GoldenBud
Pure bud · Sheng · 2025
A moment for tea
Golden Bud, or Jin Ya, names the tea’s bud focused leaf material and its golden appearance.
Orchid, white honey and fresh sugarcane.
A soft, floral cup that opens into peach and gentle grain sweetness.
- Tea
- Golden Bud
- Type
- Raw Pu’er · Sheng
- Origin
- Lincang, Yunnan, China
- Harvest
- 2025
- Format
- Loose leaf
Brewing guide
- Tea amount
- 5 g / 100 ml
- Water
- Filtered water or low TDS spring water
100°C / 212°F - Preparation
- Warm the vessel. Give the buds a brief rinse of about 3 to 5 seconds and discard.
Ratio calculator
Suggested starting point: 5 g per 100 ml. Adjust to taste.
Infusion timings
- 1st infusion
- 5–7 seconds
- 2nd infusion
- 10–12 seconds
- 3rd infusion
- 15–17 seconds
- Following infusions
- Add 5 seconds with each subsequent infusion.
Empty the vessel fully between pours and adjust the timing to taste.
Storage
Keep the tea in clean, dry conditions, protected from direct sunlight, kitchen steam and strong smells. Close the packaging between sessions and handle the delicate buds gently.
Raw Pu’er changes gradually with storage. Its development depends on the original leaf, processing and surroundings; careful storage helps preserve a clean aroma as the tea settles.
Tasting notes
A cup that unfolds
Golden Bud
Before the first pour
The dry buds carry a sweet, gently fruity fragrance: dried apricot, clean hay and the delicate sweetness of white honey. Warming the leaf in a gaiwan offers a quiet introduction to the brighter floral character that follows.
The opening infusions
The first cups are pale yellow, with a lively floral aroma. Wild orchid and elderflower lead, joined by the clean sweetness of fresh sugarcane. The texture is soft and silky, giving the tea a gentle presence even when its fragrance is expressive.
Look for this floral emphasis in the first three infusions. Short steeps help hold the balance between aroma, sweetness and the light grip of young raw tea.
Fruit and honey at the centre
Through the middle of the session, the flowers soften into ripe peach and white grape. White honey sweetness becomes fuller, with a gentle grain or rice like impression beneath it. The cup develops a more rounded, lightly syrupy feel as these flavours come together.
This is often the character to explore around the fourth to sixth infusions. Allow enough time for the sweeter core to emerge, while keeping the liquor clear and comfortable on the palate.
A lighter, cooling finish
In later rounds the body becomes lighter, leaving a crisp, cooling sensation and returning sweetness. The sweet aftertaste, known as hui gan, continues after the sip. Pause between cups to notice how the finish develops as the tea fades.
The progression changes with water, leaf quantity and steeping time. Follow the tea as it opens, giving each infusion room to show a different balance of flowers, fruit and sweetness.
← Return to the raw Pu’er collectionOrigin & processing
Lincang
Yunnan
Lincang · Yunnan · China
The Lincang tea landscape
Golden Bud comes from Lincang in Yunnan, a region with a rich tea growing landscape of mountains, mist and established tea gardens. It is also home to Mengku and Bingdao, two well known names within the wider region. Each local growing area has its own conditions and traditions, contributing to Lincang’s diversity of tea.
For this 2025 selection, the focus is the young bud: a fine, tender material that gives the tea its delicate appearance and expressive character. Its floral opening, gentle sweetness and soft texture make it a graceful introduction to raw Pu’er.
The character of the bud
A tea bud is the unopened growing tip of the shoot. Selecting this material gives Golden Bud a fine, consistent leaf style. The tiny hairs visible on young buds are part of the plant’s natural growth; some may remain visible in the brewed liquor.
Understanding sweetness and structure
Amino acids, including theanine, contribute to tea’s savoury character, while catechins and caffeine help shape bitterness and grip. Their balance varies with the plant, season and processing. Bud selection alone does not establish a tea’s caffeine level or guarantee low bitterness.
Golden Bud’s appeal lies in the balance experienced in the cup: floral lift, fruit and honey like sweetness supported by a soft texture. Gentle brewing allows those qualities to remain distinct.
From fresh buds to raw Pu’er
After picking, the buds are allowed to soften before heating slows enzymatic oxidation. Gentle rolling shapes the material, and sun drying creates the loose base tea known as maocha. Sorting completes the selection before the tea is prepared for storage and brewing.
This is the sheng, or raw, style of Pu’er. It develops gradually over time through storage, while ripe Pu’er undergoes a separate wet pile fermentation process. Golden Bud retains the brighter, more delicate character associated with a young raw tea.
Taking time with the cup
Enjoy Golden Bud as a slow morning or daytime session. Smell the warmed leaf, taste the first floral cups and leave a little space between pours. The pleasure is in following how its sweetness, texture and finish change from one infusion to the next.
