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“I would guess that this tea started life quite bitter and herbal – an experience not unlike chewing on the stem of some decorative parsley – which seems to be the trademark of so many Menghai teas....” Read full tasting note
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Silk Road TeasI would guess that this tea started life quite bitter and herbal – an experience not unlike chewing on the stem of some decorative parsley – which seems to be the trademark of so many Menghai teas. After seven years of aging, there is still some of that left; however, these youthful flavors are now in the process of transforming into more mature, approachable flavors, notably sweet tobacco and mild fruit notes.
This isn’t a bad time to be tasting this tea, but it still does need some more age on it before it really shines. The bitterness isn’t bad right now – it never exceeds what you find in a fairly tame IPA – but the bitter green herb flavors can be a bit much after a while.
Based on what I’m tasting right now, this tea will continue to develop its sweet aged tobacco and dried dark fruit notes. There are still plenty of youthful flavors to this one, which I think would indicate that this will be packed with flavor as it continues to age.
In the meantime, what you can expect right now are plenty of hay, green herb, and tobacco notes with some hops-like bitterness. Rounding out these flavors are dried dark fruit notes that enhance the tobacco sweetness.
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Dry leaf – fresh peach and apricot, clover honey, fresh hay. In preheated vessel – prune, dried fig, sweet tobacco
Smell – parsley and bitter green herb, tobacco, straw, wood smoke, charred wood, some spiciness
Taste – sweet tobacco, bitter herb, parsley, hay are predominant, cigar-like “spiciness”. Consistent base of stewed English breakfast tea. Prune sweetness with undertones of apricot.
indeed, there are 2000 Mengfei Stores,which have distinctively taste and impression with 2010 ones.
I am not a fan of prune notes in my teas – I suspect (and hope) this is a mid-aged issue and will evolve into spice notes or cedar or sandalwood notes as the tea matures further. I have had the prune note very prominently expressed from most of my EoT cakes. Over 1 year in my tupperware storage has allowed the teas to mingle with my other teas and transform those notes into more complex woody notes and textures that are more to my liking.
Yeah, that’s interesting; I’m slowly learning what young sheng flavors develop into over the course of ten years or so, but I hadn’t thought about the next stage of development. My limited experience with older sheng never had the prune/dried fruit sweetness that does seem to be somewhat prevalent in mid-age stuff. I could see how it would turn in to woody notes – maybe even something akin to the cherry wood and earthy sweetness of shou.
That said, I have had some cakes that had a very heavy raisin/prune note. This cake is not like that. It’s still there, but it is not overly sweet. The tobacco notes are most prevalent.
Mrmopar probably has more experience aging sheng in the West than most on Steepster. He and I have swapped samples in the past. I found his storage got rid of a lot of those prune notes that I experienced with EoT’s mid-aged sheng. I’m hoping my tupperware bin storage will do the same to one of their cakes. I really enjoyed the 2002 Yiwu Ancient Spirit, but hesitated to purchase it due to those pronounced prune notes. In hindsight, knowing what’s possible with dry storage, I should have grabbed it while the price was reasonable.