Menghai Tea Factory (Dr Tea, AliExpress)

I am cheating tonight and taking an easy way out in the cup. Long days take the toll on time. I pulled this out to try again. I didn’t put anything other than a mental note on it last time. It breaks off in about 8 gram chunks from the square brick. I gave it a good 20 second rinse and let it set about 20 minutes.
First steep of about 20 seconds, I actually do 3 steeps for my cup. It takes a while to even color the water well. It is a bit cloudy in the cup. More sweet than astringent as the last time. Pale yellow/gold color. It has aged a bit in the pumidor a tad bit darker in the brew and the brick.
Not terribly punchy or strong but more like a green tea. Small lea so definitely a plantation bush. I did see a couple of whole leafs in there although small and most were chopped to make pressing easier. A decent tea yes , not as good as the others I have drank lately but acceptable. I guess the convenience factor in the little squares you break off can make it worth it sometimes.
A little bit of fruit almost like a slight ripe banana and a semi-sweet finish.
Nice convenience factor.
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The cake has the classic flavors of good ripe puerh. Smooth to the taste with all the sweet, earthy notes one would expect from a high quality shu. Always nice to come back to this one.

What a treat. Never fails to delight the palate. Very smooth shou! A good one to serve guests who might be uncertain about puerh.

This is a dark flavorful shu – sweet and smooth even on the first steep. 5 grams, 15 second rinse, 5 second steep produced a delightful cup. When I go for a longer steep, the brew is thick and almost syrupy with an easy swallow and a spiciness that warms the throat.

I’ve been working on this over the past two days – I’m on steep #7 and it’s still very flavorful. I highly recommend this interesting, rich and delicious cake and I am very glad I purchased two when they were on sale earlier in the fall.

This is a well behaved young sheng. It brews up with an amber color as opposed to the green found in most young shengs. This leads me to believe some older maocha was blended in this cake. It has very little astringency, coats the tip and sides of the tongue with an almost citrusy oily feeling. This still does not have the depth of flavor that i would have expected. It is very light and does not have that “in your face I am sheng” to it. It has the minerally taste similar to some oolongs I have sampled. Lets hope it ages well.