Shuanjiang Mengku

Within my order which was half fresh raw and half aged Sheng this is definitely my favorite aged Sheng! Already the scent is exactly my thing :) – with such a mouth watering steaming thickness of something elegantly smoked like fine smoked ham with a hint of Worcestershire sauce to it and a dense layer of old leather mixed with cigar non smoky tob

acco scent plus a subtle finish of cashew and pine nuts. Very juice complex ~ a pleasure scenting-wise!

But the journey doesn’t end here – taste-wise does former steaming bouquet notes perfectly reflects themselves within the actual liquor with such a nice all covering fury feel within your whole inner mouth region. Beside this well placed and with care composed smoky ham note plus a view drops of Worcestershire everything is placed on in old leather wrapped books filled with wisdom and love like this old Sheng. This whole magnificent play blends in perfectly with my most loved aged character: Aged Agarwood and warm cozy cigar tobacco flavor – not the for some unpleasant smoked version! ;) – This fellow just hit its first actual year of being considered as aged with its now 10 years in total but it turns out to be much better and well aged as much older ones tend to be. The persistent taste and mouth feel is a sensation of its own. After a couple of steeps a certain dryness starts the develop within your throat. The aftertaste got something fruity sweet inside which reminds me again of very young not overpowering sweet pears but more within their skin with some pulp to it but there is also something vegetable-ish to it with a fresh water juicy hint of cucumber! Price-, fragrant- & taste-wise highly recommendable!

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I bought two of these cakes some time ago, they don’t seem to have aged that much in the last 10 years even though the wrappers have some brown stains.
I keep this short here. This tea reminds me a lot of some late 8653 non-FT Xiaguans (2012, 2013) – a tad less smoky, but with a fresher, more herbal taste profile. There’s not much complexity but quite a bit of bitterness and astringency and the aftertaste lingers on for more than 10 minutes. Overall a rather powerful and pungent sheng with decent viscosity and mouthfeel and if you have a soft spot for the average fresh XG tuo or something of that sort and don’t mind a bit of smoke and …loads of caffeine this could make for a decent daily drinker.
Back into storage for a couple more years.

This tea has definitely changed in the past year or so. When I first got it, it was not a very drinkable tea, and even after letting it breathe for a year, it’s still a powerful tea after the third steeping. That said, the first couple steepings are growing to be really nice and balanced, even if it goes through a wild swing back to it’s sharp, bitter characteristics shortly after. It’s possible it’ll become more tame and consistent in the coming years, but there are many younger shengs that are cheaper and stay consistently balanced through a dozen steepings.

Price: £27.34 ($43.12) (400g cake
84/100

Summary: This starts of light before getting quite intense. Herbal and lemony fruitiness, some throat rhyme

8 grams (pried from the bottom slice at the edge).

This is my first raw cake :)

Dry: Dark brown with white’ish leaves, medium/high compression. Aroma is bright sour lemons.
Wet: Fresh green, dark fruits, complex aroma. Full leaves and stems.

5s – Light orange. Sweet sip with medium body, which appears to give some throat rhyme. It is pleasant and not simple or overly complex, but somewhere in between. No smoke or bitterness detected.
10s – Medium orange. Has some thickness in the mouth, and on the swallow I feel some oil from the leaves go down a little time afterwards. Some bitterness.
15s – Light orange. It has some herbal to it and some bright lemons notes that really stood out, and appeared quite randomly. This is not particularly smooth, but it is interesting to drink.
20s – Light orange. Judging by the strength of this tea, I would say it would go another 5 steeps at least. A subsequent session confirmed this.

I got a 25g sample of this one as part of a Mengku sampler pack. I am very impressed! Strong golden color, the initial flavors are a floral mintyness with a slight hint of citrus. The aftertaste has a mild bitterness and astringency, some faint hui gan and maybe a hint of some roasted straw. The flavor profile is very complex and well balanced with no one flavor standing out. I could spend all day picking out different flavors in this tea. It also has a strong deep meditative cha qi to it. I wouldn’t want to do anything that required higher though after drinking this, like taking a math test, but more so I’d rather hang out in a mountain meadow next to a tree and a gentle brook and just relax for a few hours. After sampling this, I’m strongly considering buying a cake if I can find one. Excellent potential for long term storage!

I’m proud to say that I just opened this tea cake today! Product of 2007 and I’m having it in October 2013! Six years! Wow!
This tea hit the right notes with me, honestly. I generally prefer mild mellow relaxing teas. This is a Yunnan Pu’ er tea, Mu Yechun 2007 001. The tea is very relaxing, clear light yellow color, crisp, mild, light, smoky, fragrant taste and aroma. I’m happy.

Very heavy cereal smell, with a light orange color liquor. The beeng I have has been dry stored, so it has changed slowly, it does not seem like 2008 tea, but it is still nice. It might be better after a couple more years

This cake is beautiful. When it comes to tea, sometimes being a sucker for appearances can lead you into trouble. Such is not the case with this sheng. Opening the wrapper unleashes a flurry of spice – it’s as if the maocha was stored among heaps of peppercorns. After rinsing, the leaves exhibit a heavy, earthy quality that partially buries the spice. Based on the scent of the liquor, you’d expect this tea to be thick and turning towards earth, but no – the little spice that you do encounter is layered over hay and honey that leaves a lingering sweetness on the back of the throat and a melony roundness as the soup cools.

As the infusions progress, things evolve from straw to pine straw complimented by honeysuckle and honeydew. My notes say, “overall, a very mellow tea to name after a fighting force.” After the third infusion, things begin to wear thin. I’d say this needs aging, but, honestly, I doubt it has the forcefulness to carry it much further through the years. Not a bad tea to drink now, if you’re a fan of younger sheng, and certainly worth the $17 from Puerhshop.

This tea is developing a bite since last time I indulged. The flavor profile has remained the same. The calm, soothing feeling has intensified. This is a Sheng that I recommend for late evenings. I drank 2 steepings from my Yixing and started to feel sleepy. So it’s back to the tea cabinet for some late noon rejuvination. My third steeping will stay in the Yixing for a few hours and we will see where that goes….

This is todays late morning-afternoon tea. It is not making me as relaxed as the 2 previous tastings. I guess ones mood has some input on what a tea will do. My first reaction was to write that it posessed a Calm Energy. I am trying to assemble a list of Sheng to be purchased in Beeng form. My samples are dwinding and my respect for these teas is growing….

I was looking for a pick me up and I forgot how relaxing this tea made me last time. It has a nice mouthfeel and is numbing. I am sure it is numbing my senses as well. I am enjoying the heady aroma. I am almost finished the first cup and I feel that easy feeling coming on. I love the way that this Sheng makes me feel. So peaceful and at ease.

This tea has me so relaxed. I know I consumed some 2007 Xingyang earlier. I am into my second steeping and I am absolutely tea drunk. This is the first Sheng to do this. My normal reaction to a Sheng is uplifting. I know it’s raining outside and that does’nt help. The other review of this tea states that " feels like the hands of a masseuse on my forehead". Well I could’nt agree more except I am feeling it in my whole body. This is a strong flavor and it has a wild, spicy aroma. A beautiful golden liquor. I am putting this on my wishlist….

Finished off my sample of this. All I can say is, boring. I’ve been drinking high quality blends or known gushu for a while now, so this tea comes across as pretty tepid, even if it is “wild arbor” which I’m not sure I believe. Little sweetness, plain grain flavors, and a bit of old orange peel. I’m excited to be moving on from some of the bigger factories, such as Mengku.

This tea is described as being composed of “first flush” material and it shows, as the leaves are covered in fuzzy white down. This youth shows in the flavor as a nutty, dry greenness. Brewing calibration yielded longer steeps early and a gentler touch through the middle to produce good balance. Notable aroma and flavors included that tomato-like orchid fragrance a la ’09 Yunnan Sourcing Wu Liang and a gentle warm honey, almond, cream mix. Less simple than the others, and durable, but again, lacking a striking character that seals the deal.

Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=424

Amazing how my experiences with these two Mu Ye Chuns has changed so much in the past 8 years. I’m different, the teas are different. This breaths smoked meat and vegetables, really beefy. Opens up with a lot of astringency, with a lot of thick sweetness. This hasn’t aged quite as much as the 001 did and at this point, I don’t like it as much as the 001 at this point in time, it has a really scratchy throat quality that makes the finish unenjoyable. My samples haven’t aged well in the past 8 years (although some of my cakes have), so I’m glad I’m paying more attention to the humidity of my teas.

Today, I’m finding a better mint quality, nicer clarity, and enjoyable bitterness coming out of this Mu Ye Chun 002 with longer initial steeps.

While the 001 was crisp, light, and tippy, the 002 is minty, rich, and more durable. I find it more to my liking. The session today was improved by brewing more to my palate, yielding a slightly stronger brew that showed off this tea’s savory fresh green vegetable character. Some of the season’s first Asparagus was around, either in the tea or planted by my anticipating mind. This tea also has a much more satisfying energy to it, with a really heavy, calming buzz, that feels like the hands of a masseuse on my forehead – peaceful and relaxing.

Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=416

Eleven years old and sampled again, seven years down the road. Certainly my palate as changed, as has this tea, although not as much as I expected or hoped. Samples are not gaining a lot of agedness in my storage situation. Dried fruit and paper aroma. Middle golden soup. This tea wasn’t all that enjoyable to me the first few times I had it and it really isn’t all that interesting now, but it is improved, mellowed, married. The astringency is strong, but tempered and the flavors are mingled. Holding onto some unfortunate paperiness from drier storage. Pleasant finish, with salivating, lingering bitterness.

Honestly, I am not sure if I have ever had a puerh that has claimed to be mostly tippy material, as this does. I am sure, however, that it has an impact on flavor and texture. Yesterday, this tea was plain, simple, a bit shallow, but solid and reasonable. Today, it comes across as slippery, mineral heavy, and metallic. It carries a green tea-like dryness and brightness to it, lacking thick, syrupy stickiness.

Aroma and flavor are middling, green, and lightly floral. The finish has poor grip. Unexciting would be one way to frame this tea. Another might be to say that it would be a good intro puerh for Chinese green tea devotees. I think I’m more of a big leaf man, myself. Regardless, I am excited to compare it to the Mu Ye Chun 002, which supposedly has a larger leaf composition. I’ll visit it later this week, coming to the tea table for two sessions, on two different days, with two different natures.

Here, I find a tea unlike much of the smaller producer tea I have been drinking of late. As evidenced by the photo of steeped leaves above, there is variability in production that leaves this tea a little simple. I appreciate its firm bitter grip, it’s opening sweetness, and pungent sun-dried character. However, I find it too heavy on the stemmy greenness familiar to plantation tea, oligosaccharides, and distant oxidized black or white tea notes. There is certainly not much wrong with this tea, I am just searching for a beckoning depth, and it’s not there.

Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=408

Thought I would finally take some time to put down some notes regarding this tea. The dry cake is very tightly compacted but best practices seems to be breaking of fairly large pieces of the beng. After an initial flash rinse of 20 seconds to losen the leaves a bit I literally smelled this tea for about 2 minutes. The warm wet leaves have in my estimation, not an approximate scent of freshly ground wheat flour, and the exact smell of freshly baking bread. This is one one the things that I love about tea, the way the exact same leaves can, depending on processing, and other parameters deliver such incredibly diverse flavor experiences… This is truly one of those teas that offers something I didn’t expect.