Wild Black Tea

Place of Origin: Hubei, China

Deep in the hills of Machi Creek, eight hundred metres above the sea, the tea trees grow wild.

No one planted them. No one tends them. They share the mountain with ferns and vines, feed on fallen leaves and forest rain, and give their leaves only once each year — around Grain Rain, when spring is fully awake.

This tea is made by Liu Mingjian, a sixth-generation tea maker and provincial inheritor of Hubei’s intangible cultural heritage for black tea. He does not use machines. He does not rush. He watches, waits, and works by hand, the way it has always been done.

Pour it and the liquor runs clear as amber, catching light like crystal. The aroma is dried fruit and wild honey — the kind you find deep in a forest, not in a shop. The taste is sweet and alive, with a lingering wildness that stays with you long after the cup is empty.