2012 Pu-erh.sk Mengsong

The last of pu-erh.sk 2012s...

Dry leaves:

A detail:

A detailed detail:

When one looks at the dry leaves of this Mengsong, it is obvious that it is much less tippy than the rest. That may be a sort of advantage as tip-heavy teas probably won't be as strong in the long run. On the other hand, I would not say that other pu-erh.sk are too tippy. Just more tippy than this one.

Wet leaves do not smell too terrific at the first glance, there is the kind of green aroma as when you have a really neglected old garden, with all sorts of flowers and weeds growing on top of each other and you cut it - and it gives this aroma. Another approximation one could say is "dark grassiness".

But - the aroma luckily does not stop there and gentle fruity tones and a good bit of animality (which is like leatheriness, but, well, more animal) appear, and since the moment they appear, the aroma is very pleasant.

In the first steeping, there is more presence and thickness than actual taste - some grass, fruit and a bit of chocolate is there. The mouthfeel is rather strong, cooling and particularly minty, not only it cools like a mint, but it also tastes of menthol.

In the second steeping, there is the presence and oily thickness too, but the taste is stronger, sugary-grassy, rather like a more normal good young puerh. The minty mouthefeel keeps going, slightly disturbed by light persisting bitterness. Good thing that astringency is low.

This is how the liquor looks. Are not  bonsai a good tea tray? I think that especially larger pines would work very well:

The third steeping is similar, but the fruitiness, altough still distant, gets more pronounced. Nevertheless, the whole tea is like if someone is talking to you behind a thick glass.

The whole experience with this tea is pleasant, but a bit too distant - I think that the big thickness does not do too well to the tea.

Actually, in the wake of the blending post, I found that this tea is way better when mixed with Pu-erh.sk 2012 Youle - both 1:1 and 2:1 mixes worked well. This way, the fruitiness of both teas combines into a wide and complex taste aspect and it is no longer overpowered by the embalming thickness.

Overall, this is a very nice tea - really thick, with reasonable taste and nothing which could disturb you. At $40 per 400g, you could do a lot worse in today's young sheng. I still think there are better teas around 2004-7 for this kind of money, but in premium young sheng, there are not many cakes for this sum.