2007 Mengku Cake - Pure Puer Tea

Factory: Guagtong

Harvest Year: 2007

Type: Ripe/Shu

Harvest Area: Mengku, Shuangjiang County

Brewing vessel: 120 gaiwan

38 gram sample dari teh ini sebetulnya saya beli bulan Desember 2009 namun baru hari ini sempat dinikmati. Karena saat itu masih banyak persediaan teh yang perlu dihabiskan jadi sang pu disimpan dulu. Toh semakin lama disimpan semakin enak rasanya. Tapi gara gara disimpan di barisan belakang di lemari penyimpan teh, keberadaan teh ini sempat terlupakan. Baru ingat kembali setelah asik mencoba beberapa pu dari Bana Tea belakangan ini.

Menurut informasi dari vendor, teh ini merupakan hand-picked, stoned pressed dari Mengku, dibuat dari the finest Emperor leaf sized yang dipetik dari pohon teh kuno. Saya menggunakan gaiwan ukuran 120 ml untuk menyeduh 4 gram pu kering, dengan dua kali bilas. Hasil seduhan sangat smooth, samar-samar terekam rasa manis menyenangkan. Delicious tea. 


Update: 24 November 2010, I am finishing up this tea today after enjoying it for  several more sessions since the first session in May. Setting saya usahakan semirip mungkin dengan setting yang saya gunakan saat mencoba teh ini untuk pertama kalinya 5 bulan lalu termasuk tea cups dan kain batik untuk alas. Teh kering diseduh dengan menggunakan gaiwan dengan ukuran yang sama pula, tapi berbeda pada ketebalan dindingnya. Gaiwan yang dipakai sekarang agak sedikit lebih tebal dari gaiwan yang dipakai saat mencoba pertama kali 5 bulan lalu. 

Rasa seduhan tetap enak tapi terasa tidak semanis atau se smooth yang saya ingat. Mungkinkah karena pengaruh gaiwan yang dipakai atau karena teh tidak tersimpan dengan baik setelah kemesannya terbuka?

3 days later, it was still going strong and the color was still beautiful...

The leaves after more than a week and 15 something infusions ...

Treasure from 5 Mountains

Treasures from Five Mountains
2008 vintage from early spring harvest
Raw pu-erh, Grade 1
Production area: Lincang, Yunnan Province
Vendor: Bana Tea Company


From Bana Tea website: This tea is a blend of leaves from five different tea mountains in the Lincang area.  The raw materials of this cake were selected and blended  according to each tea’s strength, mouth-feel, body, aftertaste and an assessment of how each tea complements the others.  

2009 Long Feng Xia Oolong - Tea from Taiwan

LFX dari Shan Li Shi adalah salah satu high mountain oolong dari Taiwan. Tercium aroma manis dan sedikit floral dari hasil seduhan pertama yang masih bisa terdeteksi sampai seduhan ke 4 dan hanya samar-samar tercium dari hasil seduhan ke 5 dstnya.  Rasa seduhan lembut membelai dan soothing.  Simply delicious!  Jika saja saya tidak punya masalah dengan caffeine, LFX akan jadi pengganti air putih sebagai minuman sehari-hari.

2006 Silver Tip - Bana Tea

This vintage pu erh was included in my order from Bana Tea Company. Per the website, "the tea is harvested from arbor trees ranging between 50-100 year old. It is made entirely from tippy buds plucked during early spring."
The tea was so clean, light and delicious!


Harvest year: 2006
Type: Non-fermented, premium grade, 100% tippy buds
Origin: Nannou Mountain, Xishuangbanna Perfecture

2006 Jin Mai

Another delicious sheng from Pure Puer Tea. According to the vendor, the tea comes from the Jin Main Mountain in Simao, Yunan and the leaves are from 500 - 800 old trees, hand picked and stone pressed. 

Factory: Jin Yu Xuan

Harvest Year: Spring 2006

Kulov's 10th Annual Tea Festival

Some pictures from the festival my husband and I attended this afternoon.

Japanese sweet served for those attending the Japanese Tea Ceremony workshop

Angie & David from 1001 Plateaus

Organic Uji Gyokuro Gokou - Yuuki-Cha

From Yuuki-Cha: A first harvest organic gyokuro tea from a small organic tea garden in Uji. It is made exclusively from the tea bush varietal known as Gokou. Rich and sweet flavored tea! 2009 First Harvest, light steamed.

I used 2 minute brewing method in a pre-heated houhin with the following parameter: 6 gram/2oz at 122ºF. The first infusion was robust, intense, buttery and very delicious, slightly bitter at the background. The liquor color was shinny, reminded me of olive oil consistency and beautiful green. The second infusion was for less robust, but still intense, buttery, sweet and bold. The later infusions developed spinach and less bold flavor but still delicious.

My favorite gyo cup - just amazingly beautiful!

2010 Shincha!!!

Shincha or "new tea" is the first harvest of the green tea growing season in Japan. This is the freshest Japanese green tea man can get because the tea is immediately processed and packed after it is picked. It is seasonal tea, available only from late April to July. I am a newbie to shincha. So I wanted to try both asamushi (light steamed) and fukamushi (deep steamed). 

I pre-ordered my shincha while I was on vacation last month. Most shincha I ordered have not been released yet. So I am still waiting patiently for the following from Yuuki-cha. I cannot wait to try my first shincha! 

2010 Organic Shizuoka Tenryu Misakubo

2010 Organic Shizuoka Tenryucha

2010 Organic Shizuoka Okuyutaka
2010 Organic Kagoshima Saemidori

Edit: All shinchas are in the house now and we had tried Saemidori and Tenryu Misakubo. Loved them. Hubby liked the Saemidori a lot so decided to order another package with the following order. Yes, we cannot get enough of shincha! 

2010 Organic Shizuoka Sayamakaori

2010 Organic Honyama Tokujo

2010 Organic Shizuoka Kanayamidori