The Essence of Tea 2020 Spring Jedi Pole Dance

See… the prediction came true… He is a Jedi now… people were wondering why the Essence of Tea had a late and very uninvolved 2019 release.  Last year their release came after everyone else put their puerh to market and with a long absence from social media.  Many wondered if it would come at all.  Of course, their only early-ish Spring release, the 2019 Essence of Tea Boundless, was a big hit and sold out.  If you want to make a statement just release a single cake.  It was a very low key year for Kathy and David of the Essence of Tea… but now we know why…

David was completing his final training to become a Jedi Master- that’s why!  Oh, sure, some of you were probably thinking they were just busy with his move to Kunming and with the opening of their new teahouse there… you have been fooled by a Jedi mind trick… they were off Jedi training…

And this year, lightsaber in hand, David is using The Force to bring us possibly the best Essence of Tea Spring line up yet!

We have seen excitement building with the 2020 Essence of Tea Spring release. First they had a very quick response to the COVID 19 pandemic in being one of the first to offer us a chance at some free puerh!  Certainly, it got my attention… or was it another Jedi mind trick??? Not sure.  Then came the most detailed account yet of their time spent in the mountains of Yunnan documented on Instagram and followed up by a handful of blog posts. Excitement was building indeed…

Turns out they managed to procure a lot of tall pole (gaogan) puerh which is … well… like poles… wait a minute… what the hell is gaogan… I have never heard of gaogan before… 

First there was Qiao Mu (arbour), Gushu (ancient tree), Dan Zhu (single tree), Guoyoulin (State Forest), and now… no not “single grove” but rather … Gaogan (Tall Pole)… who would have saw it coming?  Everyone has no doubt heard of Gushu… but Gaogan???   Some Western pureh vendors like to be draped in the finest silk, or at the very least, like to wear those silky soft Umbro soccer shorts from the 1990s… and others are Jedis.  Which is kind of weird because everyone knows that Scott from Yunnan Sourcing looks the most like a Jedi… but he is basically just a librarian of puerh.  Ok… but what about Pole Trees…

Trees grow upwards sometimes, sometimes like trees, and sometimes trying to peek through the canopy… they are poll like???  But, as David and Kathy have outlined in the past, sometimes these tall pole like trees are pretty difficult, if not completely impossible to harvest.  This is a big problem and one of the reasons Essence of Tea has not been able to harvest in past years.  Of course, this year has seen a lot less people in the area due to both travel restrictions within China as well as International travel bands.  This has made some of the top end puerh tea this year both more accessible and even possibly lower in price.  The late harvest due to drought early in the season has made farmers more likely to go for lower prices ensuring that their teas are sold this season rather than wait and take the risk.  I hear this is not the case with lower-mid priced maocha but really only effecting the top end maocha.  There is still one huge problem… how can they harvest those difficult pole trees?

The answer is really simple: bring in some skilled migrant workers to go up the pole trees and pick the amazing gushu tea leaves.  For years now, other vendors have been doing just that.  The last number of years those vendors who harvest pole trees have been bringing in Las Vegas pole dancers: male, female, LGBTQ2… doesn’t matter.  If they are skilled pole dancers chances are they are the best people to pick the leaves from these challenging gaogan trees.  This year with the ban on international travel they were no longer able to bring in the Las Vegas pole dancers.  So, that is my understanding as to why David and Kathy finally had access to these rare gushu pole trees in state protected forests and in super over the top famous puerh producing areas.

So how did they end up harvesting the leaves oh so high up in those pole trees? 

They used The Force.  It’s really the only logical explanation. 

Then they loaded back up on their land speeder (rusty old Xishuangbanna stored truck) and made away with a killer line up of rare pole tree puerh, that mostly every puerh drinker in the west didn’t even know was a big thing… until it is a big thing…

And one thing is for certain… this year’s 2020 Essence of Tea release is a big thing…

Peace

(May the Pole Be With You!)