Menghai Tea Factory (PuerhShop)

Bought this recently from Puerhshop. It was quite inexpensive. It has what I would call the typical Dayi flavor profile. A sweet fermentation taste with little bitterness and no fishy or unpleasant notes. After the fermentation taste is gone the sweet note changes into something else, also sweet. This note has a bit of a light fruitiness but not real strong with this one. It is a good puerh. It doesn’t qualify as spectacular but you do get Dayi’s quality with it. Even their cheaper blends like this one that quality comes across.

I steeped this ten times in a 180ml gaiwan with 14g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec. 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

Over the course of twelve steeps this turned from a bitter sheng to a fairly sweet sheng. I would not use the word apricots to describe it’s sweet notes as this tea seems to have started to age. For the first six infusions it also had a strong and bitter aftertaste. If you bought this tea and brewed it Western style you would hate it. But brewed gongfu it turned into a nice sheng.

I steeped this twelve times with 8.7g leaf and boiling water in a 150ml gaiwan. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec,7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. I could have definitely gotten a few more steeps out of the tea leaves but I had had enough at twelve steeps.

Overall this was a good tea. It started out with weak notes of leather and tobacco. These notes were noticeable for about five steeps. Then they transformed into a very sweet note. It was a fruity note, not sure which fruit.

Now for the big question, was this a fake. If it was a fake it was a good fake. The outer ticket did not shine green under the black light. Problem is I don’t know when all Dayi tuochas got this feature. It may be they did not all get this feature until 2011 or so. I know all Dayi bings should have it by 2008.

In any case it was good tea.

I steeped this twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.9g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec , 7sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

This is a relatively tasty ripe with a lot of fermentation flavor left. The main note of this tea is definitely earth. Don’t get me wrong there were a variety of sweet notes in there too but the fermentation taste was strong. I steeped this eight times and I am noticing fermentation in the eighth steep. I don’t feel it makes this a bad tea, just potent. This was very heavily compressed. It was very difficult to break off a chunk for brewing. I suspect that the rock solid compression has really slowed the aging of this tea. Luckily I don’t mind fermentation taste all that much. I am curious to see how this one ages. It is a different shape from most teas being a solid ball of tea. I think the traditional bing shape probably ages better than something like this. All that being said this is a Dayi and I generally find their teas to be high quality. I think the quality is there on this one too.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

This is a tasty ripe puerh with a lot of fermentation flavor left. There was what some might find an unpleasant taste to the fermentation at first, not quite fishy but unpleasant. It doesn’t bother me but might bother some. It was initially sweet and thick in nature. After a couple of steeps I noticed some fleeting bitterness. This did not last. There are a lot of the notes that people refer to as chocolate. I say it like that because nothing but chocolate truly tastes like chocolate to me. This is the real deal Dayi. I checked the security seal with the black light and it glowed green just like it’s supposed to. This was an inexpensive Dayi at only around $16 or so. I steeped this eight times and think if I had wanted to continue I could have gotten quite a few more steeps out of it. The leaves were not done. I did use a lot of leaf.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. I was originally going to drink a different tea from 2004 but I opened it to find mold on it and am waiting for a response from Puerhshop. I do recommend this tea as a nice inexpensive shou but want to remind anyone thinking of buying it that it has a lot of fermentation flavor to it. I don’t mind that but some do.

The leaves are fine with some golden tips which are not only on the outer layer of the cake but mixed in throughout the entire cake. When brewed it yields a very nice medium strength shu puerh with a nice clean taste without any musty earthy aroma or flavors present. The brew has a nice mellow taste with a pleasant slightly smooth edge and the expected “Menghai scent” taste associated with good Menghai ripe puerh. The second infusion got away from me and ended up a bit stronger than I usually brew my puerh but luckily Adorned in Red is a very forgiving tea which took on a slight maltiness to the brew but not one that was overwhelming enough to destroy the smooth mellowness experienced in the first round. The third round I paid better attention to the brewing times and was just like the third round and for the fourth round I went for a long brew to finish off the leaves and successfully squeeze out one more yummy round of ripe puerh.