Country of Origin: China
Leaf Appearance: formerly compressed, sample arrived loose
Ingredients: puerh tea
Steep time: 5 seconds
Water Temperature: 212 degrees
Preparation Method: porcelain gaiwan
Liquor: pale gold
My personal puerh collection mostly consists of young, dry stored, fairly easy going cakes. What that means is that I can do anything to them and they’ll still be drinkable for the most part. I’ve learned that I can’t treat all puerhs with the same heavy hand that I am used to so I followed Wymm Tea’s recommended method for steeping. After a quick rinse I started with a 5 second infusion and then increased that by a few seconds for each subsequent brew. Initially it was vegetal with quite a lot of astringency. Gradually the bitterness gave way to a very pleasant honey-like sweetness. This aspect came even more to the forefront as I continued drinking, causing me to drink an ungodly amount of puerh. Thank god I didn’t have work the next day! The mouth feel was fairly thick for such a young tea. Although the “cane tea” in the name might suggest sugar cane, their website explains that it actually refers to the shape of the trees. They are shaped using a technique that removes all excess branches and larger leaves, leaving just two buds on each branch. I can only imagine how much work it must take just to harvest enough for a single cake.
Mangnuo Tengtiao “Cane Tea” 2014 sample provided by Wymm Tea.