Marco’s Blind Tasting “Epsilon” (NanQiao "Bulang Beauty")

Ok…. I was waiting for it… the blind Menghai Tea Factory sample…

Dry decently factory looking compressed leaves smell of a very sweet honey fruity nectar odour.

First infusion tastes of a woody almost grain sweetness with a pungent everygreen menthol finish.  There is almost a metallic taste to it.  The mouthfeeling is full and cottony in the mouth.

The second infusion has a woody grain onset with a soft coming and going of sweet candy.  There is a fairly strong deep pungent and an overall resin wood like taste to it.  The mouthfeeling is strong and pulling and thick.  There is deep almost bitter coffee and taffee taste to it kind of smokey incense faintly on the back end of this puerh.  This puerh tastes like Menghai factory to me.  The leaves are quite tippy and small.  The Qi has a slow alerting building within it.

The third infusion has an incense caramel onset with a strong sour as well as a woody resin taste to it.  It has a bit of a sour edge to it.  It finishes with a deep pungent camphor woody and incense taste to it.  The mouthfeel is stronger and gripping.  Strong Menghai Factory taste and feel to this puerh, its dry stored and likely around 8 years old.  Building alerting energy.  I break into a terrible allergic reaction of sneezing and itching with this puerh that I have only gotten a handful of times from certain puerh (see here, here,here)… For the sake of the review I take some herbal allergy pills and trudge on… but I really love the very nice Dayi profile here…  I really over leafed this powerful factory feeling puerh…

The fourth infusion has a strong syrupy sweet smoky sour fruitiness to it.  Thick fruity resin woody taste is upfront with a long camphor finish.  I really like the comforting and familiar taste of Menghai Factory although I am down on myself that I just can’t rattle off the production like I used to be able to do. 

The fifth infusion has a thick smoky syrupy fruitiness to it, slightly sour, with a long camphor finish.  The taste and feel is unmistakenly Menghai Factory and really satisfies me with a nice alerting factory Qi sensation.  This is an above average Dayi production very nice.

The sixth infusion has a strong syrupy malty fruitiness over a smoky woody nuance with a long camphor aftertaste.  The Qi is warming and alerting and makes me sweat.  This is classic strong Menghai factory that is on the edge of being ready to consume as it still has an underlying bitterness and sourness to it.  It has a really condensed taste to it but still hasn’t developed any plum taste to it.  I think I have a bit too many leaves in my pot but I trudge on…

The seventh infusion has a strong syrupy malty fruitiness over a smoky woody nuance with a long camphor aftertaste in the mouth.  This puerh is very stable across the infusions.  Warming alerting Qi.  Stonger full cotton mouthfeeling.  Making me itch a bit.

The eighth infusion has a smoother fruitier vibe to it with some of the brute strength finally lifting a bit.  Fruity, woody, cooing throatfeeling, camphor finish some creamy sweetness developing.  Good full cottony thicker mouthfeeling.  This is a good concentrated Dayi production.

The ninth infusion has a smoky fruity onset with a more smoky woody finish in the mouth.  There is more of a gripping mouthfeeling and throatfeeling with less menthol cooling in the throat.  Nice alerting energy.

The tenth infusion has a malty almost caramel fruity sweetness with pronounced smoke.  There is less camphor coolness in the throat and aftertaste now and more dry wood taste.  This puerh is beating a bit on the guts which is an indicator that it’s still too young to drink to enjoy but you can see the potential in the production as being a better one from the post 2006 era.

The 11^th has a fruity thick syrupy sweetness there are fruity tastes lingering in the aftertaste along with woody taste.

The 12^th has a fruity thick syrupy sweet punch with lingering fruitiness and longer creamy sweet fruity aftertaste.  The mouthfeeling is sticky and chalky.  The aftertaste is sweet and creamy and satisfying.

The 13^th has a fruity full creamy chalky sweetness with some wood underlying.  There is a chalky mouthfeeling and not that much cooling in the throat or stimulation of the throat.

The 14^th has a woodier smokier and less fruity or chalky sweetness to it.  It’s a bit bitterer too.  Still some strength in the leaf with some alerting Qi.  More of a tight sandy mouthfeeling.

I put this in a mug and grandpa steep it out.

Overall, this is a really condensed, full feeling Menghai Factory production that is still on the edge of being drinkable semiaged.   Not used to drinking Dayi at this point of aging because it’s pretty hard on the system still.  This one is a pretty nice Dayi production overall.

Guess: A dry stored 8ish year old Menghai Factory aka Dayi production.  If it isn’t Dayi then something very much of this style.  Leaves look bigger than 7542 and not really as factory as I thought.  Maybe 8582?

Answer: NanQiao "Bulang Beauty"

Peace