The area of Laos bordering Yiwu has very similar forest terroir as Yiwu itself.  It's not a secret that Yiwu businessmen seek the cheaper Laotian leaf to mix with their local product to make higher production and profit margins.   
 
However, anyone who is familiar with the terroir and processing will notice clear differences between the unblended, nearby single estate versions of Laotian and Yiwu tea.  Whilst the price of Laotian has risen at the same rate as Yiwu tea, the prices are still much lower and this has as much to do with the average quality as it is geopolitical issues, with the vast majority of Laotian tea being terrace tea and not the forest tea that we would be interested in.
 
We have family who work in Laos and, over the last fifteen years, they have been scouting the forest regions for old growth gardens that can produce high-quality tea.  While we've found a few then made and sold test productions in the past, businessmen have since bought up the land for redevelopment and we can no longer source the quality that we would like there.
 
This year, I'm proud to say that we've found a new location that we hope to keep as wild as possible (it is very hard to access).  A group of the trees are exceptionally tall - over 10 metres.  If these were the only trees harvested, the production would be labelled Gaogan(Tall trunk) or Single Tree production but there were other trees involved.  The finished maocha is exceptional when compared to most other Laotian teas, and ranks highly in terms of value when compared to modern Yiwu prices. 
 
I hope that you enjoy this new offering and that it helps to show what the best of different terroirs nearby Yiwu can offer.