Lei Kou Chai 雷扣柴

This tea is an elegant floral tea with a permeating yet evasive jasmine note that is alluring and aloof. We are so excited that this year’s Lei Kou Chai exemplifies the Lan quality that is so revered.

The freshly picked leaves need to be sun wilted first. Once the leaves are silky and soft, they are moved inside to continue to wilt under shade and gently flipped occasionally. The shaking step is the signature step to making Wu Long, where the tea maker shows their skill by regulating how the water travels from the stems to the leaves and out. It is traditionally done by shaking the leaves on a bamboo tray but is now commonly done with a tumbling machine. This step varies by tea and by the weather; it takes a thoroughly experienced tea maker to decide how soon and often to shake the tea. This step usually takes tea makers all night to complete. After resting for a few hours to ferment, the leaves undergo Sha Qing early in the morning. They then go through Zuo Xing, where they are rolled into string shape and spread evenly on baking trays to dry. After the tea season, the refining process of tea making starts with the tedious step of picking out old stems and leaves, usually taking months to finish. Then the “cleaned” teas are charcoal roasted over a very dim ash fire for 6-10 hours. Many teas need to repeat this step, with at least three weeks' resting time between each roasting.

In true Phoenix Mountain fashion, Lei Kou Chai is a Dan Cong cultivar with a name to be remembered. Lei Kou Chai means lightning struck lumber. The original tea tree was struck by lightning and died. Villagers have taken branches off the original tree and planted them as saplings. The ones that survived are the cultivar we now know as Lei Kou Chai.