Champagne Black Tea (Professor’s Pick)

Wu Mountain’s custom-crafted Champagne Black Tea is the creation of renowned tea specialist, Dr. Zhang, a tea researcher with great expertise in tea plant development, cultivation and processing. The production style innovated by Dr. Zhang for the creation of Champagne Black Tea is unique for several reasons. Tea plants cultivated for Champagne Black production are of the Jinxuan cultivar, a prized strain that uniquely attracts an insect known as the small green leafhopper. Light leafhopper infestation induces natural alterations in tea leaf metabolism, causing the formation of entirely unique aroma compounds. The newly formed aromas in a “bug-bitten” tea are characteristically floral, fruity and sweet. Using these metabolically distinctive leaves as starting material, Dr. Zhang further applies his custom processing techniques that include solar withering, light wounding stress and slow-baking at low temperatures over several hours. Avoiding excessive heat during the baking process allows tealeaves to develop distinct savory qualities that compliment pungent peach and apricot aromas induced by our leaf-hopping colleagues. This one-of-a-kind offering is the result of years of research and development, a treasure to be enjoyed, shared, and placed in a top-shelf position within any connoisseur collection.