the_skua steeps

One of the added benefits of having two back-to-back sessions with a tea, is that you can tweak the brewing parameters to meet the tea and your own palate. Often, I settle into a traditional puerh steeping pattern that, using just under boiling water, starts with a 3 second rinse and then goes like this: 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 1m, 2m. However, not every tea can be pressed into the same brewing mold. For example, the Mu Ye Chun 001 responded better to some slightly cooler water and faster 3rd, 4th, and 5th steeps. Today, I’m finding a better mint quality, nicer clarity, and enjoyable bitterness coming out of this Mu Ye Chun 002 with longer initial steeps.

While the 001 was crisp, light, and tippy, the 002 is minty, rich, and more durable. I find it more to my liking. The session today was improved by brewing more to my palate, and that yielded a slightly stronger brew that showed off this tea’s savory fresh green vegetable character. There was certainly some of the season’s first Asparagus around, either in the tea or planted by my anticipating mind. This tea also has a much more satisfying energy to it, with a really heavy, calming buzz, that feels like the hands of a masseuse on my forehead – peaceful and relaxing.

This has been the most enjoyable sample of my experiences with Mengku so far and it bolstered my confidence in appreciation of less tippy puerh. I also believe it has some aging in it, so I wasn’t surprised to read on JAS eTea that, “This is preferred over the 001 blend for long-term storage among Taiwan Pu-erh collectors.” I quite like this tea now and likely in a few years.

REFERENCES

The Half-Dipper - 2007 Shuangjiang Mengku – Muyechun “002″

Tags: 2007, pu'er, sheng

This entry was posted on Friday, March 25th, 2011 at 11:51 AM and is filed under pu'er, sheng. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.