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Yuan Man is translated as “perfect” into English language. This cake from Yiwu leaves certainly embodies this translation in terms of value. Made from 2008 spring tea leaves of small trees, it has such good taste that it’s often mistaken as a big tree tea cake.
The Yuan Man cake itself has shiny tea leaves. It has bold fragrance of sweetness and it is transitioning to the savoury plum fragrance of old Yiwu teas. The orangey body of this tea is thick with very good viscosity contributed by tea oil. There will be much sweet aftertaste behind your cheeks. It leaves the tongue slightly dry therefore encouraging salivation.
A very satisfying tea!
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This tea gives out light yellow and very clear broth. Dried leaves have strong sweet sun-dried leaves smell while the tea has sugar cane and honey fragrance.
As with previous years, you’ll notice the fineness of the tea once it enters the mouth. Tea penetrates deeply into the core and the returns with floral and honey like sweetness in mouth cavity. The aftertaste lingers and brings out a calming qi. The tea has very good thickness from all the minerals of very old trees. It stands up well to long soaking as it will only return a hint of fast dissipating bitterness from an abusive brew.
Dry leaves
2nd brew
Leaves at 2nd brew
Tea at 2nd brew
6th brew, 2 minutes soaking
Leaves at 6th brew
Tea at 6th brew
Spent leaves
Spent leaves arranged
]]>These long gangly leaves from Gua Feng Lao Zhai (刮风老寨) produces golden colored tea. Somewhat darker soup than the rest of the new teas. It has on higher notes floral fragrance and on lower notes, the obvious sun-dried maocha (毛茶) fragrance.
The tea is smooth and consistent, lasting many brews. It’s something to slow start a day. The tea has no bitterness or astringency and taste very balanced. The tea slides down gently and returns a slightly sweet huigan (回甘) with some smooth qi. For stronger taste, soaking the tea will level up the goodness in the leaves.
Dry leaves
2nd brew
Leaves at 2nd brew
Tea at 2nd brew
6th brew (2 minutes soaking)
Leaves at 6th brew
Tea at 6th brew
Spent leaves
]]>Tasting Notes
The dry leaves seem browner than typical Yiwu. When brewed, it's golden tea has no smokiness but has the fragrance of honey and deep forest grassiness.
The tea is thick and without astringency. There is a hint of fast dissipating bitterness that turns into sweet aftertaste. If it's soaked long enough, there will be lots of vegetal grassiness and then more bitterness that translate into sweeter aftertaste.
Tea at 2nd brew
Closer look at 2nd brew leaves
Closer look at 2nd brew tea
6th brew after 2 minutes soaking
Closer look at 6th brew leaves
Closer look at 6th brew tea
Spent leaves
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This tea is made with plenty of tender leaves and quite dark in color. The dry leaves has the usual sun dried fragrance. When brewed there are lots of sweet ripe fruit fragrance and void of any smokiness.
It brews light honey like sweet tea. The aftertaste is floral and lasting sweetness. Few initial brews has some velvety creaminess to it. There is no astringency or bitterness in this tea. If you punish it with soaking, it will payback with some grassy and leathery taste. You can amp up the already good cha qi by soaking this tea slightly.
This tea will easily last 10 brews and will give you sweet water beyond that.
Closer look at the dry leaves
2nd brew of the tea
Closer look at the tea leaves at 2nd brew
Closer look at the tea color at 2nd brew
6th brew soaked 2 minutes
The spent tea leaves
]]>Gua Feng Zhai Milestone
Looking down at houses in Gua Feng Zhai
Corn for livestock feed
Tea farmer waiting to weight and sell their maocha at a market
Mr Chen Huai Yuan making a point
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Ms Michelle Wang. An avid photo-journalist.
The compound leading to Che Shun Hao.
Che Shun Hao has historic importance in the world of Puerh and Yiwu in particular.
Ms Michelle Wang with Mr Che Zhi Xin (5th generation owner of Che Shun Hao)
Mr Chen Huai Yuan (2nd from left) and Mr Che Zhi Xin (3rd from left)
Historical stone mould
]]>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.
]]>Date: 30 August 2015
Venue: Weil Hotel, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
We’re so glad that the event was successful and well attended by fans from many states despite of political demonstration happening in Kuala Lumpur on the same day. Teapals.com and Pheang’s Tea Gallery invited Mr Chen Huai Yuan and Ms Michelle Wang both from Tainan, Taiwan to share a few thoughts with us.
Steven Tan was the emcee of the day. After the introduction, Ms Michelle Wang took to the stage to share with us the Journey to Yi Wu. In her presentation themed “One heart, Two Leaves”, the avid photographer, lecturer and author depicts to us the life in Yi Wu and the meticulous effort Mr Chen and his team put into making each puerh cake. She anecdote the incident where a rich farmer’s son shares his dream of exploring beyond Yunnan; at the cost of possibly discontinuing the farming life. She also noted that the Cultural Revolution had desensitised farmers off their rich heritage and many old artefacts are relegated to be nothing more than insignificant object. During her session, we had in total 3 samplings; Yi Wu Zheng Shan, Chen Jun Hao and Chen Yi Hao.
We had a short break where each participant was served yummy pineapple tart hand carried by Mr and Mrs Chen all the way from Taiwan. The session then continued with Mr Chen giving us a run down of 2015 Chen Yuan Hao range of tea and the general outlook of puerh market. He took some time to delve into his revival of traditional puerh making in Yi Wu. Mr Chen views the prices of old gushu material as stable for the coming autumn and 2016 Spring due to economic conditions in present China. We served Bingdao and Man Song Gong for the 2nd half of this talk. The session ended with Q&A.
All in all, many Malaysian fans were delighted to rub shoulders with Mr Chen and has thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of his 2015 Spring labor.
^ That's my brewing station :)
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I'm delighted to share some of the products made during spring 2015. However, due to real scarcity, not all products could be sold. Bo He Tang is definitely off the list while there is less than a toong of Man Song Gong to spare in Malaysia. He's some pictures to whet your appetite.
I'll provide a direct link to the product page when it's ready. Thanks for dropping by :)
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Yi Wu Zheng Shan
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Chen Yi Hao
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Chen Jun Hao
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Bing Dao
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Cha Huang
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Man Song Gong
2015 Chen Yuan Hao Bo He Tang
]]>Mr Chen Huaiyuan (陈怀远) explains the process of making puerh. Must watch for beginners.
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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
Though still young, the soup is orangey colour. It's medium thickness with very good sweet after taste. It still has some astringency but possible because I packed the pot.
The warm chahai smells of sundried leaves while the cold chahai smells of plum seed (梅籽香); a good testament of pure Yiwu leaves.
This tea will require further ageing to realise its full potential. But for now, it's on the right track.
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.
The 7+ year old tea soup is already orangey and smells of sweet sugar cane. It is medium in thickness with no bitterness. Due to my snobbish picking, the tea fanning caused slight astringency. It is however compensated by wild honey sweetness huigan. The tea leaves some dryness in the mouth and that promotes salivation.
Saw a post from a Chen Yuan Hao fan few days ago on his frustration for couldn’t grab any 20th Anniversary Commemoration Cake as all the cakes have been bought by Malaysia just few hours before he arrived at Mr. Chen's house. This made me couldn't resist myself from taking the 20th Anniversary Commemoration cake I bought during the last tea expo off my tea rack.
When I first tried the tea at last tea expo, the only impression for the tea was very smoky and that’s why most of us liked the 25th Anniversary Commemoration cake at that time. However, for the sake of “stamp collection” as a Chen Yuan Hao hardcore fan and experience on the Guo You Lin Ye Sheng Gu Shu 国有林野生古树, I decided to stock in some of the 20th Anniversary Commemoration Cake.
About 3 months after the tea expo, the smoke only remains about 10-20% and the fragrance is special. For a new tea, the tea soup looks slightly darker in colour as compared to other new tea, it could be because of using older material. Other than the typical Chen Yuan Hao big tree sweetness and flavour, the overall after taste is stronger than both the 25th Anniversary Commemoration cake and Yun Tian Hao 云天号.
Besides the good tea quality and potential to age well, for the fact that it’s a tea in commemoration of Mr. Chen’s efforts and contribution in reviving the traditional way of Pu-erh tea (Yuan Bao tea) making, has already made this tea something all pu-erh tea drinker shouldn’t miss on their tea rack. No wonder the Chen Yuan Hao fan is so upset for couldn’t get any of the 20th Anniversary Commemoration cake. Feel bad for the tea fan, but at the same time feel proud for Malaysia tea fans. Good job guys!!!!
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