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.

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.

2006 Tea Expo Memorial "Hun Tie" Xiao Beeng

Today I was pretty tired, so I decided to drink only something "normal", so I decided to drink the last pieces of my 2006 Tea Expo Memorial Minibeeng. The particular tea is still available at Hou De for relatively reasonable price.



This pu-erh is medium compressed, processed and made by Changtai Tea Factory, just like the 2005 Southeast Asia Memorial Cake. But while the 2005 cake is very heavily compressed, not very suitable to age in dryer climate, the 2006 minibeeng is of medium compression.

As Guang wrote, this beeng was blended by Mr. Huang Chuan-Fang and the minibeeng was aimed to re-create the traits of aroma/taste of 50's Hun Yin Tie Beeng. Well, we will see if Mr. Huang succeeded in next 50 years.

Dry leaves are OK, nothing spectacular, but good enough. Tea liquor is orange, I believe it's a bit darker than the photo shows.

The tea is strong and pretty bitter, leaving long aftertaste. The tea isn't that strong (may I say brutal?) as another creation of Mr. Huang Chuan-Fang, the 2007 5th International Tea Expo Memorial Cake, but still leaves tickling tongue and fresh mouth feeling. No smokiness at all.



This minibeeng may not be the best tea around, but still easily outruns most of the pu-erh currently available. I'm still playing with the thoughts to purchase one tong of ten minibeengs. Hmm...