1980's CNNP Yellow Mark Sheng Pu-erh

These well aged tea cakes were stored beautifully in an environment that was neither too dry nor too wet in both Hong Kong and Taipei over the past 25-30 years. When infused, the clear, dark reddish-brown liquor is exceptionally clean, smooth and soft in the mouth (a direct result of age and the super-clean storage conditions) with a fantastic “damp leaves on the forest floor in Autumn”-type woody-sweetness and a mellow, sweet aftertaste that builds beautifully over a series of infusions. This tea is great to drink now, but it could/should take on some more complexity with some more years of storage, provided that it is stored carefully, of course. These cakes are a CNNP-branded production from an unknown/unidentified factory. The precise date of production is impossible to determine due to the lack of date information on the cake wrappers (or the bamboo-wrapped tong), but we’re comfortable with calling them mid-to-late 1980’s (1985-1989) as presented by our source. The cakes were stored traditionally in Hong Kong from the time of production until around 1995, when they were brought to Taipei. We selected them during our visit to Taipei in December, 2014.