rolling, full oxidation, drying FarmingOrganic. Grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, nourished by natural rainfall GardenFlowit Garden, Wildbrook Village, Enshi, Hubei, China Cups per 50g~12 cups (4g per session) Caffeine20 to 40 mg / 200ml Curious how this compares to other Chinese reds? See where Lichuan Black sits on our interactive red tea flavor wheel → Common questions How is this different from Cocoa Black Tea?+ Both are black teas, but they go in different directions. Cocoa Black Tea leans into cocoa, caramel, brownie, and baked sweet potato, like a warm, rainy forest. Lichuan Black is more about honey, lychee, apricot, rose, and a touch of dark chocolate. The fruit and floral character is much more noticeable, with a ripe, warm quality. Will this tea be too sweet?+ No. The sweetness is real (honey, ripe fruit, returning sweetness), but the back half has damp wood, dark chocolate, and a mint-like coolness that keeps everything balanced. It's sweet without being cloying. What food pairs well with this tea?+ Afternoon tea snacks are ideal: cookies, light cream cake, baked pastries, or anything with a fruity note. Since the tea itself already has lychee, apricot, rose, and chocolate character, it matches these flavors naturally instead of competing. Why does this tea have a cool, minty finish?+ That's one of its most interesting qualities. The front is all ripe fruit sweetness and honey, but the finish brings a subtle mint-like coolness and damp wood feeling. So after you drink, it's not just sweet and thick. There's a clean, mouth-watering edge. That contrast is also one of the reasons it stays interesting over many steeps.
