“Try these two cakes. Better than 99 Green Big Tree!” Mr. Chen Zhi-Tong, the speaker for the Pasadena Puerh event, said with his usual calm and self-confident tone to me when we met in June.
Both cakes used the same wrappers, with only the red stamps on them to tell the difference: one said “Yi Wu Long Ma (Dragon Horse)” and the other said “2001 Meng Sa”.
I almost forgot these two cakes until last week a customer emailed me to inquire about 99 Xi-Zhi Hao Meng Sa. Digging them out from an unopened bag in my luggage, I was excited to try these two cakes!
Pictures of the liquor (5th brew) and unfurled leaves of 2001 Meng Sa:
Drinking them side by side, I was quickly drawn to the superb mellowness and refined honey-woody fragrance of the 99 Yi Wu. The 2001 Meng Sa, quite a bit more expensive than the 99 Yi Wu, was shy in the agedness but its aroma and taste indeed was so strangely familar… Oh, yes, 99 XZH Meng Sa! My heart danced joyfully like finding an old old friend. How surprising that these two Meng Sa had such similar traits of fragrance and taste, that on my first sip I can pointed one to another.
99 Yi Wu, as Mr. Chen said, was blended with big-leaf Yi Wu mao cha of different seasons, different plantations of Yi Wu(some old, some new), and maybe some 98, some 99 harvests. “The prices of mao cha were so low anyway, and there was little difference between different seasons, and maybe leftover from last year.” Mr. Chen stored them in one of his warehouse around Taipei, with not so much humidity control.
On the other hand, 2001 Meng Sa was made of pure Meng Sa Spring old-plantation mao cha, with a higher portion of golden-colored tips to enhance the sweetness and liquor consistency. The storage is in another warehouse, with full low-humidity control.
If not compared with the 99 cake, the aging condition of the 2001 Meng Sa is very satisfactory. In fact, after knowing its storage condition, I have to say I am very impressed with its agedness!
The tasting set, 10g of each cake, is available in Hou De. Especially if you enjoy 97 and 99 XZH, I sincerely recommend you to try them!
Guang 