Cang Yuan Wa Mountain Ripe Puer Brick

I would like you to meet the Cang Yuan Wa Mountain Tea Factory's 2006 Ripe Puer Brick (滄源佤山茶廠熟普洱茶磚).

Hello. 你好.


Pleased to meet you!

These bricks were imported by my friends at Tacoma Trading Co. and have been floating around various Northwest tea shops for the last few years. Teacup has been selling them off and on for the last three years and they have been given the nickname "those sweet and smooth bricks" by several of my regular puer customers.

According to T.T.C. these bricks were crafted by a talented female puer master name Tanmei who used to work for the Kunming tea factory. Now she is independent and works with her husband to market her tea.

I recently scored 10 of these bricks from T.T.C. with the hope of making a little extra tea buying money before I head off to Taiwan in mid-January 2010 (more about that soon).

This puer is long lasting and dark with a smooth and silky mouth-feel. I tried to over-brew it but I failed. It can get very dark and pour like thick black oil, but it will stay sweet and smooth. My tasting notes for this morning's session included: fresh soy milk, walnuts, and amaretto. To me this ripe puer is not smoky but it does have a hint of a rosy, fruity, some-might-say-smoky, Keemun* note in the finish.

Infusion #2
(but infusions 1 to 5 pretty much looked like this)

Updated 2-1-12 = Cinnabar's and my tea shop Phoenix Tea in Burien may have these in stock. Please email us for details.

*Keemun (Qimen) (祁門) is a popular Chinese tea. We call it black tea but the Chinese call it red tea (hongcha) (紅茶).