2007 Shuangjiang Mengku - Muyechun "002"

This post marks the point at which I began to lose control over my own sanity, because, for the first time in my experience, I have found a cake that appears to have aged better with me (here in England) than with its Chinese-stored counterpart.

Barking mad, I tell you.

Let's go back to the beginning of the heresy.

Some months ago, I found myself a-rummaging.  I was shuffling through the densely-nestled cakes in the nether-regions of our shelves, and came across my supply of "002".  

I always read the name of this cake in Sean Connery's accent, followed by the word "Moneypenny".  

I exshpect that you may now be doing the shame.
Double-oh-two, lishenshed to kill, Moneypenny.

My 002 was rather surprising.  I bought it for around $10 back in 2007, which is not a very large amount of money.  I enjoyed the original, and, back in 2007, was impressed by its cooling sensation and strong base.  

In 2012, my old cake had developed in all manner of positive ways.  So much had it developed, in fact, that I was led to hit the ol' Google, and try and find some more.

My searches came up with little, except for an outfit on the Electronic Bay, by the name of Western Yunnan Tea.  I had not come across this merchant before, but the price was more-or-less the same as when I bought it in 2007.

(There were more hits on Taobao, where it sells for around 60-70 RMB, which is approximately the same price.  I didn't fancy waiting for the long haul from Taobao, this time.)

It is not an expensive cake.

My trial cake from Western Yunnan Tea (hereafter WYT) just arrived, and so I gave it The Treatment.  Sure enough, it looks similar to my own 002, but there are immediate differences: my own version has a decidedly humid, pungent scent that really put the lotion in the basket.  By comparison, the version from WYT was crisp, dry, and sharp.

At this point, I am reminded of Luke Skywalker saying "NOOOO, DRY STORAGE", while trying not to fall from his perch on Cloud City.

I have altered the deal.  Pray I don't alter it any further!

Luke would not get on very well with this cake from WYT.  Poor Luke, he has such a hard time of it: fighting the galaxy, incest, and finally: dry storage.

I likes me my dry storage.  I also like rancidly damp storage.  I suppose, more generally, I like storage.

So, unlike sappy, whiny, limp-wristed Mr. Wet-Jedi, I didn't object to this cake.  It's just (and here's where the heresy sets in) not as nice as my English-stored cake.

silence, distant church bell, tumbleweed, a dog howls

The China-stored cake has a calm scent of sweetness and it retains the super-cooling effect of the 002 when young, back in 2007.  That cooling effect is really rather obvious, and very encouraging.  It also has a long sweetness, which has been preserved and perhaps elongated by its dry storage.

The China-stored version, paradoxically, seems a little more "aged" than my own version, but lacks the dense, humid pungency of the English twin.  Such were the delights of my version, that I was ready to buy a tong of this cake if it turned out to be similar.

As it turns out, the China-stored version remains very pleasant, but, after a dozen or so infusions, seems rather ordinary and begins to run out of steam.  In parallel, my own cake seems to have plenty of puff left in it, and continues to doll out the humid darkness that attracted me in the first place.

Ultimately, I decided that (even at the microprice of $10), this cake was not worth buying in quantity.

Perhaps I should turn to some of the Taobao cakes to see if any of them are in a more similar vein to my own, for they would be worth grabbing tongtastically, if so.

It's funny: I don't actually feel insane, but then again I suppose that's what all the truly insane people say.