Aged Pu-erh Cake.

Most teas are prized young. Pu-erh is prized patient. This disc of compressed dark leaf, wrapped in rice paper and stamped with the mark of its pressing house, is tea measured in years rather than seasons, made for a gaiwan, a low table and nowhere else to be.

It is a shou, or ripe, pu-erh. Pu-erh is fermented, not merely oxidized, and this leaf was pile-fermented to reach a depth raw pu-erh would take a decade to find on its own, then pressed and rested several years more before release. It comes from old-growth tea gardens in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna prefecture, where the leaf is picked from trees rather than shrubs. Pry a piece free and the inside is darker still, almost black, with a scent of damp cellar, dried fruit and old wood. In Yunnan, tea drinkers have long poured a cup like this at the close of a heavy dinner.

Details

• Type: shou (ripe) pu-erh, pressed cake wrapped in rice paper
• Origin: old-growth tea gardens, Xishuangbanna prefecture, Yunnan
• Rested several years after pressing
• Contains caffeine

How to use

Use a pu-erh knife rather than your fingers, working along the layers instead of against them. Break off two or three grams, rinse briefly with a fast pour of boiling water and discard it, then steep for twenty to thirty seconds, lengthening each pour that follows. Few teas ask so little and give back so much.