2005 Golden Bud Beengcha Tribute Tea Cake

Spring buds mixed with 1st grade leaves from Bu Lang Shan. One of the highest grade ripe pu-erh available according to seller. Cake looks very attractive, a lot of young buds, I'd say mostly young buds compressed tightly.



2 grams of leaves were used for the first tasting. It turned out quite weak. So I am using 4 grams of leaves for this posting.



4g, boiling water, gaiwan

1st brew: 5s, reddish clear, smooth, no aroma, slight sweetness with pleasant wood taste, dry feeling in back of throat, after taste is incense like sweet between tongue and upper mouth.

2nd brew: 5s, dark red, very smooth almost creamy, sweet with a sour note, this could be avoided by using fewer leaves I think. Next tasting will be 3 grams! The sweet flavor is woody though not quite overwhelming as sandal wood, but definitely has the scent and smoky sweetness.

3rd and 4th brew: 5s and 10s, similar to 2nd with the same intensity of flavor, color and texture, sour note is dissipating with successive infusions.

6th brew: 20s, lighter in color, more transparent, not as intense in flavor, but smooth as other

It gave up around the 8th brew, it might be able to go on for an other one or 2 brews with longer infusion. After taste is sweet and leave a clean slick mouth feel for quite a while. Although nothing out standing in terms of flavor, but its smoothness is on top of the cooked pu-erhs lists.

You just have to be patient with pu-erh... Patience is golden, specially for pu-erh! Good potential for aging this bing.