Mengku Silver Buds 2012 Spring

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Butter, Drying, Grain, Grass Seed, Olive Oil, Pastries, Pine, Resin, Rye, Sweet, Wood, Apricot, Caramel, Hay, Honey, Orchid, Smooth, Bitter, Herbs
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by derk
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 oz / 83 ml

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4 Tasting Notes View all

  • “This tea starts very interesting. There is a sweet aroma of pine wood and resin rising from the leaves that’s very invigorating. I also immediately notice the smooth colloidal texture that becomes...” Read full tasting note
    81
  • “Soft, sweet aroma. Tastes begin moderately sweet with honeyed apricot and hay tones, modest orchid bouquet, almost juicy with salivation. Light bitterness and astringency in the first handful of...” Read full tasting note
    83
  • “Used 4g in 60mL gaiwan with boiled water. Had to be pretty careful with steep times early in the session, as this tea can get bitter pretty easily. This tea went for a pretty good number of...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “This tea was somewhat disappointing. First, the “Silver buds” name is largely marketing. There are certainly buds, but not a high percentage (though that may be due to the luck of the sample). ...” Read full tasting note
    81

From Tea Urchin

This cake was produced by our talented Lincang friend Mr. Chao, who produces cakes under his own label – “Bo Yi” 搏易. He showed us around Mengku in Spring 2012 and made this cake at his family’s factory. The maocha was hand picked from 100+ year old Mengku tea trees, hand processed, and stone pressed. The tea has an aroma of honey, brown sugar and brown rice. A pleasant chaqi focuses on the chest and clavicle, with a lingering sweetness on the tongue complemented by slight kuwei around the throat. This tea is superb to drink now, with only slight astringency. It also has great endurance, with amber honey liquor lasting up to 15 steeps. The wrapper design is by Tea Urchin’s illustrator, Yue Chen.

About Tea Urchin View company

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4 Tasting Notes

81
943 tasting notes

This tea starts very interesting. There is a sweet aroma of pine wood and resin rising from the leaves that’s very invigorating. I also immediately notice the smooth colloidal texture that becomes quite bubbly in the coming infusions. The taste, although not too complex, is nice too. I get strong notes of wood, grains such as rye, croissants and light honey. Overall, it is a sweet drink which even intensifies in the aftertaste that’s also somewhat drying and slightly more sour and bitter.

The middle of the session is characterized by a more savoury profile with a sunflower oil flavour. Progressively, the later steeps get a bit boring though and the session end on a little underwhelming note. Thanks for the sample derk :)

Flavors: Butter, Drying, Grain, Grass Seed, Olive Oil, Pastries, Pine, Resin, Rye, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 90 ML

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83
1557 tasting notes

Soft, sweet aroma. Tastes begin moderately sweet with honeyed apricot and hay tones, modest orchid bouquet, almost juicy with salivation. Light bitterness and astringency in the first handful of steeps fade away and hints of butter, wood and caramel come in. A pleasant returning sweetness emerges midway. Orange, brothy liquor is cooling in the mouth and body and produces a satisfying swallow — a bit of heaviness to the body. The tea maintains its moderately sweet quality for over 12 steeps before hinting at its final fade.

The energy is non-interfering… unless drank in the evening. I found myself awake at 4am after a 7pm session but I wasn’t mad about it since the wakefulness was smooth and collected. This tea seems like a good one to start in the morning at your desk and drink throughout the day, given its smooth stimulation and longevity. For the price, I’d say it’s a nice sheng with some age on it, currently selling for $0.19/g.

My housemate had a cup of it last night in the early steeps and commented on how smooth it was. She’s a tea drinker but had never tried pu before.

Flavors: Apricot, Butter, Caramel, Hay, Honey, Orchid, Smooth, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 6 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
gmathis

Mmmm…hay and honey instead of ice and sludge…sounds lovely! (Spring IS coming, right?)

So Keta

Oh this sounds delicious. I’m a sucker for anything with apricot notes.

derk

gmathis, the nice thing about tea is it’s a relief from the icy sludge and daily drudge. Have any spring-themed teas in queue to wake you up a little?

So Keta: the apricot is more like a general tone not a precise note. It’s a pretty cheap sheng and worth a shot if you don’t mind paying for shipping from China.

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80
485 tasting notes

Used 4g in 60mL gaiwan with boiled water.

Had to be pretty careful with steep times early in the session, as this tea can get bitter pretty easily. This tea went for a pretty good number of steeps, probably around 15 as mentioned on TU’s site. Started out with bitter hay/herbal notes with a sweet honey huigan and decent cha qi. As the session went on, the flavors flip-flopped, and honey sweetness came more to the front with a mouth-drying (not particularly bitter) finish. I thought this was pretty good, but the mouth-drying effect did get a little bit intense in the later steeps, so I might try the 2009 version they have and see if that has softened any.

The tea had a thick mouthfeel throughout the session.

Flavors: Bitter, Hay, Herbs, Honey, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 4 g 2 OZ / 60 ML

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81
314 tasting notes

This tea was somewhat disappointing. First, the “Silver buds” name is largely marketing. There are certainly buds, but not a high percentage (though that may be due to the luck of the sample). It may just be that my palate is not refined enough, but I don’t detect the brown sugar, honey, etc. in the description. I just taste a somewhat bitter wood, with a hint of anise that comes and goes. There is nothing bad about the tea, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.

I won’t pretend to judge the ability of this tea to age, but for everyday drinking, I found it rather ordinary.

I tend to prefer lighter, more elegant sheng, so it is possible that someone who likes more powerful teas would find this to their liking. I steeped at 200 degrees, then tried a session at 185, with similar results.

DigniTea

Sorry to hear that. I’ve not tried this one but generally I’m a big fan of TU products – always found them to be high-grade leaf and quite flavorful.

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