2008 Menghai Qi Zi Zhi Ge Ripe Pu-Erh Tea Cake

Once again, I owe this tea an apology for overbrewing it last time with way too much leaf.

This time I used 9g in a 190ml gaiwan and it tasted and smelled wonderful. It’s still slightly on the herbal, bitter side, but in an invigorating and harmonious way. Goes well with sweet peaches.

Second infusion:
Even more musty, with a lot of character like old furniture and a hint of salty seaweed. Maybe salty caramel / sugar, is that supposed to be the “sugarcane” on Yunnan Sourcing’s website description?

Third infusion:
Goes great with milk and paired with bread and butter pudding.

Rating: 86

this is a sample i got from AllanK to compare to the same tea i got from Aliexpress seller couple years ago.
this tea also goes under different name of 2008 Menghai Dayi Song of Chi Tse

http://steepster.com/teas/menghai-tea-factory-berylleb-on-ebay/35786-2008-menghai-dayi-song-of-chi-tse-ripe-puer-tea

first couple steeps had the fermentation flavor that quickly gone.
The tea is rich, sweet and clean. i did enjoyed the same as i currently own. i havent noticed any difference, maybe only if i would do side by side. but i wasnt in the mood to drink a lot of shou today.
one thing i realized while its perfectly fine nice shou i didnt care much for it. it was …boring. My preference now is for large leaf shou. it lasts much longer and is generally more complex. Thats for today. My tastes keep changing.

https://instagram.com/p/BEV2uLkBwvr/

https://instagram.com/p/BEV4mdkhwi8/

Thank you so much AllanK for sharing ;)

The problem with reviewing this tea is I have to compare it to a tea I have not had in a while, the 2008 Song of Chi Tse by Berylleb King Tea on EBay. There are the same tea with different names and more importantly different storage conditions. If my memory is correct the 2008 Song of Chi Tse has cleared, having virtually no fermentation taste left. This one, on the other had has a fair amount of fermentation taste left. It has not cleared. While I did not get any fishy notes from this one and enjoyed it quite a bit. It is not as good as I remember the other to be. I will have to break out that other tea and try it again. It is possible my memory is faulty? Or is it possible that the storage of the other tea was better and it had lost it’s fermentation flavor? I can’t be sure. Now to this tea. This was quite good. It was dark and rich in the early infusions, thick with fermentation flavor. It did have a bittersweet taste initially but it got sweeter. There did seem to be some notes of chocolate in there. I liked this tea and rate it quite highly. Quality wise I think they are the same.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The leaves were not done but I have had enough tea and don’t want any more caffeine today.

Finishing up this sample from when I originally purchased it about a year ago. It’s been opened in the bag for about the same amount of time so maybe this has affected the tea.

During the first brew I opened the lid to see how the chunk was loosening up and I was met with a very strong fishy odor! I was surprised because I would expect that a cake from 2008 would have had time to let the wodui smell dissipate, and I don’t remember noticing it the first time I drank it.

Interestingly enough the fishy smell goes away when I dump the water out and the leaves smell more earthy and like what I taste in the first infusion. I add water and the fishy smell returns. Water comes out and the leaves smell sweet and earthy! How unexpected. This would explain why I didn’t notice it the first time – the fish smell is only powerful enough to smell when there is water in the gaiwan and does not get translated into the flavor of the brew. I may have to start sniffing mid brew to see if any other teas have surprising odors that only appear in the presence of water.

Speaking of water.. I’m using slightly different water for this sample. After reading MarshalN’s posts on the effects of water on tea I’ve decided to try using water with a higher mineral content for puer brewing. The water where I live is particularly low in minerals so I have been employing a device that “alkalizes” water, which is a fancy way of saying it adds calcium, magnesium and “other beneficial minerals” to the water. The marketing on the device is kind of BS but it serves my purposes just fine. Of course this is some very informal testing as I have no way of knowing how much the concentration of minerals is raised when using the device or how much the differences I notice are due to placebo. It seems that at the very least the new water doesn’t harm the tea, and may improve it.

That last bit is a little irrelevant considering I wasn’t even living in the same area when I first tried the sample. I’m not really comparing anything to anything as I don’t know what the tea would taste like with the local water.

Now..the actual tea. It’s pleasant enough so far. The brew is very clean with no dust settling at the bottom of my cup which is nice. I’m not sure how much of that is due to the tea itself (age/leaf quality) or if it has more to do with how the cake is broken. It’s relatively sweet with strength in the aftertaste.

I’ll have to write more when I return to the session later – at this rate I’ll be late for work

2008 MENGHAI QI ZI ZHI GE RIPE PU-ERH
7g used.
I’ve had quite a few ripe pu erhs before, but never tried one from Menghai, plus it was highly recommended on TeaDB, so I was looking forward to trying this.
Dry leaf is fishy, but I’m confident this will be good. Fried bacon too.
Wet leaf is interesting; it has a different aroma to what I usually get from ripe pu erh. It is creamy and slightly fishy, but it has a darker base, which is like bacon after it has been fried and gone crispy.

5s – Liquor is dark brown. Aroma is mildly creamy. Flavour is smooth, creamy with some milk chocolate. It has a slightly dry finish, which is unusual. It is not as creamy as 2002 CNNP (Zhong Cha) 7572 Green Label Tiepai Ripe, so far.
10s – Liquor is very dark brown. It is quite light on flavour, and not as smooth as it was in the first steep. It has some complexity.
15s – Liquor is darker brown. I expect the full flavour now. A very dark cherry-like sweetness sits on top of a darker base, which increases intensity on the swallow. Creamy and smooth again.
20s – It is creamy and chocolaty, but not as full bodied creamy as the White2Tea. The finish is odd; it stops short instead of lingering. There is some slight bitterness in the swallow. Not straightforward.
25 – Liquor is brown/black. Lightly creamy with some bitterness. Colour suggests full flavour, but it has lost it’s boldness.
35s – Liquor is brown/black. Better. It has a good bite; fruity; raisins.

Overall, it is a solid ripe pu erh, but nothing exceptional. There is very little fishiness left in it.