2025 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Bang" Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake
From Yi Bang village in northern Yiwu, made entirely from wild-arbor trees roughly 60–80 years old. The Li family’s matriarch hand-fixed the leaf in a copper wok, and the picking/processing ran over a week to capture the garden at peak spring. Leaves are stout with thick stems and an olive-green hue; in the cup the tea is full-mouthed and pungently aromatic with the uniquely elegant power of Yi Bang’s primitive small-leaf population.
Pressed into 250 g cakes in Yiwu using unusually large 40 kg stone presses, then finished with a low-temperature ~35 °C bake to set the cakes without cooking the leaf. Release was held several weeks post-press to let residual moisture dissipate.
In Summary
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Name: 2025 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Bang" Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake
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Region: Yi Bang, Yiwu (Xishuangbanna)
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Harvest: April 2025, first flush
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Trees: wild-arbor, small-leaf, ~60–80 year old trees
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Net weight: 250 grams per cake (5 cakes per tong)
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Total production: 40 kg (≈160 cakes)
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Press/finish: 40 kg stone press; low-temp bake (~35 °C)
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Wrapper: Benjamin Denkert
In short: a quintessential Yi Bang, smooth yet pungently aromatic, thick-bodied, and long-sweet, showcasing the village’s primitive small-leaf character with the structure to age beautifully.
This tea has been tested in a certified laboratory for 404 pesticides, and is within the EU MRL limits set for those 404 pesticide residues. For a full list of the 404 pesticides we tested for and more information about MRL testing and the EU Food and Safety commission click on this link.
