Long Juan Ben Shan

Information

Origine: Fu Jian province
Harvesting area: Long Juan Village
Plantation altitude: ~800 above sea level
Harvesting: Autumn 2024
Tea varietal: Ben Shan

A few years ago, I told my tea maker partner I wanted to create a “Book of Return” for Anxi’s original cultivars.
He simply nodded. That was all I needed. He understood.
So we began quietly, retracing the mountain paths, finding the old bushes around our gardens—Anxi’s native oolongs, never renamed, never replaced.

This Ben Shan, harvested in autumn 2024 from Longjuan, is one of those old trees—rooted deep, steady in spirit.
We walked the old path again: proper fermentation to temper the florals, hand-rolling back to its “frog leg” form to seal in the juice, and three rounds of low-temperature roasting—slow and patient—to let the aroma sink deep into the leaves, and the fire into the bones.
The result? A tea that doesn’t float on fragrance, nor drown in roast.
It’s clean, vibrant, with structure and rhythm—like someone graceful, but grounded. Composed, yet full of life.
People often mistake Ben Shan for Tieguanyin at first sip.
But sit down, take your time, compare it closely—and it will quietly tell you who it is.
Ben Shan once stood side-by-side with Tieguanyin in Anxi’s glory days.
Now, after years in retreat, we invite it to return—under its true name, on its own terms. 

Read the tasting notes