More teas - 2003 Xiaguan Jia Ji, 2005 Menghai Gu Cha, 2007 Haiwan Purple Bud

The nice thing about digging up old boxes with teas is that you find stuff you forgot you had. Today, it's three more, sorted by how good I found them (descending).

Before getting to them - it's quite interesting to see how my teas age in the Czech Republic versus the UK. Not sure why, but the Czech-aged teas seem much happier, developing along what I'd call a "normal" path, whereas the UK is probably a bit to cold or something, but the teas aren't developing as much or as well. Anyway...

1) 2003 Xiaguan Jia Ji
This was quite a famous tuocha when I started drinking tea, it being imported to the Czech Republic by Longfeng as an example of an excellent factory tea. Which it is, basically. The particular one I have is, if I remember well, from Chawangshop which stocked it a bit later. It has aged really very well - the smoke is all gone, and all that's left is a seriously pleasant mix of overripe fruit and a bit of woodiness. It's rich, deep, and tasty. I wish I got more.

2) 2007 Haiwan Purple Bud
This tea fascinated me when I had it years ago by its powerful aroma of manure (a nice, clean one). It's still there, although very much refined - now it's more about a very thick puerhy taste with a bit of manure on top. It's super-rich and deep, dark tea - really yummy. It doesn't have as  much feeling around the taste, but that's allright. It was pretty cheap too. One of the better purple teas as it ages for sure.

3) 2005 Menghai Gu Cha (maybe a little dud)
I was fascinated by this tea when I was getting it (I got around 2 tongs too) - it was super-cheap, and pretty good, tasting of honey, which is something I've always appreciated a lot in tea. There was a bit of bitterness I that hoped would go away. Well, it hasn't. The honey is not as strong. Overall, the tea is not terrible, but not great. I found it interesting that the paper inside the cake says this was produced by Mr. He Shi Hua - didn't notice that previously!