Menghai Golden Buds Tribute Ripened Pu-erh Cake 2009

Advent Calendar from Kaylee: Day 20

Ooh, this is mellow! There’s a mild mushroomy earthiness with a bit of leather aroma. Lots of minerality as it cools. Tasty!

This tea is “palace-grade” where they sift the shoot tips (the ‘golden buds’) for the tea after the pile fermentation step. Unlike other palace-grade tea, according to TeaVivre it is 100% pure palace-grade with no additives or substitutes, not a mixture. Sounds good to me. lol

The dry tea consisted of golden brown and dark leaves with not much of an aroma, to be honest. The liquor begins as a light red but becomes a very dark, bright red color. The taste is a very pleasant, clean, mild Puerh, with nutty, woody and smoke notes. There are sticky rice notes throughout the infusions, some cream. As usual with Menghai, there are the classic earth and mushroom notes in both aroma and flavor. Some slight bark notes, and sweetness developed somewhere in the middle. Many reviews said it wasn’t quite smooth enough for them. Maybe because they were from years ago but the one I tried was very smooth with no bitterness, mellow. Lots of notes of roasted nuts, mainly of chestnuts and walnuts. The sweetness was more like caramel, not honey. There is a thick slickness feeling on the tongue. Buttery almost. Maybe a little sticky. At the end of the sip, there is almost a mint or cooling feeling on the tongue. I enjoyed it. I think it’d be good for beginners because it has a very clean taste to it, not heavy on fermentation notes.

Gaiwan, 10g, 212℉, 110ml, 11 steeps: rinse, 10s, 10s, 10s, 10s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 60s, 90s, 120s

119/365

I’m much more comfortable with ripe pu’erh these days, although it still seems to be something that goes in phases with me. I’ll drink a lot for a while, then none for ages, but I know I’ll usually come back to it at some point. This sample has been sitting in my cupboard for a while, in amongst some other Teavivre samples I’d also long since forgotten about. It deserves to see the light of day, let’s say!

In flavour terms, I don’t find this one to be particularly exceptional (although I’ve been spoilt a lot by teas from Dark Matter recently). It’s smooth and fairly creamy, with an underlying earthiness that prominent without being overbearing. A good shou, in my book, but nothing amazing. A flavour like this is generally what I’ve come to expect, although with varying levels of mud/earth. This one strikes a nice balance.

It’s not a shou I’d go out of my way to keep around, but it’s a pleasant addition to my drinking choices nevertheless.

When I first got this cake, I was new to pu-erh, didn’t really know how to brew it, and thought it tasted like dirt. Now that I’ve learned more about tea, I think it tastes like earth. Which is way different than dirt! This tea has a sort of spicy sweetness that comes on in later steeps, as well as a sort of fruity taste that I can’t really describe. I’m not sure this is a phenomenal tea objectively, but it got me into pu-erh, and I’ve grown to love it. It’s tasty, reliable, and forgiving to brew!

Tried this tea both yesterday and today. It’s much better today since it’s had a chance to air out a bit. I also rinsed it a lot more before drinking today than I did yesterday.

Somewhat smooth and earthy. I get what other people are saying here about camphor. Still more of a sheng lady, but this isn’t so bad.

This is almost a perfect ripe in my opinion, it just does not stop giving! 10 steeps in the liquor is still dark as night.

Water: 8oz

Leaves: large tea block

Steep: 3m

Aroma: Earthy

Color: dark reddish brown

Taste: This time i came across cake from of pu-erh, i tore off a piece hoping it wouldn’t be too much for a 8oz cup. With a rinse done i was ready to brew 3m for starters. This brew was bland with no bitterness at first then upon cooling i noticed a slight bitterness that faded in and out as i sipped on my cup. Not much of an after taste left but it had a bit of a cooling sensation at the back of my throat.Overall i don’t quite know how i feel about this particular pu-erh.

I have the day off from work today! Not only is that a great thing by itself, but it also means I can really concentrate on this new tea sample from Teavivre. Thanks, Angel!

When I opened the sample package, the “cake” had the expected matted, grassy, compost-like appearance. The aroma was strong, leather, and earthy, but there was also a sharp edge to it.

I steeped the entire sample package in 16 ounces of boiling water for eight minutes. It seemed like a long brewing time at that high temperature but I was game since I like strong robust teas.

The brewed color was a muddy brown. The odor was, surprisingly, much milder than the unbrewed smell. It was undeniably Pu-erh, but not unpleasant.

My first sip was loaded with the unmistakable Pu-erh taste that I’m accustomed to and actually like. It was deeply earthy and leathery. This selection also had a slightly sweet attribute that I found quite enjoyable. The whole concoction was very smooth. Each swallow streamed gently down my throat with delightful bliss. No astringency appeared on my taste buds and the aftertaste was equally sweet and pleasing.

In summary, this is a very nice Pu-erh from Teavivre. It’s not the strongest one I have encountered (even after brewing at 212 degrees for eight minutes) but it is among the sweetest and most satisfying that I have experienced. Great flavor with no face-scrunching bitterness.

Thank You Angel at Teavivre for this sample. This tea was very good. It was sweet in nature and had very little fermentation flavor. It had almost completely cleared as far as fermentation goes. I think I could describe the sweet notes to this tea as dates or plums what have you. This is one I will look into buying a cake of.

I steeped this eight times in a 220 ml gaiwan with 9.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, and 2 min. The tea was by no means played out there was plenty left to it but I had had enough caffeine.

I drank this again last night and this morning. I must say I think I have to order it while they are having their sale.

I am finding that I taste so much more in my puerh teas when I let them cool a bit. When they are hot, they are so similar but as they cool I detect more flavors and more delicate nuances. This one developed the wonderful cedar oil flavor that I adored in Mengku Palace Ripened Golden Buds, which is no longer available but was my favorite puerh of all time. Perhaps the elusive flavor is coming from the golden buds.

This is a small beeng which I think is really nice. It makes the price very similar to the one I bought myself for Christmas, which was double the price but also much heavier.
I plan to get this one, the rice-ripened (which I loved and wish came as plain loose leaf and not just as bags!), lots of the plain tuocha, and maybe some rose or chrysanthemum! I think I have until the 20th to decide what to buy on their sale!