Master Xu’s Jin Fo 金佛 2022

£22.95£25.95

A roasted oolong from the inner Zhengyan area of the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian made by Master Xu, the maker and one of the guardians of the Da Hong Pao mother trees. This tea is processed from trees of the Jin Fo (Gold Buddha) cultivar, and are grown on Jiu Long Ke (Nine Dragon Nest), the same cliff that houses the Da Hong Pao trees. Jin Fo is a rare historical cultivar that Master Xu has helped to bring back into production and gets its name from the story that the mother tree grew by the river in Wuyi, so the local people bowed down every day to wash their clothes facing the tree.

Master Xu processes the leaves entirely by hand – from the picking and sorting, through to the kill-green stage and rolling. The roasting is done carefully at a low temperature (around 75 degrees Celsius) over hours, and often re-roasted over the course of many months until he is satisfied.

This tea was picked in 2022 and roasted in 2023. It was then left to settle for a year before being released. It still has a strong roasted taste as well as a deep minerality, with a dark fruit sweetness.

ORIGIN
Master Xu, Jiu Long Ke, Wuyishan, China

SIZE OF FARM
2 acres

PLANTS AND PROCESSING
Camellia Sinensis Sinensis, Jin Fo cultivar. Medium-high charcoal roasting. Harvested early Summer 2022 and roasted in 2023.

BREWING
90-95°C, 6g per 150ml. 4-5 infusions.

SKU: MasterXu003 Categories: , , , ,

Description

When we first met Master Xu, he tested us by making lots of different teas to see which ones we preferred. Luckily for us, his and our taste coincided and we have been working together for many years. Walking with him around the historic cliffs where he produces his sublime teas and where he supervised parts of the production of mother tree Da Hong Pao on 3 occasions is like being given a tour of Wembley stadium by David Beckham.

Master Xu (1971- )
Master Xu is a graduate of tea studies at Fujian’s University Of Agriculture and Forestry In Fujian. He later worked for The Wuyi Institute of Tea where he specialized in researching and developing new varieties of Wuyi rock teas from historic trees as well as supervising the tea growing and processing in the Unesco protected World Heritage Wuyi Mountain area. He was responsible for taking care of the Da Hong Pao mother trees for over 15 years and he led the team that picked and processed the last ever production from the mother trees. Although he still works for The Wuyi Tea Institute, he also hand produces tea from four families land totaling just eight acres in the heart of the Unesco protected park.

Additional information

Weight 0.07 kg