Yi Wu Mountain, Wild Leaves, Menghai Product Company, Year 2005 (Green/Sheng)

Yi Wu Mountain, Wild Leaves, Menghai Product Company, Year 2005 (Green/Sheng)

There's one reason and one reason only that I don't exclusively buy 30+ year old puer, money. That said, I've quite enjoyed an eight year old bingcha from The Chinese Tea Shop that I purchased after finding Daniel's description intriguing:

"This recipe uses many tips, although the flavors are a bit more aggressive than expected. Rich camphor accompanied by mossy and earthy tones dominate the first brews. The camphor notes eventually fade allowing the moist rich mossy earth flavors to broaden out. Lightly flowery taste with honey overtones. Smooth, rich character if made with care. Excellent potential."

There are two things to pay attention to in his description, "excellent potential" and "if made with care". Let me emphasize that "if" one more time...

My love of oolong tea has left my tea making skills disproportionately developed and most of my experience with puer has been either well aged or shu puer. So, unaware of the kick in the mouth I was about to be steeping in, I filled my pot with a nice large chuck of wild leaves, with a few loose crumbs for balance, rinsed, and eagerly poured the first cup.

The sent was much as advertised, mossy, smoky, camphor. The moment the drink wet my mouth, though, wow, a mind-shattering bitterness took over my consciousness to the point that I nearly felt nauseous. I took about half of the leaves out of the pot and tried again, and though it was tolerable, it was still very strong. After tolerating the first few over powering steeps, it eased into a very nice tea. The amazing thing about the initial blast of overzealous infusing was the residue of tea oil built up in my throat. Throughout the whole day, and late into the night, the aftertaste emerged, as strong as if I'd just drunk a few cups. It's the only time I've had an aftertaste out do that of Phoenix Dancong, and out-did-it it did by a lot.

I've since tried this tea with varying amounts of leaf, and even a small chunk is very enjoyable but I actually enjoy a but of the harshness so I don't mind a medium sized piece. I haven't experienced the everlasting aftertaste of the first experience, but I also haven't been nauseated by this tea since, either. I'm actually not sure if the cake I ordered will ever get to reach its potential, I've already gone through half of it in a few months. For only $20, though, I can easily get another one, or three!

1994 Menghai Tea Factory 7542 bĭng chá

雲南勐海普洱茶生茶7542青餅

In 2009, I was fortunate to acquire a bing (饼茶, "Disc Tea") of 1994 Menghai 7542 relatively cheaply when the financial crash was favorable for Korea to import puer from Hong Kong. The Tea Master strongly suggested that I buy a disk, explaining the reputation of the tea and the unique opportunity that had arisen.

Still, $350 dollars was much more than I'd ever found myself sane enough to spend on tea but on a per gram basis, it was actually par with many other teas I regularly purchase. After being served a few cups, the 'tea drunk' did the rest of the convincing. My senses were acute yet my body very mellow, like after an ideal meditation.

Menghai is one of the best known producers of puer tea. They are one of two original puer factories, and even with current tea trends veering toward smaller factories, Menghai remains highly respected. '7542' is sort of a code for this specific disk. 75 is the year the recipe was first made, 4 is the grade of leaves used, and 2 means that the disk is from Menghai factory. 1994 was a particularly good year for this recipe, though any given year, it is a tea that other puer may be compared to. It is also one of the few remaining sheng puer, ('raw' puer). 90% of the puer produced these days is shu puer.
The flavour of the '94 7542 is complex, holding all five flavours, which alternate in prominence through the first few steeps. Though it's still a middle-aged bing, there are already hints of a fully-aged tea. Its smoothness is quite mature and the underlying flavour is reminiscent of an old tea. The colour of the liquor is more fitting of it's age, starting off a slightly dark reddish-brown, but quickly progresses to a golden orange. The taste is very durable though, lasting well into a dozen steeps.

Now that it's about to turn twenty years-old, it's already worth nearly three times what I paid for it four years ago, and now that I'm down to the last I realize that the tea master was telling to buy it not to drink, but as an investment... But, I can hardly regret the treat it's been enjoying this bing. If another opportunity presents itself to acquire such a tea again, I'll be sure to purchase more than one!

Pear Shaped Zhuni • 梨形茶壶

Over the years, I've developed a fondness for fruit-shaped Yixing teapots. Pear-shaped ones, especially, seem to catch my eye, with with their elegantly curved spouts and smooth contours.

There are a few at the teashop that I can't help but stare at every time I go in (which is often...) but they are all antique and the one my eye likes the best is $2000. I asked if there were any that were more affordable but was told not many artists still make the curved spouts anymore, so they're usually antique.

Eventually, I found one that didn't quite match the perfectly crafted antique ones but was still very nice for less than a tenth the price. The rough texture of the surface made me think it could be zhuni, and I was right. The odd thing about the pot is that it has no stamp but a poem carved into the bottom, "Creek under the moonlight," with the name of an old master who lived three-hundred years ago. The thing is, the pot is less than ten years old. So, it's sort of like having an eight year-old Stradivarius. But if it's even remotely comparable to a Stradivarius, then I'm not really concerned who made it!

It's 100ml, perfect for two gongfu cups, or one large cup, if I'm alone. The walls are slightly thick, making it nice for dark oolong. It's great for puer, too, but the opening is so narrow the tea has to be broken up quite small. The lid fits very nicely, allowing a very clean pour and the edges of the rim and lid are smooth and sharp. The top bead is perfectly shaped with nice proportion to the pot, he lower portion of the lid, that slides into the pot, is angled slightly inward, showing the artist's care for detail.