Ingredients: Tuo Cha style, premium pu-erh tea (ripened), rose flower, natural flavor

Cup Characteristics: A strong bodied tea with light rose floral and earthy taste

Options: Not suggest adding anything extra

Benefits: In traditional Chinese herbalism, pu-erh tea is considered to open the meridians, 'warm the middle burner' (the spleen and stomach) and be beneficial to 'blood cleansing' and digestion. For these reasons, it is often consumed after heavy meals or drunk as a hangover cure or preventative. Pu-erh is also known for lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure and increase metabolism.

Fun to know: Pu-erh originated thousands of years ago in the Yunnan Province of China, where large-leaf tea trees grow. Its history relates closely to the tea trade in China, and it is named for the town from which it was originally sold en route to other countries (Pu-erh City). It was originally compressed into shapes for more efficient transit, and it acquired its dark color and flavour due to natural fermentation in transit to its final destinations.

For many years, pu-erh has been aged. The aging process results in a slow fermentation and it can take up to 15 years for a 'raw' (unfermented) pu-erh to get the dark color and flavor that pu-erh drinkers desire. However, in the 1970s, a style of processing called shou processing (or 'cooking') was developed to expedite the fermentation process.

Tuo Cha or “dome-shaped bowl tea” is a compressed tea, usually made of pu-erh. The shape resembles a bird’s nest and Tuo Cha range in weight from 3g to 3kg or more. As any good wine, our Pu-erh Tuo Cha is a special vintage tea, harvested from Yun Nan province in 2008.

This particular tea is infused with red rose flowers. The warm mellow and earthy flavoured Pu-erh tea flakes are compressed into a beautiful bird's nest shape, and then individually wrapped for proper storage. As well, the leaves of the tea, once broken off the cake can be brewed a number of times - with each brewing, the flavour of the cup shifts and changes in incredibly subtle ways.