Hand-pressed sheng pu’er long zhu (dragon balls) made primarily of zi ya (a wild variety of assamica that has some purple buds and early leaves) leaves from Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County, Pu’er in Yunnan, China. Harvested in spring 2019, these have been aged since then in their compressed form, stored in Puer, and then Kunming.
The dragonball can take some time to open up necessitating a larger first brew to prevent mildness, an extended rinse can help, the dry leaf have little aroma but when heated strong initial smoky notes come through (a result of processing). Under that there is a slight floral scent that eventually takes over. The liquor is a clear gold with a subtle pink tinge to it present in early infusions (from the purple leaves), after opening up it can becoem astringent quickly so lower temperatures and quicker brews are recommended, after the smokiness has worn off this tea is primarily sweet and perfume-like, it has a medium thickness mouth feel and a lot of minerality, astringency varies based on infusion strength but is always there somewhat and is long lasting, head feeling was subtle and slow to cook in. After brewing 6 or 7 times it still felt like it had plenty left to give so this is a good tea to brew in a larger vessel for several people over an extended period enjoying the subtle changes each infusion. If it gets too bitter/astringent for you start doing quick few second infusions and reduce water temperature, also avoid pouring directly on the leaf-mass.

Each dragonball will be approximately 6-8g but please allow a little margin for error, they are individually wrapped in paper, if you buy several at once they will be in a labeled bag.