2019 Heng Tong Hao "Jingmai Honey Aroma" Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

This tea was pretty good, and I eventually found it to outshine the 2023 Autumn Jiu Tai Po I purchased around the same time and really loved. Just a solid tea with enough depth/complexity to keep you interested from day to day. I don’t find this tea offensive in any way, and whatever bad qualities noted by other reviewers seem to have aged their way out. It does have a touch of bitterness, but a friendly kind not unlike a good IPA-style beer. A piney kind of bitterness. Overall, the sweeter and fruitier notes of this tea seem more prominent. It has some of the “cotton candy” qualities which I love in some raw puerhs and some apricot/grape notes. Maybe some slight citrus hints. I’ve already brewed through the whole cake and now I’m missing it. Probably won’t buy again, though, as so much more raw puerh I haven’t explored yet.

I scored the 2023 Jiu Tai Po higher than this, but at the time I was blown away by the “cotton candy” aroma/flavor I had discovered in that one. In retrospect now I would rate it a little lower.

Received this as a gift with purchase so perhaps I am more lenient than if I had paid for it. But I’ve drunk this at least a dozen more times over the past two years and find it quite pleasant as a daily drinker, not particularly astringent. If it matters, I live in a humid tropical country.

Tea Tasting Note: [[2020-11-25]]
- 3.8g in 75ml gaiwan [[Gongfu brewing]]
- Dry leaf smells incredible. I love how well-pressed it is – easy to get whole leaves out of the cake.
- Rinsed once
- First infusion (92˚C, 0:15)
- Pleasant and strong floral perfume, flavour is v light.
- Rating: 87
- Second infusion (94˚C, 0:18)
- Overbrewed already, orange colour. Bitter, dnf.
- Rating: 75
- Third infusion (94˚C, 0:15)
- Still slightly bitter but better, more like a later infusion of a green tea.
- Rating: 81
- Fourth infusion (92˚C, 0:15)
- A better green tea.
- Rating: 85
- Fifth infusion (94˚C, 0:16)
- Light flavour, but there’s an interesting new note in here I can’t place. I can push harder.
- Rating: 83
- Sixth infusion (95˚C, 0:23)
- A bit light, but very nice and perfectly serviceable daily drinker.
- Rating: 85
- Seventh infusion (97˚C, 0:35)
- A bit overbrewed.
- Rating: 81
- Eighth infusion (98˚C, 0:33)
- It can go longer but I gotta go start my day.
- Rating: 82

I brewed this tea Gong Fu style as I do with most teas.
If you buy this tea to drink and not to age, you are a psychopath. While the steamed leaves have a nice honeysuckle aroma, the tea itself is too astringent to be enjoyed properly. This tea needs 5 years of careful aging AT LEAST to become anything worthwhile.
I am currently aging it, I will review it then. I do have high hopes for it!