Green label Hong Kong 2003

For lovers of well-aged, dense Pu'er.

This aged Sheng Pu’er comes from the same source as our High Fire Tieguanyin, the famous Fukien Tea Shop in Hong Kong. They picked out and bought a batch of this tea to store it in their warehouse until it’s ready for consumption. Now, over 20 years later, that time has finally come, and we’re proud to be able to bring Hong Kong stored Sheng to Nannuoshan for the first time. Fukien puts comfort and drinking pleasure first, and this tea is no exception.

This Green Label has everything one would expect from a tea that was stored in the hot and humid Hong Kong climate. Its darkened dry leaves laced with golden buds exude an earthy fragrance that may be reminiscent of a damp basement at first, but quickly makes way for a layered, fruity and resinous aroma upon being woken up with boiling water. Keen noses may even pick up on notes of incense and camphor that signify proper maturation. This tea is thick and dense, with a sugary but fragrant sweetness that evokes marzipan, and earthy undertones to complement. The initial steeps provide a smooth drinking experience without any edges—a strong flavor, but a gentle sensation enveloping the tongue. On later steeps, we are reminded that its journey has not yet reached an end as the slightest hint of astringency can be felt.

This tea provides a way to experience a unique combination of flavors for people who have not come in contact with Hong Kong stored tea before, but also serves as a good way to gain insight into what Sheng tastes like as it approaches full maturity. In it, we see the beginnings of a tea that is becoming denser, layered, more cohesive, and stew-like; it has begun developing chun (醇), a quality that is highly sought after in aged Pu’er. 

Written by Sigi

Sourcing

During Gabriele’s stay in Hong Kong, he went to several shops to look for Pu’er tea and provided me with either lots of photos or even the occasional live video feed while I was doing background research on everything we found. This process took several days, visiting the same shops multiple times, and gradually wading through a sea of fakes, but in the end, we managed to find a few really good teas for Nannuoshan. If you’re curious about what it looks like inside one of these shops, make sure to check out this video on our YouTube channel.