On my blog, I have traveled the world for coffee, visiting many cafe’s and meeting many people along the way.
While that won’t stop, I do want to start incorporating tea reviews on my blog.
And this time around, I wanted to try numerous tea straight from China. And I chose TAETEA a leader in the Chinese tea industry.
Menghai Tea factory which belongs to Tae Tea Group, was found in 1940 in Yunan, China. It is the origin of China Pu’er tea.
Our 7542 Raw Pu’er and our 7572 Ripe Pu’er are publicly recognized as the quality benchmark standard in China Pu’er tea industry. pic.twitter.com/M50sPE7BgU— Tae Tea (@TaeTeaGroup) November 10, 2017
Created by the Yunnan TAETEA Group in 1940, the company has focused on Pu-erh (also spelled as Pu’er) tea for the last 80 years and the majority is made from the sun-dried tea of Yunnan big leaf with “Menghai Taste”.
And this review is for the TAETEA 7542 Classic Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake!
TAETEA’s 7542 is offered in a larger tea cake at 357g for about $60 and the smaller 150g version for about $24.
It’s important to note that if one looks up the tea online, you will learn that certain packaging for the Pu-erh tea changes each year. Similar to wine, weather conditions can affect quality that year and so there are people who may be particular about a year of tea.
As for raw and ripe, raw Pu-erh (sheng cha) and ripe Pu-erh (shu cha) and the former is known for being bitter with a stronger flavor but with aging, the bitterness disappears and a sweeter taste comes out, as well as a different aroma. Shu cha goes through a pile (wo dui) fermentation process. I haven’t tried ripe Pu-erh, so I can’t say much about it.
Also, I’ve learned that Pu-erh will have a different taste depending on which tea mountain it’s from. Many famous tea mounts produce Pu erh and each has their own distinct taste.
For those who have never used a Chinese tea cake before, this is what I do (Please note: At this time, my gaiwan, my tea strainer and tea spoon have not arrived and I don’t use a pick, I’m using a butter knife).
NOTE: I watched people on YouTube use a pick and a butter knife and I decided to use a knife, as the chances of injuring my clumsy self would be low!
First step was to boil some water and I had my butter knife ready.
I then opened the tea cake packaging and you will see it as the following:
Cut a small piece from the side off. I do about an inch in width and probably a quarter of an inch in height (it doesn’t require that much). I break it apart on the paper surface using one hand holding the paper around the tea cake and my other hand with the butter knife to break that small part off.
I then take the paper with the broken off contents, holding the paper around the tea cake, while the broken pieces fall into a cup (I used a coffee cup for this part).
I then added the boiling hot water to the cup with the broken pieces. This is to wash the tea leaves and awaken the essence of the tea and you will see the tea leaves grow in size.
Now with the wet leaves in the cup, you will now fill that up with the boiling water. You will notice immediately, the water changing to a darker tea color. You then discard that water.
Repour more hot water into the tea cup with the leaves and it will darken again. You would then drop this into a strainer, as the strainer catches the leaves the tea liquid will now be in your tea cup.
As for the tea leaves, you can reuse or re-steep them for three or four times after the first brew. Reusing the Pu-ehr leaves is increased by 2-3 minutes for each steeping.
I feel that by the third steep, for me it was much more pleasant than the second steep, which still has quite a bit of bitterness. I found the TAETEA 7542 to be quite delicious, but I can see people who may prefer that second steep if they like that bitterness. For me, the third was the charm!
But that’s pretty much it. Go ahead and wrap your tea cake up and keep it in storage until the next use and enjoy your tea!
I know the price may not be for those on the budget, but you are paying for quality tea, of course, I still have so much to discover when it comes to Chinese tea. And TAE TEA’s 7542 and 7572 are publicly recognized as the quality benchmark standard in the China Pu-erh tea industry.
I definitely enjoyed this tea!
I definitely want to experience more tea in Japan and teas around the world, so I’m not sure where this will take me. I’m not sure if I’m going to travel for tea, as I have done with coffee.
But as I pursue my interest in tea, learning more from tea erudites, I’m looking forward to seeing how my adventure in learning more about tea will take me.
