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“Here, I find a tea unlike much of the smaller producer tea I have been drinking of late. As evidenced by the photo of steeped leaves above, there is variability in production that leaves this tea a...” Read full tasting note
“This tea has definitely changed in the past year or so. When I first got it, it was not a very drinkable tea, and even after letting it breathe for a year, it’s still a powerful tea after the third...” Read full tasting note
A new product for 2006, this quickly became Mengku’s most popular relase of 2006 after winning the Expo Tea Award in Kunming. Raw material is from “bingdao” (literally Ice Island) an area in the county of Mengku well-known for its pungent strong teas. Teas from Bing Dao were fradulently sold as Ban Zhang teas in 2006 and 2007 due to its similarity to expensive Ban Zhang tea. A great tea with excellent aging potential!
Product Name: Mengku “Qiao… Read more
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Shuangjiang Mengku Tea Co., Ltd.Here, I find a tea unlike much of the smaller producer tea I have been drinking of late. As evidenced by the photo of steeped leaves above, there is variability in production that leaves this tea a little simple. I appreciate its firm bitter grip, it’s opening sweetness, and pungent sun-dried character. However, I find it too heavy on the stemmy greenness familiar to plantation tea, oligosaccharides, and distant oxidized black or white tea notes. There is certainly not much wrong with this tea, I am just searching for a beckoning depth, and it’s not there.
Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=408
This tea has definitely changed in the past year or so. When I first got it, it was not a very drinkable tea, and even after letting it breathe for a year, it’s still a powerful tea after the third steeping. That said, the first couple steepings are growing to be really nice and balanced, even if it goes through a wild swing back to it’s sharp, bitter characteristics shortly after. It’s possible it’ll become more tame and consistent in the coming years, but there are many younger shengs that are cheaper and stay consistently balanced through a dozen steepings.
can you describe oligosaccharides and how they affect the flavor of tea?
The use of oligosaccharides here is just a generic term for complex sugar, generally related the legumes and some starchy vegetables. I think a lot of people use the word “beany” but I don’t really think that covers the character very well.
that makes sense. thare are times i find an “edamame” quality in some tea.