1st impressions: Smells of Mushrooms, Sugarcane, Camphor, Menthol. This cake reminds me of my first real puer experience of the budget Mengku cake that Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co used to sell. Not sure on where these leaves are from, but you can tell they had some age on them before pressing. Sweet up front, bitter on the back of the tongue, nice texture. Comfortable with just enough complexity without demanding a lot of attention.
Drink down: Cooling on the throat, some as yet unidentified fruit in the aftertaste. Maybe a citrus, but not with any sourness. Maybe a Neroli thing? Its name is apt, as it would make an excellent rainy day tea. It is also a really nice tea to intro raw puer on. Nothing outstanding in any direction, well rounded. Despite it reminding me of a supposed Mengku cake, this tea has a lot of Yiwu feel to it. But with a bit more bite than I’m used to in Yiwus.
This looks to be plantation material that is a bit chopped up. Not terribly so, but noticeable. A fair blend of material for tippy buds to stem.
I’ve about killed my stock of this. I bought two cakes when this came out as I thought it would be an excellent way to connect with people remotely. Sent samples to friends and drank it while talking via Zoom. It didn’t work out great. None of my friends are puer drinkers and had no frame of reference for a good brew. The result was that I stashed this away and sent people some oolongs. My plan was to pull the Umbrella out for in person gatherings, but I ended up hooked on it. It has been a few months since I had it and realized I never reviewed it.
Flavors: Camphor, Citrus, Floral, Menthol, Mushrooms, Sugarcane, Wood
