2006 Menghai Ripe

We almost never sell tea from big factories on Farmerleaf. We prefer to focus on  smallholder productions. However, when it comes to aged tea, large factory productions can offer more traceability and pre-2007, a lot of them were actually as good as what the independent producers made. This is even more true when it comes to ripe Puerh, which requires specific knowledge, kept somewhat secret at the time. The tea was fermented in large batches, with blended leaves from a wide area. 

Back in 2006, Puerh tea was just getting famous. A lot of now prestigious names were still unheard of. People started talking about Lao Banzhang around 2004, so it made sense for Xinghai Tea Factory -one of the biggest in Menghai- to gather material from that area and make a large batch of ripe Puerh.

There was a lot of plantations tea in the area at the time: Lao Banzhang, Banpen and Lao Man E all had 'Taidi', terraced tea gardens managed intensively. This is a tea from another era, before the advent of modern Puerh, of terroirs, tree age and fresh maocha.

At that time, raw Puerh tea was meant to be aged for ten years, and ripe puerh was a cheap tea for the cantonese restaurants.  

We got a case of this tea, it was stored in Menghai for ten years and then held by a private collector in Pu'er City until we acquired it. The storage is clean and not too dry. 

You can feel it was made with good quality material, it was meant to be a premium cake at the time. You can see the famous 'chinese cabbage' logo on the middle of the cake, which labelled the certified organic cakes back in the day. 

During the craze for Puerh tea in 2007, many fake cakes of this series were produced. All clues we have about this tea look legit: it was delivered in its original bamboo case, the ink color seems right, the nei piao looks authentic. The cakes don't show signs of wet storage.

The tea feels very thick. It has matured well and has a good warming effect on the body.The almond fragrance is strong, something characteristic of some well-aged ripe puerh. It is very endurant, we recommend you boil it after brewing it gongfu style in order to extract every bit of goodness our of this one. 

It is a unique experience, we recommend you try at least a sample, for your own record. This is traditionally made ripe puerh with good quality material and good storage.