2012 Lantingchun TF “Mang Fei Cha Hun” Early Spring Raw Puerh – Chawangshop
Price: £21.63 ($32.00) / 357g cake.
67/100
8g in gaiwan
Summary: Early steeps show interesting, textured and green tasting tea, but later brews reveal a tea that has way too much smoke to compensate for astringency and sourness. It does have good energy and is cheap for a cake though.
Dry: Subdued concentrated herbal. My tea is completely loose leaves. Colour is lighter shades of brown and some silvery. Some dust.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_4UWzEoDrMFoKML4AGXq10MIHKvqgMIb1xGY00
Wet: Straw, dry medium smoke, light concentrated herbal. Some black char on some leaves – that is black specks that can be moved off the leaves. Could this be due to not cleaning the wok from the previous batch?
https://www.instagram.com/p/4bId3oDo5S8VNFv1OB_jhurYEVpiz-qh1as0
Rinse: Light/yellow gold.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_4U6JzoDsSc2Dx313Q5fdt3IW6YT8fmxd2K2Q0
10s – Light/yellow gold. Quite smoky on the sip and into the finish. Tobacco smoke. Slightly astringent with a good powerful body. It has not strong bright herbal and is instead mild leather and is green. I’m not noticing any obvious fruit to name so I’d say green fruit.
15s – Med yellow/golden. Very smoky with a concentrated fruit that starts bitter and becomes sour. It fills the mouth well, but carries medium astringency. It is quite oily.
5s – Light yellow/gold. Not particularly fresh; it is more stale. The smoke and bitter/sour fruit give it a rough texture. I quite like this.
10s – Light yellow/gold. Astringent, drying, sour fruit, smoke that isn’t integrated well. A vegetable note – asparagus. It’s thick, concentrated and heavy going. It’s different.
15s – Light yellow/golden. Very astringent. Its like drinking a cigarette in water. Not good.
Flavors: Asparagus, Green, Smoke
