I finally settled down in my new apartment and had time to drink tea again. Cha Moods sent me some tea several weeks ago so it was high time to taste one of those teas and write about it. The tea I picked for today’s session is the 2014 Menghai Sheng Puerh Tuocha.
2014 Menghai Sheng Puerh Tuocha
The 2014 Menghai Sheng Puerh Tuocha is a tea that was made by master Zhuang Jin Li. She was a Chief Quality Officer in the Menghai Tea Factory before she retired and has over 50 years of experience in making puerh tea.
Don’t know where to buy tea online? I made a list of over 300 online tea shops and I keep updating it regularly. You can check it over here
This tea was produced in 2014 and uses material from Menghai County. It’s a blend of different leaves, but as far as I know, they are all from 2014.
Tea Tasting
- 5.2g for a 110ml zini teapot
- Water 99°C
The leaves have a faded brown color with beige/light brown buds. It’s a mixture of medium-sized and smaller leaves. The dry leaves have some hints of dry wood to them with something sweet in the finish. After rinsing the leaves, I’m getting notes of berries.
Infusion 1 (15 sec): the thing that catches my attention is the thickness of the liquor. It feels really smooth as it has subtle notes of berries at the start. These slowly transform into a warming fruitiness from the middle onwards. It’s mostly focused on the sides of my mouth. For a first infusion, the flavors are intense already. The energy moves around my eyes in this one.
Infusion 2 (20 sec): it seems the liquor is thicker than in the previous infusion. I only took a small sip at first because it was too hot to drink, but I still experienced a long-lasting aftertaste. The energy has shifted towards my ears; they feel hot while drinking this infusion. Flavors are mostly fruity with a dominance of berries. The berries become a bit sweeter in the finish and aftertaste.
Infusion 3 (25 sec): no big changes. Still fruity with dominant notes of berries. This tea really feels like a hot summer’s day. It’s sweet and fruity and it reminds me of a juicy fruit snack on a hot day in summer. The aftertaste lasts a really long time. It has been a while since I’ve had a tea with an aftertaste of this caliber!
Infusion 4 (30 sec): still no bitterness and the fruitiness is still noticeable. It’s really similar to the previous infusions.
Infusion 5 (35 sec): now I’m getting some faint bitter notes, but it’s not too intense. They quickly change into the fruitiness from before. This fruitiness has also changed a bit as it’s less about berries and more about plums. This one reminds me of fresh and juicy plums.
Infusion 6 (45 sec): some of the ‘older’ notes that you usually get when tasting older puerh are coming through, but it’s nothing that isn’t good. These flavors are replaced by fruits rather quickly and the finish and aftertaste feel fruity.
Conclusion
The 2014 Menghai Sheng Puerh Tuocha surprised me in many different ways. I usually stay away from tuocha because they are tightly compressed and more difficult to pick apart. This led to numerous bad experiences in the past…
However, this one was easy to pick apart and the leaves stayed more or less intact during this process. The flavors were intense from the start and were mostly sweet and fruity.
It started out with notes of berries and slowly changed into hints of fresh and juicy plums. These flavors lingered and the aftertaste was really impressive.
This is one of the better puerh teas I have tried in the last few weeks so I definitely recommend this one! You can buy it over here.
