Menghai Tea Factory (yunnan sourcing)

this time i brewed for one minute:

stronger than the last but still quite mellow. still, i love this tea!

i recommend this tea for those who like mellow shou puerh :)

an amazing tea!:

when i smell the tea leaves dry, i smell earth, mustyness and a bit of dui wui (fermentation smell).

when i smell the leaves wet, the smells are intensified (minus the mustyness).

when i smell the brewed tea, i smell some earth (quite mellow)

when i taste the brewed tea, i taste light earth.

the color of the brewed tea is a amberish brown.

i rate this tea a 100 because its mellow.

even though the description says its very strong and has a camphor taste, i dont really notice that. oh well i still enjoy this tea! :D (note: ill try steeping this longer and add a new tasting note).

This is an excellent ripe from 2005. Yunnan Sourcing says this was dry stored and I believe it. There was no taste of wet wood and no spice. There was a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left. It was there until about the fourth steep. This tea was sweet with little bitterness. There were some notes of chocolate in there and it developed a fruity taste in later steeps. This was not a cheap tea at $66 but was not horribly expensive either. This is in my opinion a classic example of a Dayi ripe cake that has some age to it. It could have been much more expensive.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.2g 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 min. I’m sure I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it if I was not at my caffeine limit.

Bought a tong of this recently to age. It is a very good tea. The fermentation taste was neither unpleasant or fishy but on the sweet side. There was really no bitterness to this tea. I did seem to notice a fruity taste in thew early steeps. This was surprising as I usually notice this in later steeps with a ripe. This checked out under the black light and it was from Yunnan Sourcing so I am sure it is real.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 160ml solid silver teapot with 14.2g 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, and 1 min.

This is a very tasty ripe with a moderate amount of fermentation taste. I’d say the fermentation flavor started to lessen by the third steep and was gone by the fifth. There were also a variety of sweet notes to this tea. I get quite the fruity note to this tea, not sure if I would say dates or what but very fruity. The tea cake itself was loosely compressed. This could explain why it already seemed to have aged a little despite being from 2014. This tea was a bargain at only $31 from Yunnan Sourcing. As for qi I am getting a little out of it, a very relaxing qi but not a potent one. It has a lot of qi for a ripe tea. I usually don’t get any qi off of a ripe tea. Because it is from Yunnan Sourcing I don’t doubt it to be a real Dayi tea. I didn’t bother to test it with the black light but all looks right. This tea just tastes good. There is another note too but I can’t quite put my finger on it, a pleasant note.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml 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, and 30 sec. Judging by the color of the tea in the eighth steep I am sure I could have gotten four or five more steeps out of it but as always for me caffeine is a factor.

My favorite Menghai shou recipe! Even more so than golden needle white lotus, dragon pole, 7572, 7262, etc. I just love it! Smooth and sweet, dark and rich, creamy and earthy, this one gets me every time. I fell in love with the 2008 version, but this 2007 is a notch better I believe. It’s not a “magical” tea per se… only a mild cha qi, but it’s a solid daily drinker, one I’ll keep in my rotation for years.

This ripe is pretty good. It has a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. It has partially but not completely cleared. It was a good price for a 2007 tea too. Only $35 at Yunnan Sourcing if I recall correctly. There were a lot of sweet notes to this tea, even fruity notes in the later steeps but I wasn’t really paying attention to the specifics.

I steeped this eight times in a 180ml teapot with 12g 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, and 30 sec. If I wasn’t stopping because of the caffeine I am sure I could have gotten another four or five steeps out of it.

This is a delicious raw puerh that I bought about a year ago and stored in my pumidor. I am just now getting around to drinking it. It is too bad they are out of stock at Yunnan Sourcing USA or I would think about another. There was a very slight bitterness in the early steeps, not an abiding bitterness. It was smooth, very smooth. It developed into a nice sweetness that could be described as apricots or stonefruits. I don’t know if storing this for a year in my pumidor improved it as I hadn’t tried it before.

I brewed this ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 6.6g leaf and 200 degree 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 min. I didn’t use a great deal of tea for this one but still could have gotten at least a couple more steeps out of the leaves. They weren’t quite finished.