1999 Tai Eng "Koko Tea" Ripe Puerh Tea Cake of Menghai

I don’t dislike this tea I just don’t love it. I think it’s a personal thing as I know others do. It’s too camphory in the beginning, and then lacking flavor / punch by the end. But that’s being hypercritical. It’s super drinkable, super smooth, classic ripe. For me just missing that extra umph. But fun to try!

may 18/17
this tases like the undergrowth of an old forest. earthy, woody. nice reddish brown colour in the cup. later steeps had some moments of that sugar cane thing going on.

I was unaware that I had purchased this before and reviewed it. They say storage matters because this sample I bought from Yunnan Sourcing USA and it was quite good. Perhaps the Oregon climate was good to this tea. The last time I reviewed this tea I did not like it and I said it had a lot of fermentation flavor. This time round there was only a little fermentation flavor in the first two or three steeps. There was a taste of wet wood, just barely in the first two steeps as well. There was a slight bitterness in the early steeps as well. It developed into a nice sweet ripe puerh with no unpleasant flavors to it. After my previous bad review of this tea I am surprised to find myself recommending it and wanting a bing. I would definitely buy the bing from Yunnan Sourcing USA where I liked the sample. Perhaps the storage was just better there. I gave this tea twelve steeps and it was nearly played out.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 170ml teapot with 9.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 4 min. There were maybe two more steeps to this tea, it was nearly played out at twelve.