A friend just received a fancy-wrapped tea cake, complete with awl. I'm going over to taste it in a couple of days. Not sure what equipment and complementary teas to bring, though, since I don't know what it is - shu or sheng Pu'er? Pressed oolong? Heicha of some kind?
I found their site:
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-at least, I assume it's the same company. Google won't translate the apparent home page. I can try to post a picture someplace, but perhaps it's not needed for a general ID.
Babelfish did a better job translating the site, but most pages wouldn't open. Nothing there seemed to match. Text suggests that company specializes in black tea.
Here are pictures of the wrapped cakes and box.
Anyone know the product, or able to read the description?
Babelfish did a better job translating the site, but most pages wouldn't open. Nothing there seemed to match. Text suggests that company specializes in black tea.
Here are pictures of the wrapped cakes and box:
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Anyone know the product, or able to read the description?
Looks like it is, as some speculated, an unripe heicha. Cakes are actually discs sliced from a cylinder ca. 3" in diameter - possibly a
100-tael log? (Or 200, as perhaps indicated by the name?)
Tea had no smell dry (and not much wet); color grayish yellow-green. Infusion was unexpectedly copper-colored rather than yellow-green. I brewed a new sheng Pu'er, a shu tuocha, and a pressed Yancha oolong for comparison. Flavor was mild, not astringent or bitter, slightly sweet increasing with steep count. Not very interesting, really, but not bad at all.
Images at
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which says (after autotranslation):
""Golden Flower" is the coronoid process of the Mainz pouch, commonly known as San, the original series of products for black tea in the unique brick tea Fu.... Fu processing blocks "发花" process is the formation of the unique quality of brick tea Fu key technology, the essence of which is by controlling the temperature and humidity conditions must promote bacteria - bacteria capsule loose coronoid process of growth and reproduction, resulting in the closure of gold capsule shell, which in the brick tea Fu content of the tea taste, aroma is closely related to a direct impact on the quality of brick tea Fu, border consumer has always been based on "Golden Flower" to judge the quality and quantity of brick tea quality were the pros, there are " good tea gold flowers and spent more than a good quality tea, "said."
Seems that either this particular tea is older than I expected, or that there's some ripening before the logs are dried. I suggested that the owners park it someplace warm and damp, and try it again in a few years.
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