品茗級一號紅印鐵餅圓普洱茶

Considering how young these bing are, I was really impressed. Many of my own tea samples from the previous century are still more astringent. While the xiang of this tea is not the sharp spice and plum that I associate with a true hong yin, I was happy with its vanilla and cinnamon notes for the novelty.

The strength of this tea deserves attention: I tested it against a yuan naun hong yin of 70s or 80s vintage. This test ran 48 steeps before this 2007 honorific finally ran out of taste! Yes, the real hong yin was better, but at 6 times the price. The richness and refinement of this honorific is about as good as 2007 vintage can get.

I bought additional "Connoisseurs 1" bing for long term storage. Imagine them in 2037!

I’m not fortunate enough to have tried 50s Red Mark but I have tried the 50s Pu Tian Gong which is reported to be similar. This tea is supposedly an attempt recreate the original recipe of the 50s red mark. I’m sure that in 50 years it will be liquid gold. As it stands now I’d take it over any 7542 I’ve had from the late 90s onward. This tea is powerful but smooth. Perfectly balanced sweetness and bitterness that’s never harsh. Strong storage notes that are entirely clean and positive. Strong woody, earthy spicy and woody, leathery notes that are never funky, musty or solventy like many humid stored teas. Deeply warming qi with good calm alertness but no jitters. At 15 years old this tea is already very pleasant to drink and I see it only improving over the next several decades…if it lasts that long. Tea this good that lacks collectibility is usually drunk more quickly. A great counterpoint to the drier Taiwan stored boutique Yiwu teas I typically consume. After consuming a good deal of Menghai area teas that have been aged in Malaysia, Taiwan, Guangzhou and least impressively Kunming, I’m convinced that traditional HK storage is the ticket with these teas and if anyone is sourcing, processing and storing these teas better than Yee On Tea I want to try them.