menghai dayi(berylleb ebay)

9 grams of this… what a strong brew for this morning!
Still quite a strong fermentation punch throughout your mouth as you sip this down. Certainly a tea fit for a morning, but dang it’s hard to get past a few steeps because it’s strong; maybe due to how I made it :P

I am sampling this from the Beginner Puerh TTB.

I don’t get much smell from the dry leaf but after a flash rinse, I am getting a smokey and earthy scent from the wet leaves.

1st steep, 10 seconds. Liquor is a pale yellow, almost peach color. Liquor scent has a slight earthy, slightly… fruity(?) scent to it. I understand that the puerh nugget hasn’t quite broken up yet but the liquor flavor is very light, airy, and smooth. Little earthy flavor. A slight sweet coating on the back of the throat.

2nd steep, 15 seconds. Liquor is slightly darker now. The flavor is much of the same. I suspect the tea nugget will break up upon the 3rd steep, judging by its integrity at this point. Perhaps that will see an increase in flavor and color. Not that I’m complaining. I enjoy the mellow sweetness so far.

3rd steep, 15 seconds. While the tea didn’t break up on this steep, I am starting to see more darkness being released into the water. It is looking now like a cinnamon reddish-brown. There is slightly more earthy/moss flavor here.

Took a nice little 3 hour break here to take the kids to a movie. But now, I’m back on the horse.

4th steep, 20 seconds. Now we are getting into some darkness. I might confuse the liquid for a lighter roasted coffee at this point, in terms of color. Flavorwise, it is still fairly light handed with the earthy tones, smooth, and sweet coating on the back of the throat. Or maybe that is the leftover pop and popcorn being washed down. I must say though, this shu is surprising me.

5th steep, 25 seconds. Deep and dark ruby red. Sweet earthy tones. Smooth as ever. Tea nugget is still mostly in tact. Uh-oh, I might be in this one for the long haul! Fine by me.

1,2, skip a few, 99, 100.

I’m not quite sure how many steeps I ended up getting from this serving since I ended up stretching it throughout the day and kept coming back to it. But, I will say that overall this is a very smooth and long lasting shu that I am very happy I took a sample of.

A treat from boychik

oh so smooth.

Some infusions seemed really sweet. Some seemed a little earthy. Some seemed both.

Rich and tasty.

http://instagram.com/p/uijlVbAyd-/
http://instagram.com/p/uiliptAyRd/

7g used.

Tight compression. Green aroma.

5s – Complex. Fruit¸ green, herbal. Flavour lingers. Fruity herbal. Dark plums.

5s (again) – So much going on in the flavour. Bit of gunpowder tea smoke; this lingers in green darkish sweetness.

10s – Stronger. No bitterness. Has a treacle-like consistency. The herby taste is quite dry.

20s – There is no floral note an octave higher than the base notes – it has a shorter range (from low to high flavours); howbeit, they are well crafted.

Update the guys below are correct the price I mistakenly thought was for 7 oz is actually for 20 g. Big difference. This is still a very tasty puerh.

Still drinking this one again today with yesterday’s leaf. I only went about 30s with my steep today and it is lighter and more orange in color. Still nicely leather. I looked it up today and there is a sale on it right now $5.12/7 oz with free shipping. That’s crazy cheap and had I not looked and found out this was an inexpensive puerh, I would not have known. If you are interested here is the link (hope I’m allowed to do this): http://www.ebay.com/itm/2011-Yunnan-Menghai-Dayi-Golden-Branch-Jade-Leaf-Loose-Ripe-Pu-er-Tea-/321166038132

In other news – our new porch is in the works. In preparation I had 3 oak and 2 persimmon trees cut in my front yard to make way. While the chainsaw masters were in my yard, we had 27 ash trees removed + 4 or 5 other trees. The ash trees had beetle infestations and were in various stages of being killed by the bugs. It is a big problem around here.

Not to worry, I still have lots of trees including about 80 persimmon and a couple humongous oak trees. Most of the ones we had cut were 50-70 ft tall. My yard looks like a war zone. I have a couple friends who are going to cut them up for firewood. It may take all summer. sigh.

I’m back after a week with no internet. No Facebook (didn’t miss it). No Steepster! Still shuddering over that last one. Today I broke in to this loose leaf offering. The leaf has lots of golden tips. The dry scent is light leather. I know we are going to be friends. In the Yixing it goes. The brew is a rosy orange as I pour. The wet leaf is a bit barnyard but there is nothing off about the mug. Mrmopar got apple out of this. I wish I did because that would have made this even more awesome. I got a cross between book leather and horse tack. As it cools a bit it takes on aspects of nutty – what many of you call chestnuts, although I have never had them so I can’t confirm. There is also a woodsy bark flavor. My brain keeps saying oak but the rest of me wonders how it knows. The point is this is very flavorful, at the same time it is a gentle easy to sip cup.

two days of this tea – im in a Puerh heaven. it is very very good puerh, complex, first 5 steeps maybe so unlike each other.
5g 100ml gaiwan 212F
rinse pause 5/5/10/10/15/15/20/30/ sec etc
Wet leaves have strong smell of dried apricots
1st steep produced brownish reddish clear tea. its sweet but had some sourdough notes at the very end of the sip
2nd steep clean and sweet. as cooled introduced some cream
3rd steep it smelled and tasted of strong cream of wheat.
here i stopped taking notes, it was a midnight. some steeps were mellow, then introduced more flavors. i wasnt paying attention. i just enjoyed.
i have to mention i haven’t noticed any earthiness, leather, cedar or barn smell. this tea is very clean.
I think I should stop rating Puerh. its so hard to put a number for me

Wow 3 years in the cupboard and I haven’t reviewed this one yet. I must be slipping. Since this is a loose or ‘maocha’ shou I am going with a little less leaf and short steeps as I think it will yield quicker. Ten grams in the yixing with a 5 second rinse to it. It brew pretty light in color and an almost mix of apricots or white peaches. It has a slight buttery cocoa like finish to it. Hints of apple also. Apple! I think that is really the closest fruit to it. This one is a complex one. It is also one of the few loose puerhs I have tried. maybe I should explore more. It is really smooth with no “off’” notes and very nice drinking. Nice easy drinking. Nice complexity.

A very nice dark warming cup. It has lots of sweet notes as you drink it. A small amount of bittersweet chocolate when it first hits the palate. Of all the shou I have drank this is really close to the subtleties of Mandala’s Phatty cake. And since I mentioned it that is a testament to the quality and attention that Mandala puts into their product. This is a really great tea to have as you wind the day down. Good flavor without being overpowering. Nice light fermented shou.

Drinking this for the first time. Leaf aroma is very gentle compared to some other shengs. It actually looks a little older than it is. It brews a nice golden color with a medium hit of astringency of a young sheng. It gives an almost hint of burnt caramel on the sides of the tongue. It fades into a slightly sweet brew. Hopefully this will age well as I think it is a bit young for now.

Bought this a while back to accompany the 2012 version of the same cake. In terms of leaf grade this one is only second currently to a Menghai 0712. I have been on this one for two evenings now and it still surprises me. At first I though it to be a little weak on the first infusion I did and was thinking maybe I shouldn’t have gotten this one. I let the tea sit in the yixing with the bit of steam while I put the first cup down. I was hesitant about how this was going to turn out. The second steep really woke it up meaning I should have rinsed it twice. The brew is much darker than the first infusion and I think I got it right this time. It came across as a bit of leather with a hit of fruit with an almost pucker like eating a half ripe persimmon. This tea continues to get darker on the second day and I even pulled some out to brew in the gaiwan. This one puts a small amount of the dry on the sides of the tongue but continues to be a pretty good one. I have had tea that i would be embarrassed to put a note up as they where ones I could not stomach and some that My simple words could not do justice. This tea is sweet , juicy , tart and a bit drying all rolled into one. It has been a very pleasant one to drink and will fall into the same category as a “high mountain charm” or a “wei zui yan” shou. It is warming and smooth to drink and I think this will go to the third day with good strength in the cup. I will put it slightly higher than the “adorned in red” cake but the two are nice and comparably have good aspects that I would choose in a shou cha. I did short steeps with water just off the boil and I will increase the steeps for the later rounds.

Today is a 2007 menghai V4. This tea is a raw tea(sheng) with just a touch of oxidation on the outer leaves of the cake. It has a very light floral aroma when I opened the wrapper. I pulled off a chunk, measured 5gams and put in the gaiwan. I gave a 10 second flash rinse. First steep of about 10 seconds. Brew came out a light green, faint aroma and just a light green color. This tea has no vegetal notes that you would find in a younger tea. It is sweet, smooth and very easy to drink for a sheng. This tea left an almost honey taste in the mouth. Fruity almost a green grape taste. A very nice sheng and I will continue the session later today. 8.5/10.