This loose sheng pu erh traditionally went through the Hong Kong traditional storage process before sale. This was a tea my father purchased several times over three decades, and he consumed it at his office in his infuser mug (pictured). His factory was just around the corner from one of Hong Kong's oldest tea companies, so he didn't have to go far to get his tea!
My dad had a long history of drinking this grade of pu erh, and I even found a packet of it in his apartment in Vienna, where he lived last. It had been stored airtight: I do not suggest storing this tea airtight, as it can get pretty funky over time! It needs to breathe. I do air out this tea while I have it on hand, often for several months, so some of the more humid notes may dissipate in my warehouse's natural dry storage environment.
This is the highest standard grade of loose pu erh the company sell. It still tastes like it always did, but it now appears to be composed of loose aged sheng instead of pieces of broken up cake (perhaps due to the rising cost of pu erh tea). I don't know when this change occurred, but it would have been in the last five years. I believe the material used for this cake is still CNNP or Dayi plantation material from Menghai, which the company have bought, aged and sold for decades.
This tea has a distinctive humid character to it, but the humid storage note is much lighter than it was in years past. The tea was lovely, even in porcelain, but good clay would knock down the humid storage note entirely.
I suggest rinsing this tea twice. This is a very smooth and pleasant to drink pu erh, which is exactly what most Hong Kong pu erh drinkers are looking for when they buy a bag of loose pu erh at the store (cake purchases are much less common in Hong Kong, where people have been buying bags of loose pu erh for decades)! This firm uses heavy traditional storage for their pu erh, but they are also experts at airing out their tea to make for an excellent standardized product.
This tea has light and pleasant huigan and goes down very smoothly. This tea also has excellent cha qi. If you're looking for a reasonably priced daily drinker traditional storage sheng, this tea is hard to beat!
Brewing suggestions: 6-8g/100ml. Use water of appropriate hardness (15-30ppm of calcium, and 3-5ppm of magnesium) at full boil. Rinse twice with water just off the boil before you start brewing. Your initial infusion should be 10-20 seconds: extend by 10-20 seconds for each successive infusion, and longer if you feel the tea starting to taper off.
Wholesale pricing is available on this tea. Please contact me for details!
