Ancient Recipe: LIMITED EDITION
Ancient Recipe: LIMITED EDITION
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Aged the way pu'er was meant to age.
Our Ancient Recipe is a 7542 raw (sheng) pu'er cake pressed in 2004, from the leaves of ancient tea trees over 200 years old in Lincang, Yunnan. It was crafted by my tea teacher, Mr. Zhang, then loaded onto a truck and driven 1,000 miles east to Guangzhou, where it has aged beside the Pearl River for more than twenty years. Only 28 cakes of this batch exist.
Deep red, brilliantly clear in the cup. Over two decades the aroma has turned — from the floral, fruity notes of young raw tea into something closer to old wood. The flavor is sweet, crisp, smooth, and full-bodied, with a strong returning sweetness and the lingering backbone of a properly aged sheng. The spent leaves come out a bright reddish-brown.
What's in the cake
Why we love it
The journey, 1,000 miles east
This tea was crafted by my tea teacher, Mr. Zhang — who was my dad's teacher first. The two of them met at Beijing University, introduced by mutual friends because they were both from Tancheng, my dad's hometown. Mr. Zhang was studying agriculture at the time. That study eventually became a life in tea.
The leaves were grown and harvested in 2003 in Lincang, Yunnan — sun-dried, then pressed into cakes the following year, as is typical for raw pu'er. But Mr. Zhang did things differently. Instead of leaving the cakes where they were made, he packed them onto a truck and drove them 1,000 miles east to Guangzhou, where they have aged in his storehouse by the Pearl River ever since 2004.
Guangzhou is far hotter and more humid than Yunnan, and that humidity is what drives proper deep aging. It's what lets raw pu'er ferment slowly across decades into something rich, smooth, and fully developed — a transformation the dry mountains where the tea was grown simply can't produce. The result is a sheng that tastes the way aged sheng was meant to taste.
About the 7542 recipe
7542 is one of the most legendary pu'er recipes in history, first produced in 1975. Collectors and drinkers treat it as the benchmark for what aged raw pu'er should taste like. The four digits encode the whole formula.
Brew it on the Pure Land Tea Set for the full gongfu experience. Pair with Big Snow Mountain for your daily ripe pu'er, or Big Snow Essence for the contemplative aged ripe.
Crafted by masters. Aged correctly. Now let the tea talk.
