2014 Yunnan Menghai Purple Dayi

Bought this recently from Berylleb King Tea. The Purple Dayis have a good reputation. This tea, while it was a good tea was a smoky tea. This was no apricoty sheng. Hopefully it has good aging potential. It was strong, punchy, and smoky. The smoke dissipated after about four steeps. This left more of a bittersweet flavor in its place. Overall this was a good tea. It was not what I expected. I don’t think Berylleb puts anything on their site about a tea’s specific flavor notes. I probably would have bought something else if I had known it was smoky. Not smoky like a lapsang souchong but smoky none the less.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.5g 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, and 30 sec. I would definitely recommend this tea to any fan of smoky sheng. Those who want their sheng to taste of apricots probably won’t like it.