2005 Haiwan factory sheng brick

Last Friday, I had the great pleasure of once again meeting my new friend Richard for tea at the Teacup. This time he brought me a sample of that 2005 Haiwan factory sheng brick that I mentioned he was trying to sell in my last post. I took a few photos of the packaging but we didn't drink it together because we already had a lot of other really exciting teas we wished to drink.

The real star of this epic tea gathering was my newest tea friend Bev (author of the gorgeous and insightful listening to leaves blog). Bev brought in a few teas including a breathtaking 1970's sheng sample from Bana Tea Company which she brewed to perfection.

This morning I finally made some time to drink the Haiwan brick, and I'm now ready to offer up my first review.

Each brick comes in a lovely little box...

...and has a paper belt with a card tucked inside (classy, eh?).


The leaves are quite beautiful...


...and the liquor is dark, sweet and a little bit "aged tasting."

I used a 100 ml glass gaiwan with about 5 grams of dry leaf. The first rinse with boiling water stirred up a lot of pleasant aromas such as peppermint, camphor and orange rind.

The soup itself was darker than expected, with mellow warming qi, and nice throat-feel. I got hints of those three formerly mentioned aromatics, but new ones such as blackberry and clove flitted about as well. The fourth infusion is when the earthier aged-flavors began to come out. Their smell sometimes reminded me of a 100 year old book with a leather cover.

I enjoyed this brick wholeheartedly.

If you're interested in adding one (or more) of these bricks to your own puer collection please email my friend Richard at wuyi06@gmail.com