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“I brewed this earlier this afternoon before finally seeing Deadpool and Wolverine. I wanted to dip into a tea at the top of the recently rotated puerh collection. I noticed that the 2020 Umbrella...” Read full tasting note
“1st impressions: Smells of Mushrooms, Sugarcane, Camphor, Menthol. This cake reminds me of my first real puer experience of the budget Mengku cake that Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co used to sell. Not...” Read full tasting note
“Gongfu! Had this on my last day of cat sitting yesterday – the apartment I was going to had this glorious glass tile window up the stairwell that captivated me every day I was there so I decided to...” Read full tasting note
“This is my first time ordering a whole cake, so I’m not too great at breaking off whole chunks at a time. Best I can do right now is pick off a few leaves at a time, with the end result being a bit...” Read full tasting note
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Tea made for a rainy day. Pressed from our own stash of aged maocha, this tea was stored tightly sealed in Menghai since 2015 and pressed a few days ago in Menghai. The aroma is excellent. Thick and sweet soup. Really nice tea.
We have intentionally marked this tea far, far below its proper price in an attempt to send out a bit of positivity during this time. Hope you are all staying safe in the storm.
Each cake is 200 grams. These cakes were just pressed and are not in tongs. Please limit yourself to five cakes or less so that more people have a shot at buying a cake.
I brewed this earlier this afternoon before finally seeing Deadpool and Wolverine. I wanted to dip into a tea at the top of the recently rotated puerh collection. I noticed that the 2020 Umbrella was on the top of the pile and I wanted to see where the tea was at in its storage life cycle. Opening the bag, I noticed floral and mineral notes on the nose. The tea itself tasted of minerals, mushrooms, and reminded me of black tea (I can’t quite explain why, but there’s something there that made me write it down). It seems like ages since 2020, but it’s closer than I remember. 2020-2023 is an era in itself, where so much happened in such a small amount of time.
1st impressions: Smells of Mushrooms, Sugarcane, Camphor, Menthol. This cake reminds me of my first real puer experience of the budget Mengku cake that Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co used to sell. Not sure on where these leaves are from, but you can tell they had some age on them before pressing. Sweet up front, bitter on the back of the tongue, nice texture. Comfortable with just enough complexity without demanding a lot of attention.
Drink down: Cooling on the throat, some as yet unidentified fruit in the aftertaste. Maybe a citrus, but not with any sourness. Maybe a Neroli thing? Its name is apt, as it would make an excellent rainy day tea. It is also a really nice tea to intro raw puer on. Nothing outstanding in any direction, well rounded. Despite it reminding me of a supposed Mengku cake, this tea has a lot of Yiwu feel to it. But with a bit more bite than I’m used to in Yiwus.
This looks to be plantation material that is a bit chopped up. Not terribly so, but noticeable. A fair blend of material for tippy buds to stem.
I’ve about killed my stock of this. I bought two cakes when this came out as I thought it would be an excellent way to connect with people remotely. Sent samples to friends and drank it while talking via Zoom. It didn’t work out great. None of my friends are puer drinkers and had no frame of reference for a good brew. The result was that I stashed this away and sent people some oolongs. My plan was to pull the Umbrella out for in person gatherings, but I ended up hooked on it. It has been a few months since I had it and realized I never reviewed it.
Flavors: Camphor, Citrus, Floral, Menthol, Mushrooms, Sugarcane, Wood
Gongfu!
Had this on my last day of cat sitting yesterday – the apartment I was going to had this glorious glass tile window up the stairwell that captivated me every day I was there so I decided to pick a tea on my last day visiting that I thought would fit with the ambiance of the window, and personally I think I nailed it!
It’s very soft and sweet with a gentle floral note that reminds me of elderflower or peony. Also not sure if it was intentional or not but there’s something about this tea that just reminds me of cool, clean and crisp sweet smell before a thunderstorm. Pretty fitting for a tea named Umbrella, no!? Having this tea session here, with the light reflecting through the window, reminds me of being underwater and that combined with the notes of sweet rain and Spring florals is just ultra relaxing!
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQt5hsSBbtN/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_GP1oh60Ns&ab_channel=Husbands-Topic
This is my first time ordering a whole cake, so I’m not too great at breaking off whole chunks at a time. Best I can do right now is pick off a few leaves at a time, with the end result being a bit like maocha.
Very sweet, not very bitter/astringent. The aroma is incredible, super sweet stone fruit and honey.
Brewed 1g/15ml with boiling water
