TeaChat

In just over a month time will be the year of Snake, of cause, Taetea would never miss such a good opportunity to sell a few more cakes to a sucker like me.

Here pic for snake cake:
http://www.donghetea.com/goods-837.html

Here pic for another kind of snake cake as I normally know:
http://www.zgycsc.com/viewpic.php?viewp ... _81219.jpg
May be just as tasty.

Hi Apache,

perhaps you'd better check your computer keyboard. Seems it wrote a "t" where there should've been an "n" at the start of the last word in your post.

chabaka wrote:Hi Apache,

perhaps you'd better check your computer keyboard. Seems it wrote a "t" where there should've been an "n" at the start of the last word in your post.

I checked my computer keyboard, nothing wrong. It must have been typo ... causes by snake venom in my blood!

I got it just before the Chinese New year and tried it last week.

In the last few years Dayi cakes are rather loosely pressed whereas cakes from 2007 2008 was almost like Xiaguan's iron discs. As you could see a lot of broken pieces caused by being thrown around during transit. I have no idea which mountain or region material being used. Taste wise, I think it is a bit like 2012 Longyin but almost half the price. At the time while this post is being written, Longyin is almost 1000 rmb, this is bonkers for a less than one year old big factory plantation cake. Which one is better, Longyin or Snake? I couldn't tell without trying them side by side, but IMHO, I would say 2011 Jin is better than both.

Here are some propaganda (in Chinese) from Menghai Tea Factory with a spin of a rather romanticized snake story:
http://www.hkteaforum.com/forum.php?mod ... a=page%3D3

I guess now a day a good story is indispensable when selling tea and the animal snake do have an image problem. I wonder how many of you would not run away if you see a snake in the wild? I for one certainly would.

The Snake cake is drinkable as it is now but I wouldn't drink it too often and I rather have something which is at least 5 or 6 years old.

As a young sheng cake, it is solidly made. Is there any gushu material as they said, honestly I couldn't tell. The more pu I drink the less I know how to tell the difference between gushu and plantation cakes.

apache: Hmmm, I thought the Snake to be a lot better than Dragon actually... I may have asked in another topic so I'm sorry if I ask again - have you had the Tiger (2010) and Rabbit (2011)? I think they were more interesting than both Dragon and Snake (though I think that the Snake will get really good eventually).

JakubT wrote:apache: Hmmm, I thought the Snake to be a lot better than Dragon actually... I may have asked in another topic so I'm sorry if I ask again - have you had the Tiger (2010) and Rabbit (2011)? I think they were more interesting than both Dragon and Snake (though I think that the Snake will get really good eventually).

When you said Dragon here, did you mean 2012 Dragon Year Sign/Zodiac cake? Yes, I would say it's a lot better than the Dragon Year cake. But when I said "Longyin", I mean "Dragon Mark", probably the hottest (IMHO not the best in quality) Dayi cake right at the moment.

Longyin

I got both Tiger and Rabbit, but they are in boxes and I haven't tried them yet. In fact I got quite a number of cakes and samples but never get round to try them!

Yes, dare I say Snake has enough substance to go in years.

the price has fallen more than 20% from RMB 500 (and more) to RMB 388 now. looks like the hype is over and there will be plenty of regrets all round

I actually got two dragon cakes for $53.00 us each and snagged a snake cake for $92.00. I hope they are good or at least I can tell my better half they are when she sees the bill for them.

apache wrote:I got it just before the Chinese New year and tried it last week.

As a young sheng cake, it is solidly made. Is there any gushu material as they said, honestly I couldn't tell. The more pu I drink the less I know how to tell the difference between gushu and plantation cakes.
[/img]

I'm intrigued. Would you mind explaining to an old backwoods farmboy what "gushu" is?

As an aside: "snake cake" sounds like some sort of Laotian delicacy. Perhaps as an accompaniment to snake whiskey.

The snake cake is based off the Chinese zodiac symbols. Twelve different animals, I think 2010 was year of the tiger, 2011 year of the rabbit , 2012 year of the dragon and 2013 year of the snake. Menghai tea factory is producing these shengs based on the symbols for each year.

MrEffendi wrote: I'm intrigued. Would you mind explaining to an old backwoods farmboy what "gushu" is?

Gushu=Old Tree

Ah, I always just call that stuff arbor. I too have a difficult time discerning arbor from regular leaf.