Menghai Golden Buds Palace Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2012

The raw material for this ripened pu-erh cake is selected from tea trees in the Brown Mountain tea area at an altitude of between 1600 and 1900 meters above sea level. These trees average 90-100 years old.

Leaves used to make pu-erh tea can be divided into eleven grades based on quality; since this tea contains whole spring buds and leaves with noticeable golden tips, it is considered palace-grade. The cotton paper wrapper bears the words “Golden Seal” (金印), a name derived from the tea-trading process which has become customary according to the characteristics of the tea’s packaging: if the color on the paper is red then it is “red seal”, if it is blue it is “blue seal”, and so on. A golden seal represents high quality tea..

This tea contains pure buds, and after some time in storage, the liquid brews bright red like rich wine. At first it presents a smooth and sweet taste, with a unique lotus leaf aroma beneath the higher jujube taste: the smoothness of the tea remains throughout drinking, lingering in the mouth and throat.

This cake is also capable of lasting through several infusions, and whether at home or in the office, it is definitely worth a try.

	Cup Method		Chinese Gongfu Method
	Teacup: 12oz / 355ml		Gaiwan: 3.8oz / 110ml
	212℉ / 100℃		212℉ / 100℃
	5g Tea		10g Tea
	Brewing time: 5 - 8 mins		10 steeps: rinse, 15s, 15s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 50s, 70s, 90s, 160s, 210s
			Rinse time is 5 seconds

Man Xin Long stockaded village is located in Bulang Shan entirely surrounded by forests and at an elevation of 1800 meters. The Bulang nationality here migrated over two hundred years ago, and planted the original tea trees along the nearby 150 mu of hillsides during that time.

In the tea grove, tea farmers are picking tea leaves on the high tea tree.

Bulang Mountain sits in Menghai County of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, and is a famous area of pu-erh production. This mountain houses the largest concentration of ancient tea trees within a 100,000-hectare area.

The mountain rolls and stretches across Menghai, with deep valleys cutting through hills that can reach up to 1216 meters on average, with the highest point, Sanduo Peak, rising almost 2100m above sea level. Bulang Mountain experiences a subtropical monsoon climate, with abundant sunlight and rainfall of about 1374mm per year, and the average temperature between 18 and 21C. There is little risk of frost here, and the season for it is also short; during the spring and winter a heavy fog blankets the mountain, while the summer and autumn months are often overcast and rainy.

Native to Menghai County in Xishuangbanna, the Menghai large-leaf tea species was rated as the most improved national variety in 1984. It grows up to 7m tall in the wild with bold green leaves noticeably larger than more common varieties, and the buds of this species are yellowish-green and coated in fuzz. The leaves are high in phytochemicals, with one bud and two leaves containing 2.3% amino acids, 32.8% polyphenolic compounds, 4.1% caffeine, and 18.2% catechinic acid. Because of this, pu-erh tea made from this species is high in quality, rich yet soft in taste, and maintains a full-bodied essence.

Pu-erh is one of the oldest types of tea in China with a history stretching back over 1700 years to the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the tea was called Jing Cha. It is named after the town of Pu’er in Yunnan province, which was originally the early trading center for this tea. In early history pu-erh was used as a bartering currency in southwest China, with the famed Cha Ma Gu Dao, the Tea Horse Road, being built for the purpose of transporting this tea through the Himalayas to other countries and areas in Tibet.