Menghai Golden Buds Tribute Ripened Pu-erh Cake 2009

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Pu Erh Tea
Flavors
Earth, Leather, Mineral, Mushrooms, Bark, Chestnut, Smoke, Walnut, Wet Wood, Compost, Sweet
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Low
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by TeaVivre
Average preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 10 g 6 oz / 182 ml

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15 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Advent Calendar from Kaylee: Day 20 Ooh, this is mellow! There’s a mild mushroomy earthiness with a bit of leather aroma. Lots of minerality as it cools. Tasty!” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “This tea is “palace-grade” where they sift the shoot tips (the ‘golden buds’) for the tea after the pile fermentation step. Unlike other palace-grade tea, according to TeaVivre it is 100% pure...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “119/365 I’m much more comfortable with ripe pu’erh these days, although it still seems to be something that goes in phases with me. I’ll drink a lot for a while, then none for ages, but I know I’ll...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “When I first got this cake, I was new to pu-erh, didn’t really know how to brew it, and thought it tasted like dirt. Now that I’ve learned more about tea, I think it tastes like earth. Which is way...” Read full tasting note
    80

From Teavivre

Origin: Man’en Village (曼恩村), Mengzhe, Menghai, Yunnan

Ingredients: Yunnan large leaf species

Taste: carries a typical strong aroma of ripened pu-erh, tastes mellow, smooth, thick with sweet aftertaste.

This Menghai Golden Buds Tribute Ripened Pu-erh Cake tea is made by Ding Lanxian, a descendant of Mabang people, who has over thirty years of experience in making tea. Using the tea leaf of Yunnan Large Leaf Species from Lantsang basin as material, the cake was properly fermented, carefully compressed after high temperature sterilization.

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15 Tasting Notes

86
2816 tasting notes

Thank you Teavivre for sending this sample my way!

I was in the mood for some shu this afternoon and hopefully this caffeine will not keep me awake later… instructions say to brew this at 212 F for 3 to 10 minutes? That seemed like a lot to me.

I decided to dump my whole sample in a little yixing and I have been doing steeps for 30 seconds. This is a very nice shu, has pleasant flavors of coffee, cocoa and a fruitiness like dates. This is a very clean tasting tea, without any musty flavors or odors that would signify a bad tea. The reviews on Teavivre’s web site, a couple of people had different opinions and remarked on the fermentation flavor and a mustiness but I didn’t pick this up.

Lately I’ve been wondering about shu pu’erh as it’s fermented with bacterias which might be good (like probiotics) but also aspergillus niger which is a fungus/mold and one I might be allergic to. Right now I don’t notice any bad effects from drinking shu and I know it is supposed to be healthy… so I will keep drinking it anyway.

This is a very good tea. I would definitely consider buying a cake of it for drinking now.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 4 OZ / 118 ML

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88
371 tasting notes

From the Unflavored TTB.

No yixing teapot of my own, so ceramic it is! 5 second rinse. Steeping times: 10, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 120.

I’m inexperienced with shu pu-erh. So what did I get? Mostly EARTH. All around. The wet leaf aroma, however, also contained gentle notes of plums and grapes. Such a lovely combination! I kept sticking my nose into the bowl.

At first the color of the liquor was copper, which then deepened to dark orange. The intensity of the flavor throughout the session was basically shaped like a percentile graph. The first infusion was light-bodied and a little astringent, and the earth was muted. The second and third infusions were more developed: full-bodied, flavorful with coffee and bitter notes. These notes in subsequent infusions became softer, and inevitably weakened.

I like this. I wish I were more experienced to get more than just earth and coffee. Also, I think I prefer shu to sheng (is that weird?). Mostly for the taste, but especially for the effect. As soon as I finished the first infusion I felt as if this tea were giving me a hug. And then halfway through the session I felt serene yet energetic. Every time I heard the water boil for the next infusion I ran to the sauce pan like a puppy.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee I like teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea”

Preparation
Boiling 10 g 3 OZ / 88 ML
SarsyPie

Love this review!

KiwiDelight

Thanks! x3

Stephanie

Mmmmm puerh

TheTeaFairy

Tea hugs. The best.

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96
4170 tasting notes

Thank you Teavivre for the awesome contest! I won a whole cake of pu-erh and I don’t think many other people would be hoping for a pu-erh among those other amazing teas they could have won! Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s Teavivre’s fault that I’m almost addicted to pu-erh as much as black tea and I REALLY love my black tea. I love that this came wrapped and then in a manila envelope type thing with a string to close it.

Steep #1 // rinse // few minutes after boiling // 2 min steep
It looked like a teaspoon and a half or so of leaves that I broke off. There are hints of gold in these black leaves. At first taste: Oh this is a good pu-erh. I’m already very happy with it! The flavor is already very deep with no astringency – it has hints of the pond flavor when first sipping, but then it’s hints of dark chocolate and even the things I like about coffee. I feel like I’ve tried a pu-erh like this before, probably from Teavivre that tastes very similar. I have sampled a FEW pu-erhs from Teavivre, so it’s tough to tell which one.

Steep #2 // 2 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min steep
Another really lovely cup, of course. More chocolate, more coffee. I really love this pu-erh.

Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min
I’m surprised at the sweetness of this cup! I didn’t expect a longer steep time to make it sweeter! I think these leaves could keep steeping, and it seems like if it’s a longer steep time it will just keep getting sweeter? It seems like a sweeter pu-erh rather than a deeper, darker tasting pu-erh, if that makes sense. Very delicious! If I had sampled this before I won it for the contest, I probably would have bought it. I think Teavivre’s Fengqing Zhuan Cha Ripened Pu-erh Brick 2006 is still my favorite pu-erh from Teavivre by a tiny bit over this one though.

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