Mengku Palace Ripened Golden Buds Loose Pu-erh Tea 2007

Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review

When I received my new samples in the mail today, this tea caught my attention. It’s been raining the past few days, and there is just something about drinking either Lapsang Souchong or ripe puerh that feels “right” when it rains.

Drinking from the first steep after the rinse; it tastes really mellow, earthy, and slightly smoky. Then it made me think of moss and mushrooms.

Second steep became bolder in flavour, but not to the point that it became offensive to my taste buds.

Wrapping up this review on the third steep, the flavour is staying consistent. No bad flavours during the initial sipping or aftertaste. (I’ll probably resteep this a few more times throughout the day and edit the final steep count later.)

Overall it tastes like a decent ripe puerh. The product is sold as loose leaf, so it’s a bit easier to brew at home (no prying leaves off).

100ml gaiwan, 2 tsp, 6 steeps (rinse, 15s, 20, 30, 40, 50, 1m15s)

Note: I tend to always like ripe puerh. If you’re unsure about puerh or find it’s taste offensive, I’d buy a sample or avoid it all together. :)

Thank you to Angel @ TeaVivre for this sample!

It’s been a busy day, running around doing the things self-employed musicians have to do when they aren’t performing or practicing. I’ve drank a fair share of black teas, but didn’t really have time to comment on them, & I’m not in the mood for backtracking, so onward…

This is a really pleasant Shu! I steeped for 1 minute, 2nd steeping for 2 minutes, & will probably try for a few more before I release the leaves to my compost pile.

It’s very dark! I like that in a tea!
It’s ultra smooth, creamy even, & sweet with a raisin bread-like taste & a hint of vanilla.
I needed this…(sigh)…

I’ve tasted this one twice now. This was the first loose leaf pu’er that I’ve prepared, and I definitely underestimated the amount of leaf that I should use the first time. More is definitely better with this shou. For me, about a third of my gaiwan works pretty well considering the leaves don’t expand much after water hits them.

The dry leaf aroma is spicy, dry, and woody. The leaves are short, stocky, and thin with faded black, and light brown colorations. They remind me of black tea leaves. After a wash of around ten seconds the leaves reveal a thick and earthy aroma like rich and fertile soil. There are also some notes of cocoa, grapes, and the second time I tried it, some faint funky smell like spoiled grapes. Kind of off-putting, but not awful.

The broth ends up being quite nice. The first steep is very thick and dark, but not so much so that I can’t see to the bottom of the cup. Later on, as steeps progress, it becomes darker and murky. Tea oils are also apparent on the surface.

Flavor-wise, it’s a bit of a weaker brew as I alluded to at the beginning. I first began with Teavivre’s recommended steep times, but found them to produce a more one-dimensional and shallow flavor. I do 10" for the first and 20" for the second steep, but usually jump to something above a minute for the third and something like five minutes for the fourth. I can maybe get one or two extra steeps after that, but they typically aren’t note-worthy.

This shou has a very woody flavor, which is always the top note for each steep. Later on, a really sweet and peaty flavor mingles with the woodsy notes while dry, spicy features rise throughout the session. At some points, I can taste some fruity dimensions, like a wine-y aspect that provides both sweetness and a tad bit of tartness. Later on during the session, usually during the fourth steep, it tastes really leathery, with an almost oily mouthfeel to match. Otherwise, I suppose I could describe this tea as “smooth” texturally, but the mouthfeel isn’t very interesting overall, although it becomes faintly sparkly during the very last steep. I can, however, get a decent aftertaste following most steeps, which happens to be very sweet.

Other than a faint metallic undertone in the first steep, a bit of an odd aroma to the wet leaves, and a little oiliness this shou is pretty clean. It provides most of the things I would look for in a shou, but doesn’t really bring anything new to the table.

Wow, this name was quite a mouthful. Taking the recommendations of the packaging, I boiled two cups of water and steeped this pu’erh for two minutes (Teavivre recommends one to two minutes). The dry leaves have much less of an earthy smell than I would have expected from a ripe pu’erh, but when the steeping is done, I am left with a wonderfully smooth-smelling pot of shou tea. This first pot is very smooth, a little bit earthy, if not slightly weak (understandable for a first steeping. I finish this first pot and steep another, this time increasing the time to two and a half minutes.

The second steeping strengthens both the aroma and flavor of this pu’erh. The earthy notes have come out stronger in both aspects. However, the tea has still kept its full smoothness. My only disappointment with this tea is the lack of complexity in the flavor profile. It is very much just a straight forward, simple shou pu’erh. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give this tea an 85/100.

First of all, I’m honored to get to try this aged tea. When it was harvested, I was still at my first place away from home, working for Wolf Camera.

Now, onto the details. I gave it just over two minutes and it brewed up very dark. The scent reminds me of leather and the forest floor after a good rain. Now, I’m always a little afraid of puerh because I don’t like fishiness, but this puerh doesn’t taste like that at all. It tastes fresher and smoother than other puerhs I’ve tried, and completely not astringent. It makes me think of a really good yunnan, just… aged, for lack of a better word.

(Free sample provided by Teavivre. Thank you!)

A sample of this tea came along with another four sent to me by Teavivre. My thanks to Angel and the rest of Teavivre team.

Few days ago I god my gaiwan and since then I’m sticking to it. You can say that I’m the kind of person that excessively sticks to something newly discovered (if I like it of course).

With 85 ml gaiwan I used 4 grams of leaf (sample being 5 gram total) and boiling water. Infusions (in seconds): 20,20,30,40,60,120,240,480

Dry leaf looks really small and sort of chopped-up with a decent amount of golden-coppery buds and soft dusty and earthy notes with a hint of spicy undertone. The shape reminds me of those Pu-erhs stuffed in dried mandarine/tangerine.

1st
After preheating the gaiwan and a short leaf rinse I steeped for 20 seconds. What I got was a deep red wine infusion typical for ripe Pu-erhs with just a little of leaf particles at the bottom. First sip and I’m already impressed. For me it usually takes until second or third infusion with ripe Pu-erhs until I get to feel a full body image and decide to brew more or dump it. This one kicked me at the very start, actually. It’s medium thick with light roast impression and sweetness on tip and a hint of pleasant bitterness on the end that sits there for a while. The bitterness tends to evolve to slightly peppery sensation as it fades out.

2nd
Liquor looks the same as in previous infusion but it has more clarified taste with smoothed out roasted and sweet notes and lacking bitterness.

3rd
Slightly more intensive than previous infusion. Although it’s pleasant I still like the first one the most.

4th
I was a bit surprised to see that the color is starting slightly to fade, since I wasn’t expecting for that to happen until 5th or 6th steep. Maybe I should have used more leaf.
In previous infusion there was a lack of bitterness only to emerge back in this one and taking the front with robust overall character. There isn’t much of evolving peppery-tingling sensation though.

5th
With a slight color degradation I’m getting less roasted and bitter flavors and more of sweetness to it. It’s a nice twist, but it isn’t too impressive. At this point a mild throat-stiffening appears, something that I would expect much sooner.

6th
I don’t see any liquor color degradation in this infusion. It’s really nice how it got more sweet and smooth with light mineral, clay and even sour undertones.

7th
Same as previous with even more smoothness and nutty aftertaste radiating from the throat.

8th
I’m pulling the plug here. The taste is getting more thin while getting more of mineral background. Someone might enjoy this but not me.

The wet leaf gives away a deep black and oily impression with mild earthy scent and aroma of dried/smoked plums. I can’t but notice some stalks and cylindrical shape of incompletely opened leaves.

To wrap it up, this is a nice Pu-erh that I would enjoy the first three infusions but after that it isn’t that much impressive until last few infusions with its sweet and smooth accent.

Dry Leaf: Has a earthy smell.
Wet Leaf: Has a rich wood aroma with some earthiness.
Liquor: Dark amber color
Taste: This tea has a smooth woody or earthy taste with a faint sweetness. As you continue to steep this tea it becomes more of a smooth leathery flavored tea that gets lighter and lighter with each steeping.
Overall Opinion: I give this a 90. I liked this tea for a loose puerh. I have found this is one of the better loose puerh from my experiences.
Vessel: SAMA DOYO Gongfu/Kungfu teapot. 5 grams of leaf to 220ml or approx. 7oz of water in the inner cup of the pot.

This isn’t my first pu-erh but it might be my favorite, I’ve had the mini aged tuocha from Teavivre as well, which was far darker and of course more condensed then this loose leaf.

The first thing you’ll notice about this tea is how fragrant it is, and the light golden leaves, I steeped my first batch in an cast iron teapot; at about boiling for three minutes, its kinda neat how black those lightly colored leaves turn, the hot water seems to release something in them, its by far and again the blackest tea I’ve ever seen. (Including the Pu-erh toucha’s) the leaves come out of the steep pitch black/brown.

The tea itself when piping hot has a sweet aroma with a little hint of iodine, which gives it a slightly fishy taste, not in a bad way, just sort of like really good sushi, as it cools down this taste seems to disappear, replaced by something like burnt molasses and hay, at the very end there’s a copper aftertaste, again not strong, as long as you don’t mind the odd flavor at the start and end, which in fact I enjoy, its an amazing tea, with that earth warm body that I’ve grown to love with all the dark teas from Teavivre.

It might be a little strong or a little scary as someone’s first pu-erh, a flavored would be better suited, but if your feeling adventurous, or like a tea that’s black enough to put most coffee to shame, then I recommend getting this, or at least just a sampler, its amazing.

I’ve been very fortunate to be able to sample some great pu’erh teas lately. I’m becoming a huge fan of the variety and would now place pu’erh as one of my favorite classifications. At the top of my pu’erh tea list (so far) is Teavivre’s Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha. I was anxious to see how the Mengku Palace Ripened Golden Buds Loose Pu-erh Tea measured up.

I steeped this tea at 212 degrees for two minutes as instructed on the sample package. A rich molasses-colored brew developed.

The flavor of this tea is earthy, woodsy, and leathery. This follows the pattern of the other pu’erh teas that I’ve tried. The taste is somewhat milder than the Mini Tuocha blend. I also found the flavor to have a nice twinge of sweetness to it. As with all of the Teavivre teas that I’ve sampled to date, there is no bitterness.

This is another solid tea entry in the Teavivre family. If I were forced to choose between Mengku Palace and Mini Tuocha, I would have to go with the more robust Mini Tuocha. That does not diminish the quality of Mengku Palace. I’m just a strong tea kind of guy.

Free sample from Teavivre.

Yum yum yum. I love this tea. The liquor is dark, rich and full-bodied. The mellow earthy flavour is right there without any fishy taste. It leaves my tongue tingling after each sip. I think this is a tea that I could drink all day. It makes me happy to drink it and I am struggling not to gulp it down just so that I can reinfuse the leaves and start all over again. This one is definitely going on the shopping list.