Chinese new year is next week. I had been busy working to get my new online store up by the end of the month.
Time to shop for Chinese New Year. I must buy the pastries and goodies to feed the guests who visit me. I think the goodies may be eaten by me within a day or two after I buy them.
I had selected a 20 year old tea for this festive occasion. This is a 2003 Xiaguan baoyan brick 250g. Such tea were originally produced for export. They were made for the places like Mongolia and as far as Tibet. The people there have little access to green vegetables and drinking the tea helped in their digestion. The tea is often boiled with salt, pepper and even adding spices like cinnamon or cardamon. Milk is also added to the tea to make it a delicious beverage.
Xiaguan Banyan tea was regarded by tea collectors as being a lower grade tea. This tea brick has more broken tea leaves than regular pu erh tea sold in mainland China.
Lower grade and broken leaves......to me does not mean that this tea is an inferior tea. I am sure a blind taste test of this tea will fool many serious tea drinkers. I am going to have fun with this tea when I visit China in the later part of this year.
I am impressed with this tea. It has all the hall marks of a good traditional pu erh. This tea is spicy (think pepper and ginger), a little smoky with nice hints of camphor wood. Being 20 years old and aged in my part of the world, this tea is smooth, mellow and sweet. A nice tea for the Chinese New Year.
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