“Xiaguan T8653 Green Pu-erh Tea Iron Cake
A genuine Xiaguan product, an iron cake was compressed so tight that all goodness was locked in.
This tea cake is from the flag ship Pu-erh tea manufacturer Xiaguan, in accordance with a recipe that made Xiaguan so famous. For Xiaguan fans, it is a godsend. The infusion yields a strong liquor that is slightly bitter but finishes with a sweet aftertaste."
“8653” as a benchmark sheng puerh in market was originally produced according to order from buyer in Japan in 1985 year and later sold via a branch company in ShenZhen city of CNNP tea group. But this order was once cancelled by buyer after the tea had been produced. CNNP had to sell this tea in domestic market then.
In 1988 year, it was officially name as 8653 due to the blend recipe was initiated in 1986 year using 5th grade tea materials as main and the production tea factory Xia Guan is No.3 during CNNP group.
It has serval variations including general “8653”, “T 8653” which was pressed into iron like hard cake ( “T” is from Chinese pin yin “Tie Bing” which means iron cake), “FT 8653” which is according to order from “Fei Tai” (Fly to Taiwan) tea company who sells this tea to Taiwan and it uses more younger and tinier tea leaves to make the taste less roughness, and “FTT 8653” which is iron cake and ordered by FT tea company.