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Man Song Gong pu erh has always been seen as a status drink. Demand outstrip supply manifold and getting the real stuff is almost impossible if you are not well connected. Mountain prices of high demand tea the like of Lao Ban Zhang dropped slightly this year but Man Song Gong is reverse; there is incessant chase for this tea that once graced the imperial court.

The smell of the dry leaves is intensely sweet, so is the brew itself. Leaves are smallish in size and comprises of many buds. This confirms well characters of Man Song and the early spring from which it was plucked. It brews up bright yellow and clear soup.

On the palate, it's both subtle and fine. One will only find small amount of astringency when it's cold. The thick soup will coat your mouth thinly with oil and lubricates your throat. There is good amount of rock sugar kind of sweetness in this tea. The long calming yun leaves good qi in the core of my body.

The tea lasts at least 30 infusions over 2 days. Although it's still very tasty after that, I left it when the long calming effects waned.

There aren't many of them left in the store and most of them were sold during pre-order.

This cake is loosely pressed, therefore thicker on the sides. It's made of many long slender leaves that reminds me of 2014 CYH Yiwu Zhengshan Yesheng Gushu Chawang Zhai (易武正山野生古树 茶王寨) http://on.fb.me/1CJyuXb

Great example of good Yiwu tea, thoroughly enjoyable!

2007 Cang Shou comes in mushroom (300g) and beeng (357g) shapes. The mushroom format is much higher in compression compared to beeng. Therefore one has to be careful when loosening it to avoid tea fanning. It's also important to note that this is labelled Yiwu Chawang; the same categorization of the more well known Chen Yi Zihao (陈易字号) series.