CNNPs, authenticity

[Drax]

I ordered the 2003 and 2005 CNNP Grand Yellow Mark beengs from the Puershop recently. Given the recent thread on Menghai counterfeits, I thought I would post some pictures and questions here and see what people thought about these two.

First, a picture of the two beengs:



The one on the left is the 2003, the right is 2005. You can already see the 2005 looks orange. Maybe that's just a quirk of the year? But I have seen previous orange versions, too. Unfortunately I do not know the CNNP mark series well enough. The wrapper on the 2003 is the 'usual' soft wrapper I've seen on older beengs. The 2005 is similar but much more stiff.

Now here is a picture of the 2003 beeng:



And the other side:



The odd thing in this case is the nei fei has nothing covering it. I tried prying it off, but it's stuck on pretty well in some spots (I was also using my pry-tool, so I punctured it a couple times). The ticket has started to stain a bit. . .

You can find a close-up of the nei fei right here.

Now the 2005, as I mentioned the wrapper is a bit stiffer.



And the other side:



Now this is interesting... the ticket looks near pristine, but it is covered... but also, what's that mark there...? I removed some of the leaves blocking the mark:



It's a red (or non-colored) mark! Hmmmmmmmm.

I'm trying the 2003 right now and I have to say it's about what I expect from a CNNP. I'll be trying the 2005 tomorrow, or tonight if I continue to plow through cups of the 2003.

In any case, some of these things seemed like odd variations to me, but I don't have that much experience with CNNP to know about production variations. . . I would definitely appreciate thoughts from those with more experience!

[Maitre_Tea]

Keep it!

In 30 years it will be a coveted Red in Yellow! How does the '03 taste? I've been looking at that, but I have an aversion against modern CNNP productions, with a few outliers (such as the 2002 CNNP Bing Dao of Mengku)

[Drax]

I've had a chance to try both now, and they are both quite powerful.

The 2003 has a strong flavor of what I've come to expect from CNNP sheng, but it was 'smooth' -- or at least, was never biting, bitter or astringent.

The 2005 is surprisingly (to me) different. First, the beeng crumbled much more easily (basically fell apart; the 2003 came off in solid chunks and brew times had to be longer). The aroma of the 2005 has a very nice floral component -- *almost* like jasmine but w/o the perfumy-ness. The taste seems to have less of the floral punch, but enough of the normal sheng power.

Given my experiences with 2000 CNNPs, I think I can draw the line pretty well. . . though the 2005 seems a bit of an outlier on a number of issues.

Definitely both still quite green!