2008 Bi Yun Hao Daqishu: Pure Yiwu

Daqishu is an area of Yiwu and I don’t remember having one from this specific area.  I picked up this sample from Liquid Proust last year…

Dry leaves smell of a very creamy candy floss sweet floral woody odour.

First infusion has a creamy soft candy sweet taste that begins then floats off into the distance.  There is some sweet creamy candy like sweetness that rides out on the breath also an almost carrot/ sweet potato nuance faintly in the distance but mainly this long creamy sweet ethereal uninterrupted taste very Yiwu taste.

The Second infusion has a peachy creamy sweet onset with a long airy clear note of sweet creamy Yiwu that hangs up in the breath a bit.  Very soft mossy full mouthfeeling with a bit of saliva producing but a deep vacuous throat feeling.  Nice floating out of body Qi feeling here with some body wobbling side to side feeling as if bobbing like a buoy in the ocean. 

3^rd has a slightly more woody sharing a balance between sweet creamy and woody dry onset with very clear notes not interrupted by any storage notes- this one is stored quite dry and the result is lots of clarity here.  There is a bit of a juicier peachy nuance here with mainly a long creamy sweetness that uninterrupted rides out in the breath.  Deep breath throat feeling.  Nice mossy full mouthfeeling with a deep subtle open throatfeeling.  Nice spacy Qi with some chest beats.  A bit time slowing Qi here too.

4^th was left to cool down and it gives off a woody watery almost honey sort of floral and ends creamy sweet in the mouth and breath.  Ethereal and airy and pure and light.  There is more of a mossy gripping mouthfeeling now with a slight pull at the throat.  Nice spacy feeling qi with some chest beats.

5^th infusion has a watery almost sweet potato nuance to it over woody with faint suggestions of creamy sweet and maybe peach taste.  Nice chalky mossy and slightly tugging the throat sensations.  Nice spacy Qi feeling.  Some almost candy glimpses in the aftertaste.  Clear taste profile nice spacy qi.

6^th has an oily buttery creamy taste slight woody with a melon and sweet potato there is woody creamy nuances that fade into the breath here.  Nice spacy feeling.

7^th has a melon watery fruity onset with clear taste of Yiwu here.  The cool cup is even clearer sweet potato and melon taste fade out in the breath and less deep in the throat now.  Very straightforward single estate material.

8^th has a woody oily sweet potato and melon onset with a subtle fading out into creamy sweetness.  Very clear and simple single estate gushu brilliantly dry stored.  Nice spacy feeling to the Qi.  In the body there is a loose jaw feeling in the face and some more obvious chest Heart beats.

9^th is cooled down and gives off a sweet woody sort of melon peach with a nice faint fade out.  The mouthfeeling is mossy with a bit of gripping- pretty mild.  Nice floating feeling, spacy, with heart beats.

10^th has an oily peachy woody taste with a nice lubricating texture when left to cool.  Nice soft mossy mouthfeeling.  Simple and clear taste.  Nice mild spacy feeling.

11^th has a woody oily taste with a bit of distant peach not that sweet but absolutely no bitter or astringency either.

I mug steep out the spent leaves and it gives off woody faint onset with a peachy melon taste to it.  The mouthfeel is a full mossy slight gripping feeling.  The peachy taste lingers for mintues later popping in the mouth and saliva then fading only to come back again.  Nice spaced out feeling here.

This is a very simple high quality, straightforward and pure single estate Yiwu Gushu with near perfect storage and processing.  What’s not to like about this?? 

Shah8’s Tasting Notes

Peace

2008 Xizi Hao Diangu: Minty Cardboard Perfume Heartbeats!

I picked up this 2008 Xizi Hao Diangu sample at Liquid Proust last year.  I think it was a comparative set along with the 2009.  He has done lots of options with Diangu on his site over the years including offering this full iron cake version.

Dry leaves smell of cardboard and a sweet creamy woody odour.  Not any piercing nectar like the Houde 2007 but same cardboard like odour which is interesting because I thought it was a storage odour and maybe it comes from the same collector and is…

First infusion has a woody, cardboard onset cherry and turnip earthy tastes.  It’s a smooth and a bit watery with a thin full sandy mouth and unique hints of fruit I can’t describe.

The second infusion has a perfume onset with notes of tart rosehips and almost grapefruit pith fruity bitterness.  There is a movement to a creamy berry sweet taste that slowly emerges and expands in the aftertaste.  There is a sweet tart perfume taste in the mouth even minutes later.  The lingering aftertaste is long.  Qi is focusing and happy with a bit of chest Qi.

The third infusion has a woody perfume cardboard bitters onset.  There is a subtle hong cha note and an emerging minty perfume taste in the aftertaste.  Tastes a bit soapy floral almost creamy.  It has a soft thin sandy but full feeling in the mouth.  Spacy and floating Qi takes hold of my mind with some Heart beats.

4^th has a woody bitter cardboard with a soapy floral perfume note that is a bitter minty taste.  Not as condensed, perfume, or bitter as the drier stored 2007 from Houde.  Strong initial presentation of flavour then develops a bit more cardboard minty taste.  Long aftertaste of initial flavours.  Steady strength from the Qi totally spaces me out while I can feel strong Chest pounding.  The cooled cup has a more tart woody cardboard fruitiness, less bitter-mint, and nice long creamy and smoother sweetness.  A touch harsh on the digestion from being a bit young maybe.

5^th has a medicinal cherry cough syrup onset with that minty bitter edge to it.  It has an emerging creamy sweet note in there that comes out as the more bitter notes recede.  Soft full thin sandy mouthfeeling.  Nice Chest Qi sensation with floating mind.

6^th infusion has a sour rose hip and cardboard taste.  There is some bitter floral tastes a touch woody and sort of minty.  The fine full soft sandy mouthfeeling is prominent.  Nice relaxing floating Qi.  Vs   2007 this one is much less condensed, powerful in taste, aroma, and Qi.  Its maybe 1/2 as good.

7^th has a root turnip, floral perfume, carboard onset with a carrot creamy sweet finish.  Nice soft full fine sandy mouthfeeling.  This infusion has more of a root veggie taste which did not appear in the 2007.

8^th has a bitter metallic woody body floral cardboard and sandy mouthfeeling.  Cooled it is more creamy sweet and minty with lesser bitter cardboard wood.  Nice lingering sweet floral breath.

9^th has a cardboard woody floral taste to it.  There is a bit of minty almost root veggies edges to it.  Still lots of medium bitterness that comes with a woody flat taste.  Nice decent chest expanding and uplifting spacy feeling.

10^th infusion has a bitter woody root veggies floral taste initially then has a metallic like finish along with woody bitterness.  This infusion has much less sweetness.  More of a flat taste in the mouth.

12^th is a more creamy woody cardboard floral onset that ends more sweet that woody.  The 2008 is way less perfume.  Nice thin full fine sandy mouthfeeling.  Nice uplifting Qi.

13^th has a woody almost watery bitter flat woody taste with edges of sweetness.  Mouthfeeling is a bit more gripping and has not much sweetness, a bit of perfume.  Nice Chest pounding and uplifting more energizing Qi than the 2007s stupefying Qi.

14^th has a woody cardboard root veggie kind of flat taste with not really any sweetness left.  A flat dry puckering mouthfeeling.  Uplifting Qi.

Although this 2008 is still pretty enjoyable, the quality gap between the 2007 from Houde and this 2008 is very significant.

Peace

2008 Fangmingyuan Bama, Again!

A surprise from Tiago of Tea Encounter. Dry leaves smell of sweet misty rainforests, distant sweet berries, sweet woody odours.  Sweet very pungent taste very cooling finish. Pungent camphorus wood and a creamy long sweetness. The storage seems drier than other Fangmingyuan puerh from Tea Encounter . Sticky lips and tongue feeling.  Faint bubble gum breath.  Relaxing qi even spacy and floating body type of qi.  Nice apricot and wood in late infusions.  At $88.89 for 400g cake or$0.22/g , I think I should buy this one again …

Peace

Rough & Elegant: Two Interesting Yesheng/ Wild Tea Samples from Teapals

Last month I put my very first order through at Teapals.  I picked up what turned out to be the last of these 2003 Shuangjiang Mengku Da Xue Shan Wild puerh bricks (I haven’t tired them yet) and in the order I received a few interesting complimentary samples of wild puerh by Mr. Teapal himself, KL Wong.

I believe these came from KL Wong’s personal collection because I don’t see them for sale on his website.  Usually, I don’t write about samples that are never offered for sale in the Western market but these two are both a bit unique in their own ways.  One of them is one of the most ethereal and elegant wilds I have tried where the other is from Western Xishuangbanna, the Naka region, an area that we don’t tend to see a lot of yesheng.  So I thought, for eduational purposes, I would type some notes up on these two interesting wild teas.  Why is most yesheng/ wild that reaches western markets from Northern Xishuangbanna or from the Yiwu/ Western Xishuangbanna producing areas?  This, I don’t know?

2008 Teapals Small Factory Naka Yesheng

The dry leaves smell of hay and distant woody sweetness.

The first infusion has a buttery entry with a soft and woody base with a creamy sweetness.  There is a faint cloud of fruit sweetness on the breath- almost like a tart cherry taste but not really even tart.

The second infusion I taste a more woody less buttery taste.  It has a straw almost dry wood with a layer of sweetness.  The moutheel is mildly sticky the breath is of fruits of faint strawberries and wild cherry, it’s more of a creamy sweetness almost candy floss.  The tastes are faint and delicate but are supported in the woody base.

The third infusion is a touch more woody with a pungent almost wood bark with a long faint fruit aftertaste layered into faint candy floss.  This infusion has a bit of a brackish/ smoke tinge to it.

The fourth infusion starts a touch smoky and wood.  The mouthfeel is mainly on the tongue.  The Qi is pretty mild with a soft warmth generated in the body the spine feels nice and loose.  This infusion gets noticeably smoky and slightly rough with a baked apple sweetness and candy floss covered in a woody slight smoky taste.

The fifth infusion has a nice woody, deeper slight smoky, layered dry apple nuance.  Has a slight cooling taste.  The qi is mild and a bit relaxing now.  I can feel it behind the eyes.  This tastes like a pretty traditionally processed wild.  Has a bit of a fruit aftertaste lingering there.

The sixth infusion starts a bit smoky with nuances of wood and almost fruit sweetness.  The qi is quite mild but warming in the body.

The seventh infusion is a bit warm fruity smoky onset slight sandy tongue feel.  Lingering smoke and slight fruit aftertaste.  Long slight sweet, slight smoky taste.  Mild Qi sensation- warming in body and can feel energy in the diaphragm.

Eighth is much the same.  With a faded talic berry nuance. Energy feels clean and natural.

I steep this for a few more infusions and get a nice smoked plum flavor in an almost sandy tongue feeling.

This is standard enough wild for an everyday drinker, clean in the body, but no other overly apparent strengths and an old-school a traditional processed vibe.

I enjoy this tea for what it is- nice little traditionally processed wild from a region I have not yet sampled a wild tea from, Naka.

2018 Teapals Early Spring Wild Yiwu

Dry dark coloured leaves have a heavy dense deep floral syrupy sweetness with lingering candy odour.

The first infusion arrives with a light water vacuous onset with faint icing sugar sweetness and faint woodiness.  The taste is delicate and the minute’s later aftertaste is a mild woody coolness with distant long creamy sweetness.

The second infusion has more sweetness in its approach and a soft and elegant long dry woodiness that stretches into a faint bubble gum flavor long on the breath.  This tea is very elegant and long tasting.  Its mouthfeeling is very soft and mildly viscus on the tongue.  It feel like it reaches deep into the throat but with graceful simulation there. The Qi in here is very nice, happy feeling, light-floating head sensation, lax body, smiles. 

The third infusion starts off very faint, almost woody with a faint underlying bubble gum sweetness and icing sugar.  The profile is very long, subtle, graceful, super mild.  A soft returning coolness in the deep throat.

The fourth develops some depth with a soapy bubble gum almost grape Thrills gum like taste that pops initially before embracing the thin dry wood tastes.  This initial taste is strung out slowly in the aftertaste and breath.  Deep relaxation you can feel it in the heart slowing- Qi is very very nice.  Big relaxing and gooey body sensation Qi here.

The fifth infusion has a woody almost icing sugar onset with dry woods to follow.  It develops a fluffier cotton in mouth feeling and has a woodier almost briny woody and faint floral suggestion.  Deep long faint sweetness of bubble gum on breath.  Floating.

The sixth infusion is developing a subtle chestnut richness with thin dry wood taste and faint long barely bubble gum tastes.  The taste is still very elegant but I wouldn’t say it’s weak or thin but rather fine.  The seventh is much the same as the flavours develop a warmer almost nutty wood nuance.  The mouthfeel is soft, fluffy, and barely sticky.

The eighth and ninth have a richer nutty wood taste with a barely creamy sweetness.  Overall the taste is sweet but hard to explain like the sweetness is coming from the nuttiness.  Faint creamy sweetness in breath.  The mouthfeel develops a mild astringency now.

The 10^th and 11^th have a more round, almost metallic woody taste and deep faint long sweetness.  There is faint floral lingering- the mouthfeel is more astringent here.  The taste is mainly woody now slight astringency with metallic and faint breath sweetness.

I had to step away from the tea table very early morning and, unfortunately, didn’t return until sunset.  This one seemed to start to fade before I stepped away.  I put it in an overnight infusion and got some really nice dense, rich, syrupy fruit stuff.  I put it in another overnight infusion and got much the same which tells me this one could have probably steeped out nicely.

This wild had real nice qi, it was one of the most fragile wild tea I have sample so far.  Much more delicate than any other Yiwu wild I have tried in the past (here and here).  Nice to drink now… love the qi in there.

Peace

2008 Menghai “Big Classic”, Oldish, and Kinda Drinkable

I have a history with this cake from years ago.  My puerh drinking buddy in Victoria, once brought this one over for us to drink in 2010, I think.  He was looking for a suitable cheap everyday drinker puerh and wanted to know what I thought about it.  After the session, I convinced him to buy a tong of the famous 2001 (aka 90s) Ding Xing  through the original Taobao dealer.  I think the Ding Xing was $40.00 a cake back then and this "Big Classic" cake was around $25.00? I paid $38.00 ($0.11/gr) from Tuo Cha Tea last year (it also had 10% discount applied for bulk orders on top of that) the price has gone up to $45.00 ($0.13/g).  Years back my rationale was that the 2001 Ding Xing is just a much better value so why bother with this Menghai.  He agreed a bought a tong for everyday drinking.  At that time this Menghai "Big Classic" was not quite ready to drink even.

An interesting thing about the 2008 Big Classic is that everyone still has this cake sitting around (and the famous Ding Xiang is hard to track down these days)!  … Tuo Cha Tea, Puerhshop, Yunnan Sourcing, King Tea Mall… they all have it.  That really says a lot.  If it was good, surely there wouldn’t be any left… would there?

From what I’ve read about this one is that Menghai used a blend of older leaves to make this recipe. That means that some of the actual tea material is older than the date stamp. I read somewhere that the average leaf grade in this recipe is “3” but I can't remember where I read that.  Seems like a Menghai factory tea that is truly ready to drink.  So let’s crush this one with a meditative mind…

The dry leaves smell of sweet plum and slight malted sweetness.

First infusion is a warming broth of heavier, grounding mellow tastes.  It has a soft full feeling.  There are woody slightly cinnamon tastes that greet the mouth initially then slowly traverse into a creamy barely sweetness and coolness.  This tea has a complete, round, fullish, mellow feeling right off the bat.  A nice slight sweet cinnamon tastes lingers on the breath.

The second infusion presents more now with a sweet round deep wood and slight cinnamon taste.  The taste is such that it pushes saliva onto the tongue.  This infusion has a pronounced returning sweet coolness.  This tea has a complete taste and is ready to drink now semi-aged without a need to age further.  It has a nice warming comforting feeling that I used to get from 10 years old Menghai factory tea that was more humidly stored than this very dry Kunming stored one.  However this tea almost lacks everything else which would identify it as Menghai Factory.  However, this tea is also sufficiently alerting as well, it has that typical and welcome factory Qi.

The third infusion presents now with a more woody-slightly malty raison taste.  The wood taste extends itself into the mid-profile and aftertaste.  The sweetness and cinnamon taste is much less here as the mouthfeel fills out and is just barely drying on the tongue.  The taste of this puerh is not exciting nor complex but rather stable, round, and reassuring.  The qi pushed me into a high state now- I feel like I am a tiny tiny bit floating here.  The qi is quite a relaxing, in the head type qi but also is sufficiently alerting.  I like the Qi of this tea for the price, even if a bit typical, at least it has some gas in this aspect.

The fourth infusion flattens out a bit more with the wood note now predominating and the sweeter notes of raison and cinnamon now being delegated to the aftertaste or breath.  The taste is comforting on this very cloudy morning but lacks anything interesting or complex.  The simple tastes are enjoyed.

The fifth infusion has resorted back to that more balanced creamy sweet raisin wood taste.  The sweetness feels more rounded here now.  The mouthfeel remains just a touch dry and the throatfeel is open but not significantly stimulating.

The sixth infusion is a nice smooth mix of slightly sweet creamier notes and deeper woody notes over a nice full slightly drying mouthfeel.  Different fruit notes of watermelon pop up on the breath in this infusion which I enjoy.

The seventh infusion feels a bit more watered down now but still flavours exist.  There is still a mild cooling in the aftertaste and still a sweet creamy edge on the mainly woody taste.

The eighth starts to flatten out but still significant flavors are still there echoing the earlier infusion.

The ninth and tenth still have a nice slightly cool finish and woody slightly sweetness to them.

This tea is long steeped and pushes out another few infusions of woody raison notes.  This tea has decent stamina and tastes good for a longer time.  But the flavors are a bit muted throughout.

My overall thoughts on this tea are much more favorable than my run in with this tea years before.  It has seemed to improve with a bit more age.  Years before I had previously thought this tea to be too typical puerh taste and too weak with not enough vitality.  Years later it hasn’t really gained strength or that much interesting depth but it is easy enough to drink.

There is something about the way this one feels that I quite like but can’t really put a finger on it.  It's like factory Menghai Qi that is curbed down a notch.  I am quite found of the storage of this tea which shows signs that the older material was aged in more humid Xishuangbana for the first few years before being pressed into a cake.  Then it undergone drier Kunming storage for 9 years.  This tea has this storage feeling and really feels like a dry stored tea that has had its sourness and harshness chopped right off.

Due to the above reasons and because the price at Tuo Cha tea is really low (remember that you are getting 2005ish material here),  I can recommend this tea for its simplicity and easiness to drink.  It is not terribly exciting tea but nor is it offensive in any way.  There is some beauty in its simplicity but nobody finds the mundane worth it, really.  Its possible that I would be buying more of these as easy everyday drinkers if it weren't for the fact that I have another handful of Menghai Factory cakes from this order (link).  This is my favorite, by far, out of the order but only due to the fact that it is really the only one out of the bunch that is actually ready to drink.  I ended up drinking the whole cake up already.  That at least says something.

However, I have learned from recent orders that if it wasn't good enough for you to buy then you probably shouldn't buy it now, at least not in any sort of volume.  The simplicity of this cake and easiness to drink also reminds me of this 2010 Fangmingyuan 0842 Anniversary (which is $0.11/g)  in its mild hay drinkable Menghai charms.  They are both around the same price and both pretty easy, don't think too much about it, kind of puerh.

Early reviews of this tea by other bloggers include this review from Hobbes of the Half-Dipper.

Peace

2008 Dayi Qui Xiang & Thoughts on Strong Puerh

In a bout of bad luck last year, I both broke my dailyyixing teapot and had a sellout of a puerh at time of checkout!

Wilson (Adventure in Every Cup) turned my bad luck into good by remedying both of these issues!  First he helped me find this beautiful old factoy 1 early 90s/late 80s yixing 200ml teapot (pictured in this post).  Scondly, he sent me a bit of a treat, a sample of this 2008 Dayi Qui Xiang ($85.00 for 500g cake or $0.17/g) - the one that sold out on me at Tuo Cha Tea!  If you are into 10 years factory puerh, its worth checking out Willson’s interesting selection of good drinkers.

There are many many reasons that I had reservations about purchasing this dry stored option at good ol’ Tuo Cha Tea.  First, I had to get over the fact it is an autumnal produced puerh.  This 2008 Day hardly resembles autumnal material to me and will challenge your assumptions about the nature of autumn puerh.  The second reservation I had is, like most factory options, there is usually a lot of it out there with a multitude of storage options and availability online.  This makes for a hard choice if you are looking to buy in volume.  For me I almost want to try it in different storage conditions before deciding on purchase.  Often, if there is a deal to be had, you have to act quick in the face of rising prices. 

The crazy cheap option at Tuo Cha Tea that I just couldn’t complete was the least optimal storage for this cake, I think.  I have bought some of Menghai factory stuff before that pretty much requires/ was really only meant for more humid storage and am currently dosing them with heavy humidity.  Not all Menghai Factory (Daiyi) requires such humid storage but most of it isn’t meant for overly dry storage.  This is one of the reasons I have not owned any Dayi in the past.  This 2008 Dayi QuiXiang is so strong that it really does need many more years of humid storage before it is consumed.  It’s more of a long term buy.  I always have a hard time going down this road due to past advice to just avoid it and buy something that can be enjoyed in some way at time of purchase.

The previous samplings I’ve done with this tea, it kicked the crap out of me so this time I use less leaf!  This infusion I’m using ½ to 1/3 less leaf as I usually do… Let’s see what this Maylaysian stored one is all about…

The dry leaves smell of faint rum, plumb and wheat grains and decaying flowers.

The first infusion has a slight sweet, slightly decomposing leaf taste to it with a long cooling mouthfeel and subtle spicy finish.  There is a nice sticky mouthfeeling distant smoke.

The second infusion has a nice thick rose and wood powdery taste with a nice floral sweet backbone in a more typical Menghai factory feel.  There is a long sweet finish a sticky mouthfeel.  Retuning menthol.  The qi is strong and alerting in the mind, I can feel the intensity behind my eyes and in my stomach.

The third gives me a mild itch sensation but flavors are strong, thick and deep.  Layered woods, slight talc rose, sweet floral, plumb, and sweet potato layered sweetness.  The mouthfeel is dense and the finish is camphorus, slight floral, sweet.  The qi is quite intense, very strongly alerting, it still beats up the stomach pretty good.

The fourth infusion has a leafier, woody layering to it with sweetness and talc rose floral on the edges.  The long menthol finish is nice.  Sweetness pops slightly in the long cooling aftertaste.

The fifth infusion is of woods immediately with sweetness lingering in the distance that stretches its legs in the aftertaste along with menthol like tastes.  In the aftertaste there are faint suggestions of tropical fruits under floral talc tastes and fruity nuances.  The menthol finish is strong and the monthfeel is dense.  The mid throat opens under the threat of abundant menthol.  The Qi black logs in the head and mind and makes me feel like I am levitating a bit.  Strong Qi but a bit too harsh on the stomach, needs to age at least another 5 years.

The sixth and seventh infusions are much the same rose talc, woods, sweetness, thick mouthfeeling, strong qi.  Long menthol.  This tea stays pretty consistent from infusion to infusion but is deep and enjoyable. 

The seventh infusion has a nice mellow woody start, the action is in the aftertaste with long champor and tight aged florals.

The eighth and ninth infusions becomes very smooth, velvety wood and plum with leathery tastes.  The aftertaste is forever cooling.  Mouthfeel is not as strong but present.

The tenth infusion I add 10 seconds to the flash infusion which seems to bring a bit of a thicker mouthfeeling and more of a nuanced initial taste of woods and talc sweetnesses.  The menthol becomes more pronounced but it is not harsher.

The eleventh infusion I add 15 seconds to flash and get a slightly more rough infusion with a mouthfeel that has a drier astringent edge with mainly woody character now with there is a noticeable smokiness now that has gone from being more background to more upfront with the increase dry astringency.

With the 200ml pot and rougher profile, I toss in the towel with this tea early.

This tea is flavorful, has a nice mouthfeel, aftertaste, and powerful qi.  It is economical in the sense that you need about ½-1/3 less leaves to get a strong flavor and that it is a 500g cake ($0.17/g).  It tastes to me like it may have both Menghai and Nannou blended in there. Reminds me in many ways of this older and cheaper but harsher 2005 CNNP Big Yellow Mark but this Menghai Factory option is much cleaner, no smokey mesquite, and has some charms of typical Dayi factory deliciousness.

I would love to see someone who thought they could get away with just using a gaiwan attempt to enjoy this strong tea.  I’m happy I have this pot to curb the harshness, it seems to do a great job at reducing the difficult edges of the 2007 Yang Qing Hao Qi Zhong that I have been most frequently stepping in this pot as of late.

Really this 2008 Qui Xiang needs at least another 5 years to be enjoyed as aged pureh.  I think people in the West are just beginning to understand how to age these stronger factory things out.

In the end, this has got to be one my favorite 2008 Menghai Factory puerh but I’m unsure about a purchase and almost would like to try a few more different storage options before settling on this cake.  Thanks again Wilson for helping to lift me through my streak of mishappenings!  So far, this cake has the best storage I’ve seen on it.

Peace

2008 Fangmingyuan Nannou, Revisiting an Old Friend

I have some history with this cake.

Creamy, slight floral, slight aged tangerine peel, sticky in mouth, slight mahogany wood, slight watery, distant florals, menthol, sticky and slightly drying, relaxing head qi, becomes woody/menthol, very relaxing, almost sleepy even, inconspicuously alerting.  Not very thick but fruity, woody and menthol with nice qi.

I end up ordering one of these 357g cakes at $99.67 or$ 0.28/g as a comparison to the dry stored one I have.

Peace

2008 Essence of Tea Qianjiazhai Wild

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2008 Menghai 7582 (802) and 2008 Menghai 8582 (806) Are Meant for Humid Storage

I used to drink a lot of these recipes in Korea.  Most of the ones I drank were stored under a humid Taiwanese storage then dried out a bit in Korean storage.  Most were from the 1990s and around 10-20 old.  I don’t ever remember tasting one that was completely stored in Korea.  My memory of these are earthy, dirt tasting, with a cool finish, these are both deep tasting teas, least in my memory.

I picked up both of these sample cakes in a recent order from Tuo Cha Tea ( 7582 357g for $26.00 $0.07/g 8582 357g for $19.80 or $0.06/gram )

Let’s dig into the 7582 (802) first….

The first presents with a sour, almost smoky wood taste.  It is a simple taste with a faint aftertaste transforming into barely coolness in the mouth.  The deeper lingering woody character is throughout.

The second infusion is less sour and has a more woody, barely sweet muted faint cherry fruit taste.  The woody profile is apparent throughout.  The mouthfeel is a slightly chalky and slightly dry on the tongue.

The third and fourth infusions have more of a deep woody creamy initial sweetness with edges of something fruity.  The woody taste is predominant.  It finishes into a creamy slightly cooling sweetness in the mouth and breath with pops of cherry and dates in the deeper profile.  In these infusions things come together nicely and show some glimpses of Classic Menghai Factory.  A sweet deep creamy woody taste is left in the aftertaste minutes later.  The Qi is nice softly alerting Qi. 

The fifth and sixth infusion are a bit more woody and less sweet.  The deeper woody body of this tea is now continuous throughout with a small wave of sweetness rippling through the initial taste.  My body can feel the mild effects of spraying by a slight itch felt on the surface of the skin.  There is a gummy, woody, almost rubbery sweetness that appears minutes later in the aftertaste.

The seventh and eighth mellow out considerably and start to fall into a standard steeped out taste of mild tastes of initial wood with slight edge of cherry fruit then woody dry rubbery sweet barely sweet and cooling aftertaste.

To me, this is very typical or standard puerh taste but these tastes are less full and vibrant than I remember in older 10 years aged 7582- too dry.  The storage of 7582 that I remember back in the day used to be more humidly stored probably from Taiwan then brought to Korea for some time in mildly humid storage.  If you order from Tuo Cha Tea expect quite dry and clean Kunming storage unfortunately this kind of tea will do much better in much more humid conditions.

I steep this one out for a handful more times as this typical puerh taste holds for quite some time.

Due to this tea’s cheap price it could totally be considered if you are looking for a super cheap/ mindless factory production.  A  bit of advice for this one would be to try to add a considerable amount of humidity to it for a few years before drinking it up- this is what I intend to do.

 8582 (806)

Okay let’s switch gears to the 8582…

The dry leaf smells of forested west coast woods.

The first infusion starts off with deep, creamier, throatier wood and slight brown sugar tastes then it hits on a weird sour note which disappears into the aftertaste of flat, almost briny wood tastes.

The second infusion has a dry woody, almost maple syrupy edge that slowly transforms in to a dry, flat woody brown sugary finish.  The initial off notes have disappeared leaving this deeper forest woody profile.

The third infusion tastes much the same with a more coherent and cohesive feel with brown sugar sweetness coming first then into a dry almost date like wood taste then on to the sweet brown suragy aftertaste.  The profile is full but not complex and lacks any off tastes.  It has a deeper autumn foresty feel to it.  This tea is giving me an unusual qi sensation of a stuffy and almost dizzy head feeling.  I take a break from this tea for a short time.

The third infusion is much the same again the taste seems to get more harmonious and have more of a flow but it is still the same initial woody brown surgar/ almost maple sugar sweetness initially then to a date and deep woody autumn leafy taste then the brown sugar again.  The mouthfeel of this tea is thin-medium but has nice coverage in the mouth.

The fourth infusion starts developing a medicinal taste to it which now takes the place of the wood foresty notes there are some barely sweet edges to it but it is primarily that herby Traditional Chinese Medicine taste.

The fifth and sixth is the same woody forest and medicinal tastes.  In these infusions the woody forest autumn leafy tastes and medicinal tastes share the space with the sweeter notes becoming muted in these new flavours.

The seventh and eighth has cinnamon and spicy notes lingering faintly in sweetness.  The woody foresty autumn leafy taste remains dominant.  Different but similar deep foresty notes are pushed out of this one for a handful more infusions.

Overall, this 8582, has a very similar feel to the ones I drank in Korea.  Out of all the Menghai recipes, the 8582 was maybe the one I drank most (that and 7542).  Again the storage was different in Korea and made for a deeper, richer, dirt tasting puerh but overall there is a lot of similarities here.  Out of all the Menghai cakes I tried recently this recipe seems the steadiest over the years despite storage differences.

Of the 7584 and 8582 I much prefer the profile of the 8582 and feel that it’s just a cleaner cake overall.  Both of these guys have some evidence of spraying and both could benefit from more humid storage so I will put these two in humid storage along with the 2008 Menghai “Nu Er Gong Bing”.  I hope to touch base with how these are doing years from now.

Overall, I feel like these are not worth really worth it but the price is so cheap that if your expectations are low enough you will find these to be a deal so really it depends on how you look at it.  For me, I won’t be ordering more simply because I have not really gone back for more since sampling these a month or so ago.  I really didn’t like the way they made me feel.  It goes without saying that “they don’t make em’ like they used to.”

Peace