2012 Mengku Origin Fragrabn Raw Pu erh

One of the less popular Chinese tea factory is Mengku tea factory. I credited them for introducing their pu erh offerings with exotic names like Da Shue San (snow mountain and Bingdao (ice island). Such exotic names for their puerh actually led to a higher demand and higher prices for their tea about 12 years ago.  Today, I do see pu erh tea from lesser known regions given fancy names being marketed this way as well. 

I opened a 2012 Mengku Origin Fragran brick last week. This large 400g brick was, according to the wrapper, came from the Lincang region. 

I found this tea to be straight forward. No complicated taste or aroma. Non smoky. This tea is fragrant and has a hint of sweetness. Long aftertaste. Simple and good. 

But I digress. A tea buddy recently did a tea exchange with me. I was gifted a May dated pu erh cake from a well known tea factory.  He said this was a spring harvest from that same year. I told him it might not be the case as such big factories have lots of harvested tea stored away in their warehouses. Producing such a cake in May did not meant it was a newly spring harvested tea unless specified on the tea wrapper. It is important for Chinese tea drinkers to be aware that production dates on the tea does not imply that the tea used was harvested recently. Food, or tea for thought.    

2005 Xiaguan Xiaofa Ripe Tuo

 

This ripe 100g tuo was primarily produced for the European markets.  It was a surprise for me,  that ripe pu erh tea was enjoyed in Europe and It was Xiaguan factory that made inroads in offering this pu erh to Europe.   

I opened a 2005 tuo and it was not too difficult to pry open the tea with a tea pick.  This 100g tuo was wrapped in brown paper and placed in a paper box.  

Xiaofa tuos were not date stamped pre 2006. However my Xiaguan distributor buddy in Guangzhou  told me that Xiaguan for those years pre 2006, had certain markings like logo colour or text changes for the various years of production. I have a list of these markings and I will put them up for my readers when I locate my notes. 

This tea is already 20 years old. There is a slight old taste and aroma in the tea. I would recommend that you 'push' this tea; add one more gram and lengthen the infusion times. The tea would be more aromatic and nicer with this push.