ホモテナシ

Received this as a sample.

Mengku is in Lincang territory; next to Burma and in the northern part of Pu Er producing regions. It is where the famous Bingdao is made.

Remembering the Pu Er seminar from Shui Tang, Lincang teas tend to be floral, pretty when young, but without substance. This is in contrast to what I read on teaDB, where the tea is described as bitter when young.

Cultivar is the purple leaf one (though the leaves look different to me from the Hong Er Duo I know from Shui Tang?)

Quite small leaves, wet leaves smell pleasant, but light. Empty cup of wine cellar with some red berry stew. Nose fairly standard, pleasant, dark forest wood, sultanas, cooked rosemary. Inoffensive in mouth, slight bitterness, but also quite thin. Again, rosemary woodsiness. Decent aftertaste in mouth. Becomes a bit thicker as it cools, but still unsatisfying, one-dimensional. Possibly cooling, activates BL, esp BL42, BL43.

There's a foreign taste, possibly due to me storing the sample for a long time in a plastic bag.

There's a taste of cooked vegetables, which indicates that the tea has been laid out too long after cooking. There's also a strong sour smell from the wet leaves after a while, almost like pickles, which supports this. This is a production mistake.

It's lacking in substance, which is probably because it is from taidi plantations or young trees. The hard twigs are also an indicator for this - gushu twigs tend to be softer.