CNNP (from finepuer.com)

Lots of lovely cedar wood for the first few steeps, with a some pleasantly tart stonefruit adding interest around the back edges of my tongue. Really nice cool cedar aftertaste, though it didn’t last as long as I’d like.

Then it went through a bit of a brief hay/straw/fruitier phase with a softer almost floral aftertaste, before getting mellower and richer and smoother and losing the aftertastes as it wound down.

I’m really sleepy now, but I can’t tell if it’s the tea or just that I woke up too early this morning and have been tired all day anyways. There was a moment halfway through where I felt facial pressure like my cheekbones were trying to push their way out through my skin, but it passed fairly quickly.

Thick, warming, and smooth, with notes of sweet forest floor, medicinal mushrooms, ripe plums, sandlewood, and a hint of smoke. The tea brews so dark and thick it’s practically shu pu’er—although with a lot more complexity. While I liked many of this tea’s qualities, the wetness of the tea was it’s biggest flaw, IMO. Too many of those mushroomy/fungal-like notes and sensations for my tastebuds. I think this tea would fare better with a few years of dry storage.

In 2015 I bought 2 cakes of this type in continental Europe from 2 different retailers. I’ll be addressing them as cake #1 and #2.

Aroma of both dry and wet leaves: #1- smoky and heavy smoke when wet while #2 slight camphor aroma
Taste: both cakes teas are copper colour, pleasant, smooth and slightly sweet. With #2 being a bit more rounded off in the mouth
Neifei: #1- none and #2- yes
Inside label: both yes but with differences and slightly different printing. #1 spelling: Chitsu pingcha, puerhcha. #2 spelling: Chitse bingcha, puechcha. Also the label of #1 is a lot more yellowish.
Leaves: #1 leaves tend to be smaller on top of the cake and they crumble a lot more with the centre of the cake unlike an iron cake. #2 leaves on top of the cake are larger and looser although the centre of the cake is very hard still almost like an iron cake. Overall appearance #1 is redder brown with #2 darker umber colour.
Wrapping: #1 was wrapped with a final flap across the diameter of the cake. #2 was wrapped radially with no final flap.

Breaking this out as a sample from finepuerh. It is a 10 gram sample that I purchased from them. I am brewing this in a claypot Yixing as the Gaiwan still has some unfinished brew in it.
The dry leaf looks a little different. It has some stems in with the leaf but I have had others this way also. I gave a quick 5 second rinse and let this sit for an hour. It has a subdued aroma of something akin to wet hay. The first brew came out a nice golden/bronze color. It has nice woody and camphory and light citrus notes to it. It gives a nice aftertaste that lasts for a while after drinking it. Almost no strong bitterness and a good feeling after drinking it. A testament to good storage on this one with no off notes or aroma. Multiple notes on this one and nice to drink.

This sheng is sweet and inviting; a bit darker generally (than other Yiwus I have enjoyed), and with lower-register notes which I quite enjoy. The flavor arrives in waves and layers, bouncing around the mouth. After two quick rinses I quickly detect aromas of plums, hay and vanilla. Liquor is clean with a dark golden color. As I sip the tea, I feel both a calming qi and a bit of energy with each cup. While very smooth, the tea soup offers a strong presence and pleasant sweetness. After enjoying six cups, I am left to ponder the joys of tea – feeling content and wanting to share this experience with others. A nice semi-aged pu-erh with quality and good potential for long-term aging.