Menghai Tea Factory (King Tea Mall)

Well, the sample I have says 2008 Menghai Palace. I’m guessing this is the one!

From what I’ve seen, ‘palace’ puer is gong ting grade leaf, no? And gong ting is usually processed as shou. This seems to be a special case, a sheng.

The sample is tightly compressed of very small material. Once the little chunks open up after a long steaming and a few steeps, I can see it’s mostly very finely chopped material and some unscathed buds. The dry leaf smells of sour plums and a smoked meat pungency is revealed with warming and rinsing. Smokey-savory and fruity-sour like barbecued crispy chicken skin with a sour plum sauce.

This is a fairly gentle tea with background oomph, though it does still exhibit quite a bit of youthful astringent flavor and perhaps too much bitterness for some people. The character is stable throughout the steeps. Viscous, mineral, oily after a loud swallow. The main flavor is of warm dates and dark honey, light vanilla and a nettle undertone. A bitter floral quality becomes pronounced. The bitterness spreads across the tongue and numbs. Some dryness in the throat amplifies an aftertaste of buttery dates underneath the bitterness. After that disperses, I can feel/taste the bitter around my salivary glands. Returning sweetness takes a while to show. Aroma moves from smoked meat to date-sweet. The body is an interesting mix of viscosity and brothiness with a subdued sticky sweetness. Light menthol opens the sinuses and lends a gently cooling mouthfeel. The energy is barely perceptible, mellow.

All in all, a decent tea that because of the compression and probably dry storage, seems to be closer to the younger end of the spectrum despite being almost 14 years old. Seems to be on a good trajectory. Good for the price (19c/g) if the link below is the same tea. Any more expensive and I personally wouldn’t spring for it.

Thanks again, mrmopar :)

Edit: I wonder if this https://kingteamall.com/collections/2007-dayi/products/2007-dayi-gong-ting-tribute-puer-cake-200g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea is the same. Both from King Tea, slightly different wrappers.