Menghai Tea Factory(yunnan sourcing usa)

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Recent Tasting Notes

90

Yum, killer Dayi ripe with lots of caffeine.

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This is an abstract of my notes.

Gongfu with a 100ml gaiwan. Steeps: rinse, f, f, 30, 40, 1min, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5

Dry leaves have that slightly “fishy” fermentation smell. Maybe it would go away had I left it to air out a bit. After rinsing, aromas of sugar, chestnut and caramel emerge. First infusions are pleasantly spicy and bittersweet. Aromas of nuts and leather. Tea forms a sort of “film” in the mouth.
Later infusions are thicker, more viscous. Aromas of caramel and hay.

Flavors: Caramel, Chestnut, Hay, Leather

Preparation
Boiling 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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90

This is quite a good ripe puerh. It was somewhat bittersweet at the start. This lasted about three steeps. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it. But this was neither unpleasant or fishy. I short this was a very good tea with a lot of sweet notes.

I brewed this twelve times in a 160ml Solid Silver Teapot with 14.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. I’d say there were perhaps four more steeps in the leaves.

Flavors: Dark Bittersweet, Earth, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 14 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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92

Shooooooou…….smoooooooth. Brilliant on a bitter cold day when chores are necessary outdoors. Aroma and flavors of the outdoors before you even leave the house. Had enough energy all day and then some. Love this tea.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 16 g 8 OZ / 240 ML
mrmopar

A good one.

looseTman

How is the 2011 compared to the 2007?

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95

After putting it aside for many months, I broke into this toucha and brewed up a cup at work. I found it the most satisfying ripe puerh I’ve had in some time. Absolutely perfect and delicious… a benchmark for deliciousness. Sweet, thick, spicy and the flavors are completely integrated into a wonderful whole that is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Unfortunately, I had to attend an all day meeting and only had the first rich steep and left the others for tomorrow. This does not give me the opportunity to enjoy and describe the characteristics of each steep over time but I was pleasantly knocked out by this tea. Alas, I think I bought the last one of these 250gm touchas from YS

Flavors: Bark, Caramel, Smooth, Spices

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 8 g 10 OZ / 300 ML

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94

This tea is quite good. I received this as an extra from Mr Mopar’s Puerh sale. Thanks, it is good. I gave this tea ten steeps. It had a moderate amount of fermentation flavor in the early steeps that began to go away around steep four or five. It was sweet with little bitterness throughout. This is exactly what shou is supposed to taste like in my opinion.

I steeped this ten times in a 170ml teapot with 10g leaf and boiling water. I gave it aq 10 second rinse then let the leaves rest for ten minutes. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 10 g 6 OZ / 170 ML

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90

This tea is tasty with only a little fermentation flavor. That being said I was so tired I wasn’t paying attention to the various complex notes of this tea. There were many sweet notes but I totally failed to pin them down. I was unfortunately still tasting my dinner when I was drinking this tea, ah well. I was getting a salty note that I don’t think was the tea itself. The fermentation flavor was present in the first two steeps and was then pretty much gone.

I steeped this six times in a 170ml Yixing teapot with 8.6g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min.

Flavors: Earth, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 8 g 6 OZ / 170 ML

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85

This is a nice ripe puerh, very tasty. I decided to try some different things with this tonight, boredom is a strong motivator. I steeped it in a 10 oz mug for 25 sec with boiling water. In the first steep I added a small amount of maple sugar instead of regular suger. It was good but did not have a strong flavor. I don’t think I added enough. I have a pound of it, I will experiment more another time. The second steeping was with plain sugar . For the third I added Goji berries to the cup and brewed it for 25 sec. This steep was slightly bittersweet from the Goji berries. It was good but not an overall success. In all I think the steeping with plain raw sugar was the best. Sarsonator gave me the idea for the maple sugar.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 12 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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83

I’m new to the world of Puer. I got several samples from a fellow steepster and just working my way through.

This literally is the 2nd Puer I’ve ever had so I may come back to adjust my score at some point, but all in all, I thought this was just great. A bit of a funky smell upfront, but you don’t get much of that in the flavor.

Really beautiful liquor, like a deep garnet red. Nice smell, a little bit of that wet barnyard, damp straw/hay with a tinge of fishiness, but all in a good way.

Still developing my palate, but this kind of reminds me of a rich cab. Has some smoke, wood (think like oak in a wine), hint of sweetness, puckerness of a dark chocolate. All in all very tasty stuff.

Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Honey, Leather, Straw, Tobacco

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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91

Time for some creamy rich delicious shu! This one was from boychik. I have one more serving left. Woot. Good stuff! Just looked it up, not too expensive on ebay. Might get a little some day if I run out of my other tasty shu puerhs. Pleasantly earthy. If I am bad at picking out flavor notes in sheng I am even worse with shu, sorry!

boychik

lots of them ahead…Glad you liked it;)

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91

Yum yum yum, thank you Boychik

Sorry I am not feeling super verbose today. I am at Real Job but still recovering from all day outdoor vendor fair yesterday selling my fine art. WHEW SO TIRED!

Good shu helps, though :)

Marzipan

How did the sales go?

boychik

You are right, good shu is to the rescue!

Stephanie

Sales were so-so. My first time at this event. Made $100 after booth fees and whatnot. You can never tell what the crowd is after at these mixed events…there were crafts, art, and vintage stuff. Seems like vintage and crafts tended to do a little better. I need to seek out more all fine art related events! I could make a lot more money if I could do out of town shows, probably. Only so much of a market in this small midwest city.

TeaBrat

do you have any pictures of your art?

Stephanie

Yeah, TeaBrat I made this for Stacy’s tea art contest in the fall http://twitpic.com/dgw0vg

I blog my printmaking at littlelemonpress.com and sell on etsy at evilducky77.etsy.com :)

TeaBrat

how cool! I used to do printmaking back in college, that was over 20 years ago. :)

Marzipan

Ever think of etsy?

Stephanie

Nice TeaBrat! I miss the printmaking press I got to use in college. I can’t afford a big press. My college days were over 10 years ago. Time flies!!!! Now I work graphic design full time.

Marzipan check out www.evilducky77.etsy.com

I don’t get many online sales though. Mostly just use it as a portfolio of sorts.

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This will be a long review and only partly about tea. Skip along.

I went into the city today, got a bit of spring fever even though it’s still cold and nowhere near spring. But it’s no longer -20C and it was SUNNY for the first time in many days. Browsed bookstores, people watched, and then stopped at one of Toronto’s best ramen places. Had this: http://instagram.com/p/lTEyr3nqbi/

It was great while I was eating it and then quite shortly after i finished I got the “oh god, why did I do that?” feeling. You can perhaps understand why on the drive home I thought to myself “pu’erh”. I’m gonna have pu’erh. Which to have? I needed this and I needed to make sure I was going to drink it so I took it easy on myself.

Previously, my sheng have been white. So I was surprised this is dark in dry form. Shows you what I know, right? :)

Although the notes here advise on a 15s steep, to me that’s water. So I disregarded. Especially since the advice for steep time fails to mention water or amount of tea. I did 1 minute, I broke off a thin piece maybe the size of a thumb. My thumb, not shrek’s. 8 oz glass gaiwan came out to play.

The dry leaf smelled faintly smokey to me and then once I steeped it and took the lid off I could smell smokiness on the wet leaf. If I smell the wet leaf now, cold and having been steeped twice, the smoke is gone.

The second steep was also one minute, it gets a little stronger (shit, I forgot to rinse when I started) and it is getting a little stronger and a little, just A LITTLE astringent. Also getting a faint stone fruit in the after taste of the later sips, as the cup has cooled. you know, I’m talking out of my arse here, but I definitely get peach aftertaste.

Getting ready to steep for the third time. I am loving this one. Really. Really! Thank you :)

Preparation
8 OZ / 236 ML

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93

Got this as a sample and was thoroughly impressed. This is a very smooth sheng no harshness or bitterness. It does have the usual touch of camphor as many Dayi cakes do but it is not overpowering. It has good body and it turns very quickly to the honey taste of many fine shengs. This is a “hidden” gem from the Dayi Factory.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec
ashmanra

I was just looking at their website last night, thinking about an order…

boychik

do you think they are going to have Chinese New Year sale ?

mrmopar

Not sure about the sale but I am going to get shot if I make a Yunnan Sourcing order considering what is already en-route! But hey I think this is a “must have” for me.

boychik

On my list goes . Are you ordering from US site? I find shipping is expensive for this company.

mrmopar

Yeah from the US site. Shipping is a little bit but I always try to maximize the order when i hit the shipping price I want to pay. I usually add till the shipping goes up and then delete an item. I will have to say the do have the “Real” stuff and I have never had any issues with that. Sometimes I would rather spend a little more as opposed to taking a chance on bad items. If you are looking to getting puerh from China I know some great sellers over there.

mrmopar

Following you so we can message.

Terri HarpLady

I’ve definitely become a fan of Yunnan Sourcing :)

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80

So begins the first of my backlogged mini-tasting notes on the great pu’erh samples sent to me by mrmopar. Thanks SO MUCH! I now know that the loose-leaf pu’erh I had bought really tasted like moldy mulch and just had a slight hint of good pu-erh flavor. These samples have got me hooked! :)

One thing I noticed when drinking a lot of pu’erhs this week is that it seemed to put a huge boost on my metabolism, which really took me by surprise, as its the most noticeable change I’ve experienced from drinking tea. Got that fiery feeling in my gut like after a long jog or yoga class.

Anyway, here’s my tasting notes:

This pu’erh had a slightly milder flavor than the others. The main flavor hints that I picked up in this one were walnut and oak. The earthy flavors dissipated slightly to reveal more black tea-like flavors in the later steepings. Overall I think this was the smoothest/mildest of the pu’erhs I tried. Reminded me slightly of a light-medium roast coffee.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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