The third edition of our budget bitter hitter, ‘A Flash And Then The Quiet’ is a classic Menghai-style blend of raw puerh tea made with a focus on powerful, punchy bitterness. The ideal tea for after a heavy meal, for when you need to get stuff done, or when you just want to feel something.

This tea has a bold, bitter-forward profile with a zesty bergamot edge to its fragrance. When brewed, this tea offers a potent dose of bitterness that’s effervescent, peppery, and palate cleansing. Compared to 2024 ‘A Flash And Then The Quiet’ Raw Puerh Tea, this edition drives the bitter bargain even harder and with an ambrosial flourish, like a wave hello from a perfumed hand gloved in silk.

Successive re-steeps unveil the highly perfumed huigan (回甘 huígān) - a lingering sweet aftertaste - at the heart of this raw puerh’s mouth-coating bitterness. But don’t just take our word for it, stick your nose in the gongdaobei and breathe in an aromatic fugue of bergamot, gin, and dried apple. Just make sure you’ve eaten some food before embarking on the ride, as this tea comes with a strong energy kick.

Like its predecessors, ‘A Flash And Then The Quiet’ is a reflection our sourcing philosophy; the fame and hype of a particular village is irrelevant in the face of a tea’s sheer quality and the biodiversity of its growing environment. This is one of our most aggressively priced teas of all time, thanks to multiple years of going off the beaten path and believing in the value of the material and environment, rather than the fame of the village.

Grab a tong for now, or keep it for ageing and thank us in 10 years.

Wrapper artwork by ERODUCTIONS. 

Pictures by Pingle Pictures.

2025 tea material produced in Yunnan, China.

200g per compressed cake, with 5 cakes per traditionally wrapped bamboo tong. 25g samples are cut or broken from the cakes and sealed into bags.