Shuangjiang Mengku Tea Factory

It’s a cold, blustery day today and I just want to crawl back into bed, or like, an entire bathtub filled with delicious tea… Neither of those fantasies are about to happen so I’ll have to settle for some Mengku Spirit!

Not that that’s a consolation prize or anything, because this sheng is just lovely! It’s remarkably mellow for only being five years old. Sweet, mouth watering, with a slight lick of astringency, this pretty much hits all my favourite sensations with a tea. I feel so relaxed and almost giddy drinking this, like after you’ve eaten a huge meal at the holidays. Very gentle and warm qi. The compression on this cake is also excellent and easy to pull apart which I love.

The flavour profile is wonderful! Fruity and softly floral, vegetal, and ever-so-slightly earthy. I’m having trouble picking out particular flavours though. God I wish I had bought a ton more of this before the cakes sold out, going to snag as many samples as Scott has left online. I wonder if the 2014 Mengku Spirit is as tasty, will certainly have to try that.

I used 8 grams of tea in a 180ml gaiwan.
Brewed in 95°C water with one 20 second initial wash.
Managed to steep out 8 cups before the flavour dissipated.

I finally got a gaiwan, so I decided to pick a tea to sit down with and give it a spin.
The first round I oversteeped it (at 5g per 140ml) but after a do over, I settled down to 3g I was off.

20 (rinse) – 25 – 30 – 30 – 35 – 40 – 60 – 70 – 85

first steep:
Very slight astringency, aftertaste of light basil on the tongue, floral on the nose, bit of a drying sensation on the tongue

third, fourth, fifth steep:
CREAMY, this tea tastes and feels super creamy and thick, plus slight vegetal and floral on the nose. The taste does not linger long so you end up going back for more pretty quickly!

sixth steep:
very floral, still a little creamy (both in taste and feeling), but over all pretty light

Seventh, eighth:
all floral, the creaminess is gone now, however it is not a weak taste. The floral starts out somewhat light on the 6th steep but at 7 it tastes more and more floral until it’s like drinking flowers at the 8th steep. The taste also lingers for quite a while before fading!

I think I could have continued with this, as there was still plenty of flavor, but I had a feeling I’d just keep getting more and more floral as time went on, and I wanted to move on to something else.
My rating hasn’t changed, but after using a gaiwan to brew this this tea is a fun ride for the eight steeps I put it through! It handled it pretty well, but it can be overleafed and boiling is too hot for this tea as I once found out – do either of those and you mostly just get bitterness instead of creaminess and floral tastes.

I got a sample of this and planned to get a cake but they were out! Oops!
Oh well, I’ll enjoy the remaining amount of sample I have while waiting for my tea order to come in.

Dry leaf: Smells like a mix between fresh hay (slightly sweet, sunny, warm) and a little bit of smoke.

Buttery, hay, and that light light smoke scent again.
Very thick tasting butter taste on first sip, with a bit of astringency at the edges of my tongue.
A sweet mellow scent on the exhale, mixed with apricot, and the taste of dried apricot clings lightly to the tongue until fading after a few seconds.

The apricot and thick feeling is stronger on the second infusion, and there is a little bit of sweetness this time. Mmmm, I love this tea. Although, at this rate, all the raw pu ers I taste over two years old are a favorite!

This was a sample in my last Mandala Tea order. The dry leaf smells very smokey, like the remnants of a campfire left on your clothes. This is really different from the two other young raws I’ve had which have a more of a floral and sweet smell. Whoa! The first infusion blew me away. Sweet, citrusy, a little spice, with some background smokiness. There’s a pleasant astringency there too. Lemon lingers in the mouth. Maybe almost a little basil or mint?

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. I’d love to get a cake and see how it changes.