Nobody Messes with Apache

I'm not saying that Apache is a violent man, but if you sell him fake cakes, you may not be long for this world.

 

This wrapper is, at least, familiar, being the mighty Qiaomu Laoshu [arbor old-tree] from Dayi.

 

You can tell that Apache was not impressed with this one, because he gave me the entire cake.  I'm not one to judge a fake to be immediately bad, and it could be worth drinking on its own merits.  Let's give it a test-drive.

The leaves, pictured above and below, and short and dark, and look not unreasonably like Dayi on a good day.

 

The neifei and neipiao, pictured below, look authentic enough, too.  Of course, it is not particularly difficult to acquire bits of paper if you wish to do so.

Dayi is a firm favourite for Chinese counterfeits, perhaps because the older cakes from that label have both a recognisably "safe" brand-name and hold a good price.  Apache seemingly paid a serious amount of money for this cake, not unadjacent to one hundred quid.

 

The scent gives nothing away, being generically sweet.

The game's afoot, Watson!  The orange soup is immediately, unusually cloudy, with a malty, deep-red flavour that is not very much like Dayi.

 

It is simple, it is strong, but is too generic and bland to be anything Dayi.  The famous Menghai brand has a very distinct characteristic from its regional leaves that is quite straightforward to distinguish when present.  A Dayi cake labelled "Qiaomu Laoshu" should be very interesting: this cake, sadly, is not.

By the third infusion, there is a very unwelcome note of something heavy and industrial that makes the tongue feel strange.  I have no great desire to retain this cake, and will shortly divert it to that rarest of fates: the compost bin.

 

Yikes indeed.

I can say that I have tried something very similar to this cake before (in its claims to being the 2003 Dayi "Qiaomu Laoshu") but which was entirely different: that other cake was humid and definitely stored in a damp environment, and was actually quite nice.  This cake from Apache has none of it.  I suspect that the poor vendor in question may have been sold a mixed stack.

Edit: a re-taste of the real thing may be found here.