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2006 Xiaguan Tibetan Flame Brick (06年下关宝焰砖) from Xiaguan Tea Factory

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76/100

2006 Xiaguan Tibetan Flame Brick (06年下关宝焰砖)

Pu-erh Tea by Xiaguan Tea Factory

Many agree Xiaguan Tibetan Flame Brick is one of the best deals in town.

This is a high quality green pu-erh brick made to export to Taiwan. The color of the tea liquid is thick yellowish. The tea has effects on decreasing the level of blood sugar, lowering body fat, and losing weight.

Vintage 2006

Factory Xiaguan Tea Factory

Form Brick

Genre Green/unfermented

2 Tasting Notes

Bert Ankrom
77
Bert Ankrom 2 tasting notes

Enjoying this tea for the second time. The first thing about this cake is that the brick itself and the leaves have a very Japanese tea appearance as far as size and texture but of course the color of the leaves and the compression is distinctly puerh. Being a sheng pu this tea brews up in a crystal clear orange color that reminds me of a maple tree changing colors in the fall… interestingly, the liquor matches almost exactly the shirt I have on today. Flavor wise it has a lot in common with a Royal Phoenix Stone Oolong that I am familiar with but obviously with a puerh twist. Heavy tones of fruit, specifically citrus, almost pithy in the first infusions. Also keeping with the younger sheng characteritics there is a fair amount of astringency. Deeper down upon aerating the liquor in the mouth there are definite fungal tones, mushroons. As always I am amazed at the variety of flavors that can be attained over different varieties, growing locations, processing and even different infusions of the same tea during the same session. This tea is one of the ones that calms me down, and makes me contemplative. It’s not a “wowsa” kind of cup but it is definitely something I look forward to drinking for years into the future. In fact I can see ordering more in the future.

Thought I’d update this tasting log. For the last few weeks I’ve been doing all of my brewing in a gaiwan instead of a yixing. After drink a couple of steeps I reviewed my previous tasting note from about a year ago. This tea really seems to be aging, the color of the dry leaves have changed from a green hue to a very shu like brown appearance. As I mentioned before, the leave material is heavily processed meaning that the brick is made up of material in tiny pieces almost like it was run through a mulching lawn mower , but it still brews a very clean orange cup ut will gather a bit of sedimentation in the bottom of the cup. One thing that I noted this time that I did not mention before is the smokey aroma of the wet leaves. The astringency is all but gone and the tea is now much smoother than what I recall and has lost a lot of the young sheng characteristics. Not sure but I’m guessing the mellowing has to do with the size of the material in the brick. Also the leaves seem to give up after just 4 or 5 infusions but those first five are very enjoyable, a smooth feeling hat envelops the mouth, with apricot present and some flavors of a tippy black tea. I’m finishing with my sixth infusion now doing a very long 2+ minute steep to see if I can get just one last cup out of it. Nope.

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