Friday, October 12, 2012

2005 Tian Yi Sheng Puer Cake

This 2005 sheng puer tea cake boldly states "Yunnan tall tree old tea seven sons cake" (雲南喬木古茶七子餅). The middle of the cake advertises "Jinggu old tea" (景邁古茶), and the bottom says "Simao City Tianyi Puer Tea Factory produce" (思茅市天乙普洱茶廠出品).

The cake has been resting on my sheng puer storage shelf since I purchased it in 2006. I'm tasting and reviewing it today for the first time. To the best of my knowledge, I've never tried any other teas from Tianyi factory before.


The dry leaf looks dark and pretty. It has a sweet earthy smell like crispy Autumn leaves. I'm excited that this tea may be starting to deliver some complex aged-tea flavors.



Brewed in a medium size gaiwan with water just below the boil, this tea proved delicious indeed. It produced numerous deep amber cups with thick syrupy mouth-feel and many strong bubbles. It had woodsy pine-needle aroma.

This is a fine cake of puer tea in my opinion and a great accompaniment to a cool, cloudy, misty Seattle Autumn day. It combines subtle old wild forest notes with savory, herbaceous, sheng puer flavors. Ten infusions left me feeling comfortable, relaxed and alert.

2 comments:

Green Stone said...

I was about to ask you what it tasted like new, but I reread your post first!

I love that pine needle flavour though, can you recommend any particularly pine-y pu'ers?

Cheers,
Kate
http://sagacitea.blogspot.com

Brett said...

Thanks for the comment Kate! I like pine-y flavor-notes too. I often get them in sheng puer to some degree especially in tea with lots of white needles.