I understand it is hard for new puerh drinkers, or even longer time drinkers who started drinking puerh during the Gushu era, to wrap their minds around why Menghai Tea Factory (called Dayi in recent times) 7542 recipe is so desired for drinking. This is especially hard to grasp because the material that goes into the 7542 is not high end material, it is not Gushu material, and it is not that expensive material. They are not the tippiest leaves nor are they the biggest. Also the processing is not any more advanced or in anyway more special than other typical puerh factories. Some would argue that it’s factory processing is seen as the original gold standard but it seems like every other factory these days has some human connections to the processing of Menghai Tea Factory. Even people who venerate the 7542 would likely agree to these statements. So what’s the big deal with Menghai’s classic 7542 recipe then?
I think it probably has a lot to do with the fact that this puerh production was considered one of the best for so long during the pre-Gushu era of puerh drinking. It ages favourably. Also the first super famous dry stored puerh, the 88 Qingbing, was a 7542. It’s longevity at the top has kind of cemented the 7542 as “the benchmark”. For me it meant that back in the day I consumed a lot of 7542 or, in many/most cases, faked or CNNP 7542 or some approximation of this recipe. After a while, there is this positive emotional relationship to the 7542 from just consuming it over time. It ends up bringing you a certain comfort that other puerh or puerh recipes cannot. Just like the way grandma’s recipe is the best recipe to you even though a gourmet chief using the best ingredients and modern techniques could arguably make it objectively better… but it won’t be better to you…
In this way the 7542 is soul food for the puerh drinker’s soul.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment