Xiao Chi Gan - Wuyi Black Tea | Tong Mu Guan Xiao Chi Gan - Option: Sample 15 g

Xiao Chi Gan 小赤甘 is an unsmoked red tea from the same prestige terroir as the famous smoked red tea - Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong. Harvested from Tong Mu, one of the coldest tea terroirs in the world. The Chinese name explains its qualities by itself. Xiao Chi Gan means Small Red and Sweet in English. A plucking style  is one small bud and two leaves from several tea cultivars, the leaves grow among rocks and stones. A color of an infusion is bright red, which is indication of good processing. It has overtones of red fig, red plums, and other dark, ripe, fruit taste. The taste is slightly mineral, smooth, soft and very fancy. 

Xiao Chi Gan is one of the several very special, traditional, non-smoked teas made from several tea cultivars within this revered tea-harvesting region. The Wu Yi Shan area of northern Fujian is home to several lovely and historic black teas such as this tea and also the famous yan cha rock oolongs. The soil conditions in the Wu Yi Shan are not too rich and nurturing, but tea bushes have clung on to their existence here for several hundred years. These tea bushes are clearly happy with the rock-based composition of the soil and have incorporated the taste of the soil into the teas they produce, giving the teas steely backbone.