2008 Menghai Dayi Song of Chi Tse Ripe Pu’er Tea

Woke up today craving a ripe instead of my usual raw so I pulled out this sample from mrmopar. Nice dark nuggets with a weird small bit of light colored leaf and a light twig/stem. Odd, but whatever. After the rinse there is a decent strength ripe smell that, fortunately, faded pretty quickly in following steeps. 1st steep is bright and very very sweet but not very flavorful. 2nd steep smells like old books. Very deep brown soup, lovely. Taste is still mild and sweet. It’s got a perfect astringency level for me, it’s there enough for the tea not to be flat and boring but it’s not drying me up. There’s some cooked fruit flavor deep in the throat. 3rd steep continues to please.

At this point I’m already digging around Taobao for a cake of this. It’s tremendous. It’s everything I never knew a shou could be. It’s not fishy and rank. It’s sweet and smooth and DAMN MAN. Just when I thought I was going to be able to get away with ignoring ripe puer forever and focusing my efforts on raw, you bastards make me want it all.

4-5th steeps the sweetness has backed off a bit and it’s a little earthier. I’m even picking up a hint of the grassiness of a young raw. 6th+ steeps are all similar, still sweet and smooth and rich and delicious. I’ll stretch these leaves as far as they’ll take me, I’ll end with an hour steep if I have to!

Edit: I’ve done a 2m, 3m, 5m, 7m steep and it’s still tasting good.

I bought a 50g sample of this after reading all the rave reviews on Steepster, but sadly it was a little disappointing. The tea is pretty good—strong with that Menghai bitterness. But it’s just sort of…flat. Hard to describe—this tea just tastes so average, with very few flavors jumping out at me. It’s sort of like eating mild salsa. It tastes like salsa, it looks like salsa, but it’s just not as interesting as eating the spicier, more interesting stuff.

Although I mostly drink black tea, the past while everything started tasting the same, and even worse, not tasting good. So, I pulled out some pu’reh samples I have had stashed away as I had a feeling that is what I needed.. And I was right. This is what I want to drink now.

This tea in particular is so delicious, and although I am not able yet to describe any flavors other than smooth and darkly sweet, this is what I want to drink everyday. Since this is the last of my sample it will not be this particular tea, but this taste is what I want and am craving for now.

Thank you to a very special tea friend who sent these wonderful samples to me last year – I am lucky to have been touched by your kindness.

my “2008” puerh for today. this one is a smooth tasting puerh. After a few steeps i still haven’t gotten a handle on it. it’s sweet..and very much a shou. Some elements of rich cocoa… hmmm enjoying this so far. but glad i have the day to explore.

From the Sheng and Shou TTB.

I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile, so jumped on the last little bit in the box. I enjoyed a few infusions last night and then returned to it this morning because the leaf was still not fully opened. It was smooth, sweet, and I think I got some date flavor at the beginning. Definitely a good one and I wish I had more to play with.

Thank you so much boychick for this sample! I am finally getting to trying and reviewing this tea. The leaves are nice and dark, it come apart easily into my gaiwan.

I rinsed twice, then steeped it for 5sec/5/5/10/10/20/20/20/20/30……

I’m on my second day, and boy, I’m glad I let it rest overnight, it became a much happier shupu after a good night’s rest. I rinsed it twice and did three flash brews, and the color and flavor were quite light. This morning and afternoon, it became a much richer color, texture and flavor. Hot summer rain and wet moss notes combined with some nice cocoa and mushrooms. I had to take a break earlier, I was getting a bit too teadrunk on it!

This seems to be a popular tea on Steepster and I like it too. I just bought a sample so I don’t have a lot, but so far it’s really good.

As others have noted it doesn’t have much fermentation flavor, it is very smooth and rich. I am getting notes of chocolate and cinnamon in my cup. Overall, a very pleasant shu that has a tiny bit of bittersweetness that reminds me of toasted grain.

I am bummed that I broke my yixing for wuyi oolongs (just when I was starting to use it more). I guess I will on the lookout for another one soon! ;)

This is a rich, smooth and mellow tea and this premium shou does not disappoint. Easy to drink; smooth and mellow; full of flavor. The cake presents very dark leaves – on the smaller side; fairly tight compression. Double rinse and then multiple steeps yielding a perfectly clear dark reddish brown tea liquor. The flavor sits densely in the middle of the mouth, radiating sweetness and hints of tangy leather and dark chocolate. The tea never seems to get bitter even when pushed, and is consistently giving me the same quality right from the start to the end. Very much enjoyed my session with this tea and I am left alert, my lips buzzing.

I reviewed this tea a while back. My old review is below. I think I got a bad sample because it was bad. It was a strange experience at that time. My body told me ‘no way’ and to immediately instructed me to throw it in the garbage. But when the TTB box had a sample of this tea in it, I decided to give it another try since so many people seemed to love it. So I tried it today, and this time around, I found it to be one of the best Dayi ripes I have tasted. It is sweet and deeply fruity. I really loved the first few steeps. I got quite hopped up, so this is a good one if you are looking for caffeine. Later steeps were not quite as smooth, more bitterness came through. Then, it turned into that yeasty bread dough flavor. This is a great tea, and at around $40, it is one of the few semi-aged Dayi teas that are reasonably priced. I guess this particular tea does not have a hype factor built in. Both Berryleb and Dragon Tea House sell it.

OLD REVIEW
So I gave this try due to Allan’s very positive review. I found that it was not for me. It is kind of mushroomy, which I personally don’t care for. Otherwise it was earthy and deep. Very strong caffeine and cha qi, probably the highest kick factor I’ve ever experienced from a ripe pu erh.

This tea made me so so so so so so so so so SO happy. Of happiness.

Only one rinse was needed and the color is deeper than ruby, like a garnet. And AllanK was right – zero fermentation flavor, no dirty flavors. This tastes like chocolate mushrooms. That may not sound appetizing, but I assure you, it’s the fucking BOMB, yo.

This is my new fave shou. Thanks for the sample, Allan!!!!

I did one session with three steeps, then another, then another. A total of 9 steeps, which got smoother as they went along.

From the start, I felt buzzy. At one point during the 2nd session, I realized that I dazed out. When I came to, I felt kind of dizzy and happy. Tea drunk, indeed!

I also kept staring into the cup, kind of mesmerized by the color.

To sum up: WOW. So yumz. Much happy. Wow. So garnet. Tea drunkies.

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