Shuangjiang Mengku Tea Co., Ltd (King Tea Mall, AliExpress)

I guess I just have a thing for bricks or bings that are 1kg or larger. I have bought both 2kg bricks sold by Yunnan Soourcing and another off Taobao. So when I saw an expensive 1 kg bing from Shuangjiang Mengku on King Tea I bought it, only to be told by John that he was out of stock of that bing. John offered a substitution for that bing and it was another 1 kg brick from Shuangjiang Mengku, a more expensive one. The one I had paid for was around $150, this one, the substitution was $259 so taking it was a no brainer. As to the tea. This is a very nice ripe tea. It had a fair amount of fermentation taste to it, about what you would expect from a 2009 tea. The fermentation was only a factor for four or five steeps. It was slightly bittersweet in the first few steepings and there was a bit of a sour note in the first two steepings. After this it was a nice semi sweet ripe tea. I think I could say there had been some chocolate notes earlier in the mix and it would not be too far a stretch to say it developed a bit of a fruity flavor in latter steeps although I couldn’t pin down a specific fruit. Overall this was very good tea.

I steeped this tea eleven times in a 195ml silver teapot with 14.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, and 1.5 min. I could have gotten a couple more steeps out of the leaves but eleven steeps with a 195ml teapot is a lot of tea. Despite the fact this was good tea I really didn’t want to continue.

This is another tea I got from King Tea on Aliexpress and it’s quite good. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor in the first two or so steeps then basically nothing. It was sweet with notes of chocolate. There was very little bitterness to it. Trying to cut out the caffeine extra early today because of my insomnia. But I think would have gone a few more steeps. In the end I gave it ten steeps.

I brewed this tea ten times in a 140ml teapot with 11g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

This is a very tasty tea from Aliexpress King Tea. This is good because I’d forgotten I had it and accidentally ordered another. I gave this fourteen steeps in a gaiwan that is advertised as 50ml but I’m told is actually 60ml. Whatever the size it was small enough that I could steep the hell out of this tea. I am feeling an effect from this tea now, for me a rarity. I would say that this ripe has some qi to it. I would say that there was a fair amount of fermentation flavor for the first four steeps. There was a sweet flavor from the beginning. There were some notes of chocolate in there. It even developed what you could call a fruity flavor. There was no fall off in taste for the first ten or so steeps. Somewhere around steep eleven the flavor began to fade but this lasted pretty well. Even in steep fourteen there is a nice amount of color to the tea. This is definitely a high quality ripe.

I steeped this tea fourteen times in a 60ml gaiwan with 4.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min and 3 min. The tea was pretty much played out at fourteen steeps although I suppose I could up the steep time to five minutes and get another steep out of it.