2017 Hai Lang Hao "Jun Ai" Ripe Pu-erh Tea Brick

In 2016 Hai Lang started a kind of crazy undertaking.  Collecting 320 kilograms of spring 2016 harvested mao cha from Xin Ban Zhang, Ba Ka, and Ba Ka Nan Deng villages (all in the Ban Zhang area of Bu Lang Mountains) and having it painstakingly small-batch wet piled to perfection.  After 43 days of wet piling this light fermentation ripe pu-erh tea was stored for many months before being pressed (in 2017) into 500 gram bricks.

Hai Lang is a pu-erh dealer and producer who has been around for 20 years.  He's unapologetically direct and cares more about quality and one-upmanship than he does about anything else.  This is a good quality in a pu-erh producer, and it's that very quality that allowed him to undertake the expense and the risk to wet pile such a tea as "Jun Ai".  "Jun Ai" 君爱  means "Adore (love) the King".  

Hai Lang's Commentary on this tea:

This year I am pressing an authentic Xin Ban Zhang, Ba Ka Long, and Ba Ka Nan Deng Village.  The raw material from these three villages was blended together.  "Jun Ai" is a creation that comes from the heart of the Ban Zhang Villages area.

The taste of the tea is typically Bu Lang Mountain tea.  The blend of the three villages gives the tea a balanced and harmonious foundation. It's main characteristic is full-bodied and strong/heavy taste.  It has a dominating taste and character and has a long-lasting taste/feeling. As it hits the mouth (this tea) has thick and pungent quality, while at the same time there is a soothing lubricating feeling.  The tea is at once bitter, while quickly fading to a kind of thick rice sweetness. The tea will perform well across many steepings, showing many sides and giving the drinker great joy.

500 Grams per brick