Wednesday, July 6, 2011

2005 Gu Yuan Chen Xiang Shu Puer Cake

Today I'm reviewing the Cang Yuan Wa Mountain Tea Factories' 2005 Gu Yuan Chen Xiang shu puer cake (滄源佤山茶廠-古遠陳香-熟餅). I was recently given a half-cake-chunk by my generous friend T.Bass in Georgia (the state, not the country). He also included the beautiful gift box for this tea.

The box.


The wrapper.


The chunk.


The session.


I used a ~5 gram chunk of tea in a small gaiwan. I started with a three-second rinse before inhaling the sweet, earthy and smoky aroma on the wet leaves. The underside of the gaiwan lid presented a similar aroma with more fruity and rosy aspects.

When I drink shu puer tea I'm usually looking for something smooth, rich and pleasant. The liquor on this worthy specimen was very smooth and pleasant but not too rich. Compared to its cousin, the Cang Yuan Wa Mountain Tea Factory's 2006 Ripe Puer Brick (滄源佤山茶廠熟普洱茶磚), this tea seems pretty light.

Although lighter than I expected, it did display many lovely little bursts of complexity. My tasting notes included old wood, vanilla and ripe red grape. I'm also glad that the liquor was not very smoky. This cake will make an excellent summer shu.

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