2009 Yunnan Menghai Dayi Golden Brick

If I had to characterize this tea, it would be like sitting on an old leather couch in a library filled with really old mouldering books and eating a piece of chocolate in front of the fire.

The predominating flavor for me was old leather with a hint of antique books. The cocoa flavor, which I admit to having trouble finding in a shou, was definitely there, but without the creamy thickness that was present in the 2002 Master Han’s.

A nice experience for a fall afternoon. Thanks TTB!

From the PU TTB:

This is a fantastic ripe. Enjoying it while at work today and I’ve lost count how many steeps I’m in, but I’m guessing it must be a lot because I’m really feeling the caffeine! This tea brews up rich, deep and dark, with a sweet, earthy, somewhat chocolatey flavor and aroma, and not much in the way of fermentation funk even in early steeps. I would highly recommend this one to lovers of dark and sweet/mellow ripe pu.

This is as much a review of the clay boiler I got from Taiwan Sourcing as it is this tea. This was already a really good ripe, one of my absolute favorites. So improving it was setting a high bar. But I have to say, and while this isn’t scientific, the tea just tastes better with water from my Anta Pottery Clay Boiler. The tea itself is sweet with little bitterness, and notes of chocolate and fruity notes in latter steeps. I have to admit I’m not getting much qi off of this tea but then again I usually don’t get qi from ripe tea. I think that this clay boiler was a good investment, even though it was expensive. It was about $100 cheaper than it’s main competition, the Purion Kettle. The Anta Pottery kettle is the same concept as the Purion. Having never used a Purion I couldn’t say the difference. Overall, this tea tastes smoother than with my electric kettle. I definitely notice a difference.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBLa1jZTDd2Kr8oucQsIOCgxHbYzTYiulGi1o80/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea