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A review of 2014 Bing Dao (冰岛) from teadb.org

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.

2015 Chen Yuan Hao Spring Tea Tasting

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 :)

Dear Fans,

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