Menghai Tea Factory (berylleb on ebay)

have to admit this one is boring as heck today. I’ve been drinking it here and there today and i’m going to reset my rating and see if i can get a handle on it later next week. But if it doesn’t improve then it doesn’t need to stay. Of course i can’t help wondering if it has something to do with how it’s been stored. Just felt flat…uneventful…

my “2008” puerh for today. this one is a smooth tasting puerh. After a few steeps i still haven’t gotten a handle on it. it’s sweet..and very much a shou. Some elements of rich cocoa… hmmm enjoying this so far. but glad i have the day to explore.

Another puerh for the day – at this rate i might ACTUALLY get through all of them this week. Wouldn’t that be nice? heh. this one doesn’t seem to be changing much as i’ve been running through it. It’s been nice to drink on this very rainy day, but that’s largely because i find shou comforting on rainy and cold days, not because this particular puerh is amazing. May split this up and sed off to others to see if it floats their boat more than mine ;)

I have been up since forever this morning and because of that, i’m trying to get through a few puerh that i haven’t yet tried, in the event i ever get around to being allowed to place an order. so i randomly pulled a 2007, 2008 and 2009 out of my cupboard of various puerhs to see what was what.
this particular one, is slow to build – the initial rinse and few steeps being lighter but still smooth and tasty. It reminds me of a few other puerhs that i’ve had – being nothing spectacular, but still an enjoyable drink. We’ll see how the rest of the day goes.

Damp earth and woods with a deep velvety sweetness. Dark and comforting.

A sample from a special tea friend – thank you!

i don’t have time to wax poetic on this one, but rest assured this will be purchased AGAIN, as the last little bit of my sample is going in to Terri’s box of doom. hahaha. I really enjoyed this one and can see myself drinking it fairly often.

Final Count: 98 (woot woot!)

In an effort to relax a little today, i’m trying to spend some time at home cleaning and organising things while drinking some of my puerh. I haven’t had time to really sit down with any in the last little while so today is all about that. I worked from my blackberry yesterday to run errands since the entire team was basically off, so that i would have more time today for myself before my other half gets home for a couple days. Our lives are incredibly insane these days and a small part of me wishes the wedding was later lol.

we meet with the officiant tomorrow and our wedding coordinator within the next week or so…it’s all moving too fast!

this shou made me stop. I feel so out of practice with tea these days. It’s like i’m back to the “i like this or i don’t like this” versus where i was at being able to better describe what i was tasting. this is smooth with zero bitterness. It’s not too bold or an earthy sort of shou. I really like it. When i’m allowed to buy tea again, I’ll be picking up more of this one.

Just broke this cake out again to take it for a spin. Picked off just under 7gm and placed it in a small yi xing gaiwan. The tea is definitely evolving. The soup was clearer and had a lot of tingle on the tongue Still, a subtle brew but I’m beginning to appreciate the sophistication of this blend. I’m kicking up my rating and will try it again in a few months and report back.

Below the original review:
Bought this a couple of months ago and just got around to tasting it. It’s my first full-sized Dayi cake but, unfortunately, I am not impressed. I’ve drunk a lot of shou over the last 2 or 3 years and there’s something sorely lacking in this cake. It’s kind of dull tasting, nothing objectionable but not at all sweet and steeps out after about 6 times. I expected a treat and found it very disappointing. Planning to let it sit a while and see what happens but I don’t have high hopes for any improvement.

This was a wonderful brew! The dry beeng is loosely threaded thick roots of dark green with slight platinum and brass dustings. They have a very strong smoky aroma. I placed a generous amount of leaf in my warmed yixing, so that these tendrils would awaken. The warmed leaf gave off a bitter seaweed aroma. I brewed this Dayi beauty up. The flavor is truly beautiful. This brew is silky smooth with a thick mouthfeel. I was getting a graham cracker pie crust tone with sweet apricot. This drink has a lasting huigan, yet it is also complemented with a tasteful bitterness. This bitterness lasts throughout the session. My yixing yielded a thick orange broth for a decent amount of steepings. However, I did need to add an extra gram to my pot at about the third steeping, for I wanted a thicker more powerful brew. The cha qi from this session is rather strong. I acquired a full head and smooth body feel, in which I thoroughly enjoyed. I really liked this brew, and I am happy to have been guided towards acquiring it.

https://instagram.com/p/4X2nmOTGbI/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This tea is excellent. It is slightly bitter in the early steeps. There was a bitter aftertaste that never completely went away. There was a certain sweetness from the beginning, you might describe it as apricot depending on your point of view. While I can’t use the term tea drunk, this tea had a relaxing effect on me and I believe a strong cha qi. This was overall an enjoyable tea.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute. This was a high quality tea with nice looking leaves. The leaves were not finished even though I was. The tea liquid was still a nice color of yellow in the tenth steep. I am sure this tea would have gone fifteen or more steeps.

From the Sheng and Shou TTB.

I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile, so jumped on the last little bit in the box. I enjoyed a few infusions last night and then returned to it this morning because the leaf was still not fully opened. It was smooth, sweet, and I think I got some date flavor at the beginning. Definitely a good one and I wish I had more to play with.

Finally! Dark orange liquor!

This is the first nicely aged sheng i have tried that i can truly rant to my friends about.

meduim-low astringency throughout , very very little kuwei (bitter), the best part about this tea is the huigan (returning sweetness), that lasts throughout the entire session, and long after youve stopped drinking.
I found this 250g brick for 28 dollars including shipping.
I was very skeptical of this bricks authenticity, not able to find much info on it (typical for puerh) but i was able to find a picure of this brick in a book, it seemed to check out.

I love this tea

This tea is an interesting sheng. The color of the leaves were dark black. The tea liquid was light orange in color by the second steep. Perhaps you would describe it as dark yellow. There was an initial bitter character that took a while to disperse. Even in the twelfth steep there was some bitterness. The tea did develop some sweetness to it but I would not describe it as apricots or stonefruits. There was also a smoky character to the tea, deep but not biting. This smoky character remained to some degree even in steep twelve. I also believe I detected the beginning of an aged flavor if that is a good way to describe it, or perhaps I was just tasting the smoke, I don’t know. This was an enjoyable tea that had aged a fair bit, despite being only a 2011 tea. This was also a strong tea, even in steep twelve it had a nice golden color to it. I think this one would easily go twenty steeps if I had any desire to continue past twelve. I don’t usually take a puerh past eight or ten. This is also the first Meng Song raw tea I have tried. I have not delved much into specific regions and don’t know if a smoky character is common to Meng Song teas or if that is from the processing.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.1g leaf and 200 degree water. 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, and 2 min.

Thank you so much boychick for this sample! I am finally getting to trying and reviewing this tea. The leaves are nice and dark, it come apart easily into my gaiwan.

I rinsed twice, then steeped it for 5sec/5/5/10/10/20/20/20/20/30……

I’m on my second day, and boy, I’m glad I let it rest overnight, it became a much happier shupu after a good night’s rest. I rinsed it twice and did three flash brews, and the color and flavor were quite light. This morning and afternoon, it became a much richer color, texture and flavor. Hot summer rain and wet moss notes combined with some nice cocoa and mushrooms. I had to take a break earlier, I was getting a bit too teadrunk on it!

This is an aged tea. It brews up a dark orange color. It had little bitterness in the initial two steeps then bitterness emerged in the third steep. It is a strong in your face sort of tea. Unfortunately, it also had a pronounced sour note to it. I do not know if I brewed it wrong but it was sour in character throughout ten steeps. On the plus side it had none of the unpleasant aged character teas often develop and the sour note may be a matter of having used too much tea. I will refrain from giving this a rating until I get a chance to try again.

I brewed this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

This one still needs a couple more years to clear up and lose the funk. Has a nice port smell I’m not tasting in the cup, mostly getting earthy and woody flavors. I’m surprised at how similar this is to 7572, flavor-wise, but more twiggy. A little disappointing a “tribute” cake is this twiggy. But it is early days with this cake, a couple more years and it could be stunning.

I am really grateful for the generous sample, since this cake is now costing $70 from Berylleb. I think this price is 2x too much to pay at this point, but perhaps the cake is getting scarce and that is the reason for the high tag. Paying for the label? But right now I can buy white2tea’s 2014 Lao Cha Tou, same gram weight as a full cake of this tea, for half the price, and a much better cup. Still, that thought won’t stop me from drinking this up.

This seems to be a popular tea on Steepster and I like it too. I just bought a sample so I don’t have a lot, but so far it’s really good.

As others have noted it doesn’t have much fermentation flavor, it is very smooth and rich. I am getting notes of chocolate and cinnamon in my cup. Overall, a very pleasant shu that has a tiny bit of bittersweetness that reminds me of toasted grain.

I am bummed that I broke my yixing for wuyi oolongs (just when I was starting to use it more). I guess I will on the lookout for another one soon! ;)

spent the morning with multiple steepings of this in the little glass gaiwan. happy-making!

alrighty, this is a tea i’ve had for months, just waiting for the right moment to break it out and try it – i have only a sample size, so gently pried a clump off the larger clump. using my glass gaiwan, i’ve given it 2 quick washes, and with each wash, the fragrance got better, and the color became a deeper golden. this time, first steeping, i gave it about 30 seconds (including pour time), since the color wasn’t what i was hoping for.
taste – oh WOW this is grassy! not green-grassy like a sencha, but more of a fresh hay kinda flavor! quite refreshing and i’m quite enjoying. i don’t know why i was expecting more earth-shroom flavor, i guess because of the shou i have been drinking for the last couple of days. this one is not. like. that. which is not at all a bad thing!
second steeping: about 30 seconds again, this is turning more golden-y, as in a little additional harvesty-looking orange tint to the liquor, just gorgeous. this steeping is sharper, and looking back on it, i think the water was too hot (just off boiling). steeping again, a little before boiling…MUCH smoother. i don’t know if i should have started completely over, though…anyone know? this brewing is once again hayfresh and crisp fall harvest-y. i do like this raw puerh. i think i’ll keep going on this one all weekend, or until i need the gaiwan for an emergency oolong…