For the last decade our friend Mei has trekked almost all of the mountains and peaks of Yongchun. She has come across abandoned tea trees deep in the mountains, and remote small scale tea farms that are still in operation. This rougui is an experimental tea from one of these small scale farms. The craftsman brought over trees of the Rougui varietal from the Wuyi Mountains, where they are indigenous, and planted them in the protected Water Reservoir Area of Yongchun. This high-altitude area is a jungle, with interconnected trees branching over the edges of the lakes and rivers. The soil here is very unique, made up of mostly small, weathered granite rocks, which offer the ideal drainage for oolong varietals. Mainly shuixian tea trees grow on this mountain, alongside a small number of Buddha's Hand trees. Up until around 10 years ago, when these trees were planted, there had never been a known rougui tree here. This transplanted varietal offers us a unique experience of rougui, sustained by a completely new terroir. We find that, without the specific and concentrated minerals of the Wuyi Mountains, we taste the unusual sweetness and softness of this robust varietal. This is a far more lighthearted tea than what we would expect from a rougui. Some of the varietal's characteristic minerality is still there, but that structure is washed over by a velvety mouthfeel we usually see in other Yongchun oolongs, like Shuixian and Buddha's Hand. It has a saliva-producing, grassy sweetness, with notes of cigar leaf, caramel and smoke.
