2012 Beauty of Moonlight White Yunnan Puer Tea Cake Raw

I want to state that this cake contained some very random finds, such as corn kernels and some sort of crumbling red stone. Yet I still kept and tasted the tea. While it has some nice large leaves and silver tips it’s also very easy to split the cake and it bares a soft wood scent.

In terms of taste it’s subtle but pleasurable enough. Soft, sweet floral highlights mixed with dry, sour wood and a touch of stone fruit.

It quickly runs out of flavour though and is suited to every day drinking. While it may not be special at least it’s drinkable, even if it does come with some surprises.

As I have read that the best way to brew this kind of tea is boiling water and flash steps that’s what i’ve done.

The color is quite dark, like many black teas.

It tastes sweet, smooth. I can’t find that famous honey taste but i like this tea more than bai mu dan (and I really like bai mu dan). I only find a really soft astringent aftertaste after 4 steps.

Is a good deal for the price.

Last one from Dexter today, though not the last tea i’ve had. Dry this smelled like absolutely nothing to me. wet, there was a horses sort of smell to me. Initial sips of this one had a strange sour taste to them….then it was more like hay…and then there was a slight bitterness to it. Overall, this was a weird sort of taste. Some echos of honey were in there as well… interesting. thanks again dexter!

I had tried this earlier using my prefered moonlight 80C water temp. It was nice a little sweet, a little hay like, maybe some honey. Of the moonlight cakes I bought, this was my favorite.
conversation was happening today regarding the best way to steep moonlight and OMGsrsly said….. boiling water, flash steeps. Really? OK I never use boiling water and certainly not on a white tea, but I respect her opinion so I tried this tonight using her method. Wow, I was wrong. This method takes this tea to another level. It really brings out the honey notes, there is some subtle fruit notes in the earlier steeps. Later steeps and this is becoming more like a black. The changes in the steeps is more pronounced. I need to revisit some of the other moonlights in my collection.
Tea friends are the best, thank you so much for making me try this. :)

This tea is one that I don’t properly know how to describe. It tastes nothing like a raw puerh, and nothing like a ripe puerh. It is not bitter but the main flavor is not one I would describe as sweet or for that matter sour. It is closer to a salty flavor if anything. Is this what they call umami? I don’t know. I stored this tea in my pumidor with my sheng as Dragon Tea House calls it raw puerh. It does not seem to have taken on the flavor of the sheng in my pumidor. I don’t love or hate this tea but I don’t think I would buy it again if I ever ran out.

I steeped this six times in a 170ml teapot with 11g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec. I should also mention that this tea developed the color of a black tea if anything by the second infusion. I think you would get at least ten or twelve infusions out of this tea but I didn’t like it enough to continue after six infusions.