2015 Chawangpu Mengsong Old Tree Raw

Heavy, sweet and smooth.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-mengsong-old-tree-chawangpu

Dried leaves: mild sweet grass aroma.
Wet Leaves: sweeter tropical fruit on top of what seems almost like steamed potatoes.

Mostly small, in-tact plump buds and the tea soup is of a deeper gold tone with nice clarity. Great base material here—full-bodied, nice kuwei and huigan, and notes of tropical fruits, raw honey, and sweet hay-like base. The energy in the tea creates a nice body-feel. For now, in terms of 2015 chawangpu ranking, it’s Hekai, Lao Yu, and then Mengsong—though I anticipate this order will change with age. I still need to try their 2015 Bada Old Tree.

Addendum: After 7 to 8 months of resting and settling, this tea is now performing well, better than the other teas I’ve purchased from CWS. Cooling and mouth activity are turned up a notch compared to earlier this spring. Bitterness and tobacco mingle nicely with dominant sweet caramelized pineapple notes. There isn’t much depth here but a solid Menghai base of sweet hay and bitters.

2015 Chawangpu Mensong Old Tree raw – Chawangshop

Price: £10.51 ($15) / 200 cake = £0.05 (0.07) / g

I got this as a 16g free sample with my order.

84/100

Summary: A good tea that shows a restrained bitterness for a young tea and a good honey sweetness.

8g in gaiwan.

Dry: Concentrated bright herbal. Good base. Not off the scale brightness. Promising. Honey. Med high compression. Brown, grew, silver leaves.
https://www.instagram.com/p/H3yXVoDgv3Tpa45nx9_ObyX9jal2QJ0qc-40

Wet: Slightly subdued bright concentrated herbal, light smoke, rounded fruit. Hot strawberry jam. Some complexity.
https://www.instagram.com/p/H5BXfoDi8RHrJgFio-5KGAbTdHQVa7z9xj9I0
https://www.instagram.com/p/ICPR5oDkCbuoAZkqSnpmZnN2bPd955fhA1UA0

Rinse: Unusual – very light peach.

10s – Light peach. Subtle,sweet fruit. Very mellow for a 2015 tea. Finish lingers with a soft bright but soft fruit. Body is good.

15s – Light yellow. Similar to the other Chawangpu teas: bright fruit dominates, but the brightness is rounded with this one and not in your face. It leaves a fresh green fruit in the mouth. Little bitterness; no astringency.

20s – Light/med yellow. The aroma of the liquid is very sweet medium bitterness turning sweet. The high sweet notes are there. This does not taste like 2011 Menghai Mensong, the only Mensong I have had. Although it does share a deep woody sweetness in the throat. A further tasting has shown definite honey, the main appeal of the 2011 Menghai Mensong for myself.

25s – Light/med yellow. The bitterness with bright round sweetness gives a nice tangy finish. This is quite good.

35s – Light/med yellow. More in the bright, bitter notes. Sweet finish. Good mouth action.

50s – Light/med yellow. It is going to high mountain oolong, but is currently treacle/honey.

40s – Light/med yellow. Becoming astringent. High mountain oolong, but still ok.

1 min – Pale yellow. Sweet. Astringent.

This tea was excellent. For the price of $22 a bing it’s hard to beat. I didn’t find much bitterness in this tea. There was a little in the first couple of steeps and that is all. Another reviewer described a light floral taste. I think this is on the mark. It’s got a lot of sweetness to it too. More of a floral sweetness than an apricoty sweetness. I bought this largely because Mr Mopar’s review made it seem quite interesting. This tea is not a disappointment. It was quite good. I steeped the hell out of this tea in a 60ml gaiwan. Gave it fifteen steeps in all. While that was enough for me I think I could have gotten a couple more steeps out of it.

I steeped this tea fifteen 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, 3 min, and 3.5 min. What I did not get from this tea was any noticeable effect of qi. That is not to say it didn’t have any, just I didn’t feel any. I am happy to have bought the bing.

Catching up on my tea notes and cupboard. Purchased this cake very fresh, love the price tag at $22 for a 200g cake. A surprisingly bitter tea, I have some Mengsong Gushu that I used to make a batch of shou and it was mild compared to the Chawangpu cake. Unlike the Hekai Gushu which I want to drink entirely while fresh, this Mengsong is a better tea to age. If I were younger I’d be picking up a tong of this to put away.

I’m impressed with the processing, very little char in my cake and have found that to be the case for most of the house label teas from this vendor, with the exception of the Lao Yun which is a farm production. Chawangshop teas remind me again this year that I don’t need to settle for dirty tea and sticks from some high production factory or other.

Got this one out for brewing tonight. I picked 9 grams off for the gaiwan. I gave a quick rinse and then 3 quick steeps as fast as I could pour.
The liquid is a very light yellow color. It has an almost tropical aroma as some one mentioned. Vaguely like an aroma of pineapple.
The tea is mineral and vegetal in the first cup. There is some light citrus and it has a medium body mouth feel to it.
Second steep(s), The tea opens up a bit more. It has a bitter punch that goes sweet and back to a faint bitterness. It starts to give a little tongue buzz on the tip and sides. Just a wisp of smokiness in there as well. Very nice leaf opening up in the gawain.

Tropical, floral and robust, very nice flavors. Just what I look for in young raw. For the price their selling it for, its a steal.

Also its worth mentioning it has a very noticeable and lasting huigan