Where should i start.. i guess the front wrapper is the key element here:
you can see a big red symbol on the front that is the chinese Symbol for Tea (茶).
on the left side you can read the three symbols 大紅印 which translate to Big Red Mark.
These kinds of tea discs were produced for a long time since the 1950s by or rather for the national state owned company ZhongCha (China Tea 中茶).
Of course the leaf material, production, quality and flavors changed over the decades, this is where the number on the right side comes in.. the 8001. it refers to a "recipe" from 1980, leaf grade 0 (we will get to this later), and the last number 1 stands for the ZhongCha Company under which license many producers sold their teas. in this case the China Tuhsu Yunnan Imp/Exp Corp. has it's name printed on the front wrapper.
on the back side we can find some information about the tea leaf material, food safety regulations and a reminder to not store this tea in a humid and hot climate (or you would get moulds).
right on top there is a digital counterfeit sticker.
the chinese symbols simply state "Yunnan Qizi Bing Cha" = Yunnan Seven Sons Round Tea Cake.
Seven Sons refers to the method of producing a rounded 357g Tea Cake disc and pack it as 7 cakes into a bamboo wrapper. there are several stories as to where the 7 comes from, may it be 7 tea mountains or 7 brothers, both are mentioned in literature, but today this is just a description for a typical puer cake product from zhongcha that refers to older times.
once opened up, there is a Neifei Sticker inside, it just states the name of the tea again.
on the right side of the Sticker and on the left side of the front wrapper there is a signature to be found, it's the signature of the Generel Manager of ZhongCha: Jia Peng
as you can see in the following photo, the wrapper material has probably some kind of cotton fibers worked in, that might be related to establish counterfeit methods, but it's also nice to see that the wrapper material should have a nice quality that will allow air to pass through and keep the tea from getting too much moisture.
the leaf material itself looks very good. the leaf grade zero in the 8001 number might refer to superior leaf quality, as this is the information that we can find in an interview with the producer of this tea.
according to the interview, the leaves used for this cake are old arbor yiwu leaves from tea trees grown from seeds, not plantation, and include quite a lot of small tips.
most of the times in Tuhsu Company products you can also find a green printed paper inside the wrapper with the tea cake that describes that this kind of puer tea cake is famous and has a sweet taste, refreshes you, helps with digestion and helps when you feel tired. this reminds me more of a medicine product than a tea, but then again, this is china, and tea is medicine in TCM.
7 grams of the leaf material, ready to be brewed inside my Yixing Hei Jin Sha (Black Gold Sand 黑金砂) Zisha Pot, that really rounds up the aroma and takes care of the unwanted rough bitter tones.
out comes a dark orange liquid, which reminds of leather, honey, sweet-sour exotic stone fruits, sugary notes, a warm and comfortable tobacco aroma (not to be confused with a colder smokey flavor which i personally dislike) and a typical aged sourbittersweet aroma.
the brewed leaves have a leathery brown color, you can really see the 13 year dry warehouse aging process as this is a very post fermented tea already.
the brew is strong and thick, the steeping times can be kept short for 7-10 seconds. the aroma is wonderful, the honey sweetness in this one is outstanding and it should be a perfect product for further aging.
daily facts:
an outstanding product with a lovely aroma. as the 13 year dry aging process in bamboo containments and a controlled warehouse climate just finished, it might need 2 or 3 more years to air and settle.
it has just arrived at the edge of a satisfying and enjoyable aroma, but this wonderful side still has room for improvement. there could be so much more of this if kept in your home for some more years.
daily rating:
4.3 / 5
i'm very positive it will climb the ladder even more in a few years.
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