Why Fang Ting chose a rested Menghai over a fresh one
Fang Ting tasted this lot in spring 2024 during a sourcing trip through Xishuangbanna, after a long week of cupping much younger shu in Kunming warehouses. She kept coming back to one shelf in a small Menghai storeroom — loose-leaf shu from a 2019 wò dūi batch, fermented by a maker she has worked with since her first pu-erh training year. The pile had been a clean one: forty-five days, moderate temperature, no over-fermented funk. What sold her was what five years of warehouse rest had done to it. The wet-pile note that defines fresh shu — that pondy, sometimes fishy edge — had quietly walked off. What remained was wood, dried fruit, and a low mineral sweetness that reminded her of an older shou bīng she used to drink at her teacher’s table in Zhengzhou. Coming from Henan, Fang Ting carries a northern preference for clean, settled dark teas over the rougher young shu often sold as entry-level pu-erh. This is the tea she pours for friends who say they ‘don’t like pu-erh’ — usually because the only shu they have met was three months out of the pile. We took a small portion of her lot specifically for the gratis program: 5g per sampler, enough for one honest gongfu session, no commitment.