A Boundary You Can See From the Ground
新会陈皮 — Xinhui chenpi — is the dried, aged peel of a specific mandarin cultivar, 茶枝柑, grown almost exclusively in Xinhui, Guangdong. Locals draw the boundary of the very best growing zone in an unusual way: a plot counts as first-tier if you can stand in it and see 熊子塔, a pagoda on top of nearby Fengshan, with your own eyes. No survey marker, no fence — just a sightline.
茶坑村, Chakeng village, sits directly beneath that pagoda, inside the boundary in the most literal sense possible. It's also produced its share of well-known names, among them the historical reformer Liang Qichao. Encircled by three waterways, with rich soil and a forgiving climate, Chakeng peel is said to be more oil-rich than peel from anywhere else in the district — glossier, with bigger oil glands and a deeper, more persistent citrus fragrance.
This 2016 peel was aged naturally, sun-dried the traditional way, with nothing added to speed the color or fix the scent. Chenpi isn't meant to be drunk alone — it's traditionally simmered together with aged white tea or ripe puer, or used in cooking, valued less as the lead than as the thing that makes everything around it work better.