2011 Menghai Dayi "100 year" tribute cake

Well this is one of those “special” pu erhs that lives up to its reputation. This tea brews dark as in a heavy fermented tea and exhibits the characteristics of a much older shou. It has a touch of dryness with a hint of woodiness that is followed by a sweet caramel molasses note. it has a hint of a peach taste at the very end that really works in this tea. I was really afraid to try this one and give notes on it as I was afraid it would be further than my simple notes to elaborate on it. All in all, well worth the cost. multiple flavor notes and very reminiscent of some small ultra high grade teas offered by some sellers we have in the US. If I hadn’t known it was a big factory production I would have argued adamantly that this was a small production. It will get a top rating as this one has all the things I like in a shou. I am really glad I bought 2 of these.

Continuing with this one….
I’ve enjoyed this puer over the last four days. Each session relies upon the original 5g of tea for 3 steeps with 3-4oz of boiling water then each steep is dumped into a 12 oz travel mug to be enjoyed throughout the afternoon.

2nd day: Still sweet (but less so now); nice chestnut color.
3rd day: A certain amount of earthiness is now creeping in; no longer as rich and sweet.
4th day: Much lighter color even after 8 min steeps; mild yet pleasant woodsy flavor; enjoyable but not much left to give here.

I took the same leaves through 12 steeps and it held up quite well. I’ve been working off a sample and I think I have enough to do this again soon. As for the full cake, I think I’m going to age it for another year and let the deliciousness continue to grow. I’ll look forward to celebrating the beginning of 2015 with it. Highly recommend this Shou!

First a big thank you to mrmopar, whose tasting notes made me aware of this shu and whose guidance steered me to a reputable seller.

This is, without a doubt, the finest shu I have tasted to date. Rounded and full, powerful in the early steeps, but not overbearing and never bitter or astringent. Notes of leather, cedar, chicory, minerals, mushrooms, citrus and pepper make appearances in various combinations as the steeps progress, with each taking a turn at prominence yet never overshadowing the others. The aroma is refined and never funky. My notes show a range of earthy scents (clean damp earth, loamy earth, hints of peat, fresh rain, clean wet hay) with an underlying sweetness throughout. The liquor runs the gamut of reds, from nearly opaque through ruby, and will transition to a deep amber if you give it enough steeps.

It seems to benefit from adequate leaf quantity and fairly short steeps. Although I have not come up with a definitive Gong Fu regimen for this, I’m leaning towards a baseline of 6 grams per 100 ml (scaled up linearly to my pot size at 7.8 grams and 130 ml). I use 212 F water, give it a single 15 second rinse and a 2 minute pause to allow the leaves to begin to open up. My steeps run 15 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 seconds, with the first steep running a little long to allow the tea to finish opening up.

This is one shu I’ll buy more of to give a couple of cakes time to age. Absolutely stunning IMO.

Started the new year on a good note!

I ordered this cake based on the great reviews and Mr. Mopar’s recommendation and
I was not disappointed.

I got mine from KingTeaMall.com as they had the best price I could find on this cake and free shipping. I’ve got to say I’m very impressed with their service; low prices, free fast shipping, photographed my order before shipping, gave a free sample, and packed very well and the cardboard box was wrapped in a tough plastic cover to waterproof it.

Back to the tea. The cake has moderate-tight compression and the leaves are very attractive with lots of golden tips. It smelled a little fishy/fermentation-y with worried me, but this did not carry over into the brewed tea.

Brews a clear red-brown, I gave it two rinses as I normally do with shou. The first infusion that I drank (the 3rd) was not impressive. It tasted kind of funky and just sort of generic “Dayi shou.” However, with each infusion it improved. Tastes of rich dark earth and rain, but also warm oatmeal and almonds. Has just a hint of dark chocolate bitterness that adds to the complexity. A nice cleanliness appeared, kind of cool and refreshing like cucumbers or cantaloupe. It is mildly sweet, but I have trouble pinning the flavor down. In the background there is a tiny hint of fruit. The best thing about this tea though is how it simultaneously has a thick creamy-ness and a clean minerality.

This is a very nice shou: it exemplifies the Dayi character but also exceeds it.

So sorry for the lack of tea reviews, my classes have gotten MUCH harder. It’s only two weeks in and I’ve already had 5 tests. I can tell that this semester is going to have a lot of tea involved if i’m ever going to get through it, haha.

This is such a beautiful tea. I can’t afford to go into much detail, as I am currently procrastinating on some readings, but this tea was wonderful. At It’s “peak” if you will at around the 2-3 steeping this tea was exactly like milk. This might seem weird, but you know how when you drink a glass of milk, it doesn’t really taste like anything, but it has that smooth texture. That is exactly how this tea was. In it’s peak you could not taste very much, but the smooth mushroom pueriness. As well, I noticed that it did not take much of this tea to seem like a whole lot, when I took a sip it felt like a mouthful.

In the 2-3 steeping was when the texture was at it’s best, but the flavor of this tea really came out in the 4-5 steeping. This tea had the classic ripe taste, but was fruity aswell. It was like a very dark peach that didn’t have the bitterness that a peach presents. It just had that addicting fruitiness. I drank this tea on the weekend in the grass watching the sun rise. It was a perfect compliment to the beautiful scenes of nature around me. Very Very delicious tea!

I’ve noticed that my reviews aren’t really that good for people just starting out in puer. I often identify with the classic ripe taste. My next Ripe tasting, however, I will taste it with a pen and paper to really point out what the “classic” tastes are, so that I can really observe fluctuations in this taste for teas in the future. I hope that in the future I can also make my tastings as precise as possible, as to benefit whoever reads it. So much to improve! If you have any comments please do feel free to leave them in the comments section, I would love to hear how you guys go about your tastings. Have a nice day everyone!

The dry leaf to this one was most interesting. There was the typical wood and bark aroma, but it was also mixed in with eucalyptus, menthol, and mint. I kind of want to order a soap in that flavor now.

There is still a bit of menthol and eucalyptus in the aroma of the wet leaves and the brew, but it has taken a back seat to the wet, woody smell.

The eucalyptus menthol is completely gone in the flavor of the brew. All that’s left is a cool tickle out the nostrils, but honestly, that could be my allergies at this point. What’s left is what I taste in all shous: that mossy, woody, tangy smooth flavor. It’s a pleasant experience, but I am starting not to be able to tell the difference between the different shous I am trying.

Sample from Phi

I was brewing this at work yesterday since the day was moving slowly. I wasn’t completely focusing on the tea itself since I was attempting to process what work remained. I did note that there was a woodiness with a hint of semi-sweet earthy undertones. I had experienced a brief exchange of astringency toward the beginning; however, it relinquished soon after the first steep.

Thank you again Phi for the sample.

Pretty psyched to open this one up after reading mrmopars rave review. He very kindly sent this sample to me. I had a disappointing sheng this morning so I’m excited to have something, hopefully, excellent.

Whenever I rinse a shou and go in for that big first whiff of wet leaf, I brace myself for the smells of the rotten Minneapolis riverfront in the spring when all the dead fish thaw out. I instead got a beautiful leathery, caramel smell. Not an insanely dark soup on the first steep like I usually expect from a ripe. Beautiful color though. Sweet, awesome mouthfeel. Nice body already. 2nd steep and it’s getting wider and creamier. Still very sweet and smooth. 3rd-5th steeps are all pretty similar. Still smells and tastes really nice.

(incomplete notes)

I got this tea from King Tea on Aliexpress but decided to review it here rather than create another page. This was an excellent tea. It was slightly bittersweet in the start, but this bitterness did not last long. There was a fair amount of fermentation in the first few steeps, I’d say they were history by the fifth or sixth steep. What was left was a nice sweet tasting shou. Not sure what to call the sweet note. This was excellent tea. So good that I am happy that I bought two bings. This one would be worth a tong purchase.

I steeped this tea fourteen times in a 120ml easy gaiwan with 10.1 g 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, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, and 3 min. This tea was not finished at fourteen steeps. It would have gone another two to four steeps I am sure. It had not gotten tremendously weak on the fourteenth infusion.

I was able to score a generous sample of this tea through a tea swap with a board member.

I found this tea to be remarkable. Remarkable in it’s smoothness of flavor, it’s lack of overly fishy umami , and the subtleties of flavor that came out over time. I made it through 7 steeps, and wish I had begun earlier so as I could continue. I won’t make that mistake again with this tea, as I believe there to be at least double the amount of steeps left. I’m looking forward to a rainy Saturday to sit and relax with this tea again.

There was a hit of bitterness in the first steeps, along with a dryness in the mouth feel. Perhaps it could have been alleviated with a second rinse, or a longer first rinse (mine was 10 seconds). By the 3rd steep the liquor was a deep red with a nice rounded mouth feel, and any bitterness was gone. To be fair, there is some umami, but it’s a pleasant addition to the full-bodied tea, rather than an overwhelming crush.

My wife didn’t like it and quit after 4 cups (70ml each). I have yet to discern her flavor profile, if she has one. I didn’t penalize the tea for her unrefined palate. ;)