OK, now it gets interesting. When the teas arrived from China - sparking a bout of eye-rolling from my wife when she had to receive the box from the postperson - the two sample bags were labeled identically, both as the 2008 Mengku. Which was which?
Looking at the tea, they were clearly different. One was a more brownish color, presumably the 2002 tea (you may have to zoom in to see the difference):
As an aside, has anyone noticed that chunks of pu'er tea look just like something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe on a muddy day? Yum.
Tasting them over a few days, it was confirmed again that they were different. The younger looking and tasting tea had notes like this:
6g in 120mL gaiwan at work. Medium compression, somewhat tippy. Aroma is unique - cotton candy, camphor, sweet 'shroom, low-toned and earthy. Quite rich in taste, pungent, long huigan. Lots of energy in this one - my hands are shaking and my head is throbbing a bit. Also, there is a nice cooling sensation in the mouth.
And the second, presumable older tea:
This is a really nice adolescent pu'er. It has picked up enough of that aged character to be interesting; mahogany, leather, old books. No sign of wet mustiness. The flavor is very sweet and there is a decent cooling sensation on the tongue. Quite nice and a reasonable price for a 6 year old tea. The aroma alone is worth the price of admission.
and later:
2002 CNNP Bingdao. There is a bit of a mystery about this tea. I have it as a sample, which was part of a group which were mislabeled. I am almost certain I am drinking this particular tea, but I have another sample for confirmation coming in my next order from China. A couple of folks have cakes of this that they weren't happy with, but this sample is excellent. Rich and oily, with aromas of old books and charred wood. Nice rust color, perfectly clear. The characteristic bingdao cooling sensation is there as well
Based on those tastings, I picked up a cake of the 2008 Mengku. At the same time, there was still a bit of lingering doubt about the tea I thought was the 2002 CNNP, so I asked Scott to throw in another (properly checked and labeled) sample for me to verify things.
Guess what? This tea tasted different yet again. Either I am seeing variation from sample to sample, or the original tea I received was something else entirely. Since it was the tastiest of the bunch, it is a shame that I don't know what it is. I am tempted to pick up a cake of the 2002 CNNP BingDao to assuage my curiousity, but I think I am going to let this mystery stay the way it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment