2005 Chen-Guang-He Tang "MengHai Yieh Sheng"

According to information provided by Guang, the Menghai Yieh Sheng (Wild) is a beeng produced by Chen Guang He Tang in 2005 as a blend of Ban Zhan (not Lao Ban Zhang) and other Menghai wild spring leaves harvested at 2005. This is one of the more expensive young pu-erh, a standard 357g beeng costs $120. It must be an exceptional cake to justify that price – so I decided to try a sample and if it’s really that good obtain a whole beeng.



This tea is produced by the same producer in the same year as the 1st Tea Expo beeng I like very much and even shares the wrapper design with it. Of course, the price is 4 times as much.

The leaves point out to quite wet storage being much darker and more brownish than the Tea Expo Memorial beeng. The cake looks stone-molded, the sample could be easily separated into single leaves, so I used the most whole and biggest of them for the first time.



The smell of liquor points out to the wet storage, though I found a clear fragrance of peaches under the cellar smell. The taste points out to the Taiwanese storing conditions, too, though the aftertaste is excellent, clear and long lasting. Actually, I liked this tea quite a lot, it was energic and fresh with interesting taste.

If this tea is $50 per beeng, I would easily buy few cakes to store and drink later, but since its $120, sadly I have to live without it.

2005 1st SoutEast Asia Pu-erh Trade Memorial Cake

The 2005 Pu-Erh Trade Memorial Beeng is one of the tightest beengs I own. Originally purchased at Hou De, it's one of the beengs that is still available, although only in limited quantity.



As you can see on a photo above, the beeng is hydraulic pressed, making the leaves very hard to separate from each other. It is certainly a tea that will not age well in dry environments. On the other hand, the beeng smells very good. A pleasant woody aroma surrounds the cake. As Guang states, the producer agreed to make the tea from single-estate MengHai big leef mao cha.

Hard part is to extort a piece to brew, small enough to fit in teapot and still without leaves damaged too much.



Also you can notice on bigger picture how nice hairy the leaves are. The liquor is nice yellow-orange, very clear, aromatic. I found in this beeng trails of some nice Yi Wu cakes, like 2004 Yan Ching Hao. No smokiness at all – that’s surprising for such young pu-erh. It taste very clear, very gentle with hint of leather, sweet honey and small fruits. The durability of that cake was good, surviving more than 10 infusions with loosing too much taste and strength.



As you can see from leaves, there are tons of stems. These stems looks OK, they are flexible and definitely not too woody. The leaves are broken, but as I said on the beginning, it's really hard to get decent leaves from cake solid like this one.



The 2005 Pu-erh Trade Cake beeing $30 per piece is very nice drink-me-now tea. I do not think it's ageable here, but it's ready to be enjoyed right now.

Also, check out Hobbes review.