TeaChat

2009 Lao cha tou from Norbu, as always, reliably plummy, fruity, earthy, mellow. Just right for an overcast and mildly chilly fall day.

Zared wrote:Early 90's 7542, well that is according to the German vendor i purchased it from. All i know for sure is that this has spent some time in a humid HK warehouse. It still has hints of storage present so it could probably use a bit more time to dry out. Looking at the brewed leaves i'd say this was kept rather well. All the leaves are a nice light brown with a hints of green and no signs of damage from moisture. A nice everyday tea.

This must have cost an arm and a leg

TwoDog2 This cake isn't MTF 7542 so no arm or leg. I'm not convinced its early 90's or even 7542. Seeing as the price is low i'm not to worried about what it truly is. I'd love to hear what others have to say about this cake though.

Oh, when you said early 90's 7542, i assumed you meant a Menghai production. The price of those cakes, even in the last few months, have risen to really high levels.

Take some pictures of the cake, I am sure plenty of people will have some thoughts.

Either way, as long as you enjoy the tea and are happy with the price, that matters more than whether it is this tea or that tea. Older productions with a factory name behind them tend to be priced much higher than 'better' teas without a pedigree

Tonight it's wild/arbor tree mid 80's loose pu-erh from origin tea

After one short rinse, and 2 10sec infusions, woody forest flavours give way to sweet 70-80% dark chocolate with a hint of strong caramel, bitterness giving to underlying sweetness, so smooth and satisfying.

Then, adding ~5-10 sec per infusion, the tea thickened while the bitterness mellowed out from infusions 3-6 giving way to nutty and a hint of vanilla tones in the dark chocolate

Now adding 30 sec per infusion the flavour slowly weakens to give about 12 infusions before I stopped!

This is the second session with this tea, and it is my first loose sheng so I apologise if any flavours I quote seem uncharacteristic, my palate is still developing

TwoDog2 wrote:Oh, when you said early 90's 7542, i assumed you meant a Menghai production. The price of those cakes, even in the last few months, have risen to really high levels.

Take some pictures of the cake, I am sure plenty of people will have some thoughts.

Either way, as long as you enjoy the tea and are happy with the price, that matters more than whether it is this tea or that tea. Older productions with a factory name behind them tend to be priced much higher than 'better' teas without a pedigree

Its not MTF but the vendor has it labeled as being 7542. To me it's just a mystery 90's beeng. Surely nothing amazing but worth what i paid. I bought it online from Germany as i'm sure a few others here have. Any thoughts or opinions from those people?

Zared wrote:

TwoDog2 wrote:Oh, when you said early 90's 7542, i assumed you meant a Menghai production. The price of those cakes, even in the last few months, have risen to really high levels.

Take some pictures of the cake, I am sure plenty of people will have some thoughts.

Either way, as long as you enjoy the tea and are happy with the price, that matters more than whether it is this tea or that tea. Older productions with a factory name behind them tend to be priced much higher than 'better' teas without a pedigree

Its not MTF but the vendor has it labeled as being 7542. To me it's just a mystery 90's beeng. Surely nothing amazing but worth what i paid. I bought it online from Germany as i'm sure a few others here have. Any thoughts or opinions from those people?

Yeah I had this cake recommended to me. I was not really happy with this tea. I did not think it was really that cheap for what it was. I would say its a early to mid 00 No name CNNP cake very wet stored to make 90s seem plausible.

2012 YS San He Zhai

Pretty simple hay and grain flavors. Tasty none the less.

1997 Li Ming "8582" I really love this tea. This is the last bit of a sample of this tea a tea friend sent me. As is almost always the case the sample is turns out to be better than the cake that you end up with. Probably has to do with being broken up for a while. The hui gan and aftertaste are excellent in this tea . There is still a little bit of a herbal taste ( rosemary /oregano). But there is also some granny face powder starting to pop it's head in.
I think that I prefer this cake to any legit 97-98 menghai factory 8582 that I have tried.

2012 Chawangpu Bada Shan - Herbs and grain with good strength and a touch of sweetness on the finish.

1997 7542 from the same vendor as the 97 8582 I drank the other day. I n otice some similarities in tast. This is a nicely stored tea well. I prefer the "8582" to this even though the "8582" is not genuine Menghai (hence the quotation marks) and the 7542 is supposedly official. I think it is just my preference for larger leafed puerh.

10g of 2000 Kunming Lan Yin stuffed into my 150ml yixing. I find this tea to be very relaxing and quite enjoyable. I sorta hate drinking this because i made the mistake of only buying 1 cake when Houde sold it again last year. I could see myself happy having a tong of this sitting on my shelf. Anybody know of a Taobao vendor selling this?

That's really not the sort of tea that you buy from Taobao, unless it's from very well known vendors.

And cakes similar to Houde's are probably well north of $250.

Yea thats sorta what i suspected. I can only that they will appear again on Houde when i have the money again. I'm sure by then it will be priced out of an acceptable range for me.

Zared wrote:10g of 2000 Kunming Lan Yin stuffed into my 150ml yixing. I find this tea to be very relaxing and quite enjoyable. I sorta hate drinking this because i made the mistake of only buying 1 cake when Houde sold it again last year. I could see myself happy having a tong of this sitting on my shelf. Anybody know of a Taobao vendor selling this?

Know kidding I feel the same way every time I chip off a piece of my one lonely cake of this.

Yesterday I broke off a piece of the thin paper YYX. Every tea I have tried lately has been seeming to have improved. This cake is the one exception. While it has definitely matured the soup is starting to look more like an aged tea. It even has the beginnings of an ages taste coming on. But this yea feels a little flat I think it may have been with some cakes that where accidently left in my shu cabinet which has no environmental modifications.

Also today Puerh.sk 2011 bada decent every day tea has a nice throat feeling but the flavor is not that interesting. I think I prefer EOTs Manmai from that year for a bada. I feel like a bit of plantation is in this . I loved the sample but I have yet to have a session as good as the samples with any of the 2011 Puerh.sk bings. The sample of the 2011 yibang was really phenomenal easily par with Essences Mannuo of the same year. But I have failed to get anything more than a ok session with it from the cake.