TeaDB

Essence of Tea’s 2014 Mengsong Red [Episode 98]

A red (black) tea made out of pu’erh materials and pressed into a cake, Essence of Tea’s 2014 Mengsong Red. Compared to your average dianhong this is a high-end, aromatic affair.

James

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18 responses to “Essence of Tea’s 2014 Mengsong Red [Episode 98]”

  1. I’ve actually been sipping on this tea all afternoon. A great red tea. It also comes out really well with just a few leaves in a teabowl

    Reply

    • I also cringe when I see Denny rinsing red teas, and really nice teas in general, for so long… So much lost…

      Reply

        • When you gongfu yunnan black that aren’t puerh I tend
          to love to flash rinse them, it makes the first infusion
          stronger.

          I prefer tho brewing my black western style… in a yixing
          pot.. don’t ask 😛

          Cheers

          Reply

          • Hi paxl13,

            Thanks for the comment and sharing. I feel like Denny’s method is part gong-fu, part western in some sense.

            Cheers,
            -James

    • Hi brian,

      Thanks for chiming in. This is indeed a good tea!

      I don’t drink nearly enough red teas to critique Denny, but I have begun to lean heavily towards no rinse/single rinse for higher-end young pu’erh. He’s not as familiar with pu’erh vendors as I am, so I think he may’ve treated it a bit more indiscriminately than I would’ve.

      Cheers,
      -James

      Reply

  2. I agree with Brian , I also cringe when I see Denny’s extreme rinsing ! As Brian quite rightly points out ” So much lost ” ! Try this again guys with no rinse and let us know what you think. Personally I only ever rinse raw and ripe puerhs and liu bao – one moderate rinse with boiling water .

    Reply

  3. My usual black parameter is a 170ml Yixing pot pre-heated with boiling water.
    3g, 3m for the first infusion, then 6m for the next one and that it.
    I usually don’t rinse black as they are not compressed! Black tends to fit
    well into ‘true’ gongfu session but for me black tea is my wake up tea and
    I don’t really care too too much about it, which explain my parameters!

    Cheers,
    paxl13

    Reply

    • Cheap and cheerful brewing! That’s how I like my blacks!

      Cheers,
      -James

      ps. Been enjoying your 7572 instagram posts :).

      Reply

      • Nice. what is your instagram handle that I add you 🙂

        I am completely junky of the 7572 from W2T plus I just started
        a quest of trying a lot side by side.

        Bought the FT 7572 from W2T as well and will try it side by
        side with my current Haiwan 9978 which is the same recipe.
        I’ll have to order one from Menghai at some point!

        Reply

        • Cool. Sounds like an interesting comparison! Side-by-sides is a great way to learn and it sounds as if you have a really solid reference point.

          I also like the larger leaf ripe recipes. We’re at @teadborg . Don’t have much there yet, just started really.

          Cheers,
          -James

          Reply

          • I used to be a real junky of the smaller leaves recipe like gong ting cakes but I find them a bit bland when I started really loving the 7572 recipe. I need to try the 82 and 92 recipe too at some point.

            But yeah @white2tea 2002 CNNP Tiepai 7572 is golden!! I love how the humidity interwind with the taste and bring it to a next level 🙂

            Thanks for the alias on instagram, just followed you 😀 \o/

          • Thanks for following! Yes, it’s a very decent tea. Have you had the 2004 7262? Curious how that tea compares.

  4. I came here also to comment on the long rinse, but it seems several others beat me to it! I have a cake of this and brew it up real strong. High leaf to water ratio, quick steeps. Reminds me of bourbon. What you guys said about the texture is spot on — it’s ridiculously soft.

    Also, glad to see EoT represented here. Their selection really is very good, and this tea’s on the lower end of their price spectrum.

    Reply

    • Hi Andrew,

      Thanks for the comment and sharing! I’ve been (slowly) drinking through a box of samples kindly provided by David. Look for more content soon!

      Cheers,
      -James

      Reply

  5. Hello Guys!

    I was searching for real Tea reviews today on youtube, and I came across your youtube channel!

    When I was tching this Black tea review, it made me want to steep a cup of my father’s handmade YunNan Black tea too.

    I enjoy watching the way you guys drinking the tea with that “shhh” noise, makes me smile and LOL. so much fun to watch !

    I knew you guys must been very busy trying different tea samples. I could like to share some of my father’s black tea with you too! He made his YunNan teas in remote mountain area with farmers. so I call his teas ” direct from the mountain tea ”
    please let me know how to get in touch and send teas to you ! Thanks !

    Cheerss!
    Vicky

    Reply

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