Big Snow Mountain of Mengku Black Tea * Autumn 2017

Okay, here is my final review of the day. I was planning on posting a couple more, but I just do not have the stamina or focus to type more of these things this evening. This was my next to last sipdown of October, and it was also a tea that I totally forgot I had. I stumbled upon the unopened 50g pouch of it while cleaning out my tea hoard late in the month and tore into it immediately in order to finish it while it was still drinkable. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried because this tea had aged incredibly gracefully. It actually struck me as being a bit better and more interesting than the spring productions I had previously tried, and that was surprising too, because I have almost always preferred the spring productions of Yunnan black teas over the autumn productions.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cedar, pine, raisin, malt, baked bread, and tobacco. After the rinse, I detected aromas of roasted almond and roasted peanut that were accompanied by much subtler scents of grass, chocolate, and banana. The first infusion introduced aromas of cinnamon and black pepper as well as a subtle camphor scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of tobacco, cream, malt, cedar, pine, and geranium that were balanced by hints of grass, roasted almond, roasted peanut, honey, baked bread, raisin, pear, and chocolate. The bulk of the subsequent infusions coaxed out aromas of honey, pear, red apple, plum, orange zest, roasted hazelnut, roasted walnut, camphor, and geranium. Stronger and more immediately detectable impressions of raisin, roasted almond, pear, baked bread, and honey appeared in the mouth along with notes of minerals, butter, earth, roasted walnut, roasted hazelnut, red apple, plum, lemon, camphor, and orange zest. There were also some hints of cinnamon, black pepper, banana, and marshmallow here and there. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, malt, earth, baked bread, tobacco, roasted almond, lemon, cedar, and orange zest that were chased by lingering hints of roasted peanut, pine, roasted walnut, camphor, cinnamon, red apple, raisin, pear, and honey.

Overall, this was a very rich yet drinkable Mengku black tea with a ton of character. Fans of teas that display a lot of nutty, fruity, and herbal aromas and flavors would find a ton to like in this tea. I should also once again note that this tea had held up extremely well in storage, proving that it was suitable for longer term aging/resting. I’m glad I picked this one up when I had the opportunity.

It looks good and smells good, like a Dian Hong should. The taste is nothing remarkable though: some malt, some cherry, some sweetness. Kinda reminds me Yunnan Gongfu Fragrant Black from Teavivre but waaay less interesting and lower quality. Nothing remarkable at all and what it does have declines rapidly over the subsequent steeping replaced by off-putting astringency.

One of the rare teas that I am surprised why does Yunnan Sourcing offer them: their other teas are so much better. Not going to buy it again for sure.

The leaves smell lovely. Like some combo of apples and the slightest hint of mint. This is an extremely dark and thick brew that coats the mouth.

1st Steep: I taste a good amount of malt in it with a slightly astringent after taste similar to mace. The wet leaves smell of an old forest. Complete opposite of its smell while dry.

2nd – 5th Steep: The brew gets much darker. Very very heavy floral taste that somewhat reminds me of grass like green teas do. A very thick earthy aftertaste coats the mouth.

6th and beyond: It begins to get very astringent and drying until it loses all flavor. Got about 9 steeps out of it.

Not really my style.