ORIGIN
Ming Feng is a small area in Lincang, Southwest Yunnan. This place is not famous but produces a high-quality tea harvested from ancient tea trees grown high in the mountains. Average altitude is about 2100 m above sea level and tea trees are about 350-500 years old. Perfect environment as well as 100% nature farming and traditional handmade processing gives this tea highest score speaking about the quality and aging potential. Noble tea with its own original character and deep, rich aroma and taste. This Mao Cha is made from from 300-500 years old trees. It is 100% nature farming, no involvement of people.
Mao Cha translates as a "rough tea" and means that this tea is unfinished and is in an intermediate stage of production. This term is used for a tea material which is ready to be steamed and pressed in case of Sheng Pu'Er production. This type of tea is used for blending and further storage before being pressed into 'cakes'.
ORGANOLEPTICS
First of all, look at this shiny, glossy beautiful tea material. Combination of one bud and two leaves. The very fragrant dry tea leaves have a sweet and even sugary aroma. This tea comes from a special area, which determines the original aroma and the unique taste of this tea. Usually, young shengs have very rough and grassy notes, while this tea will surprise you with its sweetness. After you put it in a warmed-up teapot, the aroma will transform, and you will notice some dried fruits and vegetable motifs.
I usually use cooled-down water to rinse tea leaves very fast. After that, by tradition, I check the aroma of washed tea leaves. It is not necessary with shengs to follow all steps of the Gong Fu Cha method, but it is a crazy good sheng not to do that. Anyway, this tea acts unusually during the brewing process, and the taste reveals another scenario. If plantation tea gives us 5-7 perfect tasty infusions, pu’er tea opens up during the first 5 infusions, therefore, it’s worth brewing it even more times.
This Ming Feng Mao Cha has a very sweet deep taste with notes of dried fruits and meadow flowers. The silky texture and long-lasting aftertaste provide a light “hui gan” (sensation of sweetness that follows an initial bitterness) effect at the back of the throat. Every new infusion brings new notes and associations, and the taste slowly keeps transforming, which creates a smooth composition in your tea ceremony. The light amber colour of the infusion is untypically darker than most young sheng pu’ers you will find in the market.