From Xiaguan’s factory floor to a Kunming shelf
This 200g shu brick came to us through one of the factory relationships built over years of running procurement out of Kunming. Xiaguan, founded in 1941, is known for tightly compressed bricks that once travelled the old tea-horse road into Tibet and Mongolia, and each incoming batch is inspected for compression, leaf grade, and whether the aroma matches what the factory claims.
The wet-pile processing was done in Menghai using large-leaf Yunnan varietals, then blended and pressed into bricks at Dali. After pressing, the bricks rested for three months to settle before being split into retail portions, cupped against reference samples from prior seasons, and cleared for listing.
It’s an unglamorous, dependable format: easy to store, easy to age, easy to share. Two to five years of further rest will deepen the earthiness, though the brick already drinks cleanly, with vibrant dark fruit and camphor notes that show the fermentation was handled with care rather than rushed.