2025 Velvet Mountain Purple Tea Cake, Bulang Mountain 200g
2025 Velvet Mountain Purple Tea Cake, Bulang Mountain 200g
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'Velvet Mountain' is our first Teasenz-labeled premium purple tea cake crafted from leaves of the Zi Juan (紫娟) cultivar. Its mouthfeel and lingering complexity are truly unique and fascinating.
- Premium material: the tea leaves are handpicked from old trees in the Bulang mountain (1500m) during early Spring of 2025. They belong to the first harvest of the season, offering more flavour and nutritional value (higher antioxidant content).
- Optimal aging & stone-pressed: the harvested leaves are carefully processed in maocha (unfinished tea) and stored in loose form for several months for uniform aging. Afterwards, they were steamed and manually stone-pressed in September 2025. The applied processing method is the same as for raw pu erh tea.
- Beautiful & secure packaging: Each cake is wrapped in a double layer of paper for enhanced protection and optimal further aging of the tea. Five cakes are packed in another layer of paper and wrapped with bamboo sheets to make sure the cakes don't get damaged during transportation and storage. The packaging label is designed and drawn by artist Suyi.
Learn more about the packaging design philosophy of this tea cake.
Purple Tea Tasting Notes
Read our tasting notes below based on the following steeping parameters: 3.5g of tea steeped the traditional way with 100ml of water per steep at 100ºC.
- 1st–2nd steep: The liquor immediately presents a golden colour with a distinctive purple-green hue. The aroma offers herbal notes, with clear hints of mint and sweet camomile. On the palate, it is sweet and creamy, with a velvety sensation. The tea has an incredible lingering aftertaste. The rich fragrance lingers in the empty cup, while the wet leaves themselves release a sweet, almost savoury perfume of wild herbs and wildflowers.
- 3–4th steep: The flavor deepens and strengthens, revealing a satisfying complexity. Distinct notes of chicory and an olive savoury umami note now emerge. A licorice-sweet aftertaste beautifully balances a pleasant, delicate astringency. A light woody note appears, and the strong aroma is intensely refreshing and cleansing to the palate. Meanwhile, you'll feel the strong Qi (tea energy).
- Steeps 5–6th: The liquor transforms into a mellow and round experience, taking on a beautiful, aged golden hue. The savory olive umami and chicory notes remain, but are now softer and more rounded. The mouthfeel becomes exceptionally velvety and rich, while the lingering aftertaste is amplified, now showcasing sweet notes of ripe fruit.
- Further steeps: In the latest steeps, the mouthfeel is even mellower; the taste remains sweet with an umami touch. The aftertaste still lingers for several minutes, leaving your mouth pleasantly clean and lemony fresh. The aroma and the overall sensation remind you of a pleasant herbal tea blend you would drink on a relaxing evening.
Velvet Mountain is a special addition for any tea lover. For beginners, it provides a smoother and more accessible taste relative to the more bitter young sheng pu erh tea. For seasoned connoisseurs, this cake offers a captivating complexity, setting it apart from classic raw pu erh with its rich profile.
Origin
Origin
- Type: Purple tea/ raw pu erh tea
- Year: 2025
- Season: Spring
- Origin: Bulang, Menghai
- Brand: Teasenz
- Shape: tea cake
- Weight: approx. 200g
How to Steep
How to Steep
How to steep purple tea?
Traditional method: Prepare 3-4 grams of tea with 100ml of water at 100ºC. Steep the tea for 15 seconds for the 1st to the 4th preparation. Afterwards, gradually increase the steeping time.
Western method: Steep 3-4 grams of tea with 500ml of water at 100ºC. Steep the tea for 3 minutes for the first brew, then re-steep for 4 minutes for the second preparation.
Shipping, Returns & Payment Methods
Shipping, Returns & Payment Methods
Delivery time: EU delivery takes 1–10 days. For country-specific estimates, please see the Shipping Info page at the bottom of our website.
No import taxes: We ship from our EU warehouse. Customers in the EU will not be charged import taxes upon delivery. All applicable taxes are included in our prices.
Free shipping: From €65 to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Ireland. From €85 to most other EU countries and the UK.
Returns: We offer a 30-day return period.
How this raw pu erh tea is made
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Picking
Tea leaves are hand-picked in the morning.
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Withering
The leaves are spread on bamboo trays to wither.
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Fixation
The withered leaves are heated to halt oxidation.
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Rolling
The tea leaves are rolled to release their aroma.
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Sun Drying
Rolled leaves are spread on bamboo mats to sun-dry.
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Pressing
The processed tea leaves are steamed & compressed.
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Packaging
The compressed tea is wrapped in paper & packed in boxes.
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Aging
The raw pu erh tea is stored for further aging.
This tea is smooth for its age and has a wonderful sweetness to it in the first steeps. Then, it turns bolder and more astringent. The colour of the tea darkens from a slight grey tone into a darker purple/brown. The tea is very energising. Overall, a pleasant experience. I recommend this tea. Four starts for now, as I consider it to be rather astringent in its later brews, though I am sure this will mellow with ageing. I also brewed it using 100°C. I will try a slightly lower temprerature next time to compare.
I'm enjoying it yet, at first, it was disapointing but I understood that I was using too little cups which drop the t° too quick and didn't left space for the leaves to express themselves.
Ja, das ist ein sehr guter Tee, ziemlich kräftig und gut gereift.
Very nice
This is a fragrant tea with an excellent lingering finish. I enjoy it every evening as part of my relaxation routine before sleep, and I plan to buy it again.
Ein sehr gelungener Tee. Der Geschmack ist wunderbar und lässt sich beim Aufbrühen gut kontrollieren, ohne bitter zu werden. Er wirkt hervorragend belebend und ist ideal für einen guten Start in den Tag. Ich kann diesen Teeziegel definitiv weiterempfehlen!
It's a good tea, especially for the value. It has a distinct chamomille note, very little biterness, a slight pu'er taste, but I found it a bit mild. If you are looking for the classic young pu'er taste, this one doesn't offer that,but the chamomille note makes it interesting nonetheless. Nothing is wrong with the tea, just not exactly tomy preference
This purple tea offers excellent value for money. It has the typical aromas of purple tea processed into black tea: woody, prune, black berries... I would definitely recommend it at this price :)
Very nice tea. I enjoy the fragrance and the flavor. It’s not a very intense tea. It’s can get bitter if you steep it too long. Very nice to give as presents for tea lovers.
Superb stuff
The particularities of the cultivar really show with this tea, it's very smooth for a Puerh aged only a few months, similar to some of my other puerhs that have been aged for a few years. I have a different teacake made from the same cultivar, but aged five years and that one tastes similar to some of my teas that are aged around 15 years so I think it's something about the cultivar itself, I found it very interesting. The purple colour really shows as well, the first steep is a very light greyish purple, which makes sense since purple and yellow are opposites and cancel out, the steeps around the middle of the progression are a much deeper colour which wears off into a light golden towards the end of the progression.