1993 Orange Peel White Tea

The year on the label belongs to the peel, not the tea. This is a compressed cake of 2018 white tea from Yibang, one of Yunnan's six ancient tea mountains. The orange peel pressed through it is chenpi, a staple aged ingredient in southern China, and this peel has been drying and mellowing since 1993. It's older than any tea we have.

Every other white we carry comes from Fuding, in Fujian. This one comes off Yibang's old small-leaf trees, the mountain's specialty in a province of big-leaf tea. Eight years in, the leaf has settled into the dried-fruit sweetness that aged whites move toward.

Three decades of aging take the sharpness out of citrus and leave the warmth. The white leads with honey, the chenpi comes in behind it, and the two settle into each other by the second steep. Deep gold in the cup.

Both the tea and the peel keep aging. The white deepens toward dried fruit, and the chenpi becomes more valued as the years add up.