PROFILE: WET MOSS, EARTH, TOBACCO, FRUIT 

ORIGIN: Y TY, LAO CAI, VIETNAM

HARVEST: APRIL 2024

Forest Genie 2024 has shaken off its young sheng-style character to create a distinctive and pleasingly balanced dark tea. Initial aromas evoke memories of the forest after the rain. Earthy scents of wet moss, bark and soil and perhaps a little tobacco leaf. The tea liquor is a sparkling pale lemon with a medium to full bodied sensation in the mouth. Much of the youthful has faded away allowing a fruity sweetness – the kind associated with tropical pineapple and lychees rather than stone fruits – to break through.

As with previous years, Forest Genie is a fascinating and complex tea that offers generous depth to the drinking experience stretching from the tongue to the nose, palate and back of the throat.

The origin of this tea is the Y Ty commune of Bat Xat district in Lao Cai. Produced in a close-knit Red Dao community whose families live either side of the Vietnam/ China border, separated by the narrow Lung Po stream.

Wild trees spread deep into the ancient forest in Y Ti at altitudes of 2,000 metres and above. Harvested leaves are collected and taken to the village where they are gently pan-dried, rolled and left in the sun to dry in small batches by an artisan tea-maker.