2002 Hai Lang Hao "Ai Lao Shan mini cake"

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Herbaceous, Leather, Pine, Smoke, Tobacco, Camphor, Cinnamon, Nutmeg
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Dustin
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 5 oz / 135 ml

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6 Tasting Notes View all

  • “So I bought this in early 2021, but judging by the other reviews here, the tea has not changed much in five years. Except that the price has risen considerably! It starts off with a punch of...” Read full tasting note
    81
  • “Dry leaves are a bit smaller than I expect, but give a fruity, herbal scent. When wet, aged smoke reveals itself, with a bit of meatiness. Quickly then, pine sap and lots of herbal notes. Overall...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “This is an amazing smoke bomb. Starts off heavy with camp fire smoke, very pleasant I might add. Thick body, a little drying in the mouth. After a few steeps camphor and nutmeg poke through. Very...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “First the first few steeps, not to put too fine a,point on it, it tastes like you’re having a decent middle aged sheng in the middle of a small, enclosed room in which is burning giant piles of...” Read full tasting note

From Yunnan Sourcing

A simple mini cake produced with the “Ming Xiang Ya Yuan” nei fei, which is the name of Hai Lang’s tea shop. Pure Ai Lao mountain of Simao Spring 2002 material, this little mini cake has been dry aged in Kunming since it’s creation. A nice mellow cake with an orange tea liquor and nice mouth-feeling. A semi-aged taste still with some bitterness and astringency.

100 grams per cake (+/- 5 grams)

White paper wrapper.

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

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6 Tasting Notes

81
66 tasting notes

So I bought this in early 2021, but judging by the other reviews here, the tea has not changed much in five years. Except that the price has risen considerably! It starts off with a punch of smoke and astringent bitterness, but after five steeps or so, it mellowed out to a very enjoyable brew. Even at steep #10, the leaves were intact and dark green in shade. It seems this tea is aging very slowly, I’m not sure if I live long enough to drink it at its prime! So I will just enjoy it now. :-)

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 45 sec 4 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
mrmopar

I remember this one having smoke and bbq to it. I need to resession it for sure.

TeaEarleGreyHot Someone commented elsewhere that they found numerous seeds in their cake, comprising a substantial fraction of the weight. I also found one seed, (but only one) in my 100 g cake. Kind of surprised but not too bothered by it. I suspect that other persons cake may have been compressed from material at the bottom of the bucket
mrmopar

I didn’t find anything odd in mine. Small treasures as they are called by some. I have found a variety of things in some others though.

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88
240 tasting notes

Dry leaves are a bit smaller than I expect, but give a fruity, herbal scent. When wet, aged smoke reveals itself, with a bit of meatiness. Quickly then, pine sap and lots of herbal notes. Overall round, married, and richly flavorful. Paler than I expected for 16 years, but still having great aged qualities, with tobacco and leather playing strong in the finish. A high note of astringency rides in the middle and late steeps and it empties out by steep 6 or 7. Great value overall and a tea with a flavor profile and aging history that is right up my alley.

Flavors: Herbaceous, Leather, Pine, Smoke, Tobacco

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 3 g 2 OZ / 65 ML
mrmopar

Yah, this one is still a smoke bomb after all the years. I still do like it though.

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88
47 tasting notes

This is an amazing smoke bomb. Starts off heavy with camp fire smoke, very pleasant I might add. Thick body, a little drying in the mouth. After a few steeps camphor and nutmeg poke through. Very tasty, very pleasant, but I can’t do this every day.

Preparation
4 g 2 OZ / 60 ML
kevdog19

I bought this WAY back… and I love it to the binghole. This is dank.

iliketea

Glad to see more love for this. It’s still available from Yunnan Sourcing, and it is on the high side for what I like to spend for tea, but it is worth the price. I like the mini cake, but that means it will be gone sooner. I can only imagine what it was like fresher.

mrmopar

I got the nutmeg too. It is a smoke bomb as you said.

iliketea

MrMopar I appreciate the recommendation you made for this.

mrmopar

No worries. I like it once in a while too. Fabulous little cake.

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64 tasting notes

First the first few steeps, not to put too fine a,point on it, it tastes like you’re having a decent middle aged sheng in the middle of a small, enclosed room in which is burning giant piles of extremely green wood on all sides. The leaf odor is smoke. The initial flavor is smoke. There is a deep, lingering flavor. Of smoke.

After a rinse and five (very quick in duration) steeps, the flavors start to peek through and become rather enjoyable. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but at the remarkably affordable price point there’s little to complain about. As long as you like LOTS of smoke.

Or just rinse it seven times.

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1113 tasting notes

Knowing nothing about this, I grabbed a sample and took it to work.

How do I put this… after six steeps I wasn’t sure how I would pass off being able to work. Someone thought I was asleep for awhile because I was so zoned.
This stuff kicked my butt and I wasn’t expecting or ready for it.
Finally looking for more info online… not much to go by, but this is really affordable for the year, quality, taste, storage…. everything.

mrmopar

I concur, this is a little gem. I think YS still has some of it.

Liquid Proust

Yeah, @ $16 for 100g…. it’ll go up for sure, 100% it’ll go up in price.

mrmopar

929 in stock.

Ubacat

What do you mean “zoned”? Did it make you tired?

Kirkoneill1988

ah, tea drunk ;)

KiwiDelight

If I got tea drunk at work, I think I’d get in trouble…

Kirkoneill1988

@kiwidelight, was that comment directed at me? :)

TeaEarleGreyHot

Liquid Proust predicted the price would go up, six years ago. And now we can confirm. The cake size has increased to 200 g, at $48 as of May 2022. A 50% increase.

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304 tasting notes

Breaking this one out from a a swap with a tea-friend.
I got 10 grams of this in the Gaiwan and went to town with it.
The wet leaf gave an almost cinnamon aroma to it. Quite an alluring aroma for a puerh.
I started the steeps at about 3 seconds ,3 times for my big “western” cup.
This tea has a light orange color to it. Since it was stored in Kunming it hasn’t aged as much as a wetter stored one. This is very interesting, smoke is definitely present in this brew. It is a bit strong in the early steeps. I read some reviews on Yunnan Sourcings site and only 1 other person noted this. This tea has nice notes of cinnamon , nutmeg and camphor in its notes. It is a very engaging and active tea in the mouth. It lingers on a while after you finish the cup. The resteeps seem to be going well and the flavor profile has not diminished much at all. I will continue on with this tonight. This is campfire, nutmeg ,cinnamon and camphor fighting for their taste note.
Note to smoky notes, if you don’t like them I would not tell you to try this. If you don’t mind this may be an older sheng to relish as it progresses.

Flavors: Camphor, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Smoke

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 10 g 10 OZ / 295 ML
TeaBrat

I cannot drink sheng late in the day. it gets me so wired!

PuerhCollector

Hello Mr Mopar,

Very nicely described. I felt like I just drank the tea myself from reading your notes.

Teas that have been processed using dried wood as fuel will retain that smoky fragrance for a long, long time (decades long). Luckily I don’t mind the smoke and it helps me reflect on how things were done in the past.

Best, VP

cookies

Yum, that sounds so good. I’ll definitely be putting a cake in my next YS order.

tea123

Any bitterness or sweetness mrmopar?

mrmopar

tea123 more bitterness is what I noticed. It is a bit punchy at the early stages of brewing.

mrmopar

tea123 I pushed this a bit more and the camphor notes amp up and it does have some sweetness in there. Camphor is way more pronounced.

sansnipple

the one on the us site is a smaller cake than the one on the .com site, 100g vs 200g. I nearly bought one of these last year, really wish i had now, before the price went up, when i first saw them they were like half the current price.

mrmopar

Sansnipple you are correcy!! I didn’t pay attention to that .Thanks for seeing my error. I did go get one from the US site and now I am off tot the other site.

TeaEarleGreyHot

Update May 2022: Both sites are now offering the 200 g cake only ($48 on .com and $51.50 on .us). I am sipping on it right now from my 100 g cake. The smoke has really dissipated somewhat even in the first steeping. The dissipation may have been aided by the fact that I stored it in a very breathable jar..

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