2007 Meng Ba Na Cooked Puerh

I’m not feeling particularly inspired today so I went for an old faithful rather than something that requires concentration and attention. This is still my go-to shu even after all this time and all these teas that I have been trying.

It brews dark reddish-brown, reflecting beautifully in the glass cha hai and gleaming with an internal light. There is something marvellous about seeing my yu ru pot steaming on the chapan with a full cha hai next to it. The earthy aroma wafts upwards from the tray and I sip the tea down. It is round-ound-ound and rich, a freshly ploughed field. There is no fishiness to the flavour or to the aroma. Lovely. A perfect accompaniment to my lunch (a bacon and stilton sandwich). The flavours seem to complement each other beautifully: sweet, salty, sour and earthy all together. And while I digest it, I read The Wanderer again (Anglo-Saxon poem not Dion or Quo!) and contemplate my need to include so many parenthetical statements in my tasting notes. I should be contemplating my lesson plan for tomorrow, but parenthetical statements just seem so much more interesting than what I am supposed to be doing.