2000s Langhe "Teji" Tuocha

I call this one "Cylon Tea" (i.e., not "Ceylon").  Have a gander at the wrapper, and see if you guess why that might be...

If you don't know your science fiction, then I'm afraid you're beyond my help.

Every day is Christmas when Keng sends me tea.  Our mind-bendingly generous Singaporean teachum has this time provided a tuocha from a factory that I have not encountered before - perhaps because they are based on a distant planet, as befits their Cylon nature.

In an attempt to determine the age of this extra-terrestrial specimen, judicious scouring of Taobao leads me to conclude that it probably comes from somewhere in the 2000-2006 interval.

Feast your thirsty eyes on that dome of rusticated tips, pictured below.  This little fellow has been well-aged, although it has little aroma.  "Teji" [ter-gee] refers to an apparently high grade of leaf, but really those grades are useful only for comparing products from within the same factory, requiring knowledge of how that factory ranks the grades.  As it is, I know little about our Cylon friends, and so conclude little from the name.

I am quite amused by the wrapper, however, which reads "MENGHAI TUOCHA" across the top in Chinese characters, with the factory's actual name (Menghai Langhe) appearing in smaller letters at the bottom.

It takes me a while to twig that this is actually shupu.  When the water hits the leaves, the unmistakeable aroma reminds me that I am being a twit.  The shengpu versions have a green Cylon wrapper, while the red corresponds to shupu.  Even the grade "teji" is most often applied to varieties of shupu.

It is powdery, in the manner of most shupu, but very pleasant and clean.  I brew it hard, as I tend to do with most shupu, to wring every last drop of power out of it, and the results are satisfying on a cold day.

Thanks again to Keng for yet another good tea session.