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“I bought this sample with my last order to Yunnan as part of my effort to maximise the amount of tea for the postal charge. It’s all done by weight so I spend ages sitting there with the shopping...” Read full tasting note
The Star of Bu Lang mountain cake is composed entirely Bu Lang material but is not composed entirely of wild arbor material. The majority is composed of plantation arbor raw material that is first flush spring 2007 harvested! The cake delivers a strong pungent flavor with a sweet after-finish. Compression is medium to tight.
The Mengyang Guoyan tea factory is based in Jinghong but takes most of its raw material from Xi Shuang Banna and more specifically from Menghai area. The director of the factory Ms. Dong is steeped in Pu-erh tea history. She is a Dali native but after graduating from the Yunnan Agricultural University went to work at the Menghai Tea factory as a master tea blender. She worked there for more than 8 years before starting the Mengyang Guoyan tea factory back in 2003. Ms. Dong’s aim is to produce a variety of medium to very high quality pu-erhs for drinking and works hard to control the distribution ad quality of Guoyan products.
Producer: Meng Yang Guo Yan Tea Factory
Vintage: Spring 2007 (701)
Production area: Bu Lang Mountain
Company description not available.
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Angelina's TeasI bought this sample with my last order to Yunnan as part of my effort to maximise the amount of tea for the postal charge. It’s all done by weight so I spend ages sitting there with the shopping cart trying not to tip over into the next charging bracket. Hours of fun!
Anyway, I started on this sample yesterday, brewing it in my ben shan pot, and it is still going strong after a dozen or more steepings. The sample was basically a chunk of a cake and is quite compact. It has that slightly smoky, floral hay smell that I like. The brewed tea is a light orange colour. It has a fairly strong flavour with a pleasing astringency to it and an enduring aftertaste that leads my wife to say to me “You’ve got pu breath!” I can taste it as I breathe in and out. It’s a bit like honey with some floral notes; sweet, enduring and really jolly good. A beeng or two of this will be going on my wish list.
So, smoky…floral…honey…hay smelling ‘po breath’ is jolly good? I think it sounds Jolly Good too! (come to think of if I believe someone may have sent me a sample of this that I’m waiting to try!)
Could be worse! Could be Yak pu breath!! ;)
None of the camphorous notes many sheng have?
Yak pu breath are grounds for divorce!
@Jim: I guess some of what I was trying to describe could be called camphorous, now that I think about it. The associations I have with the aroma from the shengs I have tried do not immediately bring that sort of description to mind, but it works. Similarly, there are elements that some might call tobacco too. It’s just that those are not my first thoughts. I really need to learn the vocabulary of pu and employ it for clarity of communication! :)
@Bonnie: Please don’t tell Karen that. She has not objected to my Yak pu yet.
I claim to represent nothing normative in terms of pu language. :-)
I’ve described sheng in the past as the smell that a cabin in the woods in the sun which hasn’t been disturbed for some years smells like. It is something that, if you’ve smelled it, you’d know exactly what I mean, and if you haven’t, will have no clue at all.
I find that if I brew sheng with a lot of leaf, these biting, camphor like notes come out, but if I brew with scant leaf, they don’t.
Is there a pu norm? Yikes, I hope the pu police don’t come for me! :-D
I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to talk about pu in terms of tobacco and camphor. I’m still drinking this one (8g of leaf in a 170ml pot. No idea what that is in old money but it seems to be going on forever) and your mention of camphor makes me think of it when tasting the tea. There are definite camphor and tobacco notes, but they are the same notes that I would have described as being like the warmth and wecloming aroma of the stableyard! I guess it’s all down to the associations we have with particular things. :)
Love your description of the cabin in the woods. It all goes to show how personal tea tasting is.