The 7542 is probably the most classic and well known Puer Tea ever.
It's story starts in 1975 (theoretically) as the first two digits of the Tea Code reveal.
Even before that date back to the 1950s round puer teas like this one were produced.
In 1975 though the Menghai Tea Factory developed a "Brand" Recipe where they perfected their product and would mix specific amounts of tea leaves from areas like Bulang and Bada, specific amounts of buds and an overall average of Grade 4 Material (the upper leaves), so it would be a consistent Quality and taste (as far as this was possible through the years).
So what we have here with a 2014 version is a modern Puer Tea product that relates to the 1975 tea in terms that it includes a lot of tea leaf buds (which are a lot rarer than the usual leaves) and only the upper leaves of the tea plants from the classic Xishuangbanna areas.
Where this says a lot about selection and more expensive material, it doesn't automatically suggest that this 7542 Tea from 2014 is a very expensive and thought after tea as methods of producing and marketing goals have changed to very old tea trees from specific areas rather than a blend with a lot of buds in it, which can lead to a quite unpleasant bitter taste when the tea is fresh.
It's therefore known as a "classic" and should be seen as that.
It's in no way consisting of pure Gushu Material in terms of tree age, although TaeTea likes to describe all their harvesting areas as ancient tea tree areas.
The 150g version of 2018 sells for a price of 78 Yuan (11 USD), that's 7,40 USD for a 100g.
Here we can see the box of a smaller 150g cake from 2014, the information is not very specific, it just mentions that it's name is Dayi Puer Tea (Raw Tea), the product is called 7542, the production batch is the first of 2014 (1401), it consists of Yunnan Big Leaf (Assamica and other variants) Tea Leaves from Xishuangbanna Area, it was produced on 23 July 2014:
TaeTea will include a small bag of a humidity controlling substance so the tea will not get mouldy even if stored for a long time:
The leaf material looks quite nice, although you can see that a lot of small upper leaves and buds are included. Big leaves from old ancient trees will not be found in this product.
The Brew of the 2014, which is now 5 years of age already presents itself with a darker orange color.
The taste has greatly improved in only 5 years.
Where it was very bitter, not of much aroma and yellow in 2015, the main factor in this tea is a very herbal, spicy, harsh and fruity flavor now which should relate to the high amount of tea leaf buds in the product and the stronger characteristic of tea leaves from specific tea mountain areas used for blending.
the leaves look quite crushed in this product and it's hard to make out a complete one in here.
this might also add to a more intense aroma.
daily facts:
A real classic, often refered to as a benchmark, although the factors have really changed over time which are preferred right now. Everyone should have tried a 7542 when it's fresh, and then every 5 years from then. Very old 7542s with an age more than 15 years tend to taste like medicine, they have a really dark brown color when brewed, still some slight fruitiness, but also a harsh herbal and spicy tendency that will smooth out more and more when it reaches an age > 20 yrs.
daily rating:
4.4 / 5
daily links:
Yee On Tea - A Brief History of 7542
https://yeeonteaco.com/blogs/news/manghai-tea-factory-7542-series-chi-tse-beeng-cha-collection-brief-introduction
Puer.fr - Red Da Yi
http://www.puerh.fr/en/article/red_da_yi.htm
TaeTea official TMall Flagship Shop - 7542 (1902) 357g
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=603602633484
TaeTea official TMall Flagship Shop - 7542 (1801) 150g
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=15704058565
