A couple of weeks ago, I received a gift from a local tea buddy (if you are reading this..thank you very much). It was a 2013 Bingdao raw pu erh cake. This 150g tea cake was part of a boxed set which held 5 cakes in a box. Bingdao (Iiterally called ice island) had been (past 3 years) the 'darling' of the pu erh tea markets, where tea harvested from the Bingdao region had seen its prices rising dramatically these few years. I am not surprised if this cake was purchased for about US$100 (each).
I only own 2 Bingdao cakes. It is a personal choice. The tea is nice and I enjoy the aromatic bouquet of many floral scents in the tea. I felt that for the current prices of bingdao tea leaves, I can use the money to purchase older big factory brand pu erh instead (8-10 years old) which I enjoy very much. These older teas I believe, gives more value for money. As said…its a personal choice.
This Bingdao tea exhibits good floral aroma. I detected a number of flowers from the aroma. Very smooth and very easy to drink. During my tea travels, I had many opportunities to sample bingdao pu erh. Most of these tea are newish - 1-3 years old. One striking characteristic of this BIngdao tea (from the samples I had) seemed that the tea is ready to drink now, unlike the big branded factory raw pu erh which is very rough in taste when new. Maybe its the bingdao tea leaves or maybe it could have something to do with the tea processing in the Bingdao villages. Those reading this blog and are drinking bingdao pu erh….I do appreciate your thoughts.
This cake is only 150g in weight….another cake to drink sparingly. By the way…its that time of the year we eat moon cakes. The Chinese celebrate mid-autumn festival where moon cakes are eaten during this period. I bought a couple of boxes of moon cakes when I was in Hong Kong last month. The last pix..shows only an empty box…the cakes were all gone within 3 days of purchase.
This Bingdao tea exhibits good floral aroma. I detected a number of flowers from the aroma. Very smooth and very easy to drink. During my tea travels, I had many opportunities to sample bingdao pu erh. Most of these tea are newish - 1-3 years old. One striking characteristic of this BIngdao tea (from the samples I had) seemed that the tea is ready to drink now, unlike the big branded factory raw pu erh which is very rough in taste when new. Maybe its the bingdao tea leaves or maybe it could have something to do with the tea processing in the Bingdao villages. Those reading this blog and are drinking bingdao pu erh….I do appreciate your thoughts.
This cake is only 150g in weight….another cake to drink sparingly. By the way…its that time of the year we eat moon cakes. The Chinese celebrate mid-autumn festival where moon cakes are eaten during this period. I bought a couple of boxes of moon cakes when I was in Hong Kong last month. The last pix..shows only an empty box…the cakes were all gone within 3 days of purchase.
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