The leaves of shu (ripe) puer tea Menghai Shuyun 2013 come from the Menghai area in the region of Yunnan in the South of China. In order to understand this product it is necessary to know more about the area where its leaves come from because, most of the time, the place of origin commands the name and the organoleptic features of the tea. This puer is specifically made by an harvest coming from the mountain area around the Menghai city in the West part of Autonomous Prefecture of Xishaungbanna at the South of Yunnan. The leaves of this batch were then carefully selected and pressed in spring 2013 by the Yunnan Yipintang Tea factory located in the Menghai County. The specific about the factory where these leaves arrived is useful to underline that, behind this puer, there is a definite style or research studied by an apposite group of tea masters in order to exploit the terroir characteristics in the product.
From the first sips of this puer is possible to understand that these leaves must have gone under quite an intense fermentation process. On the palate, in fact, there is from the beginning an earthy taste with a light acidity that goes on through all the tasting session and the aftertaste where it express also its mineral feature. Besides this predominant main flavor there is also a light sweetness and the body of the liquor shows its smooth and full-bodied texture typical of ripe puer. At the end of the cup, in the aftertaste, there is also a balsamic touch which, together with the mineral feature of this tea, leaves in the mouth a slightly refreshing and dry sensation.
Place of origin
Menghai – Yunnan, China
Production
After the harvest the leaves whither under the sunlight for a certain period of time depending on the tea masters evaluations before going into the “killing of the green” phase which is similar to the practice adopted for green teas. In this case, however, the leaves are heated in the iron wok with a lower temperature than the usual standards for a green tea so it is possible to preserve some enzymes capable of changing the the taste of the tea through the time. After the cooking process big quantities of tea leaves are piled, dumped and covered with big sheets to allow the beginning of the fermentation. The producer here have to move and wet constantly the leaves in order to achieve an homogeneous fermentation on all the vegetal mass. When this process ends, generally after o period which can take from 20 to 70 days, the leaves were spread all over the floor to let the microorganisms who started the fermentation dry, and get loose. Now it is possible to (eventually) press the tea and so provide to it the best conditions to being transported and aged. To press the leaves, the producer exposes a certain quantity of the product to a strong steam jet for few seconds in order softened the vegetal mass and then wrap all up in a kind of sock or sac to imprint the final, usually discoid, form. To maintain the desired the form the sac is putted under an heavy stones for several hours or under a mechanical press while the leaves loose the residual moisture caused by the steam in the previous phase.
Preparation
We invite you to brew this tea in the traditional Chinese style (gong fu cha) in order to extract more from your leaves. Following this preparation you could use 6 grams of leaves (about 5 teaspoons) in a gaiwan of 100 ml so you can obtains more infusions with different flavors. After a brief rinse of the leaves in a 100°C water you can go with a first infusion of 15 seconds and, after that, at the same water temperature, you can do multiple infusion adding 5 seconds every steeping time (15 – 20 – 25…)
These leaves could be steep about 8 times.
To prepare the tea in the western style we suggest 3 grams of leaves (about 2 teaspoons) in a 150 ml cup with 100°C water for a steeping time of one minute and a half.
The tea could be filtered if you want to avoid some little piece of the leaves during the tasting time and also the steeping time we recommend here could be modify on your personal preferences.
We recommend you to store this tea in a dry and cool place avoiding the direct sun light on the leaves.