Mengku Palace Ripened Golden Buds Loose Pu-erh Tea 2007

Another tea from sample round #3

The dry leaf smells like a shoe store verging on a sneaker shop. Sneakers have that odd smell akin to “new car smell” but particular to themselves. This isn’t a bad smell for an aged tea. It is close enough to the leathery aromas of a shoe shop that it makes the tea quite inviting.

Because this is loose leaf, not a tuocha, the first steeping happens very, very fast. My cup is almost as dark as my daily drinker “wang pu er” from Upton.

But the flavor profile is quite different. Some of the sweetness of the golden buds remains behind all this musty shoe leather. There is a short finish with solid astringency, almost like an Assam. I’ve never had that in a shou pu er before.

If you like quick and easy shou tea, but lament the way in which they all seem to eventually taste the same, give this one a try, it has some genuinely unique notes.

Favorite pu-erh I’ve had so far, this is downright delicious. I’ll add more description later, I won’t have my computer for another week and I don’t quite feel like writing tea reviews on my phone. :) But in the mean time, you should try some! Hope all are doing well.

(Free sample provided by Teavivre. Thank you!)

A sample of this tea came along with another four sent to me by Teavivre. My thanks to Angel and the rest of Teavivre team.

Few days ago I god my gaiwan and since then I’m sticking to it. You can say that I’m the kind of person that excessively sticks to something newly discovered (if I like it of course).

With 85 ml gaiwan I used 4 grams of leaf (sample being 5 gram total) and boiling water. Infusions (in seconds): 20,20,30,40,60,120,240,480

Dry leaf looks really small and sort of chopped-up with a decent amount of golden-coppery buds and soft dusty and earthy notes with a hint of spicy undertone. The shape reminds me of those Pu-erhs stuffed in dried mandarine/tangerine.

1st
After preheating the gaiwan and a short leaf rinse I steeped for 20 seconds. What I got was a deep red wine infusion typical for ripe Pu-erhs with just a little of leaf particles at the bottom. First sip and I’m already impressed. For me it usually takes until second or third infusion with ripe Pu-erhs until I get to feel a full body image and decide to brew more or dump it. This one kicked me at the very start, actually. It’s medium thick with light roast impression and sweetness on tip and a hint of pleasant bitterness on the end that sits there for a while. The bitterness tends to evolve to slightly peppery sensation as it fades out.

2nd
Liquor looks the same as in previous infusion but it has more clarified taste with smoothed out roasted and sweet notes and lacking bitterness.

3rd
Slightly more intensive than previous infusion. Although it’s pleasant I still like the first one the most.

4th
I was a bit surprised to see that the color is starting slightly to fade, since I wasn’t expecting for that to happen until 5th or 6th steep. Maybe I should have used more leaf.
In previous infusion there was a lack of bitterness only to emerge back in this one and taking the front with robust overall character. There isn’t much of evolving peppery-tingling sensation though.

5th
With a slight color degradation I’m getting less roasted and bitter flavors and more of sweetness to it. It’s a nice twist, but it isn’t too impressive. At this point a mild throat-stiffening appears, something that I would expect much sooner.

6th
I don’t see any liquor color degradation in this infusion. It’s really nice how it got more sweet and smooth with light mineral, clay and even sour undertones.

7th
Same as previous with even more smoothness and nutty aftertaste radiating from the throat.

8th
I’m pulling the plug here. The taste is getting more thin while getting more of mineral background. Someone might enjoy this but not me.

The wet leaf gives away a deep black and oily impression with mild earthy scent and aroma of dried/smoked plums. I can’t but notice some stalks and cylindrical shape of incompletely opened leaves.

To wrap it up, this is a nice Pu-erh that I would enjoy the first three infusions but after that it isn’t that much impressive until last few infusions with its sweet and smooth accent.

Wow, this name was quite a mouthful. Taking the recommendations of the packaging, I boiled two cups of water and steeped this pu’erh for two minutes (Teavivre recommends one to two minutes). The dry leaves have much less of an earthy smell than I would have expected from a ripe pu’erh, but when the steeping is done, I am left with a wonderfully smooth-smelling pot of shou tea. This first pot is very smooth, a little bit earthy, if not slightly weak (understandable for a first steeping. I finish this first pot and steep another, this time increasing the time to two and a half minutes.

The second steeping strengthens both the aroma and flavor of this pu’erh. The earthy notes have come out stronger in both aspects. However, the tea has still kept its full smoothness. My only disappointment with this tea is the lack of complexity in the flavor profile. It is very much just a straight forward, simple shou pu’erh. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give this tea an 85/100.

This isn’t my first pu-erh but it might be my favorite, I’ve had the mini aged tuocha from Teavivre as well, which was far darker and of course more condensed then this loose leaf.

The first thing you’ll notice about this tea is how fragrant it is, and the light golden leaves, I steeped my first batch in an cast iron teapot; at about boiling for three minutes, its kinda neat how black those lightly colored leaves turn, the hot water seems to release something in them, its by far and again the blackest tea I’ve ever seen. (Including the Pu-erh toucha’s) the leaves come out of the steep pitch black/brown.

The tea itself when piping hot has a sweet aroma with a little hint of iodine, which gives it a slightly fishy taste, not in a bad way, just sort of like really good sushi, as it cools down this taste seems to disappear, replaced by something like burnt molasses and hay, at the very end there’s a copper aftertaste, again not strong, as long as you don’t mind the odd flavor at the start and end, which in fact I enjoy, its an amazing tea, with that earth warm body that I’ve grown to love with all the dark teas from Teavivre.

It might be a little strong or a little scary as someone’s first pu-erh, a flavored would be better suited, but if your feeling adventurous, or like a tea that’s black enough to put most coffee to shame, then I recommend getting this, or at least just a sampler, its amazing.

I’ve been very fortunate to be able to sample some great pu’erh teas lately. I’m becoming a huge fan of the variety and would now place pu’erh as one of my favorite classifications. At the top of my pu’erh tea list (so far) is Teavivre’s Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha. I was anxious to see how the Mengku Palace Ripened Golden Buds Loose Pu-erh Tea measured up.

I steeped this tea at 212 degrees for two minutes as instructed on the sample package. A rich molasses-colored brew developed.

The flavor of this tea is earthy, woodsy, and leathery. This follows the pattern of the other pu’erh teas that I’ve tried. The taste is somewhat milder than the Mini Tuocha blend. I also found the flavor to have a nice twinge of sweetness to it. As with all of the Teavivre teas that I’ve sampled to date, there is no bitterness.

This is another solid tea entry in the Teavivre family. If I were forced to choose between Mengku Palace and Mini Tuocha, I would have to go with the more robust Mini Tuocha. That does not diminish the quality of Mengku Palace. I’m just a strong tea kind of guy.

Free sample from Teavivre.

Yum yum yum. I love this tea. The liquor is dark, rich and full-bodied. The mellow earthy flavour is right there without any fishy taste. It leaves my tongue tingling after each sip. I think this is a tea that I could drink all day. It makes me happy to drink it and I am struggling not to gulp it down just so that I can reinfuse the leaves and start all over again. This one is definitely going on the shopping list.

Many thanks to Teavivre for this sample!
The dry leaf of this smells very similar to the Xiaguan toucha I was drinking earlier. I prepared this tea per Teavivre’s instructions of ~1 min. steep times. Pouring this tea was really interesting! I noticed that at first the water was very russet/copper colored and then ended with very deep browns and reds. I guess I never paid attention to that before.
This pu’erh has a distinct hay and bread like quality. There is some sweetness, but it is at the back end of the sip. It also kind of reminds me of cream of wheat for some reason; so farina like. Something about drinking this makes me think that it’d pair well with almonds and crystallized aged gouda cheese bits. I think that the mouth feel of this reminds me a bit of almond skins and that’s where I’m getting this. That sounds really weird when I write it down! Overall this is really easy to make and it is a great pu’erh for newbies like me.

Water: 8oz boiling water

Leaves: very tiny brownish-black leaves

Steep: 2m

Aroma: Smokey

Color: Black

Taste: Before buying this tea i had never heard of Pu-erh before, it was something completely new and still is. Before brewing I had rinsed the tea twice each time for 1 minute b/c I read it’s good to rinse Pu-erh. Then the brewing process I was surprised at how dark the color was it remind me of black coffee. As for the taste I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s a very smooth tea.

Part of me is so sad that it’s taken me this long to learn to enjoy pu-erh tea. My first experiences were terrbile – and very rarely will you see me pour tea down the drain. Now that I’ve found some better quality teas though, and learned to rinse them, my sadness comes from having only ordered sample sizes. Maybe my timing is actually just right, because I found out some big news this week…I’m moving to China at the end of the summer!

I’ve been resteeping multiple times with steep times ranging from 10 seconds to eventually 5 minutes once I’ve steeped the tea to death. Mellow is such an appropriate word to describe it. The taste is warm and earthy but clean and not muddled. I don’t get any hint of fishiness, even with the smell.

I can’t find words to describe it, but it tastes healthy – I feel like my body likes it more than any other tea I drink. I have a few different samples left to try, but that was the end of this one. I’m not sure whether I prefered this or the one I reviewed a couple of weeks ago from Verdant…

Understand that this is the 1st Pu-erh I have tried. I purchased the black tea sampler and would probably never have tried it otherwise. So I am no expert. Also, I sweeten all my teas with stevia. However, my husband doesn’t sweeten his tea and he liked it too. All I can say is I like this wonderful tea a lot, it’s good hot or iced, really good. I steeped it for 30 seconds the 1st time and added 30 seconds for each subsequent steeping. I plan to try the Gaiwan brewing instructions next time since this method is highly recommended for pu-ehr. For iced I brewed it double strength and added ice while hot. I have now ordered the TeaVivre Pu-erh sampler so I can compare this one with others.

Dry Leaf: Has a earthy smell.
Wet Leaf: Has a rich wood aroma with some earthiness.
Liquor: Dark amber color
Taste: This tea has a smooth woody or earthy taste with a faint sweetness. As you continue to steep this tea it becomes more of a smooth leathery flavored tea that gets lighter and lighter with each steeping.
Overall Opinion: I give this a 90. I liked this tea for a loose puerh. I have found this is one of the better loose puerh from my experiences.

Thanks again to TeaVivre for this sample. This was my first intro to Pu’erh teas and was a great first impression. Mellow and earthy, this tea was very drinkable and steeped well at least three times. I even accidentally left the already steeped leaves in my infuser at work over night and was still able to a very nice cup of tea the next morning.

One of the best things about this tea was its mellow yet rich flavor. I found it perfect for ending a meal as it tasted great but would leave very little aftertaste when finished. My first steep time was relatively short and I have to say that I enjoyed it more the longer I steeped it, up to about 4 minutes.

Thanks to Teavivre for the very (very!) generously sized free samples.

I’m afraid I’m too much of a novice with Pu-Erhs to give any sort of informed opinion on how this compares to others, but this is certainly very good. Earthiness and leather are, of course, the first things that come to mind, but there is also a sort of vague mint flavor as well. Certainly doesn’t sound pleasant on paper, but this is somehow very enjoyable.

Brewed gongfu style in a yixing pot.

Brew times: 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 1m, 2m, 3m

Dark brown liquor with a tint of golden. The aroma is gently earthly, but the taste is smooth and sweet aftertaste. I have not drank much loose pu-erh yet, but I do find the taste to be more mellow than pu-erh in cake form. Overall, I enjoyed this tea, but I am left wanting a more robust flavor towards the later steepings.