The 12 year 7542 Dayi Journey.

I’ve only tried 5 years so far, but the trend seems to be that the older teas are rather harsh and bitter, while the younger ones are more approachable. I would have thought that age would soften the rough edges, so I suspect a change in the recipe. Of course, it’s still early days – I have lots of tea to drink. My favorite so far is the youngest: 2017.

The 2017 has had some really good remarks about it in general!

I found the 2007 to be really nice compared to the 2015 which had that awakened raw taste versus the fresh raw of the 2017. If any of that makes sense.

The 2006 and 2017 were really good, while I didnt care for some of the other aged ones. I also got the menghai vs Dayi and the dayi from that just blew me away, by far one of the best teas I tasted.

Only thing I’ve found is that like you, I liked the ‘17 and didn’t like the ‘09. I’ll try the 06 & 07.

Ken, what was the dayi you liked which is good?

Also who has good Legit 7542, cheapest when international shipping?

I liked the ‘15 but that’s the only one I have tried so far so I am lacking comparators.

I’m having the 12 this morning. Also seems nice so far. I definitely know the young 7542 taste now, it’s distinctive, even though subtle

I’m probably misunderstanding here but… This isn’t actually a very useful exercise in seeing how a tea ages? if the recipe changed and company change and they are different batches(I am assuming that early batch would mean spring and late tea means autumn tea?) I guess it is how tea with the label 7542 changed through the years.

There will be batch numbers. The majority of 7542 are Spring productions. If you want a ‘Pure’ Spring tea from Menghai I think the Spring of Menghai would be the one to shoot for. I am not sure myself if they age as well.

The 07 is also pretty good. Soft, full body, reasonably complex. Fruit in the first few steeps though that’s fading.

The 2012 had a whiff of storage in the first steeps and was more smoky/tobacco-y than the 2015 (also the bit I had was more chopped). It did have the same sort of taste and the lingering cooling.

I prefer the 2007 over the 2006 so far. And 2008 made me feel good the next morning when I woke up. Rested, with an interesting feeling of tranquility.

Tried the 2006.

This one takes an extra steep to get going than the 2012 or 2015, and generally seems less potent. Still pleasant to drink (possibly easier in some ways as it doesn’t get strong as fast). Mouth tingle builds up, but less so. Steep 3 had a rising fruity taste after.

Goes down easy as I was just surprised that I ran out of water!

Will try the 2007 next.

2007 is definitely better/stronger than the 2006. Stronger flavour, stronger lingering mouth tingle.

2008 I didn’t have much to say about. I’ll need to try it again another time. Seemed a little harsher at the start with less to recommend it (but I’m not sure I was giving it as much attention as the others).

Dry

Do you think anyone would be interested in doing a Guangzhou storage version of this in the future?

There seems to always be a demand for aged Dayi in general. As for the 7542 blend, I would be surprised if there wasn’t.

The issue you would run into with what you are proposing would be the cost. This was insanely cheap for what it was; tea was average of 11cents a gram, but figure in getting it here and all drove that up some.

Dayi is a beast when it comes to product marketing at first, let alone aging, just look at the new 1701…

If you’re able to put something together like this with a few of the older ones it might be easier but costly; the time to break 12 cakes, weight, and package added up! The issue is that the older stuff is crazy: I paid $4,500hk for my 2003 Dayi and recently I bought some other Dayi that I won’t disclose price, but dang…

I’d be interested!

With enough planning, I could source the cakes. I’m more than willing to do my part for Puer education if there’s demand for it. The 11 cents per gram seems pretty doable for post 2007 7542… pre-2007 is, well, you know already. Maybe turn it into a 10-year journey as 10 years is kind of a magic number for investors and 7542 speculators.

A ten year Guangzhou version would definitely be interesting. Or one could even do every other year and it would still serve close to the same purpose (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017)

The every-other-year idea would make this an even more cost-effective way of making this storage comparison effective.

I have a Yiwu ‘time-traveller’ pack but it only spans 6 years at the moment. It’s certainly interesting and helped me learn a lot about GZ storage and initial years of ageing. Lucky that I’ve also been able to drink a wholesale cake for the last 10 years which has been the best learning experience so far.

Philip: part of my thought process is that with just a years gap its often hard to say how much of any perceived difference is due to aging and how much is just yearly variation.

Sounds like you guys who have already tried the dry version will somewhat understand yearly variation, and the value proposition here would be in how different storage makes that same tea you had before different. At roughly 70g per sample, I’d need at least 5 people on board for a single cake purchase – preferably 35 people to make tong purchases possible… not too difficult to put together with a little bit of time. I could also wait for 2018 fresh 7542 and focus on even years, as not much point in doing 2017 for you guys again so soon.

Philip: doing this next year would be more realistic I think. Are you able to estimate approximately what the cost for such a set might be?

Assuming I do 5 productions (2018,2016,2014,2012,2010), I’d probably need an average budget of $30 per cake. This means we stay away from the much more expensive pre-2010 cakes and keep it accessible for everyone. This also assumes that 2018 will not be more expensive than current 2017 prices.

So that’d be roughly $30 each, plus packaging & shipping of $10, total of $40 each. This would get each person an equivalent of one cake each. Adding the aged 2008 OR 2009 cakes would likely add around $10 each, or $20 for both, which is why I’m reluctant to go pre-2010.

To state the obvious, doing all 10 years would double the amount of tea, base cost to roughly $60 and increase packaging and shipping costs.

Seems totally reasonable to me Philip and happy to hear that you are interested in potentially putting this together.

Perhaps lets revisit this in the coming spring? My feeling is that with the holiday season upon us, and the last 7542 group buy still fresh, it may be hard to generate interest now.

I do think the Guangzhou version would be more interested for an aging comparison.

if there’s room and this isn’t already full, I’d join in

I’ll do this once the release of the 2018 7542 is available and will confirm prices at that time. At least 35 people booked in to make it worthwhile.

Confirmed interest:
1.Liquid Proust
2.Sqt
3.Andresito

Add your name to the list to share interest and we should hopefully get enough names before the time comes.

Happy to hear that Philip. Suggest we make a new thread for this come early 2018 for “signups”. A lot of people might miss seeing this here.

Hey Philip, I would love to participate aswell. Although I am located in Germany. I hope that’s not a problem.

Haven’t had time to get to this. Tomorrow I took a day off of work and I am studying for a test, but I scheduled to see Justice League with my dad. After that I’ll get back to you

Ughhh I didn’t get to this tonight. Sorry man, I have them all pulled out though so I will look tomorrow.

Help me out here please! I know with older ones only the inner ticket within the tong would help. Now with these, they are newer but only one has the batch on the front. What am I looking for on the back? Some have stuff like 1401 and then others don’t have anything I would think to clarify this.

1401 would mean first batch on the back. Older ones may have a number on the front below the numeric cake blend.

can you email me pictures or post somewhere online of the wrappers? I can’t see really well in the URL for the tea, but if the pictures match the cakes you received…
2008 batch 809
2009 batch 902
2016 batch 1601
2017 batch 1701
…its a start. Looks like some of the batch numbers are blurred out online.

I just started on the 2013 and the tobacco aroma is super strong.

I always tell people to rest after the rinse. The tea will usually absorb about its weight in water if you do a before and after.

I’m thinking I should buy a few of these packages and let them age together for several years. Then they’ll be ready to compare! :)

This is something for me to keep in mind for sure. I was watching the 1701 cake to see if 11/11 did anything… NOPE, and I was willing to pay $150 for it,but its much more than that : (

Wait, what? Prices dropped like crazy on 11/11. I bought six or seven different tongs and 50 V93 tuos!

Prices did drop… just saying that my eye has been on the new 1701 gushu blend they released which has been all over the place with pricing. The bada cake went down to $43 which is an awesome price!

Ah, I thought you meant the 7542! It also has 1701 proudly displayed on the front, as do many of the 2017 Dayi cakes currently on offer. Some factory cakes didn’t drop in price at all and I noticed there was no discount on Xiaguan teas. Xiaguan’s saner pricing means I’ll continue to buy XG tea throughout the year and only buy Dayi when hugely discounted or when I can buy in person from mainland wholesalers!

Dayi has some of the oddest price trends… the swings are CRAZY. I was told that what everyone is seeing is pricing is the power of branding. Those cakes were released at $700 and then slowly dropped to $300 and now it’s all over the place. Been fun watching it : )

Dayi are definitely capitalizing on their brand power. Watch em drop to $50 this time next year

I found the cake you meant! I think prices will continue to fall now that the novelty has worn off some!

I think they’re just sticking to tradition, and letting dealers and end users age tea. If Dayi aged their own tea, they’d need a network of smaller warehouses with careful management to check on everything. I suppose it could be done, but since the 88 Qing Bing, people have wanted to age tea themselves, and prior to that storage for aging was almost exclusively a Hong Kong dealer thing. Perhaps aging their own tea would hurt Mainland demand significantly. Who knows? I’m sure they’ve done their homework on this since they sell billions of dollars worth of tea every year!

100% with you hear.
So I need to look more into it but the 2015 cake is a blend of material from 2012 to 2015; info from Yunnan Sourcing. Is it typical to use different years to create the 7542 blend…

I can tell you that from 2013 on the cakes were much looser than the previous years. There’s a lot of odd observation here and not much found as to any changes over the years. Hopefully someone has some answers because I believe we are all trying to figure it out
*edit 1, the 2017 is material from 2015 2016 and 2017
*edit 2, the 2011 used material from 2010 and 2011

Gosh… So not only are batch numbers important, I’m now seeing a trend in not using just one season’s yield but I cannot find out if this was done since… Trying to trace the history here. I figure one cake using four years of material opposed to two would have complication to taste the same as a fresh 7542 than how it might of been for just one harvest.

Ooooh gosh. I wish I knew more

Thank you for your thoughts Jim! While I have lots of 7542 aging away (from different years), I almost never sample unaged 7542. I have China Tea’s 2011 version (7541) and some 7540s from Liming. The 2011 7541 has virtually NO aroma, but should age into something easy to drink down the line. The price was right so no complaints, but I’ll stick to Dayi for something that I know will age well!

Jay, what are your opinions on the Spring of Menghai cakes?

I think that’s the second time I’ve been asked that this week! :) I have a 2008 aging away but haven’t tried it yet. What do you think of the recipe?

I have one from 2008 that is nice. I have a few aging away but I thought you may have some insight. I am sure your aging is better than mine with your climate.

Tea does come along remarkably quicky here of course. Maybe I should try the 08…I think I’ve had it for three years. I find five years to be just about right for sheng in dry storage here

You should. I think it could be interesting. All of the Spring of Menghai cakes are only one batch and done.

Might be worth tonging or casing up. I find with the high overheads here aging cheaper pu doesn’t make sense!

Now that is to the best of my knowledge. You may want to check but I have heard only one run and that is it. No secondary code confusion.

I dunno I think a summer or fall Spring cake might be hard to press ;)

Here is a good shou listing. Check the secondary on it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yunnan-357g-high-quality-puer-tea-cake-made-in-2008-green-natural-health-food/162443031050?hash=item25d25bf20a:g:SlkAAOSw4CFY1Mx1

What am I looking for?

Second picture. Secondary code on wrapper at bottom in . Tells what batch number.

Ah 805. Too late in the year for you? :)

No just 5th run of that cake. There were 4 ahead of it and the further you go the lesser quality leaf in there. They take the better leftovers and do a <802> and then an <803> so when you get to the later ones it is hard to have a stable blend. That is always why the batches fetch the premium.

I thought they just used leaf from later in the year for the later batches and the 01 cakes just had more spring material. I guess with blended cakes that makes sense though

Hard to blend consistently with leaf that isn’t from the same period. I dunno call me an old crotchety rascal ,I just think it can have an impact on the blends. A pure one like the Spring cake or a single mountain has more consistency I think.

Would be interesting to try different batch numbers from the same year for comparison

I tried the Spring of Menghai today and tagged you on Instagram! Bought ten cakes of Guangdong dry storage ’08 Spring of Menghai for the site right after! Nuff said!

Thought you might enjoy it. How did it compare to a 7542? Were you able to side by side them?

There was a hint of 7542-like character, but the 2008 Spring of Menghai seems to be sweeter and have a tinned peach-like character going on. Some distinctive Assam black tea notes starting to develop and a hint of milk on its way too. Surprising huigan. Still a little smoke but after only two years of storage here I’m shocked at how drinkable it is

After the way my 2008 tasted I started chasing some of these down. Pretty good production on the few I have tried.

It’s nice material and the flavor persists on the palate for over an hour! It’ll be interesting to see how the GD-dry stuff compares. It was stored in Southern Guangdong quite close to HK and I think it’s had a full nine years of GD dry storage!

It should have aged well in those conditions.

Let’s see when it comes in!

mrmopar I just had another infusion of the Spring cake and WOW such powerful huigan. It’s been ten minutes or so and I can still feel the sweetness.

I guess my secret is out now. There were a few 2008’s in the YS China site. I think they sneak by sometimes. Always looking you know…

interesting, I originally saw batch 2008 batch 810 (forget where I saw it), but then went back to the website and it says 809 now…

That is interesting. I think I’ll try the 2008 next and see whether they managed a stronger mix for that than they did for the 2006.