15 June 2008

2007 "5th Puerh Appreciation" Memorial beeng

Full name of this beeng is 2007 "5th Internatiol Aged Puerh Appreciation" Memorial beeng.This pu-erh was blended by Mr. Huang Chuan-Fan of Jing Mei Tang and processed by Chang Tai Tea Factory. Same blender and same factory produced the 2006 Taipei Tea Expo Memorial Beeng. But the characters of these two teas are totally different.

As seller, Guang from Hou De Asian Art states, this beeng is made of mao cha from Bulang, Nan Nuo and Ge Lan He areas with some big leaf mao cha from old plantations in Nan Nuo that was harvested in 2006.



This tea cake was produced to commemorate the 5th internation aged pu-erh meeting. You can read the report on various blogs, most detailed is on Phyll Shengs blog – parts I, II, III, IV and V.

I decided to retry this tea after discussion with Phyll, who said that this beeng isn’t very good.

The leaves I used are from sample – the beeng is probably light to medium compressed,since most of the sample fallen into separate leaves. If you look at the picture, you can see how different leaves are in this beeng – they prove, that the mao cha was really blended from very different sources.



The liquor is clear, dark yellow with strong, smoky smell. The taste follows trails of smell - it isn't particularly nice. The taste is full bodied, harsh and heavy with very strong smokiness, nearly nicotinic one. Lots of caffeine makes this tea bad to drink late night.

On the other hand, when I forgot and overbrewed the fifth infusion (approximately 15 minutes), the tea was still drinkable.



It's hard to enjoy this tea right now. It’s too strong, astringent, very smoky. On the other hand, the aftertaste is long, lingering and sweet. This tea could be nice - in year 2027, it certainly needs lots of aging.

I have three beengs in my stash, so I will let you know when they will be 20 years old.

1 comment:

~ Phyll said...

The smoke factor was, for me, too much. Some pu'er has an alright level of smokiness. But this one was, I thought, a bit overwhelming.

I'll try it again soon. Let's compare notes again in 20 years :)