Kunming Tea Factory

Bought this one in a sample from Tea Masters. I got a part near the middle of the cake. A little compressed but nothing to worry about. Started with a 10 gram chunk to start with. I gave a 15 second rinse to let it break up a bit.
Ist steep about 5 seconds showed some orange color and a sweetness of the tea.
2nd steep orange as well a little bit darker. Some of the floral came into the cup as a secondary note. There was some bitterness as well.
Subsequent steeps were pretty close to the second steep. I haven’t fully steeped it out yet. All steeps were right off boiling on the water.
I think this is a decently priced mid tier tea from the Kunming/CNNP factory. I think storage has been good enough to take most of the harsh edge off. I think it will develop more as time goes on. For the price on this one it isn’t all that exciting but you could put it in your rotation without breaking the bank on cost per gram.

2007 CNNP HK Returns 100g square brick packed so tightly that in Massachusetts it must be registers as a concealed weapon. A few mths back, I took a considerable pains to breaks some chunks into my zisha chayeguan, tea container, right? Anyway, humidity has consistently been above 68 with temp anywhere between 22-27. Ha. I really like it. It’s murky as the backroom of any state capital but the taste is alive with sound of black brocade and silver dragons. Thick mouth-feel, syrupy with the first four infusions. As it thins out floral qualities are more evident, but not in a namby-pamby way. Yesterday ran it 8 times then this morning I gave it long soak, which was brassy clear, and bitter, which I thinned out with another quick infusion, making it less just plain bitter. I’m pretty sure that this is NOT from ‘07, not earlier than ’10 but who really knows. The series ran from ’07-’13, if I’m not mistaken and all the boxes are marked ‘07. It’s much livelier than the cake I have which is ’07 and is considerably more mature.

2007 Hong Kong Returns Square Brick, Kunming Tea Factory, 100g. I can only give this a rating of being on the lower end of the the mid-tier. The taste is solid CNNP material: full and producing numerous infusions, but the brick itself is packed just too tightly. It evokes the taste of their “60” commemorative cake but that one isn’t packed to smithereens. The date on this is 2007 but upon research, it turns out this series was produced for five years and I imagine that the one I got is not a day over 2012, so it’s very young tasting. The 100g square brick is part of a commemorative series marking the 10th-anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule. There is also a 250g, 357g, 1000g, and 2000g offerings, raw and ripe, each with varying designs but usually featuring the HK skyline. Though the tea is good, I suppose it’s mainly for storing or gifting. The one I have, I’ve broken up and placed in a zisha guan to taste on a regular basis as it ages.

When I first bought this tea I was so blown away that I bought 5 more tuos.

Since my initial tasting, the flavors have changed slightly. The intense woodiness with peachy undertones has shifted to a more straw-like mouthfeel and only a slight green-grape aftertaste.

something else I noticed about this tea is how tightly it’s wrapped. Unfortunately, the tightness makes it hard to keep leaves intact. I’m not sure how much the flavors would be different but it means the leaves are broken and ugly :(