Highlights:
- Blend of sheng and shou puerh leaves
- Thick, rich, smooth and powerful taste
- Very clean, good huigan, also very durable
- Strong old tea Qi
- Quality spring leaves with good body and texture
We’ve been looking for another affordable and quality old loose for a while, after trying a lot we’ve finally found a good one! Quality old tea is getting less and less, and quality old tea without a big price tag is nearly extinct.
It’s really rare to find genuine 80s puerh, and rarer still with clean storage and with good, potent leaves. The taste has notes of both choco and almond bitter, it’s really thick and rich and way better than modern shou puerh, mostly due to how clean it is. Qi wise it both has an impacting calming presence, but also a joyful energy.
This tea is a blend of sheng and shou puerh (more shou than sheng) and the average age is indeed in the 1980s (early 90s at worst), which we’ve established after many tastings and comparisons. We think this tea has leaves better than just plantation (probably young and big trees). Again, 99% of vendors will just say any old tea is ancient tree because it has strong Qi and it’s smooth… We like to look deeper than that, so in conclusion: very likely better than plantation, not ancient tree but still excellent material for this age (where 95%+ of teas are plantation… and they’re still pretty good).
I will add that I’ve seen loose leaf puerh with the same taste profile sold as “1960s-1970s” (from reputable establishments!), and tea of the same quality easily costs up to £10-£15 per gram. In general, even finding authentic 80s puerh at a decent price is very difficult as most tea that brews like this or darker is simply late 90s-2000s plantation shou puerh.
300g and 600g bags might have some weight loss from aging.
Nick M. –
Brews a dark rosewood as you would expect, but with a refinement that I wasn’t prepared for. Full and round on the palate, with excellent persistence. And it brews and brews.
You know there’s a lot of shou in the mix from how the leaves look and feel after a session, which reminded me as I was emptying out the pot what it was.
Now let me say that I’ve never been a shou fan but this is something else. This is simply wonderful: ‘joyful’ as Paolo says, which totally sums it up. It’s extremely comfortable, calming and completely delicious.
Perhaps it’s a poor man’s 1950s sheng cake, after all shou was meant to accelerate the aging process to mimic vintage teas. This is the first shou that I can imagine has achieved such a goal; perhaps thanks to the Sheng blend, the quality of leaves, impeccable storage. Whatever the reasons, forty years on, the alchemy is complete. I for one cracked after falling in love with an 8g sample and bought a large bag.
Guillaume C. (verified owner) –
I usually don’t fancy very much sheng/shu blends but this tea is extremely enjoyable (if you like old tea like I do) and easy to drink: great patience and depth. It’s a bargain. In this price range it’s simply impossible to regret it.