1998 Zhongcha 8582 vs 1998 Menghai Tea Factory 8582

Dry leaves seem bigger than the 1998 Menghai Tea Factory 8582 Houde cake and more what I expect from 8582 leaf grade recipe. It smells of dry woody odours - has more of that Tea Urchin storage odour than anything.  This 1998 Zhongcha 8582 goes for $265.00 for 357g cake (or $0.74/g) at Tea Urchin.  I purchased this sample a few years ago and intended to sample them with the other two Zhongcha offerings at Tea Urchin the 2004 Zhongcha Lotus Aroma and the 2001 Zhongcha Ba Zhong but wasn’t able to.   I just sampled this one recently…

Rinsed leaves have a sweet woody leaf faint maple sweetness.

First infusion has a dry watery woody taste with a subtle raisin sweet finish.  Dry woody raison.  Slight dry sticky mouthfeel. Energy in chest is stronger.

Second infusion has a woody fallen leaf raisin woody taste.  Mainly dry woody taste with dry sticky mouthfeel.  Stronger chesty feeling and energetic. Subtle plum sweetness under dry woody and in aftertaste before dryness.

Third has a woody teak woody sweetness.  Woody almost varnished taste. Sone faint coco in the aftertaste.

Fourth infusion is a woody varnish slight sour woody taste with a coco woody finish.  Subtle warming face and chest.  Stronger chest beats.  Coco woody finish. Sweet woody coco.

5th has a woody teak wood sweet onset with sweet dry woody teak taste.  Woody dry with background sweetness. Some mouthwatering coco in the finish.  Chest beats strong. Warming.

6th has a sweet almost raison sweetness with wood mouthwatering return coco is slightly bittersweet.  Mouth is slight sticky dry big chesty qi and energy surge.  Warming. 

7th has an almost syrupy woody sweet taste with some coco bittersweet finish. There is this nice sort of maple woody coco sweet taste.  Qi is strongly alerting and chest pounding with some warming.  

8th is a sweet woody teak sort of honey sweet woody with a silty mouthfeeling and mouthwatering return of coco sweet taste.  Strong Qi alerting with chest beats strong and warming face.

9th has a woody almost spice woody sweet taste.  There is a return of woody coco taste. Mouthwatering coco finish. Strong alerting qi will have me staying up too late tonight!

10th I come back to the pot a few days later it has a sweet watery plum taste with an oily feel and some faint returning bitter sweet coco faint aftertaste.  Some warming Qi and chest beats alertness.

11th has an incense almost pond dry storage taste.  Not that sweet with a smoke coco chocolate bittersweet finish.  Silty slight dry mouthfeel. Stronger warming and chest beating Qi. 

12th has a sour cherry bitter sweet pond and dry woody onset with coco more bitter than sweet finish with smoke.  Warming face qi with chest beats. Finishes bitter woody slight smoke. 

13th has a woody pond slight dry woody sweetness.  There is a flatter drier mouthfeel with slight bitter and smoke.  Mouthfeel starting to become slightly gripping. Warming Qi and chest beats.

Long mug steeping of spent leaves has an earthy woody plum taste with pop of sweet cherry.  There is a drier mouthfeel and bitter woody not much coco but a sweet bitter plum finish. Squeeky teeth feeling.  With big energy alerting bursts with chest pounding. There is a dirt raisin taste throughout.

I do another few days long steeping but it just pretty much is dry woody bark with very faint tastes of sweet raisin almost medical incense.

Vs 1998 Menghai Tea Factory 8582 (pictured Right)-  is much much sweeter and much much more complex aged puerh.  Both puerh have an overall factory feel and taste.  Both were exposed to some more humid but not overly wet storage than where they were dry stored longer term.  The zhongcha was then stored in Tea Urchins dry storage and the Menghai Tea Factory in Houde’s hot dry storage. The Houde cake has a deep complex medical ginseng complexity over very very sweet tastes. The Tea Urchin is not that sweet and has a more bittersweet woody pondy.  The Houde has a deeper warming and energizing Qi where the Tea Urchin has more zippy factory Qi.

Note on the three Zhongcha offerings at Tea Urchin…They were all selected to represent the classic stereotype Zhongcha offerings- a more muted elegant one- 2004 Zhongcha Lotus Aroma, the powerful smoky Bulang one- the 2001 Zhongcha Ba Zhong, and the more classic factory style- 1998 Zhongcha 8582. They are all pretty good for their price but not good enough for me to cake anyways… at least not yet…

Peace