1990 Menghai 9062

I'm not a great fan of blends of shengpu/shupu. However, this is the first production of the 9062 recipe, and so I'd thought I'd give it a crack by buying a sample from Nadacha, where a brick currently sells for between £50 and £60.

The mixture is obvious

The dry leaves are heavily fragmented, and appear to be a mixture of copper-coloured shengpu with darkened shupu leaves. The aroma is very pleasant, reminding me of rich plums.

Similarly, in the wenxiangbei, it remains appealing: a host of creamy, smooth scents with good duration come from the decent brown-orange soup. As pictured below, the miniscus is already yellowed.

I first notice the powdery, damp texture and flavour of the shupu, but this combines well with the sharp, bitter twist of shengpu. Even after all this time, the two components are quite distinct, yet complementary.

The tea is absent much in the way of kougan [KOH-GAN, mouth-feeling, texture], which makes it seem a little bit dead. Can one be a little bit dead?

Later infusions turn out to be lo-fi woodiness, with some gentle sweetness. While not the most clock-stopping of pu'er, it turned out to be enjoyable. I was ready to buy one of these, but the sample has convinced me otherwise, however.

If this tea were a Heidu facial expression, it would be:

Meh