Malaysia KL Da Hong Hua Tea Expo 2016 Part 1

I had just returned from my weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia.  I spent some time visiting the tea expo there together with my Malaysian tea buddy group.  I was also invited to view my friend's tea collection that was supposedly the largest Dayi collection of any single collector.  More on that later.

This year's tea expo was held at Tropicana Mall that started from 20 through 29 May.  There were about 50 booths where pu erh, oolongs, liu bao and tea ware were  the main products that was offered by most of the participants there.  

I was also fortunate enough to snagged some tea (specially priced) for early visitors that were present on the 1st day of the tea expo.  I got a couple tins of 2007 Sea Dyke's Ming Xiang oolongs, specially commissioned   Xiaguan tuos for the tea expo and a teapot……and later 5 more kilos of pu erh (teashop hopping in the late afternoon) to complete my trip.  The Xiaguan tuos are the 'Long Ma' edition pu erh that was specially made for the Malaysia market. 

The tea expo was vibrant with many visitors.  Perhaps the public holiday on that weekend (Vesak Day) drew out more visitors to the malls as well.  Looking at the pretty crowded booths, I guessed the organizers would be satisfied with the crowd turn out in this tea expo.  

A visit to the Dayi booth sprang some surprises as well. Dayi introduced a tea brewing machine (see final 2 pix).  It works like a coffee machine.  Select your tea capsule and insert the capsule in the machine.  The machine will 'sense' the tea and make adjustments to the brewing parameters like temperature of water and brewing time.  Place your mug on the dispenser tray and your tea will be ready in no time.  I also noted that their flagship raw pu erh 7542 had reverted back to their traditional style wrapping  that were commonly seen pre 2013.  My Dayi tea friends and I noticed that recent productions of the 7542 seems more floral and lighter in taste.  The recent years' 7542 tasted different, compared to pre 2013. Maybe our tastebuds are not very good.  

Part 2 to follow….