Menghai Tea Factory
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INFUSION TEST
1st infusion…
Dry aroma was slightly sweet AND sour and a little woodsy.
Once infused it’s a warm bark type smell.
Color is very light yellow-brown.
Flavor is very sweet for a pu-erh. Very young. Crisp!
I like this! I’m going to do an infusion test with this one today before sending the rest to LiberTEAs
In many ways it is a shame that Menghai Golden Needle White Lotus ripe puerh has been hyped up so much online. It is a very good ripe puerh but not the best that I have encountered although to its credit it is better than most. I think the best thing about this puerh is its overall balance and lack of rough edges and an enjoyable but complex taste that can be hard to nail down into words although I’d say more of soft wood and not dirt. It has a medium level fermentation which has more body than many of the lighter ones but stops short of the strong malty taste that some of the heavier fermentation brings. Also as others have mentioned before this tea has really good staying power for a ripe puerh but as always the number of infusions you can get from the leaves depends upon how strong you like your tea but you will get more than normal for this one.
Preparation
This is one smooth tea even being a new shu. The first infusion is a creamy almost vanilla flavor that completely fills the mouth coating it with a viscous cream sensation. Infusion number two brings out some cherry tobacco notes. I would also argue that a coffee drinker might enjoy this tea due to it’s viscous heady nature. The color is beautiful reddish brown almost the same color as my yixing pot. However the party lasts a short time as this tea gives it all and is finished by the 4th infusion.
Preparation
Not too much to be overly impressed by in this Dayi ripe puerh brick. A typical ripe puerh with a slightly malty taste to it. Well suited as a cheaper everyday casual drinking ripe puerh, that falls into the good upper middle range but falls short of the exceptional upper end ripe puerh.
Preparation
★★★★
(Detailed Review Coming Soon)
Notes:
Delicious. Earthy and rich in flavor with a hint of sweetness on the nose. Nice leathery and woodsy flavor notes, a well-rounded Pu-erh. I steep my Pu-erh’s a lot longer than most, because I enjoy them strong, so my reviews might be skewed compared to other people’s liking. The first and second steep are great with this tea, but its rich flavor fades, thins out past where I like it by the third steeping. But I’d buy it again for sure.
My Ratings…
★ = Didn’t Hate It.
★★ = Not Bad.
★★★ = Me Likey.
★★★★ = Impressive!
★★★★★ = AwesomeSauce!
Preparation
To me, the flavors depart from the realm of agriculture and nature. The flavors no longer taste like tea to me, they taste like the basement in which the tea was stored. Full of talc, basement, salt peter, attic, wet cardboard, old paper, medicine, and grandmothers, I feel as though these flavors lead me on one of my father’s genealogy expeditions or a trip into an historic copper mine shaft than through a sub-tropical forest or a farm of any kind. I do appreciate the woody, ginseng-like herbal qualities, but always end up vacillating between an appreciation of those flavors and a distaste for the damp, musty ones heralding a basement storage. I think I was a little too far gone to really focus on the flavors when I had the 1985 Menghai 8582 with Tim at The Mandarin’s Tea Room, but have a pouch of 1980s Menghai 79092 Loose Ripe which perplexes me in the same way for its super-heavy talc, grandmother, medicine and basement flavors.
Everyone has their own palate, suited to certain flavors and textures. Obviously, with aged sheng puerh being very popular, there are quite a few people for whom the flavor profile of this type of stored tea matches their palate. However, I think I am more attracted to the young, fresh, and fruit-like earth tones of teas such as young sheng puerh, certain oolongs, whites and dark green japanese teas. All that said, I’m still excited to try the other two examples in this tasting to see what variations in storage condition can elicit from the tea.
Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=387
Sounds interesting. Appareantly the “wet storage” ages tea faster, but leaves it “weaker”. We had a pu’er tasting a couple of weeks ago, and we had some wet stored pu’er from ‘99 and some dry-stored (8582, by chance) from ’98. The wet stored tasted older, it’s flavor was more evolved and advanced, but the dry-stored was somewhat stronger in character, and had more interesting taste. Your commentary seems to reinforce this.
I was surprised at how few really solid steeps I was able to get out of it. I’ve got some dry stored in the works, that I’m excited to try.
Batch 903. This tea confounds me. It must be intended for aging, except that I know there are a few crazy folk who do enjoy it young and bristly. I’m not put off by the loud barking bitterness and intensity, but instead find the flavor of the tea less than desirable. It has a lightly rotten raisin kind of scent, a bit pungent and raw. I can see it being called straw and mushroom, but it doesn’t really carry the elegance or quality that those terms elicit for me. Will certainly be game for trying this tea in 10-20 years. Finally, the qi is a bit fast and unsettling, like an unstable vibration.
Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=310
Sample provided by Jas eTea. First pours bring strong currents of talc, minerals, and white powders. I know some people get excited about this element, but I don’t particularly enjoy. A few steeps in, this tea lights up with dates, south asian spices, and woodiness, with some distant citrus. The textures starts shallow for me, but deepens and softens with a gentle wheat-like flavor. The wet leaves hold a cellar or forest floor character that doesn’t show up in the aroma or flavor. I give this tea good marks for being low in strong fermentation character and above average in complexity.
I’m impressed that you stuck with the tea until the standard “shu”-ness started to yield more complexity. I feel so incompetent when selecting shu. Thanks for the note.
I think the general vibe is that the big factories, Menghai especially, are better than most at creating really tight shu. Or at least, consistent, but that’s a different thing.
Be careful about brewing this one too strong because when it is brewed strong it comes out as a soso disappointment for a Dayi ripe puerh. When brewed lighter it produces a much better and enjoyable brew that has a light smooth mouth feel with a bit of maltiness in the mellow background. A good Dayi puerh overall but not the best, so keep in mind just because a puerh cake is a commemorative cake does not mean that it will be better quality than a standard one. It might just cost more because it is a special limited edition cake with a special wrapper around it.
Preparation
Last night, after a long day, I wanted a comfort tea. I usually go for my Orange Rooibos, however not so this time – instead I reached for this pu-erh cake. I needed something unflavored, yet mellow This was perfect. The earthyness of pu-erh soothed me so.
Preparation
So I’m trying pu-erh. I am not an experienced pu erh-drinker, but of the many pu erh varieties I have tried, this one stands out – smooth and mellow. It’s got that earthy pu-erh-ness to it, but not overwhelmingly so, as with the other ripe pu-erhs I’ve tried. It’s caffeinated, but somehow still manages to be calming.
This is a very good every day drink. I am glad I ordered the whole cake, and not just a sample.
I also think this is a good starting point for someone wanting to taste ripe pu-erh
Preparation
Comparing teas side-by-side is always fun. Today, pushing the ’09 Gong Tuo hard with an initial one minute steep, for an espresso-like brew, I was amused to see the weak last steeps of the 80s shu (http://steepster.com/teas/jas-etea/16232-80s-loose-menghai-79092-ripe) seem incredibly sweet when held up against, the more bitter, terse, and earthy ’09. Enlightening was that when brewing shu so aggressively, the faults of the tea come right to the surface, as it showed little sweetness or depth, instead giving a chalky coarseness and a watered-down earthen flavor, making the 80s tea seem so much more interesting. However, comparing young and aged shu in such a manner is probably not fair.
Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=511
Picked this one up from JAS eTea to have a relatively easy drinking shu pu’er at work and am very satisfied. It breaks easily into a nice array of small leaves, with a pleasant, slightly cocoa-infused dry leaf aroma.
Overall, it has a pleasant, soft grain flavor and texture. Cream of rice or cream of wheat, perhaps. A bit of honey, a bit of chocolate, and nice classic shu pu’erh flavor. Those fearing strong “wo dui” will be glad to know this has little to none. It is a bit simple, but not boring. There are hearty flavors there and for me, it delivers what I need from a shu pu’er. It’s certainly a great value for the money and quality.
whats wo dui?
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=wo+dui
Piled fermentation smell. Often, fresh shu pu’er will have an intense “wo dui” aroma, which can be fishy or rotten smelling.
ah. ive gotten that before. not good.
“dude, your breath is wo dui. you need gum.”
This Dayi Yue Chen Yue Xiang is a simple ripe puerh at its best. While it lacks some of the more complex flavor notes that some ripe puerh has it also lacks any earthy and musty flavors. Which leaves behind the basic sweet mellow ripe puerh that drives most ripe puerh drinkers to love it. This one also has a nice smoothness in its thicker brew and is a very friendly puerh for more casual everyday brewing, although if you want to have a serious tea session you might want to go with a more exciting ripe puerh than this one.
Preparation
My first high altitude grown ripe puerh but not much different as I picked up most on the lighter fermentation levels used in this tea. This one takes a bit more skill to brew with good results than most ripe puerh as it does best with very short infusions otherwise one will find it a bit disappointing for a premium product. It has a nice light taste to the brewed tea and is good for a lot of short infusions. Although in the end it is not a puerh that I would see myself buying again as while it is a good puerh it fell short of my personal preferences.
Preparation
Some tea drinkers like young sheng; but for me, this Menghai was unsatisfying on several levels. Sampled at 200˚F, the liquor was somewhat bitter – the kind of thing that happens when a green tea is scorched. Sampled at 145˚F, the bitter notes vanished, but that taste like an understeeped green oolong; the liquor was a light green, and wan in flavor.
Part of the problem is that puerh consumed this early is going to be substandard, since it hasn’t even begun to age. And then there’s the controversy over young sheng; some tea drinkers like the experience, but drinking this is not dissimilar to brewing an inexpensive Tie-Guan-Yin at 212˚F; you’ll get the same harsh, overcooked flavor, and that’s going to be the case with most young sheng.
Preparation
Farewell, fair Nannuo. Okay, THIS was the best in the series. No, really. In the second of two brew sessions, I finally got the flow down with this tea. It takes some intuition, otherwise it gets crushingly dry and cottony. Otherwise, light, perfumy, and with delicate fruits. I think it’s a solid, punchy tea, but responds to a lighter hand of brewing. The steeped leaves certainly showed the largest leaves of the set, as well as the least cooked and most consistent processing.
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5719644481/in/photostream
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5720204454/in/photostream
“Dry and cottony” is an interesting description. I’m imagining a sensation I would think of as astringent, perhaps, but can’t really come up with something more specific from that description. Can you expand on that a bit?
And while I’m at it, do you have a strong sense of the different growth locales now after sampling this series of teas?
To some degree, the different regions stand out. Each tea is obviously different, but I think I would be hard pressed to name most of the regions given a blind sample. I think Bulang and Menghai are characteristic, but Bada and Mengsong are somewhat indistinct. Nannuo also unique, but more subtle. Part of the problem with the Peacock series is that the plantation leaf and rather heavy processing bury some of the subtle signatures that help the regions stand apart, I think.
Interesting. I’ve got enough puerh right now that I can’t really justify buying something like this series unless they really provide a really clear illustration of the differences. At present rates I’ve got quite a few years’ worth already.
There’s better tea to be had, in my opinion.
I found this version above average, when compared to the other four in the series. Again, very tight, thick compression of small leaves from the core of the cake came in my sample. When dry, an aroma of white raisins and warm earth. The first steeps produced a bright, clear middle golden soup, fresh with complex sweetness, some hickory chips, a pale maltiness, and fresh almond milk. It definitely had a bit of a creamy or milky character that made it silky and complex. Nice, but faint, bittersweetness in the back of the throat rounded the flavor. An enjoyable sample, for sure.
Flash rinse, then short infusions. The taste is satisfying, but the first three brews smelled very, uhm, fishy. The fourth onwards were alright. I think I’ll let this one air out a bit more to adjust to my climate. Then will try again. ^^
