"Mixed flowers puerh": anyone know this tea?

[debunix]

This is an interesting tea I picked up at Wing Hop Fung one day—the tag on the shelf said “Many Flowers Puerh” and it was on sale, plus I could see enough of the beeng to see that there were many flowers pressed into it, and wondered what flavors they might add to the tea.

It says Menhuajingdian upper left on the wrapper and then Yunnan Shuangjiang Mengku Proterozoic Broad-Leaved Tea Factory, which does not further enlighten me, although the inner science geek loves the 'Proterozoic' in the name.

The beeng is pretty——but doesn’t have much odor, and the tea doesn’t have much flavor. My first time I infused about 1 gram of tea per ounce of water, and it was quite bland; today I brewed up a thermos-full in my Kamjove, enough leaf to fill the upper container after it was flash-rinsed, and a series of short infusions—pour-throughs—and it is still quite bland, dilute, a bit sweet, a little vanilla, a little earthy, no smoky aged flavors, no sharp herbaceous young sheng flavors.

I’m wondering if it is sheng or shu; and what I might do to try to bring up more flavor from it. Anyone else had any experience with a tea like this?

More photos of the wrapping:





Apologies if I posted about this before--I think I only discussed it in some other forums.

[bearsbearsbears]

The only other pu I've seen with flowers pressed in is the 2004 Rongzhen factory cake, which had much fewer flowers and was quite strong in flavor.

Tea tree flowers don't taste like much. They have a butter/honey flavor, very mild. I drink them by themselves when I want tea before bed to avoid caffeine (the flowers have little/no caffeine). I usually brew them for at least a minute or two.

If you want more flavor, you'll have to use more leaf or steep longer.

The inner label (两江布朗公主) means "two rivers bulang princess". The bigger text below it looks to read "flower tea" (花茶).

The outer wrapper says "Culture Classics" (文化經典) and the factory "Mengku Primeval Big Leaf Tea Factory" (云南双江勐库原生大叶茶厂) is in Lincang county, which is not where Bulang mountain is...

Other productions by this factory are here: http://www.ynteashop.cn/Manufacturers/List_12_1.html

It's possible this factory did not produce this tea, and that someone bought out their extra wrappers to wrap their private production cakes with: that inner ticket looks very homemade and unlike other inner tickets on the other cakes.

[debunix]

The only other pu I've seen with flowers pressed in is the 2004 Rongzhen factory cake, which had much fewer flowers and was quite strong in flavor.

Tea tree flowers don't taste like much. They have a butter/honey flavor, very mild. I drink them by themselves when I want tea before bed to avoid caffeine (the flowers have little/no caffeine). I usually brew them for at least a minute or two.

If you want more flavor, you'll have to use more leaf or steep longer.

The inner label (两江布朗公主) means "two rivers bulang princess". The bigger text below it looks to read "flower tea" (花茶).

The outer wrapper says "Culture Classics" (文化經典) and the factory "Mengku Primeval Big Leaf Tea Factory" (云南双江勐库原生大叶茶厂) is in Lincang county, which is not where Bulang mountain is...

Other productions by this factory are here: http://www.ynteashop.cn/Manufacturers/List_12_1.html

It's possible this factory did not produce this tea, and that someone bought out their extra wrappers to wrap their private production cakes with: that inner ticket looks very homemade and unlike other inner tickets on the other cakes.

Thanks!

This cake definitely has plenty of regular tea in it, along with the pretty flowers, just remarkably mild/bland tea, depending on your preference.

Interesting point about the inner ticket vs the outer wrapper. And if you're translating as primeval what was listed on the outer wrapper as proterozoic, I guess they're trying to say they're working with the produce of ancient tea trees?

[bearsbearsbears]

Thanks! This cake definitely has plenty of regular tea in it, along with the pretty flowers, just remarkably mild/bland tea, depending on your preference.

Interesting point about the inner ticket vs the outer wrapper. And if you're translating as primeval what was listed on the outer wrapper as proterozoic, I guess they're trying to say they're working with the produce of ancient tea trees?

That's a fair analysis of their intent when using "原生", which translates to "most primitive" "primeval" or "original". Though naming the factory after such material is probably "big lie" marketing.

[gingkoseto]

I have no idea about this tea. But I believe the Bulang Princess was a historical figure (wife of a famous tea professional and she herself was a tea professional too) of Bulang, which is an ethnic minority group living in Lincang and surrounding regions.