2004 Yan Ching Hao Yi Wu Cha Wang

It’s a late summer night. Monday, day after the weekend. I should go to sleep, but I cannot. So I’m just sitting, drinking tea and listening to Bonobo. The windows are wide open, the chill of night slowly drives the fiery sun out of the room.



On table steam arose from the cup of tea. It’s my favorite – four years old Yi Wu pu-erh, one that just left the ferocity of youth, one that started to ascend the devious road to maturity. Born from mountains of Yi Wu under skilled hands of tea crafters.

I know that this tea is hand made – just today I found a long black hair in it. I quickly disposed it, before my girlfriend starts to ask hard-to-answer questions.

This is one of the first beengs I bought from Guang long, long ago in January of 2007. That is past long gone, the ancient time before the pu-erh bubble exploded. And this is the first whole beeng I drunk and shared, except of last small chunk.

The seventh infusion does not loose it’s strength nor taste. The rafined sweetness of Yi Wu shows promises of what it would become if I hadn’t drunk it. If I could just wait another fifteen years. But it’s hard to resist.



Last chips of formerly half kilogram beeng are observing me from wrapper. It’s a farewell to a good friend, farewell that leaves memories of beautiful times.

2002 CNNP Special Order 8582

It’s quite rare to see more than two or three years old beengs on sale. And if there are some at least partially aged beengs, they are either quite expensive or faked or both. One of the sources selling excellent pu-erh for, unfortunately, excellent prices is Hou De Asian Art. This is where I got this beeng, too.



Marketed by CNNP - China National Native Produce – this classical recipe 8582 beeng is special order using semi-wild arbor trees. Semi-wild means, that the tea trees were originally cultivated, but then they were abandoned and only the nature took care of them. Also, the beeng is made before 2003 - that means, that the trees were probably neither overharvested nor overfertilized.

You can see how beautiful the beeng is. Compact but not too much, unlike the hydraulic pressed 8582 beengs like 2007 Xi Zhi Hao 8582, this one is airy and the beeng can be easily broken.

I was finally able to start the Lightbox to work, so please feel free to click the pictures.



The liquor is clear, slowly turning into orange. What I like the most of this beeng is the smell in the aroma cup. Exotic wood, spices, touch of pine needles. The aroma lasts long, I can still feel it even after an hour. It’s complex yet easy to savour. The woody character quickly turn into more floral. Unfortunately, the tea can easily become sour when prepared without enough care.

2001 MengHai Special-order "Yi Wu Zheng Shan"

Phyll recently restarted his Adventures in Tea & Wine after a hibernation lasting nearly one year. To celebrate it I decided to drink today sample sent to me by him.



The story of this tea is quite fierce. It was posted by Guang during Big Pu-erh Price Bubble and after I made a comment about it on LJ Pu-erh Community, it was sold out within 24 hours.

What do I know about this tea? It’s a special-order tea, meaning it’s probably higher quality than standard products. The mao cha it’s made of is probably harvested in 2000 and processed a year later.

The sample smells really good giving out a typical Yi Wu smell, sweet, woody, flowery. The smell reminds me of 2000 Chen-Guang He Tang Yi Wu brick or 2001 Chung-Hwa Yi Wu "Jin Yeh Hao" beeng. Tea feels aged and it’s aged in the right way – no sign of too wet storage, there isn't musty or pondy smell.



This tea is about eight years old and the liquor turns orange, as it should. The smell of the tea is woody, fruity; I definitely like it a lot. Compared to Lao Ban Zhang beeng I wrote about last time is this tea much tastier, even if maybe not quite as powerful. The smell in emptied fairness cup is dominantly spicy, reminds me of 2003 MengHai "BuLang Jing Pin".



The wet leaves are turning from green to brownish; since it is sample I do not judge the wholeness of leaves.
I like this tea a lot. Definite recommendation, if you will be able to get some. Thanks again Phyll for sharing it with me.

2003 Wu Liang Wild Arbor Xiao Beeng

According to legend, Wu Liang was a man, who invented oolong teas by accident by neglecting to dry tea leaves promptly. But Wu Liang is also a mountain in Simao region where mao cha is harvested for producing pu-erh.

This 100 gram only xiao (small) beeng is of private production using pure sun dried mao cha and traditional processing. I got a sample of this tea from owner of www.longfeng.cz – the 2003 Wu Liang pu-erh is one of his exclusive selected teas.



As it’s clearly visible from the leaves, the compression of this minibeeng is very loose; it’s probably stone-molded. Also, the tea is nearly five years old, but from the color of leaves and their smell I can deduce, that it was stored in dry environment all the time. There are mostly green leaves with few tips.

When I prepared this tea for the first time, I used boiling water. The brew was yellow with some chemical smell; the taste was heavy and sharp. I definitely disliked the tea – it’s certainly a good candidate for aging because of the strong taste, but I like somewhat more gentle teas to drink right now.



Since I got a sample only, I couldn’t let this tea age. So next time I prepared it with only 90 Celsius (194 F) water. First two infusions were somewhat smoky, but smokiness dismissed in third infusions and citrus aroma showed up. This tea actually tastes like tea should – the taste is very pleasant, full and round, filling the whole mouth leaving very long fruity sweet and slightly acidic aftertaste.

Using the cooler water this is a very good drink-me-now tea, but thanks for the power of mao cha it is made from it’s also a good candidate for aging. From 5 grams I made 10 very good infusions and I have to admit, that I gave up earlier than the tea.

2001 Chung-Hwa Yi Wu "Jin Yeh Hao"

The spring is finally here! The weather is of typical April, in the morning rain falls like during monsoon and after lunch it’s sunny and warm out there. Two weeks ago with Xi Zhi Hao minibeengs shipment from HouDe I also received a sample of 2001 Chung-Hwa Yi Wu "Jin Yeh Hao". Today is the right time to try it.



The tea is from Yi Wu area, it’s said to be counterpart of 2001 MengHai "Old Tree Tribute Cake - Jin Yeh Hao" using the same mao cha. Guang wrote, that one half of the mao cha was pressed by Menghai, the rest by Meng La Tea Factory. My speculation is, that it’s for the high royalty fees Menghai asks. Similar thing (probably) happened with 2003 Menghai BuLang beeng, check the whole story here.

The tea smells slightly aged with a touch of wet storage in the aroma of dry leaves. The sample I got shows nice leaf structure and stone-molded compactness.

The liquor is clear and turns orange. Smell of the tea reminded me for old books, but the smell merrily turned into incense-like smell – exotic woods and aromatic spices.
The taste followed the smell, sweet, slightly aged with a touch of acidity. After the fifth-sixth infusion the spicy, woody character of liquor gradually turned into sweet, plain fruity taste. This may be grim to those who are used to strong, harsh pu-erhs, but I like it for calm late night tea sessions. Especially when I want to sleep that night.



This tea reminded me of 2004 Yan Ching Hao Yi Wu Cha Wang in means of taste and smell. This is what I believe is the typical Yi Wu mountain taste. The beeng is sold out for long time, but I believe I would buy one or two, if they are available.

In next few days I will try to compare this tea to 2000 Yi Wu Zheng Shan sold by Scott – you will see why.

2003 Xiaguan Te Ji Iron Cake

I got this tea from Scotts Yunnan Sourcing LLC more than a year and a half ago. I like the shape of iron cakes so I decided to try this tea. Unfortunately, I was able to purchase only the last piece.

As I wrote, I really like the sharp edges of iron cakes, so that’s why most of the photos here is of the beeng itself. The beeng is Te Ji or best quality grade, but without silver tips. It should have a box – I got it without it and so the cake was broken into two pieces. But hey – I have to break it to drink the tea, so it does not matter too much.



Compression. Well, the Xiaguan is famous for it's compression making granite-hard puerh. And iron cakes are made by hudraulic compression, so I was expected it to be really petrous piece. But when I unpacked the wrapper, I was surprised, how ethereal is this cake. Light and airy, it’s possible to break it by bare hands.




The leaves are small and cute, the cake itself emits very strong and healthy aroma, woody with touch of flowers. Even if this beeng is nearly five years old, it’s still pretty young. Unfortunately, since I like it and drink it a lot, I will probably not see it to mature and age.

On neifei is clearly printed the year when the cake was produced – it’s good for collectors, although I know that faking the neifei is nearly effortless.

I prepared the tea in my sheng pu-erh zhuni teapot, using about 6 grams of leaves in 150 ml water. As always, I started with very short steeping and I gradually prolonged them.

The liquor is light orange, thick and aromatic. The taste is full bodied, but delicate and nimble. It was surprisingly sweet with honey and hint of fruits, resembling dried plums. In those five years the tea lost it’s harshness but still doesn’t developed the aged taste. No smokiness at all, it’s very enjoyable tea right now.



Should I buy this tea again, if it’s available? Certainly! The iron cake form isn’t just very cool, but the tea is tasty, very enjoyable and has a potential to improve.

2000 Haiwan Gu Hua Beeng

The Haiwan tea factory was founded in 1999, so this beeng was produced by relatively new tea factory. This may be good, because the workers and owners may be still enthusiastic - good example is the 2005 year for San Ho Tang tea factory. And this may be bad, if the workers aren't skilled enough.

Producing good pu-erh is more art than just labour.



I got few of these beengs from Scott at Yunnan Sourcing LLC. They were relatively cheap and nowadays 7 years old pu-erh is “the aged” tea. I never tried them before by myself, because of some not-so-good reviews of these beengs. Unfortunately, I read those reviews only after the purchase.

But since yesterday I moved some of my pu-erh stash to basement, I decided to try two of those beengs. The first one is the 2000 Haiwan Gu Hua (Fall Harvest) beengs. The leaves were small and dark brown with very few stems. So I threw them into teapot and prepared the tea. The brew had ok color, dark orange, not very clear but neither too muddy.



What warned me immediately was the smell of tea. I like the cellar-like smell of aged pu-erh, but this beeng had very aggressive and wet smell. It was like wet stucco. Very wet stucco. It immediately warned me of bad tea.

The smell was ok – sweet with touch of honey. But the taste was something I did not like at all – it was very sour, very mineral, and unpleasant. I stopped drinking the tea after second infusion.

I’m not sure what caused those problems – maybe very bad storage conditions. Well, it’s moved now into basement and I will let it sit here and rest and, maybe, age. I do not believe that this tea will ever be good, but maybe it will at least age into something OK.

See also: Phyllshengs review, Steven Dodd's review, Hobbes review.
Please nottice, that some of those reviews are based on tea from Jing Teashop.

1999 Menghai Green Big Tree Black label edition

So the tasting of five prestigious 98~99 arbor pu-erhs began with a sixth one. This is the one that was used at 5th International Aged Pu-erh Appreciation event in Pasadena.

As you can see from the pictures, the leaves are turning brown, but they are still maintaining a bit of greenish appearance. The sample is torn out from the cake, so the leaves will be chopped even if the leaves in the whole cake would be intact.

I used a small yixing pot, good enough for such a mighty pu-erh, the infusions times were rinse (short), first infusions short, then medium, then long. The liquor was crystal clear, very beautiful.

What stopped me, were the smell and the taste of the tea. On about third infusion I remembered, what it tastes like - 2003 HK Henry Special-Ordered 7542 of MengHai. Same strange taste, Guang described it as "most unique fragrance of the ink stick used in Chinese calligraphy - a solid aroma of musk and pine wood with a very refined feeling" - well, the description is quite good, maybe I would mention a hint of "potatoes" on the background.

I remember, that this was the taste I does not like about 2003 HK Henry beeng. I'm not sure if the problem in this special ocasion was in tea, water, preparation?

Even with good, fresh aftertaste and long lasting tea (approx. 14 infusions) I would not buy this tea. Especially considering the very high price.

1999 Haiwan Yi Wu Beeng

I acquired this sample as a gift from owner of Czech teashop Longfeng.cz. Since it was approximately 9 grams, I decided to use whole sample with a slightly bigger (200 ml) yixing teapot.

As the owner of the teashop claimed, this beeng was one of the first produced by Haiwan tea factory.

The scent of dry leaves reminded me of 2000 Cheng Guang-He Tang "Yi Wu Yieh Sheng" brick sold by Guang. While I like YiWu pu-erh very much, I'm not a big fan of that particular brick, so I approached this tea with caution.

As you can see from photos, the leaves were still pretty green, which could mean, that the tea went through clean dry-storage. I believe, that this particular beeng was stored in Czech Republic last few years slowing down the ageing. And since in the Central Europe is the weather pretty dry, it probably means, that my tea will also age slowly.

After a short rinse in first cup of tea I immediately saw, how clear was the liquor - it went through a very good kill-green step, indeed. The aroma of the tea also reminded me of the CGHT brick, but I felt it a little less boring, livelier. The tea was sweet, with of woody and floral feeling. No smokiness at all. Aftertaste was long lasting (I still feel it in my mouth), fresh, filling the whole mouth.

It was a sample, so the leaves were chopped and quite green for being nearly 8 years old. Oh yeah, dry storage.

I liked a tea a lot, it lasted about 8 great and then other 4 very good infusions. Should I buy this cake? Well, if it is available, probably yes, one to drink. It is a bit expensive (about USD 100), but the quality is clearly visible. Fortunately for me, the cake is not available to buy, so I will not be tempted.

On the other hand, I acquired one whole 1998 Haiwan YiWu cake (made under CNNP license), so I hope, that it will be pretty good, too.