2007 Menghai Dayi 'Golden Needle White Lotus' Ripe

In the middle of a rare gongfu session with this lovely tea this evening—I usually do it by the thermos full, to share with a group of colleagues during an afternoon clinic. Gongfu brings out the variations in flavor well, and this is one shu that stands up to this. I’m into about the 8th or so infusion, and there are notes of honey, apricot, caramel, delicious.

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.

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. ^^

I received a generous 7.4g sample of this from Liquid Proust. I’m not usually a ripe pu drinker but I’ll try any tea once, especially if it has some age on it and a fancy name on the label. This tea is quite compressed – I was surprised the scale read 7.4g for this little chunk. I broke it up a bit into larger flakes to speed up the opening of the cake. The rinsed leaf has a nice, earthy nuttiness in its aroma.

Despite my best efforts, the leaves look more like shou nuggets than loose tea after 2 rinses and some extended rests with the gaiwan lid on. That’s okay, I’ll let the cake open on its own time.

This stuff brews up very dark and opaque, almost coffee-like. The liquor is super smooth and easy to drink. It has some sweetness but the primary flavor is extremely soft earth forest floor. There are no off flavors or aromas to be found here – this is a very clean, well made tea.

The flavor remains much the same through the middle steeps but it does get a little bit of thickness to it. At this point I was about to set this tea off to the side and come back to it later BUT there’s some sneaky qi happening here. It’s relaxing but swimmy. I’m sweating and a bit numb in the face.

So, I think this shou is pretty good. It probably won’t change your mind if you’re like me and don’t really like shou, but I’m happy to have had the experience of drinking a higher quality shou like this.

Thanks LP for sending this out as part of a puer taster.

I drank this over a 3 day session and to my amusement the densely packed leaves remained a solid chunk until I finally poked them apart before the penultimate steeping. I found the tea very smooth and mellow. The main flavor was woodsey loamy forest taste with a pretty heavy note of decay and mushroom. I occasionally ride a bike on a path that goes near a waste treatment plant and the aroma of these wet leaves reminded me of the cloying rich scent of trash. As terrible as that might sound, I did enjoy this and would probably drink it again, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to seek it.

Drank the rest of mine today from the mystery group buy:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHIZkmSgWzY/ & https://www.instagram.com/p/BHIbAiKAIxq/

Honestly, I think the 2014 version is better because it’s more upfront in its boldness while they has more of a smooth nature to it’s taste. The texture is thinner as well. While this taste quite nice and the color of it is wonderful, showing a slight red hue coming about, I find it to be a bit more complex for my taste as I am not too much into shou as I am sheng.

Interestingly enough, almost everyone has guessed the 2015 (super fake), 2010, and 2007 incorrectly :)
It’s been fun talking to people as they have been trying these three out; it also helps them find out if they like a BS $10 cake labeled GNWL.

Bought from, now sold out: https://world.taobao.com/item/527814873990.htm?fromSite=main

Another tea recognized as a star in the Dayi shu lineup. This one is an appealing blend produced since 2005. For my taste preferences, this one lives up to the high expectations. Tight tea buds with golden tips are found throughout the cake. The leaf yields a bright, ruby red tea liquor with a sweet and bready aroma coming from the wet leaves. The taste is smooth, sweet and flavorful with a caramel overtone. I should note that I found this to be more of a low level sweetness which is fine with me. Rich and creamy with no bitterness and no unpleasant scent or taste. Lingering aftertaste. I quite enjoy this tea. Good longevity – I took it through two rinses and eight flavorful infusions before moving on to a sheng. There was pleasure to be had throughout the entire session.

Quite a smooth, mellow, and sweet shou. For me, this probably ranks a bit under the 2011 Menghai Dayi 100 Tribute shou. Nothing I have had so far has been able to top that. Still, this is such a gentle yet flavorful tea that it truly deserves to be experienced with few distractions. Subtly complex. Incredibly sweet and creamy throat.

I chose to try this out while watching the latest episode of Korra (episode 10) and boy, was that a great choice! By far the best episode of Korra ever produced. It was everything. When I met Sifu Kisu (the martial artist who comes up with all of the bending) he talked a bit about the upcoming Korra episodes and explained that there are some great things in store. This episode was without a doubt one of the things he was talking about. And pairing experiencing such a great show with experiencing such a great tea equaled one of the best mornings I’ve had in a very long time.

This variety is often touted as one of the best ripe pu-erh’s out there, but I must say it did not live up to the hype. That’s not to say this tea is not good, in fact it is very good, but not the best. I have had 5-10 variteies that I enjoy more, but the Golden Needle White Lotus is indeed an excellent tea. For me it’s lacking in complexity. The tea liquor is smooth and sweet and goes down with almost no effort or resistence. The taste is slightly malty, sweet, with very little earthy taste. Again, there is very little complexity which was disappointing, but this is still a top notch Dayi tea. At the price though… I’m not sure I’ll be buying another cake. I’ll just ration out the one I have now. :)