14 May, 2008

2007 Boyou "Caifu Guangchang"

The 2007 Boyou "Manlushan" was tasty indeed (and £15), and this is a sister tea priced higher (£25). The name is a little unfortunate: "Caifu Guangchang" being "wealth/fortune plaza", as indicated an image of Hong Kong's Bank of China. Perhaps it's just me, but the image of a capitalist leviathan is not the first thought that springs to mind for dedicating pu'er...





Small leaves with some tips, this tea appears to be quite dark already, as may be seen above - though in that dark-green way, rather than a proper dark-orange of real age. The aroma of sweet leather about the dry leaves is very appealing; its youth is emphasised by some vague lucha scents.





Shown above, the soup is a clean, unadulterated yellow, with a sugary sweet aroma. Waiting for the tea to cool, I notice that my mouth is watering in anticipation. A Pavlovian tea reaction...

Energetic on the lips, this tea has a low, mushroom character with a simple, sweet finish. As usual, tight bing compression has led me to use too many leaves, so some are removed from the pot and placed in the chahe for later reintroduction.





The virtues of this tea are not striking: it is a properly bitter tea, absent any real complexity that would provoke me to buy it.

Buying two of these bing gives one the opportunity to own a "gold award" in the "1st China Famous Tea Master Tea-Tasting". Presumably, the famous teamasters in question found more in this tea than I appear to have found. Here's looking forward to the 2nd China Famous Tea Master Tea-Tasting...

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