2006 Menghai "Spring Of Menghai"

Quite a tasty semi-aged raw, greener than the age would suggest (mine was stored in Kuming, but I’m sure the tight compression also had something to do with it).
The highlight for me is the very nice rich perfumy floral aroma with a hint of smoke.
The flavor features a distinct grassy note, along with some nice sweetness, minerality, plums and that hint of smoke from the aroma. Not really much wood or other aged notes, maybe aside from some resin. Bitterness and astringency is present but rather low, body is pretty good. The aftertaste is probably the weakest side of this cake, just a basic drying without much sweetness, but at the price I got this for (10$/100 grams) I really can’t complain.

The first couple steps are light and sweet with wildflower honey, black tea, dried apricot, and citrus notes dominating the golden brew, with a sweet earthiness in the background. It quickly becomes bittersweet and turns orange. I normally would have reduced the steeping time, but the bittersweet steeps have a deep, aromatic, resinous wood thing that I love, and it disappears in lighter steeps. The bitterness is quite tolerable anyway. The next few steeps move toward a more generic but still pleasant mushroomy earthiness, and that’s where this session ends because I’ve had a lot of puerh today and I can feel it.

Nice cake made of high quality first flush tea leaves. The cake has a pleasant light and fresh aroma. Clear dark gold liquor. In terms of flavor, there is a lovely forest honey sweetness in the sip without any bitterness or smoke. While very sweet, I did not detect any fruit. Sometimes able to detect the floral of meadow flowers. This is definitely a rather light and gentle cup with a clean and lingering finish and a pleasant aftertaste. Overall a very enjoyable Menghai Dayi product. I went light on the leaf this time but plan to increase the dry leaf by 50% the next time I prepare a cup.

Working 10 grams of this up in the Gaiwan to see how it does. This is the oldest Menghai Spring that I have that was purchased as a set of samples from Finepuerh. They seem to another pretty good seller in the market. Their packaging and labeling was really nice.
Enough about them and now to the tea. I picked this one after Scratch the kitty tea randomizer picked the White2Tea Amerykah 3 times in a row! I don’t think I can do that tonight and work tomorrow.
Wet lea still has the green scent with a little wisp of smoke in there. brew is a little darker than the 2008 cake I had a couple of days ago. This has evened out into a sweet brew without much bite or astringency to it. Honey and flowers in aroma and taste to this one. it is a little unassuming compared to the tea I had earlier in the day. Smooth and mellow would be the notes on this. Not much vibrancy or punch but an easy drinking brew.