A creamy nutty sheng incredibly mature for its age with notes of almond, apricot and plantains. . . .
My pu’er mentor Wang Yanxin and I set ourselves a challenge: Find a cake of sheng with deep textural complexity, and aging potential, combined with the smoothness of something that can be brewed up now, but find it at a price accesible to just about anyone. It has been a challenging task to sort through so many pu’ers to find the one, but we found it.

This beautiful Fuhai cake steeps up with strong notes of almond. In fact, it reminds me of one of my favorite desserts: an almond torte with fresh whipped cream and raspberry jam covered in a thick layer of homemade marzipan. The sweet and creamy textures combine with a savory nutty flavor and crisp vegetal undertones to almost perfectly replicate that delicious torte.

In later steepings I get a tingling numbness on the tongue in the same way that nutmeg and anise are slightly numbing. This combines with the whipped cream texture and a growing juiciness to evoke fried plantains, and caramelized apricot. In steeping tests, we haven’t been able to get bitterness out of this incredible find, and can safely recommend it for pu’er lovers and beginners alike.

As an aside, this tea has an intense “chaqi” feeling, a clarity of mind brought about by some really interesting chemical interactions. Read the article I just published on “chaqi” here.

I hope that you enjoy this one as much as I have. I highly recommend picking up a cake if you can so that you will be able to see this tea change over the coming years and grow in complexity.

-David Duckler, Founder

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