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Menghai 7262 - A fake or just an anomaly?

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I bought this in Chinatown for about $10. The pricetag and the receipt list the item as "Menghai 7262 Puerh Cake." My doubts about this are:

1) It seems like a new-ish cake, and I don't recall Menghai using the zhongcha label for the past few years...? 2) The Zhongcha label has a new feature I've never seen, the characters: "勐海普洱茶" – “Menghai Puerh Tea”, which I've never seen on a zhongcha label before. I've looked around online and can't find it. 3) It was repackaged in Macau by Keng Vai Agencia, so who knows where it came from!

BUT

4) The Nei Fei looks right for Menghai.

So...have any of you seen such a Zhongcha label before, with those added characters? In your guess, a fake Menghai or just one that was repackaged for sale in the US?

Reply to
Jason F in Los Angeles
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I bought this in Chinatown for about $10. The pricetag and the receipt list the item as "Menghai 7262 Puerh Cake." My doubts about this are:

1) It seems like a new-ish cake, and I don't recall Menghai using the zhongcha label for the past few years...?

Menghai tea factory did use the zhongcha label in several of its tea...but not in my knowledge on the 7262. 7262 was produced in 2000, using top grade blend of young flushes and leaves, so it is considered by many to be one of the high end cooke pu'er.

2) The Zhongcha label has a new feature I've never seen, the characters: "?????" - "Menghai Puerh Tea", which I've never seen on a zhongcha label before. I've looked around online and can't find it.

That's puzzling too, but it does give us a good clue - the tea is not from Menghai Tea Factory, and has Jim pointed out, Menghai Pu'er Tea does not mean the cake was produced by Menghai Tea Factory...

3) It was repackaged in Macau by Keng Vai Agencia, so who knows where it came from!

Haha! Didn't Jim have a cake from the same place?

BUT

4) The Nei Fei looks right for Menghai.

It does say "Menghai Chupin" not "Mengahi Cha Chang (Tea Factory) Chupin"...

Reply to
Danny

You helped me with Hong Chang Tai located in Vietnam, Ding Jiu(Super Old) Border tea packaged in Hong Kong. I think Jason F found a little nugget in Chinatown. I get jealous when somebody can find something in their Chinatown and I can't.

Jim

Danny wrote:

...snip...

Reply to
Space Cowboy

So I glean this: this cake is not a menghai tea factory product and not a 7262 cake. it's a cooked brick possibly from xinghai factory.

Perhaps my store just misnumbered? Or perhaps someone sold it to them as being very similar to a 7262 cake. *shrug*

In any case, I tried some and enjoyed it. The first brew was a little tough, and it gets strong very quickly. Perhaps that's a feature of being so well compressed? The surface has a lot of well-defined leaves, but the interior of the cake is less defined. The third infusion was the best of four that I did.

I still have other cakes to get through first, so I'll probably let this one mellow out a bit. As it stands, I don't enjoy it as much as another cake I get in chinatown for $3, so I may not buy too many more of these.

Reply to
Jason F in Los Angeles

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