My pu is bigger than your pu

I am still asking myself - Why did I buy this 2 kg pu erh melon?  Its definitely not a male ego exercise.  Maybe I have the impression that the US$80 I spent (3 years ago) on this melon gives good value; something like paying for 5-6 regular size cakes for this price.  Maybe I was thinking of selling it for a fortune 20 years down the road on ebay.  Maybe I was visualizing giving to my grandchild many years later explaining that this tea is good for him/her as it has been fermenting for 20+ years.......maybe the kid may think my brain has fermented as well.

This is a 2007 raw pu erh melon.  Made by Mengku Tea Factory, this melon is packed in a presentation box.  Pu erh melons were usually considered as tribute tea, that is given to royalty during the olden days in China.  Nowadays, such melons are given as gifts to friends or business associates.  

Yunnan Sourcing have a few of these melons in stock and he describes this melon as "In the ancient tradition of tribute tea this 2 kilogram melon was hand-pressed using Wild Arbor teas from Yong De tea mountains "Big Snow Mountain" and "Mang Fei" and "Da Xue Shan". The energy of this beautiful melon is something that can only be fully experienced by holding it in your hand and smelling its beautiful aroma. The tea comes housed in a beautifiul gift box! 2007 marks the first release of the Mengku "Mu Ye Chun" label! This tea is produced by the Yong De sub-branch of the Mengku Shuangjiang tea factory. It is composed of entirely high-altitude first flush spring raw material from Yong De area of Lin Cang, a totally different area than classic Mengku teas come from."

Pu erh is usually compressed for easy storage and the tea is usually compressed into cake, disc, brick, tuo (mushroom) or melon shapes.  There is no difference in the quality or taste....that is the shape of the compressed pu erh does not influence the taste.  I was told that some tea factories, many years ago during a single tea production, reserves the better leaves for cake compression and the rest of the leaves for tea bricks and other designs.  This could be an urban legend but I will inform my readers more on this when I do more research on this area.  

Meanwhile this melon is stored away for aging and  I will check on it again next year. This melon exudes a nice floral fragrance filling the entire living room when I was taking pictures of my impulsive purchased melon last week.