2018 Taetea Brothers Ripe Pu erh 100g

 

This is a Taetea (aka Dayi) special edition Shou (ripe) pu erh cake that was produced in 2018.  Packaged and sold in 100g brick, this tea is nicely boxed and is called 'brothers together'.  The Penang tea shop translated this tea as 'Being with you through the wind' which I felt was a little inaccurate. 

More importantly is the tea itself. This tea brews strong and I recommend you use less tea leaves than usual for this brew. This tea is aromatic when brewed. I detected toasted sweet breads as well as the signature Dayi aroma. There is hardly any sweetness in the aftertaste.  There is also a fermentation scent in this tea even though this 'brothers' tea is already 5 years old. Perhaps this tea would be better if it was stored away for another few more years. 

Overall, this tea is decent; strong and able to brew up to a dozen good infusions. The tea in the teacup (see pix) is in its 10th infusion.  

Xiang Mu Hai Chien Liang Cha

 

This is Xiang Mu Hai tea factory's Chien Liang cha. This is a black tea. Black tea produced in Henan, China were traditionally compressed in to 'log' like sizes, wrapped in bamboo, stored in a cloth bag before they are sold to the public. Such log sizes can vary in weight from 1 kg to more than 30 kg. These logs are kept in shops or homes standing proudly while they age away. From what I gathered from black tea drinkers, these tea are normally allowed to age for more than 10 years before these logs are cut to smaller slices. 

What Xiang Mu Hai tea factory did was to produce these logs and proceeded to cut them to slices before these slices are individually  packed and sold to the retail market. 

This Chien Liang cha is the factory's premium product called Fu Yong Chien Liang chan literally from Fu Yong (hibiscus) mountain. Sold as a 600g slice, this tea is very aromatic with a floral fragrance that lived up to the floral name of this tea. Noticed there is some 'jin hua' (golden flowers) in the tea leaves.  The compression of this tea slice is light.  I noted there are more leaves than stems in this tea.   

This Chien Liang cha is produced yearly and I have the 2020 version.  When I brewed up this tea, the perfumed fragrance is enhanced by a lightly sweet aftertaste.  Good for 6-8 infusions. A delicious tea session.