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2001 MengKu "Yuan Yieh Xian" of MengSa, Thin-Papered 357g | ||
| Genre: Compressed Sheng/Green/Uncooked/Raw | ||
| Factory: Shuan Jiang Meng Ku Factory | ||
| Vendor: Hou De Fine Asian Art | ||
| Reviewed by Katmax on 02/13/2007 | ||
| Background | A semi-wild (old plantations, wildly planted)cake. It was a special order by HK's Mr. Chen Guo-Yi (who popularized the concept of "dry storage" by his successful 88-Ching Beeng) in 2001. Using single-estate big-tree leaves from the Meng Sa Mountains in southern Yi Wu, this cake was made to the form of "iron cake". Two batches were produced: one wrapped with thin papers, and the other wrapped with thick papers. The thin-papered batch was store in the "dry storage" condition, while the thick-papered batch was stored in the traditional HK-style warehouse. (see website more more information) | |
| Dry Leaf Appearence: | This cake has already lost its green appearance and the leaves are quite dry and easy to detach from the cake with either your fingers or a small pu-erh knife. The cake consists of whole leaves and has a lovely dry aged aroma when the wrapper is opened. | |
| Water to Leaf Ratio: | 7 gr of Leaf in 220 ml of water | |
| Brewing Method: | In a glass cup with an infuser which allowed me to judge the brewing time mostly by the water colour. I can't give exact times but they were around 1-2 minutes for the first steep, 1 min for the second and 1-2 for the 3rd & 4th and longer for the rest. | |
| Wet Leaf Appearence: | The leaves are still brown but they have revived small touches of a mild green. The leaves are mostly whole except where they have broken coming off the cake. Some of them are reasonably large in size. | |
| 1st Steep | A rich golden brown crystal clear liqour with a lovely aroma. The tea has an aged tasted to it already though it is under 10 years old. It slips down your throat before you know it. It has an almost caramel taste to it. | |
| 2nd Steep | Taste is a little stronger. No bitterness at all. Very smooth and rich. | |
| 3rd Steep | Taste still easily retained in tea which has a lovely golden brown colour liquor. Similar to previous infusion. | |
| 4th Steep | the tea is starting to weaken, but its still sweet and smooth with that caramel undertone its had from the start. The tea has lost much of its aroma but retains a very good taste. | |
| Subsequent Steeps | I got 2 more steeps out of this each taking progressivley longer though the tea still retained its carmaley taste it was a pleasant shadow of its early ones and the brew aroma vanished by the last cup. | |
| Conclusion | This tea is very easy to drink and it reminds you why a good pu-erh can be a wonderful experience. Its easy to see why this tea is becoming so sought after in asia as at 6 years its already aged to a point where there is no hint of bitterness. While the number of steeps you get out of the tea are not incredible, the ones you do get make you go back for more as soon as you can. Not a cheap cake, but a lovely drinking experience. | |
| Sorry, no Photos | ||