A Tea Addict's Journal

2002 Mingquan factory Bangwei

August 16, 2009 · 3 Comments

As many of you know, I am in the northeast corner of the United States.  This not being a very sunny territory to begin with, I live in a small, relatively old house, which means that it is cursed with poor lighting.  Until I finally get my act together to buy a decent tripod (any suggestions?) and moving my tea setup to somewhere closer to the window, my tea pictures will at best be sub-par, and at worst, unviewable.  So, no pictures for now.

It’s been ages since I actually posted anything about a specific tea.  This tea is something which I bought a sample of a while ago from YSLLC.  The wrapper says Menghai, but Scott says it’s Bangwai.  I’m thinking Bangwei mountain, but that’s in Lancang county, not Menghai.  As is typical though, wrappers really don’t mean much in the world of new puerh, and we shouldn’t put too much stock in them.  The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, tea.

The leaves of this tea is relatively finely chopped, with some young buds in the mix, seemingly indicating that this is some sort of spring tea.  The tea, when brewed, displays a nice brownish colour — fit for something that is around 7 years old, and not too dryly stored, which is good.  The tea is punchy, and a bit bitter, but not too much so.  In fact, it’s starting to change into that “second” phase, where the tastes become a little more pleasant.

There are better teas out there, certainly, but there are many worse.  It’s a bit of a smaller cake than 357g, so the pricing needs to be adjusted to make the comparison fair.  I do think it’s not a terrible cake though.

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3 responses so far ↓

  • djn7304 // August 16, 2009 at 10:33 pm | Reply

    I bought a couple of these cakes from Scott about two years ago. I also recall them being fairly bitter. At the time I thought that was a notable characteristic for cakes that would age well (now of course, I know it’s more complicated than that.)

    I’ll see if I can pull one out tomorrow and see how’s it’s progressing. I’m in North Florida, but the indoor humidity tends to stay between 50%-60%.

    Here’s to finding older cakes hidden in the bottom of the cabinet. 😉

    On a side note, I’ve been enjoying Scott’s Yunnan Sourcing brand bamboo packed sheng lately. Very mellow and easy to drink. It helps me relax at night. Adding a small amount of pu’er flowers to the mix pleasantly sweetens the brew.

  • HobbesOxon // August 17, 2009 at 1:07 am | Reply

    Does “not terrible” equate to “worth trying”? 🙂

    Best wishes,

    Hobbes

    P.s. Photos please. Even dark ones!

  • MarshalN // August 17, 2009 at 10:18 am | Reply

    @HobbesOxon – 

    That’s a pretty subjective thing to say, and I’d say that if you happen to be buying things from YSLLC, a sample might not be a bad idea, but I won’t go out of my way for it.

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