The attention paid to a tea as it ages varies significantly from leaf to leaf. Darkly roasted teas are largely shelf-stable, and with minimal moisture content, require little intervention over the decades. In contrast, lightly roasted teas require regular maintenance and should be cupped periodically and re-baked to maintain its sweet, fruit-like qualities.

As such, this mid-oxidized and mid-charcoal roasted 1970’s oolong has been closely monitored, and each decade it underwent a soft re-bake to balance its intended moisture contents with the elements of storage and passing time. The light roasts took place in 1988, 1998, 2008, and most recently in 2018, creating a tea more and more concentrated in flavor and sweetness with each successive round. The result is a tea that’s aged with hints of its original, freshly picked characteristics still identifiable.

The iconic, loosely curled shaped of these leaves is called xia mi, small dried shrimp, the result of traditional manual rolling that produces open curls rather than tight clusters. This in turn allows the tea to develop more evenly over the years, and acquire its current dark-fruited notes and mild minerality.