2011 MGH 1105 Mangfei Pu-erh Tea Cake (357g)

What a visually appealing cake! I could tell by the pictures on PuerhShop’s site that this sheng puerh would be full of large leaves and buds, but seeing it in person really makes you realize how nice the source materials are. I had no problem picking off 6g of large leaves and buds for use in my 100ml yixing pot. Accurately describing this tea, however, was another matter entirely.
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Rinse: Yum. Golden sweetness.

First cup (10s): Soft and sweet. Not even bitter after it cools. Wow. I notice a little fruit-y aftertaste and a cooling sensation that’s left behind on my tongue. Immediately, I notice an increased sense of perception that tells me this young cake certainly has qi.

Second cup (15s): A good puerh makes you stop everything and focus on the tea, whether you like it or not. That is exactly what is happening to me. This cup feels smoother sliding down my throat, but leaves the front of my tongue dry. It still tastes sweet to me and smells wonderful. Cooled, there’s a bit of bitterness comes to the front, but it’s so well balanced I welcome it with open arms. Very nice.

Third Cup (20s): A pleasant aroma. Pleasant taste. Yeesh, I’m running out of words here. Should probably take a break, but I don’t particularly want to. Throat is dry; mind is clear. Peach-y notes are starting to come back in the aftertaste. Wow. Tastes like what I think a sheng should taste like, but particularly smooth and refined.
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The rest of my notes on this tea are scattered and short. I was able to get about 5 more infusions out of this puerh before I eventually decided to toss the leaves in some boiling water and leave it going for a couple hours. Even then, it still had a very pleasing sheng taste that I enjoyed; with a delicious aftertaste that left my tongue slightly silky. I didn’t particularly want to toss out the leaves, but there comes a time when you have to move onto the next tea.
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I purchased this cake as a higher-end option for everyday consumption, and I have to say it fits the bill wonderfully. It doesn’t have the smooth mouthfeel in the early infusions that I really enjoy in certain young sheng puerhs (that comes later on), nor does it have a lot of overwhelming, novel flavors that jumped out at me when I was drinking it. Instead, it has a nice, persistent qi and a great balance of all the nuances I like in a cup of puerh without the (sometimes) overwhelming bitterness.

Very pleased with this cake.

I don’t have a ton of thoughts on this tea, I can mostly just compare it to the other three MangFei cakes I’ve tried lately. The four cakes were two Yunnan Sourcing cakes (‘11 and ’16), Bitterleaf’s Take My Breath Away (‘16), and this one. Of the cakes this is probably my least favorite, but not due to it being a bad tea. I’m a big fan of the YS11 as I find it the most multidimensional of the four. Bitter leaf’s is also excellent and I would call that my favorite, very young mangfei that I’ve sampled (although it’s got a steeper price). This PuerhShop tea is fairly good, but a little boring. It had a strong start, being by far the most bitter of the four even with two being five years younger. From there the tea just sort of faded away, not really bringing anything new to the table just mellowing out the bitter taste from the first few steps.

Overall I liked this cake. It did have an unpleasant note in the first steep. Whatever it was, could have been my taste buds, it was gone by steep two. There was a fair amount of bitterness to this tea early on. I’d say it took four or five steeps for the bitterness to steep out. The note that was left was nice, what I would describe as a semi sweet note. Not quite apricots but then again this is a tea that I think has begun to age. The tea liquid was more orange than yellow but it still had some yellow in it. I never came up with a description for the note I liked in this tea. Not sweet in the sense of sugar mind you but sweet as far as raw puerh goes, but not tremendously sweet, mildly so. Some might say apricots but I am not sure about that. I really did like this tea though. Puerhshop’s house brand is usually good in my experience but I have more experience with their ripe teas. This one I think is on the cusp of becoming something nice given another five years of aging.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 mini, 1.5 min, and 2 min. I think if I wanted to push it this tea would go at least another four or five steeps but twelve is enough for me.