CAMELLIA茗岩 X ZONGXUN众寻 - NiuLanKeng RouGui 牛栏坑肉桂
The crafter
Wang GuoXing, 55 years old, engaged in the production of Wuyi rock tea for 33 years, is a known first batch of Intangible Craft Inheritors of Wuyi Rock Tea (DaHongPao) Traditional Production Skills. He graduated from the tea major of Fu'An Agricultural School in Fujian Province. From 1996-2002, he served as WuYiShan Tea Deputy Director of the Institute. Since 2002, he has worked in the Quality Inspection Section of the Tea Industry Bureau of WuYiShan City.
"The inheritance is not all about skills, but also a state of mind and perseverance." This is a message from Wang GuoXing. The message is certainly not an empty talk, but daily practice in life. It is also notable that the USD 25.500/kilograms of Golden Oil Droplets (金油滴) is one of his masterpieces. The JiYun DaHongPao he made is used as a national gift tea for many diplomatic occasions.
In 2013, Mr. Zhang ChuanXin, the person-in-charge of the Wuyi Rock Tea National Heritage Application, assembled the representative works of 12 Intangible Craft Inheritors including Wang GuoXing, were collected by the National Museum of China.
"The Father of DaHongPao" Mr. Chen Dehua once commented that Wang GuoXing's tea style is authentic and has preserved the traditional essence DaHongPao making.
The terroir
NiuLanKeng produces exceptional quality tea because of its unique geological environment. A local east-west river is cut through by a stream flowing from north to south, forming a unique landscape. NiuLanKeng has fertile soil and short sunshine, which provides a good microclimate for the growth of tea trees, making it one of the core producing areas of the "three pits and two streams" in Wuyi Mountain. NiuLanKeng is the king of RouGui (Cassia). It has a very unique domineering taste, which is incomparable and imitated by RouGui (Cassia) in other regions. The entire NiuLanKeng has about 50 acres of tea gardens, which are only distributed in the hands of 10 tea farmers, thus the annual output is extremely limited.
Fun fact: In 2015, green leaves of NiuLanKeng RouGui cost 1,200 yuan per kilogram. In theory, ten kilogram is required to make one kilogram of finished tea, thereby the cost of tea is 12,000 yuan a kilogram, not including labor costs, site costs, wastage costs, and various later costs. In 2017, the cost of green leaves has risen to a whooping 1,600 yuan per kilogram.
The tea
An iconic NiuLanKeng RouGui by ZONGXUN众寻, embodies all of the typicality of the NiuLanKeng. This great tea is renowned amongst experts for its finesse and elegance.
The vintage
2020 was rather wet before the harvest which encouraged growth, the week of harvest was marked moderate temperature, occasionally clouds in early April.
Varietal
100% RouGui (Cassia)
Tasting
Color
Golden Crystal Hue
Packaging
3 x 8.5g