2014 Chen Yuan Hao Yiwu ChaWang (T4+/T5-)

Highlights:

• 100% pure ancient trees
• Full Yiwu taste: sweet, thick, strong, well balanced
• Really strong aftertaste and huigan
• Impacting and grounding Qi

From first cup it’s obviously immediate pure clean ancient tree taste and Qi. Thanks to its dry Taiwan storage this tea can be pushed to make a very strong, refined brew without having much astringency.

Declared “from 700 year old trees in a secret location in Yiwu forest“, this is CYH’s flagship yearly cake from the late 2000s till today. Reminiscent of 2007 CYH Yiwu ChaWang Autumn and 2007 CYH ZhiWang, it has the characteristic ‘honey-like’ sweetness and a lot of depth.

Great quality and price too (CYH normal price is almost $1000). PS: this tea is mainly known as Chen Yi Hao. ChaWang means “tea king” and is not to be confused with ChaWangShu which is a specific Yiwu garden in Gua Feng Zhai.

Note October ’22: Slightly upgraded rating to between T4+ and T5- in light of new appreciation of this tea (brewing it really hard brings some extremely satisfying uniquely intense cups)

This tea was the subject of week 3 of the Brew Puerh like a Pro course:

Big 357g cakes, available as 1/4 slice (approx. 80-85g) and sample too.