LIN'S RED | black

[2022 lot in as of 02.23] LIN'S RED is a hongcha ("red tea", or black tea as it's understood in the west) from the Lin family in Chaozhou, Guangdong, China. The Lins are a 3rd generation dancong producing family, but posses an adventurous spirit—a quality we value highly in our partnerships at origin—making white tea and black tea with a small portion of their dancong trees. This lot is of mi lan xiang ("honey orchid scent") cultivar material grown at 600 meters that undergoes a fundamentally dancong process, but with an extended oxidation phase. The tea is hand-harvested in spring from 80 year old trees, rolled and bruised to about 90% oxidation, and roasted in three rounds at 105ºC to fix (halt oxidation) and dry. Made in an effort to avoid overstocking mi lan xiang dancong, our producer, Song Lin, produced a black tea wholly on-par with the finest examples of Fujian hong cha—the material is beautiful, the flavor clean and distinct, its backstory just plain interesting. Plus, the lot