TeaDB

Author: James

  • In Debt for Dayi!!! Report

    In Debt for Dayi!!! Report

    In 2025, I compared Xiaguan to 1970s Toei a Japanese B-Movie studio, reeking of cigarettes and asphalt. Dayi is more elevated than Xiaguan. Perhaps like the Golden Age Shaw Brothers films of the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Polished, colorful, amazing sets, and often following effective formulas. Similarly for a certain period Dayi had generally good standards and represented the gold standard of factory pu’erh. While many lower-end or poorly stored Xiaguan products probably belong in the gutter, there’s usually a higher floor for Dayi products.

    After dipping my toes in with the four digit 7542 report, I am back for some more Dayi. Last year I intended to do Xiaguan at the beginning and Dayi at the end but I ended up getting sidetracked and put off Dayi until 2026. It’s a pretty good time to be a Dayi fan. Quiche makes it all too easy to order and the Taobao options have opened up over time. One reason I ended up with so much Xiaguan was that it was easy to order from a reliable place like MX Tea, and now similarly reliable options exist for Dayi.

    2006 Dayi

    Goals

    1. Update my own understanding of Dayi. I’ve already cleared out most of the lesser Dayi last year, so it’s more getting a feel for what I do have and what other teas are around the open market. There are also some Dayi I’ve had in deeper storage that I picked up from Geraldo about 10 years back that I wanted to test to see if they’re ready (they’re not).
    2. Test and update benchmarks.
    3. Getting in rhythm and getting more of a feel for older Dayi. On one hand this is not so hard because Dayi is my most consumed brand of tea, but I don’t know the older teas as well as I could.
    4. Map out some territory. Dayi has made a ton of tea. I think we’ve reviewed something like 70ish Dayi teas on the main show in the last 13 years. With this and the 7542 report we can add a lot to the list.

    Tea Selection

    Many of these teas are not particularly expensive and it’s not really desirable to try everything. So I mostly tried to select teas that were at least (a) 15 years old and (b) stored in a hotter/humid place (GD, TW, MY). The exceptions are teas that I bought earlier on. I tried to include at least one year of major and semi-major recipes (8582, 7532, 7742, 0622, Spring of Menghai), but this is mostly a smattering of non 7542 teas. If I’m being honest I also filter out lower priced teas by cost frequently on Taobao (<$30). Dayi is well-traveled ground, and I’d prefer the hit rate to be a bit higher at perhaps a somewhat higher cost.

    The Teas

    I am working with a tier system now, S/A/B/C/D/F. It is in line with how I view the tea at this moment, not the potential. In theory I could reserve the S spot for just really amazing teas like 88 Qing Bing, but I believe in using the actual top ratings if a tea stands out and not leaving them as some sort of empty gold medal spot. Since it is on my own views/enjoyment the B ratings are a mix of more lofty teas that I don’t feel quite meet the moment, teas that need more time, and teas that are humble and get the job done.

    Numbered Recipes + Repeated Recipes

    2012 8582 (C)

    From Denny via Quiche. 2012 8582 is pretty nice and better than expected. Good body, quite approachable now. Some sweetness in the aftertaste. Hasn’t been darkened much with storage. but I think this blend needs less time than the 7542 of same year.

    2008 8582 801 (B)

    I had two versions here, one from Malaysia which I liked a bit less and another from Taishunhe which was actually further along and hit the spot more. Herbal, grassy, thick. Good conversion on the aftertaste. This is one of the core recommendations for factory tea to start with and I don’t really have any disagreement. Of course not everyone will love it, but it is inexpensive, decently aged, good enough quality and hits one of the big two Dayi recipes. Malaysian storage is also not always better. It still depends.

    2012 Spring of Menghai & 2006 Spring of Menghai (B/C)

    These are solid enough and feel roughly the same quality. The 2006 is a little darker, but otherwise feel like the same recipe. Florals, tobacco, aromatic, resin, the grassiness has aged a bit. Reasonable body, good Dayi base, mild bitterness, the aftertaste is not particularly deep or penetrating but it’s a solid daily drinker and priced as such. The profile can also be a bit narrow in what it is doing. I’m OK to drink this although there’s other Dayi core recipes I prefer.

    2007 7532 (C/D)

    Not a fan. A bit sweeter, richer, a bit brassy. Some resin and it’s still a bit green and thin. It’s nothing great, for me barely drinkable.

    2006 7532 (B/C)

    I don’t think the 7532 is my type of recipe at least not in this age range but I do like this considerably more than the 2007. It is still pretty green and features similar notes (grassy, florals, brown sugar), but feels a bit more whole and less thin than the 2007.

    2006 0622 200g (B)

    I’d bought about 10 of these small cakes from MX about a decade ago where it has been in and out of my rotation, and ordered one from Chen Tang to compare. These are darker than the 7532 and a bit brassier and richer. There’s a date like sweetness and a good enduring aftertaste. Holds up pretty well and I still like this as a daily drink. I do think the aftertaste is not as good and it is a bit slighter than other Dayi of the same era, which probably explains a lot of the modest price tag.

    2006 8582 601 (B)

    I bought a bunch of this from Taishunhe right before the pandemic and its basically been my Dayi daily drinker since then. Sweet, brassy, raisin. Woody, resinous, reasonably full. For me a tea that goes down quite easy, although it does not live up to the 2005. It also feels like it misses a bit of the herbaceousness of the 2005 and 2008.

    2006 7742 (A/B)

    Acquired from Mr. Jin in 2025 in a group buy. This got blown out when compared with the 2005 but on its own it’s quite nice. Still smoky and can use time. A bit sharper and rougher than the 2005. Pretty straightforward tea but the aftertaste all resolves in a pleasing manner. I blinded this against a couple other recipes from this era and it holds up quite well, especially in the aftertaste department. For something that still has a lot of calming down to do, I drink this a lot.

    2005 8582 501 (A)

    GD Stored. Thanks to Spice for the sample. Simpler and easier going than the 2005 8582 504, although a similar structure. Nice body. Wood, fruit, lots of sweetness. I do think these 2005s are a significant step up from the 2006. Goes down very easy.

    Then I had a separate version from TSH that reminds me a lot of the 504. Very active and pungent. Maybe not quite as herbaceous.

    2005 8582 504 (A)

    Impressive tea. Very dark, strong, sturdy, resinous. Easily one of the highlights  8582s I’ve had. I think both a bit more potent and harder to drink than the 501. Much better than the 601.

    2005 8582 505 (B)

    Thanks to Hanji for this sample. After the 504 I was prepared to be disappointed but this isn’t bad. It’s mostly fine and the basic structure of the 504 can still be detected here. It is woody, herbal, resinous. Far sweeter up front but lacking a bit of the body and overall potency of the 504. I think this is probably better than the 601 but not by too much.

    2005 8542 501 (B)

    Brigmbg sent me a huge chunk generously. I’ve had multiple people tell me this is kind of a mix between 7542 and 8582 and I can understand that. It lacks the extreme pungent strength of the 501, 502 or even 601 7542. This version is still fairly green with some room to grow but it has an astringency and bitterness that resolves and a solid structure to its bones. Wood, resin and comparatively fruitier compared with the other 2005 7542s I’ve had.

    2005 7742 (S/A)

    I really like this tea and it is very much made my style. Thick, oily, potent. I side by sided with the 2006 which I know decently well and it pretty much blows it out of the water. Starting to move past the smoke and is satisfyingly deep and full, leaving a nice aftertaste in the throat and mouth. In blinds its beaten the 2003 Purple before, and while its semi-rustic profile isn’t for everyone for me it’s a very well rounded Dayi tea.

    Yiwus

    While Menghai TF has always been associated with teas grown in Menghai (duh), they have a number of well known Yiwu productions released around the turn of the century. And they still occasionally dabble in eastern Xishuangbanna tea. I’ve had limited but positive experiences with their early Yiwus, which represent a very different sort of tea than the boutiques that would come to be heavily associated with the area.

    2011 Yiwu (C)

    Kind of gets the worst of both factory and boutique worlds. Too weak compared to better Dayi and doesn’t have that great of material to compete with boutique Yiwus. Taste wise some resin, honey. It’s not an awful tea but one that immediately bored me. Does not succeed at being an Yiwu tea or a Dayi.

    2009 Yiwu (C)

    Had two versions and found them both underwhelming. Brown sugar, slightly oily, pine resin. Like the 2011 it suffers from being in no man’s land. It isn’t nearly the tea that early Dayi Yiwus are and lacks the fireworks of boutique and does not have the typical Dayi appeal. Not a very good tea and one that I’d find difficult to fit into the rotation.

    2006 Yiwu (A/B)

    This is quite a bit better than I expected after drinking the 2009 and 2011 first, but unfortunately priced accordingly. Somewhat boutique like with a nice heaviness to it and a good aftertaste. It feels both much higher quality than the younger Dayis and quite distinct from earlier Dayi productions, lacking that resinous, old school style. Nevertheless it’s clearly good material and still pretty enjoyable. Lots of sweetness. Foresty, pine. Not sure it’s worth the price but it is a solid tea.

    2005 Yiwu (A)

    Thanks to Alex for the series of Yiwus (2005, 2002, and 2001)!

    Despite being a year apart it couldn’t be more different in style than the 2006, it resembles the older Dayis, especially the one leaf and feels like it has considerable upside and room to age. Very full, resinous. A tangy woody pulp quality that reminds me a lot of my prior experience drinking through a chunk of the Dayi One Leaf. Good aftertaste and presence in the throat. Unfortunately feels like this was the last of a now extinct pu’erh subtype.

    2003 Yiwu One Leaf (A)

    Good deep aftertaste and concentrated strength. I had this after the 2002 and it seems fairly similar. Good and getting better.

    2002 Yiwu One Leaf (A)

    Had a couple versions. One from Alex and another from the same Shenzhen vendor that sold the 2003. I like this just a touch less than the 2005 Dayi Yiwu. It is softer, thicker, and also a bit more dryly stored. It also has that tangy, wood pulp quality but a bit less amplified. A good aftertaste in the throat. Some drier notes, like potpourri. Still quite satisfying, good depth and aftertaste.

    2001 Ivdashu 103 (S/A)

    Somewhat similar to the prior Yiwus but bigger and better. Wood, resin, sour. Having this a couple times, there’s a strong camphor note especially in the early steeps. Great throatiness and expansiveness. Thick, and very satisfying tea.

    Other Special Products

    As time has passed, the special productions have been promoted as the superior product over the more daily numbered recipes. Of course, some take off in popularity and price while others stay more modest.

    2017 Xuanyuan Hao (B)

    The youngest tea in the report. Feels quite modern, especially for Dayi. Thanks to Tuna for sending it. Nice, substantive tea. Still very young, some florals and hay. Quite thick and it has a healthy bitterness but good conversion and expansiveness, especially in the aftertaste. Nice throat feel. There’s a heaviness to the liquor that is rare for a factory productions. Since I haven’t had very many Dayi from this age range it’s a bit tricky to compare. To me it feels closest to some of the better Chensheng Haos I’ve sampled from, and not too similar to the traditional Dayi style. Drinkable for its age. It’s probably obvious, but I would not pay the asking price but it is a good tea to try.

    2015 Purple (B)

    In a vacuum this is a pretty good tea and it’s actually pretty drinkable now. It has many notes you’d associate with good aging, resin, tobacco, a decent aftertaste.

    However, I encourage people to compare this with some of the earlier Dayis from a few years before and some of its weaknesses start to become a little more exposed. I’ve heard 2014 cited as a year where the processing changed for Dayi and you can see it in this tea. Both the rolling and compression are lighter than something like the Jin and while I like the tea I’m not sure it’s ever going to age as well as earlier teas. Perhaps it should even be slightly concerning how drinkable this actually is at just 11 years of age. Nevertheless I think it’s a very reasonable buy at the prices it is available now and I could absolutely be wrong.

    2012 Yanyun (B/C)

    Unusual Dayi tea. The tea is fairly floral and I’d initially read that as more youth, but it feels central to the character of the tea. It is mineral heavy, A bit lemony, floral. Very nice aftertaste. Material quality is clearly good. I do not love this one for the price but it’s one I’ll need to play around with a bit to get a decent feel for.

    2012 Longyin Dragon Seal (B)

    Exceeds expectation. Resin, wood, tobacco, a nice strong pungent mouthfeel that reminds me a bit of some of the earlier, good 7542s as well as the 7742. It also really tastes like a Dayi, which not all their more “premium” products do. Apparently this is an aged maocha production, I think it still could use considerable time but this feels strong and the bones feel sturdy.

    2012 Yin (B)

    Decent but not great. For a youngish Dayi I could drink this comfortably. Fairly standard Dayi taste, resin, wood, tobacco, mild bitterness. Medium but significant body.

    When Marco reviewed this it cost something like $300. Thankfully the prices have come down quite a bit and you can get it for around $70 now. The problem is this is just a bit better than 7542s and not close to the quality of the Jin a year earlier which is a much stronger tea. You are basically paying for a marginally better tea in a fancy wrapper.

    2011 Mengsong Tuo (B/C)

    Thanks to Anna for sending the tea. Not a bad tea, but not one that quite does it for me.

    I think it’s an atypical Dayi that is thankfully not priced as high as some of their other special productions. This one has a nice soft entry point with a  good body. Very mild bitterness, resin. Pretty smooth and ready now in a way that feels more modern than the Dayis that came before it. I’m not sure if it’s due to the less overall blending but this tea is not one that makes me super excited. Good value though.

    2011 Jin (A/B)

    Decent body, starts with a kind of grapey, muscatel sweetness paired with more of a Dayi wood/resin vibe. Becomes pretty tobacco heavy with a strong pungent mouthfeel. Stronger than the Dragon Seal with a better aftertaste. It’s not peaking but honestly not bad to drink now.

    This has quite a bit of potential in my opinion. How good will it be and will it live up to its price tag? I’m skeptical but it probably has the best shot of any post 2006 Dayi I’ve tried.

    2010 Golden Years (B/C)

    From Taishunhe. Solid tea albeit a bit generic. I had this late in the game and perhaps I had drank too much Dayi at that point as it failed to stand out. Smooth, honey, a bit of resin/smoke. Good sweetness, but it is young for my preferences and doesn’t have enough depth or a distinct enough character.

    2008 Chunshui (B)

    From Anna. Thank you! Relatively straightforward good intro to Dayi/daily drinker category. Decent honey sweetness, body, some resin. Has the characteristic Dayi taste without ever getting too strong.

    2007 Hou Qing Bing (B)

    From the Penang Dayi store and presumably MY stored. This is not great but the storage lifts it up towards something more palatable.. Antique wood, spice. The storage makes it thick but the material isn’t that great and it can be felt in a relatively lackluster aftertaste.

    2008 Qiuxiang (B)

    Nice elegant, daily. Soft wood, honey, not too much bitterness but nice and thick. For me this is a little boring and does not match the potency and brutality I want from Dayi but it definitely has some nice qualities to it. Still, if you are in the market for smoother, drinkable Dayi this one should work fine.

    2008 Gaoshan Yunxiang (B)

    Atypical Dayi. Plum, a big body, oily, has some nice pungency on the initial mouthfeel. Brown sugar. Low on bitterness, resin or Dayi taste in general. Reminds me a bit of the Mengsong tuo with a superior body. Good material. Salivation. Perhaps because I have certain expectations with Dayi this does not quite work for me. Not a bad tea, but for me this is missing something.

    I was pretty shocked when I saw the substantial price afterwards. Would not recommend it for the cost.

    2007 Anxiang, Raw (B, A/B)

    From Taobao, where it was stored pretty dry. Good body, gets quite bitter. Has quite a strong mouthfeel to it that leaves an anasthetic like feeling on the palate of the mouth for a few steeps. resin, brown sugar. for an almost 20 year old tea this is notably very sharp, very astringent, and not close to being smoothed out. it does remind me a little bit of some of the spring teas (SoM) that Dayi does but is both a bit different and significantly souped up. It also isn’t as broad a tea as something like 7542, feels distinctly different than that (maybe due to having more tips?). A tea i need to study a bit more, but definitely needs more time and I don’t think its the style of tea I’d go for anyways.

    Then I got it surprisingly sent to me by Alex of TTO. TY! This one coming from Taiwan is considerably more appealing. It maintains a pretty nice concentrated strength, predominantly woody with some fruit. Pretty characteristic Dayi, but the material is above average and significantly above average for a weaker year like 2007. It starts out a little tart, but the aftertaste lingers well and there’s a nice depth especially when contrasted with more of the Dayi regular line with a nice throaty sweetness lingering. Not nearly as sharp as the previous sample was.

    2006 Chazhilu (B)

    Via Tuna via Quiche. Thank you!

    Very sturdy Dayi feels mostly in the 7542 mold, lots of nice bitterness with good conversion and salivation. Wood, plum, resin, mostly retired smoke. Good aftertaste. Definitely more bitter than astringent in this session. Quite satisfying. More or less what I want from my Dayi. Might be better than 601 7542 but gotta compare more closely for that.

    2006 Yanyun (B)

    Like the 2012, an oddball. Very mineraly, not nearly as floral as the younger tea but has a lot of unusual notes, like plum. Some brightness to it, the florals of the 2012 are replaced with wood. Seems pretty good but it’s hard to evaluate this as a Dayi pu’erh.

    2006 Bulang Peacock (A/B)

    This has a very strong mouthfeel and pungency. There’s good thickness and strength. So why just a A/B? Personally I don’t love the slower conversion on its aftertaste. It does have nice texture and resin. I think a lot of people would rank this significantly higher but it doesn’t quite do it for me.

    2005 Early Spring Grade A (B)

    Acquired a sample via MX. Not sure if there’s a relation to Spring of Menghai but it definitely feels stylistically similar. A bit better than the 2006, but in the same relative ballpark. Pretty dry-stored. Nice sweetness. Moving beyond what feels like former grassy notes. Still quite aromatic. A decent body and aftertaste but not as dark as my preference. Pretty smooth overall.

    2005 Zaochun Tuo (B)

    Also in the Spring of Menghai family. Better than I anticipated. This is an early spring production and a lot of those have a similar profile that leans towards more aromatics, aged florals/grass, honey, resin, and a bit of fruit. I’m not sure I’d say this tip heavy profile is my preferred Dayi but this is far more ideal than something like the thinner, greener 2007 7532.

    2005 Elephant Mountain (C)

    This is from Geraldo and stored by me since. Unfortunately 21 years of Washington state storage does not move the needle that much. The tea is still quite green. One difference between this and the Menghai Peacock is this appears on the softer side of Dayi. There’s more perfume, sugarcane, some light nuttiness. The aftertaste is also pretty good. I think if you are OK with drier stored tea this one is fine enough, but I’ve always leaned the opposite way now.

    2005 Menghai Peacock (B)

    The same storage history as Elephant Mountain. 21 years of too slow and the tea is similarly green. However this tea is built different. This tea on the other hand is more of the brutish needs time variety. It is thick and oily and quite smoky. Very classical and not at all close to ready. Definitely gets me a bit amped drinking it.

    Pre-Reform

    Where quality goes up and value goes down.

    2004 Kongque Fujin (A/B)

    Supposedly a Bulang tea and it feels a bit like one of the random Bulangs from this period rather than a Menghai TF tea. Decent tea but not a huge standout. Leather, fruity, wood, resin, honey. Fairly bright. Where does this tea fall short? I think it mostly just does not quite have the depth of superior teas. It is satisfying but not quite as full as something like 7542 from a few years earlier and I’m not even sure I’d take it over the 2005 7542s either.

    2003 7212 One Leaf (A/B)

    Found this a little underwhelming. Still pretty green and can get a bit sour. Hay, dry wood, sour, post florals. There’s some promise in the throaty aftertaste. Best brewed attentively as it can get quite astringent and drying. An interesting slightly unusual example. This is probably a pretty reasonable price but there’s not really enough there for me to call this a standout.

    2003 Dayi Nannuo (S/A)

    Really nice tea. Good brightness, strong resin and mouth activity. I’m not typically a big fan of Nannuo teas and this one certainly fits the Nannuo stereotype but the dark leather, fruit brightness works well with the strong bones of the tea. Compared against the 2002 Liming Nannuo, this easily defeated it.

    2003 Jiaji Tuo (B)

    Dryish stored, still somewhat green but advanced enough to be drinkable. Sturdy tea, antique wood. It has a decent aftertaste and averageish depth. This is a good, but not great tea and probably amongst the more cost effective ways to get pre 2004 Menghai TF.

    2003 Jiaji Daqing Tuo (B)

    Nice storage that’s pushed this tea decently along. Unfortunately I think its profile while decent just does not stand out. Roughly on same level as the 2006 7542.

    2003 Jiaji Red Ribbon Tuo (B)

    Similar level to the normal Jiaji but maybe a bit smoother, creamier. I think differences here could easily be explained with storage as well. Pretty easy drinking without incredible upside.

    2002 Jiaji Red Ribbon Tuo (A/B)

    These are supposedly better than the normal Tuos but to me it seemed along the same lines (mine is also missing the Red Ribbon). Wood, incense. Decent bitterness, classic taste. I think it doesn’t feel overtly stronger than the non Red Ribbon tuos, but has a nicely expansive mouthfeel and aftertaste ranking it solidly above the 2003.

    2001 Jiaji Tuo (A/B)

    Darker and better than 2003, but not significantly so. Less of the green resin, and more of a dark wood. Feels slightly bigger, smoother and better. These are a narrower form of Dayi, but do have some pretty good material and make a fairly decent brew.

    2001 Simplified Yun 7502 (A/B)

    I’ve had varied sessions with this one. Some pretty good and others just OK. I currently think it’s mostly a decent tea, with lots of wood and incense notes. Not sure it stands out as much as other teas and I’d take most of the other 2001 Menghai TF I’ve had over this. Still, not a bad baseline with a pleasant well rounded profile and a nice aftertaste. I served this to a group of non tea drinkers fully expecting them to hate it, but to my surprise they liked it significantly more than the 2005 Nanqiao Double Lion.

    What is Ideal Storage

    Dayi is more forgiving in the storage department than Xiaguan. I think this is mostly because the tea is on average better. Still good storage definitely helps and Dayi is no exception. For instance, the 2005 Menghai Peacock featured is probably at minimum a decent tea, but due to its very dry storage in Washington State it needs at least another decade. Most of the teas in this report could use longer periods of time to age.

    So what is ideal? Like Xiaguan, good storage in a very hot place like Malaysia probably hits closest to my ideal. In the Xiaguan Masochists report I wrote about an age score. Over the past year revisiting teas in my own storage I sadly have to say the drier storage is maybe closer to a third of the speed rather than half as fast (as was projected in the XG report). It’s definitely not terribly precise but I find it useful for rough calculations. Teas that have been exclusively dry stored in the west like the Menghai Peacock or Elephant Mountain cake are decidedly still green, 7 years old sounds unfortunately about correct.

    Formula: AGE SCORE =  3x(years of aging in humid place) + 1x(years of aging in non-humid place)

    Dayi Portfolio Management Firm Recommendations

    Many of these teas are significantly less than their peak price from 3-4 years ago. Some are only about 20% of the peak price while others are 70%. Regardless many are at a pricepoint they were 10 years back when they were much younger teas. With Dayi you can certainly aim low and get pretty reasonable value or go a bit higher for more of the special productions.

    Dayi being such a well known commodity means teas are mostly combed over. Not going to get any true unknowns, although there’s so many teas that inevitably there’s some perfectly decent tea that are simply outshined by other products.

    I’m not going to recommend teas not featured in this or the 7542 report, besides ripe. This assumes about a 10 gram per day pace. The tea price listed is also relatively low price but attainable via Taobao with some associated hunting + logistics costs.

    Dayi for All! Value MaXXing

    • 3x $25/200g – 2006 0622
    • 2x $50/357g – 2008 8582
    • 2x $35/400g – 2006 Spring of Menghai
    • 2x $10/357g – 2021 8592
    • 2x $15/357g – 2021 7572
    • Total: $295/3542g.

    Five sufficient Dayi teas. Not a very exciting diet for the year but a way to drink 20ish year old Dayi on a tight budget. This costs under a dollar per day for two sessions of 5g. Feel free to insert a number of other teas in here Chunshui, Mengsong tuo, etc.

    Four Digits Only Daily Dayi

    • 2x $50/357g – 2008 8582
    • 2x $30/357g – 2010 7542
    • 2x $50/357g – 2006 7532
    • 2x $10/357g – 2021 2x 8592
    • 2x $15/357g – 2021 2x 7572
    • Total: $280/3570g.

    If you want more of a classical approach with the most well known raw and ripe numbers only recipes. This is somehow even cheaper than the Value MaXX budget.

    Post-Reform Classics

    • 2x $225/357g – 2005 7542 502
    • 2x $225/357g – 2005 8582 504
    • 2x $50/357g – 2006 7532
    • 2x $65/357g – 2007 Anxiang Ripe
    • 2x $50/357g – 2021 Golden Needle White Lotus Ripe
    • Total: $1230/3570g.

    A bit fancier, but this is still just a little over $3/day. You’ll notice that you have to spend up and we are already running into diminishing returns. These are on the whole more difficult to find, but do pop up now and then. This list is also a bit top-heavy with the 7542, 8582 being pricier. If you want to be a bit more value conscious, the 2006 7542 and 8582 are less than half the cost.

    Menghai Mortgage. Pre-reform

    If you can afford it. Just buy whatever you can find. Their pre-reform tea is not for the value hunters nor is it for material maxxers but it has a strong reputation for good reason. There are usually not many of these from western facing vendors at one time. The cheapest teas in this category is a bit under $/g, but expect to pay $/g+ for the majority of productions. Buy samples from Quiche. Don’t buy the first pre-2005 7542 you run into. Make sure it was actually made for Menghai TF and just not some rando thing labeled as 7542. Also well worth checking out pre 2004 Dayi Yiwu if you can find it and have the means.

    Dayi for the Kids (aging)

    • $115/357g – 2012 Longyin
    • $265/357g – 2011 Gold Dayi

    Unfortunately, like the Shaws, Dayi has fallen from their former heights. Rather than shutdown and pivot to TV like Runrun did, Dayi continues on. I focused on the higher-end teas here because if I want to devote time to aging something it’s not going to be something cheap. Having not tried their extensive lineup, these are the two that stand out from the few I have tried. I think the Jin Dayi is the surer bet and it is also closer to being ready whereas the Longyin needs considerably more time but impressed me with its pungency and strength.

    Rapid Change: Dayi By The Years (2003-2007)

    A decade ago you used to see people talk about Dayi as falling in quality around the reform (2004). While this does have some truth behind it, the decline was not quite precipitous or immediate. These days I see post-2005 and pre-2006 mentioned more than the 2004 year mark, marking 2005 as the last all around decent year for Dayi. The 2000s were an important and wild decade for the pu’erh industry. For the most prominent factory, this meant a steep ramp up in production. Each year within this time period you’ll see a step up in quantity and a step down in quality. 2003 is much more expensive than 2005 which is on average much more expensive than 2007. By 2007 and the bust, this pricing dynamic goes away, with 2008 Dayi not being markedly differently in price than 2007. While I think some later Dayi products are still pretty good, I think the numbered recipes in particular have gotten worse while the better material has shifted into special productions. For instance, the 2005 numbered recipes like 7542 and 7742 are often significantly better than the later equivalents.

    In practicality this means on average if you go for the 2007 option versus the 2006 you are likely buying an inferior product in the bust year that had significant overproduction.

    2003 Purple Dayi

    Different Profiles of Dayi & Special Products

    At its most classic level, the two big raw recipes 7542 and 8582 represent classic Dayi profiles. But one thing drinking all this Dayi has made me realize is that they have a lot of range. This shouldn’t be a complete surprise as they’ve had a long list of products for a number of years. Still there’s a few teas here that legitimately took me by surprise, sometimes in a good way and others more in a huh sort of way.

    Good versions of the 7542 are more up front. Strong mouthfeel, resinous, denser but a nice aftertaste. Woody but also some plum/fruit depending on the age and storage. They’re often bitter and punchy especially when young.

    The 8582 is more herbaceous, broader, and leans more into a thick wood profile with larger leaves that give it a nice big body. You also have finer, more bud-heavy blends like the 7532 or Spring of Menghai or on the higher-end Anxiang Raw. There’s also the punch-heavy profile that pops up in something like the 501 7542 and Bulang Peacock. With these, there’s bitterness but also a strong protracted mouthfeel, that seems to be prized.

    There are also some that fall somewhere in between. The 7742 uses aged Bulang material and is quite punchy like 7542 but also smokier and distinct. I was also occasionally surprised by a completely different profile, for instance the 2008 Gaoshan Yunxiang, 2012/06 Yanyun. You could put the Yiwus in there too, but I kind of knew those would be pretty different than standard Dayi.

    Where To Buy Dayi? King Tea Mall Pricing Dynamic

    The most accessible place would be a shop like Quiche/Taishunhe, who sells a good deal of Dayi teas. The lowest prices would likely be Taobao where there are a number of authorized Dayi dealers. Unfortunately neither of these offer samples for the majority of their teas. A shop like King Tea Mall slots in nicely here since they sell samples. However, many of King Tea Mall’s prices are out of date, meaning they are much higher than they would be. Dayi prices peaked a few years ago and if a vendor does not adjust their prices down they will generally be inflated. How inflated depends on which production and how it was priced. So you have the odd situation where the price of some KTM teas is priced laughably high compared with the current market conditions.

    What Do I Actually Own & Would I Do It Again?

    I am a fan of Dayi and they will likely continue to be one of my most consumed brands. Many of these teas are not expensive and are simply good brews. Things like the Chunshui cost like $0.12/g and are perfectly fine for regular consumption. I did not do a good enough job early on with factory tea. My most consumed teas here were also some of the most basic: 2006 8582 (from TSH) and 2006 0622 (from MX). Decent and functional teas but not exactly outstanding. I did manage to snag some good teas from Geraldo about a decade ago, but due to our shared unfortunate WA State Storage those still need time. In retrospect I think I would’ve tried much harder on these teas to develop an in-depth understanding of the core factory recipes rather than being distracted by boutiques in my first few years of drinking. In fact, a decent chunk of my buying and dumping has been with Dayi teas, in an attempt to improve what I own and drink.

    Tea Tier VOATO
    2012 8582 C -1
    2008 8582 801 B 0
    2012 Spring of Menghai B/C -0.5
    2006 Spring of Menghai B/C -0.5
    2007 7532 C/D -1.5
    2006 7532 B/C -0.5
    2006 0622 B 0
    2006 8582 B 0
    2006 7742 A/B 0.5
    2005 8582 501 A/B 0.5
    2005 8582 504 A/B 0.5
    2005 8582 505 B 0
    2005 8542 501 B 0
    2005 7742 S/A 1.5
    2011 Yiwu C -1
    2009 Yiwu C -1
    2006 Yiwu A/B 0.5
    2005 Yiwu A 1
    2002 Yiwu One Leaf A 1
    2001 Ivdashu 103 S/A 1.5
    2017 Xuanyuan Hao B 0
    2015 Purple B 0
    2012 Yanyun B/C -0.5
    2012 Longyin B 0
    2012 Yin B 0
    2010 Golden Years B/C -0.5
    2008 Chunshui B 0
    2007 Hou Qingbing B 0
    2011 Mengsong Tuo B/C -0.5
    2011 Jin A/B 0.5
    2006 Chazhilu B 0
    2008 Qiuxiang B 0
    2008 Gaoshan Yunxiang B 0
    2007 Anxiang (Raw) B 0
    2006 Yanyun B 0
    2006 Bulang Peacock B 0.5
    2005 Early Spring Grade A B 0
    2005 Zaochun Tuo B 0
    2005 Elephant Mountain C -1
    2005 Menghai Peacock B 0
    2004 Kongque Fujin A/B 0.5
    2003 7212 One Leaf A/B 0.5
    2003 Nannuo S/A 1.5
    2003 Jiaji B 0
    2003 Jiaji Red Ribbon B 0
    2002 Jiaji Red Ribbon A/B 0.5
    2001 Jiaji A/B 0.5
    2001 Simplified Yun 7502 A/B 0.5
  • Wilderness Years

    Wilderness Years

    In the subniche of tea drinking and appreciation in the west, the 2020 pandemic coincided with a wave of new tea drinkers. People were working from home and suddenly had a lot of time on their hands. With an overnight step up in interest, tea Discords picked up momentum and a mini-generation of new drinkers was born. During this time, it wasn’t uncommon to see some old teaheads join in and participate in Discord directly with people who had started to drink tea seriously in the last month. This wave was not universal for every western tea hobbyist. For me, it coincided with the opposite. My own relationship with tea appreciation was entering a period of stagnation. I’d been drinking tea seriously for about nine years and had been making videos for seven, and was tired by 2020. Despite having plenty of time and increased external interest in the tea scene, I was in the wilderness.

    Tea

    My Wilderness Years

    Looking back, my wilderness years had already begun by the time the TeaDB blog went dark in December 2020. In truth, I’d stopped writing earlier that year.  While I certainly had plenty of time I didn’t have the same passion or interest as years prior. A wrist issue induced by tennis didn’t help, knocking me out of my normal writing rhythms.

    These years in the wilderness probably started in earnest a little before the pandemic in 2019. My most inspired work had been done years before and I’ve always had other interests, some of which were cropping back up. During this period, I was still actively drinking tea and creating content. Just at a reduced volume, with less intensity and inspiration than in 2014-2017.

    When I think about this period now, it makes sense. Like most other interests and hobbies, passion for tea can ebb and flow. Everyone is a little different. Some have an intense initial flame and burn out. For others, it can be more steady and sustained. But even those with more sustained interest, excitement levels naturally change. Appreciation is not even necessarily correlated with the amount of tea you are drinking. You can absolutely drink mindlessly gallons of tea or have a couple concentrated, highly enjoyable sessions per week.

    My wilderness period lasted roughly five years, up until 2024. I still drank tea virtually every day and even sampled and bought things, but I thought about tea far less, drinking on average more absentmindedly than days past. As my engagement with tea drifted, my attention naturally shifted elsewhere. Early in the pandemic, I poured time into a renewed love of foreign 1970s/1980s genre cinema, and later into RTS gaming, with Age of Empires IV.

    Despite being more experienced I did some of my sloppiest buys during this period. Not everything was a dud and I did spend comparatively less, but many of my buys lacked focus or purpose. Being checked out, I also have a much poorer memory of teas I tried during this period versus sessions when I was way more in the zone several years before. Not being locked in my tea evaluations were undoubtedly worse too.

    Thinking back on my own disengagement also makes me wonder about vendors. The ones that don’t do it as a side hustle. It’s one thing for hobbyists, even obsessive ones like myself to have wilderness years, but some vendors rely on tea as a steady source of income. Frankly I am not envious.

    2015 BYH Lishan Gongcha

    Wandering Out of the Wilderness

    After the birth of my daughter, we ended up going to Taiwan for the first time in 7 years as a family. I was able to hit some old haunts and I was fortunate to have tea with Alex of the great Taiwan Tea Odyssey. Hanging out in tea shops in Taiwan and seeing more serious tea people made me realize how much I’d been sleepwalking through my hobby. I knew I had entered into more of a casual, routine based phase, but I don’t think I realized the extent. Going to Taiwan gave me a burst of energy.

    That trip definitely made me reconsider tea from a new angle but it wasn’t the only catalyst. An even bigger factor was a reinvigorated Denny. If you follow the channel, you have likely noticed a dramatic increase of tea drinking, purchasing and content creation from him. Tea is social and having a partner in crime is invaluable and excitement is contagious. While chatting with others online on Discord can be fun and somewhat rewarding it is not a full substitute for tea and face to face interaction. Even though Denny and I have known each other for close to 30 years and did our original project together about 25 years ago, 2025 was a perfect storm.

    All of this contributed to the resurrection of the blog and a desire to flex some brain muscles towards the blog as an outlet for thinking and creativity. My recent wave has coincided with both an increase in tea enjoyment and buying. Spending money on something you love is a lot of fun and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the past year with tea.

    As I’ve eased back into the hobby, conversations with tea friends have made me realize I’m not alone in this cycle. I get the sense that many of the 2020-2021 boom have drifted into their own wilderness years, and I understand the feeling well. Stepping back doesn’t mean stepping away forever. Sometimes you need new places, new people, or just a different rhythm to rediscover what once grabbed you.

  • Heat Retention Revisited: Size, Material, Underfilling, Kettles, and Pooling Water

    Heat Retention Revisited: Size, Material, Underfilling, Kettles, and Pooling Water

    I did some experiments on heat retention in 2019, and I’ve wanted to revisit this topic for a while. Similar to that experiment, I kept the experiments simple with a basic thermometer, several vessels, a couple of kettles and redid everything a few times to be sure. All temperatures are in °F. Measurements were taken immediately after pouring (0m), at one minute (1m), and at five minutes (5m). Unless specified I used my main kettle, a Hario v60.

    Here’s the full table:

    Condition 0 min (°F) 1 min (°F) 5 min (°F)
    Vessel size & material
    75ml porcelain 195 185 170
    120ml porcelain 200 190 175
    Yixing 195 190 170
    Big pot 195 190 170
    Preheating
    75ml preheated 205 195 175
    Kettle conditions (starting temp only)
    75ml — big kettle 195 — —
    120ml — big kettle 200 — —
    75ml — stovetop boil 195 — —
    75ml — kettle lid off 195 — —
    Underfilling
    Big pot, underfilled 180 160 135
    Pooling water (gooseneck)
    75ml — immediate pour 200 190 175
    75ml — 10 min wait 195 170 150

    Size, Material, etc.

    For  vessels, the spread was close 195–200°F at the start. The small gaiwan, Yixing, and big blue pot all basically had the same performance. So, it’d be wrong to assume bigger devices or clay always have better heat retention. They all lost heat at around the same rate too. That’s not to say Yixing or material doesn’t matter. There are real and interesting taste differences that come from clay interaction, seasoning, and pour characteristics. But if someone is selling you a Yixing specifically on the basis of Yixing always being better at heat retention, that case is harder to make than it looks, although it almost certainly depends on the pot. I’ve always suspected one neglected factor is the pour time from teapots, which is often slower than the fast pour you can get from a gaiwan. I think in particular for early steeps this has a much larger impact than any sort of heat retention.

    Interestingly, the 120ml Gaiwan ran hotter. I was confused by this and ran it several times with the same results. It isn’t obvious to me why, but it’s still within a reasonable margin of error. When I ran this experiment before, the big pot and Yixing ran similarly hotter like the 120ml Gaiwan. In this experiment, I used a different big pot and Yixing so that may account for the difference. In the end it is worth measuring and not assuming how a vessel will retain heat when testing a new device.

    Preheating Makes a Difference

    As in 2019, pre-heating makes a clear difference. Starting at 205°F vs. 195°F and while that advantage slowly shrinks over time it makes a significant difference at the one-minute and five-minute marks (195 vs. 185, and 175 vs. 170). It’s worth noting that this implies a heat difference when you make two steeps in close proximity rather than spread out, when the gaiwan or pot has time to cool down.

    Kettles

    I’ve seen concerns about electric kettles and gooseneck kettles not reaching a properly high boiling temperature so I wanted to test out that theory. The kettles were measured at starting temperature only, not tracked through the full retention window. The point here was simple: does the kettle type alter what temperature arrives in your vessel in the first place?

    The short answer is: not much for the kettles I have on hand.

    • 75ml with Big Kettle: 195°F
    • 120ml with Big Kettle: 200°F (the vessel size effect again)
    • 75ml with Stovetop Boil: 195°F
    • 75ml with Kettle Lid Off: 195°F

    If you’re pouring promptly, the starting delivery temperature is essentially the same regardless of whether you’re on a stovetop, electric kettle, or whether the lid is on or off. This obviously does not discount the theory that some kettles are clicking off before they reach boiling, but it does reassure me that my kettles are functioning properly.

    Tetsubin

    Don’t Underfill

    Sometimes you see people talk about underfilling their pots halfway. This is just not a good idea. I got the same results in 2026 as in 2019 and there’s no real excuse to do it. You are essentially brewing tea at a lower temperature every time you underfill. Make sure you use a pot of an appropriate size if you want to be brewing at boiling. The alternative is a significant temperature penalty.

    Pooling Water (Works w/Caution)

    Pooling water is where you brew with your brewing device in a bath of hot water. The idea is to keep the vessel nice and hot. In order to test this, I made a pool of boiling water in a small bowl and put the brewing vessel in it immediately. I made the pool nice and deep, covering the majority of the vessel before dumping boiling water into the gaiwan. It made a difference, raising the temperature by 5F.

    But there’s a catch. I also wanted to measure if you left the pool for 10 minutes and then proceeded as normal. The results were that the gaiwan loses heat much faster than it normally would. So if you do put your gaiwan in a bath, dump it relatively quickly or it will work against you. One case where getting too cute and lazy as a combination can give less than stellar results. Perhaps the cutest and worst combination would be lazily pooling an underfilled vessel, a recipe to brew at lower than desired tempeartures.

  • Factory Options Have Significantly Improved

    Factory Options Have Significantly Improved

    In the last two decades the western pu’erh scene has grown significantly. We’ve always had a fraction of the teas available being at least one or two steps removed from China or Taiwan, our little niche has been often at the mercy of whichever teas vendors choose to sell. When Denny and I started TeaDB in 2013, the landscape (both accessibility and chatter) looked dramatically different than it does today in 2026. When I reflect back on the past decade I believe that general accessibility has improved (people have access to better tea), and factory options in particular have significantly improved.

    2006 7562

    A Brief Timeline (as I see it)

    Early Ebay 2005-2008 – While there was a pu’erh boom and bust during this period in China the pu’erh scene online is just starting to boot up in the west. People bought from places like eBay, where Yunnan Sourcing got their start. The drops of the year came from Hou de Asian Art which sold some of the early boutique pressings from XZH, YQH, and CGHT. A lot of the chatter was on LiveJournal and TeaChat. Much of the initial focus is on factory tea and young boutiques during this period.

    Birth of Boutiques 2008-2013 – Essence of Tea and Yunnan Sourcing started pressing their own lines of teas in 2008, with more western-facing vendors like Tea Urchin and White2Tea slowly joining in. During this period I believe there was a slow push towards more boutique operations. This period was highly influential for me as a drinker.

    One Boutique After Another 2014-2018 – At this point it felt like every new vendor followed the same mold in starting their own boutique pu’erh line. White2Tea had a large role in the aesthetic and branding of pu’erh. Countless vendors start joining in the boutique parade. Some westerners start participating in the pu’erh facebook auctions which sell both boutique and factory teas, planting the seeds for the next evolution of vendors. Taobao is available through agents but remains sparsely used.

    Re-Balancing 2018-Present – Teas We Like opens at the end of 2018, an important trend setter of the last decade. While TWL also focuses on boutiques like other vendors the boutiques are more semi-aged Taiwanese centric operations like BYH and CYH. They also have a wide range of more factory and factory style productions (Malaysian Storage becomes popular). From the mainland King Tea Mall also opens up reselling mostly Taobao factory pu’erh tea.

    Factory Pu’erh in 2016

    If we look back a decade, at the viable factory pu’erh options in 2016. It simply wasn’t great. In order to buy something basic like a semi-aged Dayi 8582 with good storage and age it was not straightforward.

    Beyond some minor afterthought vendors, for factory tea people still went to eBay or Yunnan Sourcing who sold a limited amount of factory pu’erh. There was also Taobao which was very much around in 2016 just unexplored in the west. Like many things in the western market, it comes down to ease of access. Taobao was possible, but certainly not easy and those traversing its waves were few and far between.

    A helpful part of being a part of a community is the chatter and discussion. It is difficult to get far in a hobby all alone. Chatter is essential both for generating interest but also having discussions on teas, whether positive or negative. It allows people to express opinions and turn them onto different teas. Chatter is also important in determining which vendors are reliable and have reliable goods and decent storage, especially when fakes are very much around. The lack of activity, guidance and chatter on Taobao did not help the already difficult to navigate on Taobao.

    During this period boutique new releases were the talk of the town with some discussion on the Taiwanese boutiques which were slowly becoming available. Teas by Dayi or Xiaguan recipes were very rarely discussed. Someone like Toby who did curated boxes of tea, helped to keep the scant chatter alive. My own buys of factory pu’erh were not great.. I actually bought less of those teas but my buys were not targeted enough and I ended up with lower quality teas than I would’ve hoped.

    2006 Dayi 7532

    Factory Pu’erh in 2026

    If we compare access now versus then, factory pu’erh is in a much better spot. A few reasons.

    There are now known productions that are well tried and well liked. In 2016, people knew what the big recipes were, but if you were drinking T8653/7542/8582 you were in the minority. A W2T product like Bosch would be a more popular discourse point than 2006 7542. Now there is a much larger group of people with experience and breadth of knowledge around these factory recipes that can help newer drinkers improve their experience and deepen their understanding of the core recipes. In other words there’s still a ton of chatter about boutiques, but there’s also a lot of talk about factory tea now. And in a niche community, building some form of consensus can be a powerful form of quality control. Discord aids this by creating a forum for a higher volume of discourse than the cozier LiveJournal/TeaChat, despite some obvious drawbacks (poorer archive/search, dumb drama).

    Better Access.

    • Teas We Like – Teas We Like established the favorite recipes before the existence of Quiche and remain the gold standard as far as curation. They also started the quarter caking trend and normalized the expectation of good storage. They are not the cheapest option but remain the most reliable and a great place for heavy vetting of tea quality and storage.
    • Taishunhe/Quiche – Quiche is a Shopify store that dropships Taishunhe (a Taizhong based Teashop). It cannot be overstated how this has opened factory teas up in the past year. It is one of the easiest places to simply order from. Rather than linking and teaching people how to use Taobao or use a Taiwanese shipping agent/auctions, Quiche makes things easy. The ability to sample higher-end cakes is also a huge plus. Quiche does not replace Taobao but you can get good enough examples of the factory staple recipes for a reasonable cost.
    • Taobao – Taobao degens are still a small minority but we are growing (there’s dozens of us!). Individual Discord channels have helped to centralize chatter which I’ve personally found very helpful. Taobao has also improved in many ways. There are more samples available than in the past and Dayi is significantly easier to source.
    • King Tea Mall – Mostly great for samples. As a mainland reseller they are fairly hit or miss but selling samples is a huge plus when the three options above have limited samples at best.

    Prices aren’t even necessarily much higher than a decade ago. Dayi prices have been bottoming out and Xiaguan prices remain more or less stagnant. As an example. In 2016 if you wanted to buy a 2008 8582 you’d have to look to somewhere like eBay or Taobao, gambling on the legitimacy and storage. In 2026 it’s simple, just go to Quiche and you’ll be drinking a reliable benchmark sold at a reasonable price. The tea is now a decade older, easier to buy and only marginally more expensive considering the higher associated cost (shipping, storage, inflation). Taobao is also easier, which gives factory enjoyers the power of choice. The community has also matured. We’ve moved from a trust the vendor’s story model to a collective community one that is more sophisticated. People can debate whether factory tea is the ideal entry point into pu’erh or not and which periods are the best (post-reform, pre-reform) but I think it is much easier now to dip your toes into the water of factory tea.

  • Five More Things. Blogs, Blogs, Blogs, Storage Matters, & The Comfortable Mafia

    Five More Things. Blogs, Blogs, Blogs, Storage Matters, & The Comfortable Mafia

    Five things I like & dislike.

    Taiwan Tea Odyssey

    Taiwan Tea Odyssey is the most interesting new blog that’s started in a long while and one that works well in conversation with long running blogs like Marshaln. Started in 2023, it details Alex’s excursions in the Taiwanese tea scene as well as his personal exploration into tea, primarily focused on pu’erh. Due to becoming a father in 2023 I got caught up to the blog a bit late, but it is all well worth reading. I got to meet Alex when I visited Taipei in 2024 and he’s an inquisitive person and thorough researcher. High recommendation and also a great instagram follow (@alexbtw886). A must read for anyone into pu’erh or considering visiting Taiwan.

    The Return of the Blogs: Substacks

    Alex’s blog is a good ol fashioned wordpress, but there’s a whole rash of blogs using the newer platform, Substack. While Discord has been a boon for tea conversation, most of the information is private and not formatted in an easily searchable way. That’s why it’s been nice to see a rebirth of tea blogs in a new form. Check out the following:

    • Short Little Steeps – Seo who has become one of the most interesting new vendors, Listening to Leaves. Seo blogged on and off on blogspot before and has migrated it all to this substack.
    • Wet Leaf Dry Leaf – I’ve known Hanji for about a decade and he’s one of the few veteran tea drinkers who still is super into Taiwanese oolongs. Good combination of oolong and pu’erh content.
    • Chili – A very young but well traveled pu’erh fan. Interesting because Chili actually goes to the mountains and has more varied experiences than anyone his age has any business having.
    • Skylarke – I’ve had tea with Skylarke a few times and she drinks from quite a few categories. The blog is still young but she has a nice write-up scoping out the Hongcha scene.
    • Water Friend – A blog mostly focused on Heicha.
    • Erdaifu  – A blog mostly focused on another unsung category, Dancongs.
    • The Path Less Taken – A blog mostly focused on Liubao.

    Blogging is a practice where many fall off especially by the six month mark. Some of these will or already have but there’s still some interesting content even if it’s just a handful of posts.

    Tong.

    Vendors Pretending That Storage Doesn’t Matter

    Vendors have not really been trend setters when it comes to storage. Once they sell the tea it is the customer’s business. Sure you have the occasional weirdo vendor with strong opinions like Hojo, but it’s been more of  a hobbyist lead space. I’ve seen and heard of vendors saying that we significantly overrate or fuss about storage. Yadda yadda, different expressions of the same material. I don’t agree with this attitude. Storage absolutely matters and not just when it is convenient. Unless we are talking about young pu’erh it is an important component for how a tea ends up. And depending on the tea it can absolutely make or break a tea. Pretending it does not matter is lazy.

    This is also not a specific shot at something I’ve read or heard, just a response to numerous vendor murmurings throughout the years.

    Accessible Dayi

    Pu’erh is a diverse tea and the culture around it is as well. You can think of pu’erh culture as a ton of different bubbles. Depending on which circle(s) you exist in, you can be exposed to vastly different thinking on the same topics and it’s important to at least understand and acknowledge the exposure of certain beliefs and opinions over others. If you have boots on the ground in Yunnan and are going up to the mountains you’ll be exposed to different opinions centered around younger pu’erh. This of course extends to brands as well. Dayi tea is not the favored brand in all pu’erh circles and it is absolutely possible to be a tea or pu’erh fan and drink minimal Dayi but it is an extremely prominent brand with a large footprint in quite a few circles.

    In the west we are certainly not exempt from bubbles and bias. The western tea community’s interests shift over time but I’d argue that the west has been comparatively boutique focused when compared with the tea scene in Taiwan or Hong Kong. There’s often a rush towards the rare and perceived higher-end offerings often at the expense of skipping more meat and potato factory pu’erh. I think having a major factory like Dayi around and accessible helps to counterbalance the western scene. There’s plenty of room for both boutique and factory, and Dayi helps to represent a popular type of pu’erh. Rather than a small operation, they represent both a historic growing area (Menghai County) as well as a high-volume factory with a long history of producing both raw and ripe. I also believe Dayi makes higher-quality, more accessible tea than many factory alternatives like Xiaguan or Mengku.

    2006 Dayi

    The Comfortable Mafia & Full Body Reviews

    I’ve seen some people say that the comfortableness of a tea is the most important factor about tea. I think this is an odd starting point. Obviously a truly uncomfortable tea is disqualifying (stomach pains, anaphylaxis, etc), but if I took pure comfort to its logical endpoint I’d end up with some  odd conclusions. In the max comfort universe, my GOAT would be something like traditionally stored Yee On ripe tea, which is much more comfy and easy going than trash like the 1988 Qingbing. In the real world, does that make the Best Taste a better tea than the 88 QB? Absolutely not. As much as I enjoy my traditionally stored tea this would also be a very boring world and not one I wish to live in.

    I don’t deny there can be some somatic impacts for tea and pu’erh. These can be important but they don’t appear in the vast majority of tea or pu’erh and they are very rarely the only thing worth talking about with tea. They’re also not simple to grasp in a consistent manner and I think it’s pretty obvious there’s a lot of overreach when it comes to newer drinkers putting their thoughts online. If I see a new drinker talk about minuscule body impacts that sound like a local massage place’s sales copy about releasing shoulder tension and tingling in their left ankle, I start to question what we are all really doing here.

    You can talk yourself into pre-determined effects. Placebo effects are absolutely real. And if I repeatedly told myself young pu’erh from X Brand that is not well liked would hurt my stomach and kill me, my perceptions of the tea would be impacted. Or if I focus really deep down hunting for every minor quality to a tea that I know is well liked, it is given a significant advantage that is not granted towards other teas. For a veteran with years of experience I give a certain degree of trust, but I’ve seen plenty of impressionable newer drinkers jump to conclusions about what is good or bad uncomfortably quickly, based off what I suspect they think they are supposed to like or dislike.

    The reality is you can setup tea for success or failure and make just about any tea uncomfortable. Leafing too hard, drinking several teas beforehand, drinking on an empty stomach, etc. If you really want to get something out of a sample it’s important to at least give tea a reasonable shot at success. Otherwise, why bother? The same way you can setup a tea for failure and stomach discomfort you can make plenty of mediocre or low quality teas reasonably comfortable. In the end, I think some people are too aggressive in attributing certain things to the tea especially on a granular steep by steep level of detail. It is reasonable to say a tea is energizing or even upwards or downwards.

  • Zipin Blind!

    Zipin Blind!

    Thanks to Listening to Leaves I recently got to try a few versions of the famous Wistaria Zipin cake. The Zipin is a 2003 Yiwu pressed by Wistaria via the Six Famous Tea Mountains company. In the west it is probably the most famous Wistaria pressing. I think because I contributed a portion of my 2005 cake I was sent a set of these. Regardless, it’s a pretty interesting set of teas and storage. One of the best things about Listening to Leaves is the effort to create educational experiences through tasting sets. It creates common teas that share storage that can be discussed. It’s not possible to account for all the variables that go into making a cup of tea what it is (i.e. water, body) but it accounts for a lot of them. It’s also an interesting exercise to separate the storage from the material. In Wistaria’s case the tea all comes from their storage just at different points of time, a storage that is noted for a particular perfumey note. Because these have been stored differently they are an important datapoint in understanding both storage and the material.

    The seven versions:

    • Tuo
    • Loose
    • 2005 Zipin (my storage for 2-3 years)
    • Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • US (Seo’s)
    • Direct from Paris

    This comparison had obvious goals. Main aspects being examined:

    • Storage
    • Compression

    Because the samples were 6 grams and a primary purpose was examining the storage, I brewed them in a slightly atypical manner at 3 grams with longer steeps. I also did not break them up fully before blinding so it made the tuo and loose fairly obvious. I did not reveal these until I finished the whole exercise.

    The Teas

    Tea #1: 

    Thick, wood, pine. Mouthcool. Great aftertaste but otherwise does not have the Wistaria perfumed aroma. The tea is not as far along as my recent experiences with the Zipin. I actually don’t mind the storage that much here, despite my general preference for darker more further along teas. It’s clean, unobtrusive and lets the tea do the talking. I do think the time in Wistaria first probably did a lot of heavy lifting, by getting this to a more aged place.

    Guess: US.
    Answer: US.

    Tea #2: 

    Spiced, leather, deep, darker, wood, richer. Easily the furthest along. I think there’s some hints of the Wistaria storage taste but it is covered up. My favorite of the batch. This very clearly resembles Malaysian storage I’ve had. Given Singapore is a very similar location that is also possible.

    Guess: Malaysia.
    Answer: Malaysia.

    Tea #3:

    Brighter, almost some dry flowers potpourri, but still some wood, plum, a bit medicinal base. Like tea #1 does not resemble Wistaria, so I’m guessing this was bought earlier. This tea gradually picks up greener notes as it brews out more than the others. It may’ve been bought the earliest? By process of elimination I am placing this as Singapore. The tea is further along than #1, but not nearly as far along as #2. I’d guess that the environment this is stored is somewhat cooler than tea #2.

    Guess: Singapore.
    Answer: Singapore.

    Tea #4:

    Picking at this it was clearly the tuo. This is nice. Plum, wood, juicy. Definitely still has some Wistaria house perfume taste on it still. Nice and rich. If not for the compression I think this is close enough to be mistaken for the cake.

    Guess: Tuo.
    Answer: Tuo.

    Tea #5:

    Finally a minor dud. This feels shallower and lacks the richness of the others. The taste is similar but it lacks the vibrancy of the previous four teas. The aftertaste is there and as it brews out you can tell it is the same tea. It has some of the Wistaria house perfume note. My guess was the 2005, because it is a weaker version in my experience.

    Guess: 2005 Wistaria.
    Answer: Direct.

    Tea #6:

    I did tea #6 and #7 on a different day than the first five. This is pretty straight down the middle. Rich, concentrated, sugarcane. Good aftertaste. Definitely a fair bit of Wistaria house taste.

    Guess: Direct.
    Answer: 2005 Wistaria.

    Tea #7:

    Clearly the loose. The most divergent. The structure of the tea just completely unravels and makes something close to unrecognizable. It lacks the body and density that all the other teas had. Kind of a vague sweetness that doesn’t have the deeper woody notes that the others have. The aftertaste still bears some resemblance but this behaves like a very different tea than the rest.

    Guess: Loose.
    Answer: Loose.

    Rankings of the 2003

    MY >> SG > US >>> Paris

    Given my preferences it is unsurprising that I rank Malaysia the highest. It hits a lot of my own preferences and produces the richest, deepest, most satisfying brew. Malaysia vs. Singapore is also interesting. I suspect this is simply the case of how they were stored, with the Malaysian storage presumably being a bit hotter. Over a significant period of time a 5F difference could have a rather large impact on the final product. It is also promising that both SG and US stored teas lost that Wistaria note. I presume they all had at least a decade in Wistaria’s own storage, so losing it is notable especially in the case of the US stored tea. The US stored tea from Seo’s storage was better than I anticipated. While it hadn’t aged to the extent of the Malaysian tea it’s at a place where I would not mind drinking it at all and the tea’s natural quality shines bright.

    Wistaria Paris Zipin & The Importance of Conditioning

    And finally the case of Paris. I had forgotten that direct was from Paris and not Taipei when I did this. The tea felt dried out and ironically I thought it might’ve been my contribution. I suspect that this is a tea that’s been in Paris for a couple years and has slowly gotten worse over time. The tea was consumed the same day as the SG, MY, US, and Tuo, and stood out as easily being the worst. Wistaria is probably just storing the tea naturally, but unfortunately Paris is not the same as Taipei. My mistake was assuming that this was the 2005, which I figured was the shallower, blander tea.

    If I were Wistaria I’d consider tweaking their storage in Paris, it seems to be impacting their tea there. It also brings up the topic of aging vs. conditioning since this tea has been in Wistaria’s storage for much longer. My mind also went to Marco’s experience with a dank Xizi Hao cake, which had been stored too humid and then dried out. It works against intuition, but sometimes these pondy, dank notes can be reversed by conditioning the cake upwards rather than exclusively drying it out. For this Zipin I think this is a perfectly salvageable situation, but the tea needs to be introduced to a more closed off humid environment for at least some period of time. I did not bother conditioning these teas, but that might’ve helped as well.

    Loose vs. Compressed

    The most dramatic difference in teas was the loose versus everything else. The mouthfeel and aftertaste are the most consistent aspects in the set and while they were present in the loose the rest of the structure of the tea, body, taste, etc completely falls apart. It’s not bad, but it lacks any density and is remarkably mundane considering how tasty the normal production can be. Compressed vs. loose clearly matters.

    The tuo on the other hand seems healthy and resembles the cake close enough. I think the more compressed form would probably have some difference, but it’s not nearly as obvious as loose versus the cake. The level of compression has some bearing on the aging trajectory of the tea but I don’t think this comparison gives enough data to draw any conclusions.

    Thanks to Seo for sending the set. These shared tastings are interesting and an effective way to learn about tea experientially. I’ll be curious to hear from anyone else who participated if you agree or disagree.

  • Eight Semi-Aged 6FTM Boutique Picks

    Eight Semi-Aged 6FTM Boutique Picks

    Like my Taobao post this is a snapshot of what is available at this specific time (April 2026). Be warned, this post could be outdated in a few months. There are teas I would’ve definitely picked but are no longer available. Unlike the TB post, this starts in a much higher budget range (beyond the most expensive teas in that report) as is the nature of the boutique market. It is also very Yiwu/6FTM centric, which is my preferred area for boutiques in general.

    Budget Range <$0.65/g

    This range starts more pricy than any of my Taobao picks. Boutiques aren’t known to be budget. Most boutique brands do have a range and there are some attempts at making price-friendly options and in my experience they mostly produce functional, boring tea that misses a lot of the appeal of boutiques (see Chenyuan Hao Cang series or many of the Yuanyuan Tang productions). You also have vendors like Pu’erh Guy regularly hawking a variety of teas in this range many of which I have not had, so I’m only going to speak towards what I am personally familiar with. Here are my picks at the relatively cheaper range.

    2007 Yangqing Hao Jincha ($0.40/g, $120/300g) via Yangqing Hao

    Once upon a time Origin Tea sold this for $170/300g like 12 years ago. This was one of the first teas that really clicked with me for pu’erh and continues to hold a soft spot in my rotation. It was so clearly a step up from the young and semi-aged sheng I had been sampling previously that I ended up going a bit too wild. The availability of teas is much better now (for YQH and others)  and you have more than a couple options but this remains a good pick.

    The material is quite good for the price, but there is one significant downside. The compression is amongst the most intense I’ve encountered. I’d probably have drank this 4x as often if this was just a good ol normal cake. Still if you want value, this is pretty great, you may just be risking a finger or two. On a sidenote, make sure you’re getting the Yiwu Jincha not the Yibang material tuo or jincha from the same year. Thanks to Emmett for over a decade of making these teas available in the west.

    2015 Biyun Hao Lishan Gongcha ($0.60/g, $216.48/360g) via The Jade Leaf

    This is a nice blend by Biyun Hao. It’s not as high quality as their earlier productions but it seems like a good bet as the processing seems good and it is a blend. I think a lot of these boutique producers like Yang struggled with unevenness in their blends early on, but Mr. Chen (BYH proprietor) has generally done a fairly solid job (2004-2006 BYH Yiwu/MZs are blends) and there’s less relative complaints about inconsistency when it comes to their blended line.

    2010 Wuweisanfang Manzhuan Arbor ($0.63/g, $250/400g) via Teas We Like

    TWL is hopefully in the midst of restocking so I will leave this here, but it competes very well with options at the same price range. This is not their highest-end (gushu) production which is why it is priced a bit lower, but I think it definitely punches well above its weight. The material is good and it has just turned a corner compared to other WWSF. My only complaint with WWSF is that the storage is dry for my own tastes and it reduces how much I want to drink them.

    Honorable Mention: 2011 CYH Qianjiazhai Mushroom ($0.37/g, $110/300g) – Personally I’d take this above the Chenyuan Hao budget Cang series, which I’m lukewarm on.

    2007 YQH Jincha.

    Mid-Range <$1/g

    I fully acknowledge this is mid-range only in the world of boutiques. It used to be rare to see teas above $1/g, but we live in a different world now. This is a tricky range to buy in as you can get access to respected labels but not really their best stuff.

    2007 Yangqing Hao Qizhong ($0.70/g, $280/400g) via Yangqing Hao

    Origin Tea used to sell this for $270 and it is now available at $280. Not bad! Similar character but better quality than the Jincha and lacks the compression flaw. It is definitely very much a YQH tea and can get uneven at times, but I find this punches well above its rate with nice expansiveness and good longevity. I’m at the point with this where I have it often enough I find it quite easy to brew because I know how it should taste and can alter my steeping to achieve something I’m satisfied with.

    2013 Biyun Hao Mahei ($0.76/g, $274/360g) via Teas We Like

    A blend of a few different areas around Mahei. Biyun Hao really focuses a lot of Manzhuan but also on Yiwu. This might be the best example of a very classic Yiwu in this list that balances flavor with the many intangibles that Yiwu brings.

    2013 Baohongyinji Zhenren Yufeng ($0.98/g, $375/380g) via Teas We Like

    Squeaks just under the limit. Very good, refined Yiwu. Lowish on flavor but lots of intangibles. Probably not going to be the tea for everyone but if you love boutique Yiwu in this kind of ethereal form, this is about as well as you can do under $/g. Many credit a Marshaln review for springing this to relative popularity as opposed to its sibling, the Yuema Wangong (also a good tea). Even still, the price it sits at is not that far above its initial offering price.

    2007 CYH Yiwu Ziwang

    Sub $2/g

    2004-2005 Biyun Hao Manzhuan or Yiwu ($1.3-$1.35/g, $650-670/500g) via The Jade Leaf

    Note the cake size here which makes the $/g considerably more appealing than a standard 357g or small 200g cake. I’ve slowly picked up a few of these throughout the years as they remain my personal favorite at this pricepoint. The rest of BYH can be bought around this range too, but things like the Zhengjialiangzi and others float in and out of availability. These are all blends of a few different villages. Mr. Chen of BYH continued to focus on both these areas (Yiwu and Manzhuan) for the two decades after.

    2007 Dragon Tea House Yiwu ($1.52/g, $545/357g) via Teas We Like

    Currently the only Dragon Tea House available via TWL. This is the tea I have the most limited experience with, but given DTH’s consistent track record. I feel comfortable enough to recommend it. DTH is definitely worth trying because their style and processing is traditional and their productions feel fundamentally different from the rest of the boutique space.

    The Chenyuan Hao 2003 cakes and 2005 SZCQ are worth mentioning here. I like these teas, but maybe not quite as much as other options. Others disagree. My personal favorite of the 2003 CYH line is the 2003 TQH Reproduction which is not currently available.

    >$2/g

    Not nearly as many teas exist in this range. And when they are, they tend to be in limited quantity. In terms of Taiwanese boutique teas that would personally catch my eye:

    • 2003 CYH Yesheng
    • 2004 CYH Songpin

    Beyond that, I would consider contacting or cruising an operation like Listening to Leaves to see what they can get. Things like the 2012 WWSF Manzhuan Anniversary are good teas in that range.

    If you really want to talk yourself into the higher-ranges do the usual trick of looking at price per session and avert your eyes when it comes to sticker price. Even teas like the 2004 Biyun Haos are under $7 for a 5 gram session.

  • 7542!!!! The Most Famous Digits in the Pu’erh World!

    7542!!!! The Most Famous Digits in the Pu’erh World!

    Maaaa. The pu nerds are citing four digit again!!! This time with the most famous recipe of them all, 7542. One of my regrets early on in my pu’erh journey was the heavy focus on more boutique teas. I got some exposure to factory tea and more traditional pu’erh, but the pathway wasn’t open towards many different avenues of pu’erh like it is now. I could’ve forced my way into more, after all Dayi isn’t some unknown quantity, but frankly did not prioritize it. Since the return of the blog, I’ve had an occasionally controversial but deliberate focus on more factory-related content.

    7542 502

    My History w/7542

    Prior to 2026, I’d had a number of 7542s, including a handful of the more famed versions. Teas like the 1988 Qing Bing (1989-1992 Dry Stored 7542), the 1997 Shuilan Yin, the 2001 Jianyun (Simplified Character) and quite enjoyed it. Despite all this, 7542 has never been in my regular rotation and I don’t think I had a firm grasp on the recipes evolution throughout the years. For instance, before drinking the recipe repeatedly I don’t think I would’ve been able to place a 2010 7542 vs a different generic Dayi. The famed ones I’ve tried were mostly out of the price range and impractical for regular brewing. The famed ones are also not really representative of run of the mill late 2000s or early 2010s 7542. I bought a tong of 2010 7542s during the pandemic but I never found it inspiring enough to really drink regularly. My goal with this was to dive deep and get a better feel for what is likely the most famous pu’erh recipe.

    Storage & Batch

    This is important enough I wanted to stick it high up. Storage is extremely important! Especially for factory teas. The conception of this drinking report originally started out as a blind, but I found it to be such a mess that I decided to release this as a more conventional report. A big cause of the chaotic mess is that storage is a big ingredient for why a tea takes a certain profile. Without holding storage constant, it’s much trickier to get to the bottom of something like 2010 7542 vs. 2011 7542. At that point, the storage can be a more powerful factor than the actual tea material.

    Dayi teas change hands a lot. Even from Taobao, the same vendor can have a variety of storage. In the end, I opted for the brute force method of trying teas. The blinds were not without purpose but I found I was getting a bit lost in the sauce and constantly trying to guess the tea (and not particularly well). I’d often get the caliber of tea about right but the specific guess wrong. The blinds are something I might revisit now that I feel I understand the recipe somewhat better.

    The batches add an additional element. In some years they seem to only matter a little, in others they seem to matter a lot (see 2005 or 901 7542). I think in general the storage is more important than batch, although both can be quite important. And batches almost certainly do matter especially in the mid 2000s and for famous batches like the 901.

    I only had the stomach to bring on teas that are at least a dozen years old. Sorry.

    In a year there are often multiple batches, especially of a popular recipe like 7542. These are usually signified by an 01 (first batch) or 02 (second batch) or 03 (third batch) at the end of the tea name. For instance a 2006 7542 601 is the first batch of 2006.

    2003 Purple Dayi

    The Teas

    2013 Xiaguan 7543 (C)

    Starting out with a Xiaguan. What a betrayal! The tea is featured because it is XG riffing on Dayi. Thanks to ghostinthetoast for sending it my way.

    Diesel, tobacco. Fairly dark. There’s some texture here that makes it feel non standard. Good resinous activity, moderately bitter and the body is mostly just moderate. This does not really feel like a 7542. If you are a taobao enjoying value maxxer, this may be worth a pickup. I do think it punches a bit above its weight.

    2011 7542 (C)

    From a GD taobao vendor. This is OK. Has a decent body and some grape/sugarcane sweetness that might indicate a bit of oxidation. Not a ton of bitterness. It evens out to a bit more of a standard profile as it brews out.

    2011 Jin/Gold (B)

    I’d had this described to me as a superior 7542 and to some extent I get that, but this also feels quite different from the 7542s of 2010/2011 and frankly would benefit considerably from more time. Perhaps it is closer to some of the more acclaimed batches such as the 2005s. This has a darker base, like the Xiaguan. Has some wood and grain but becomes very tobacco dominant as it brews. The tea feels bigger and a bit sharper up front. It’s really not bad, but needs a lot of time even compared with the rest of the set. Decently strong mouthfeel and presence. This has the potential to rise in my rating but I grade based off how the tea is now not its future.

    2010 7542 1001 (B/C)

    This has gotten quite a bit of circulation in the west, mostly thanks to Teas We Like and more recently Quiche. The tea sort of like the 2011 has a grape like, sugarcane sweetness in the initial steeps. It becomes a bit more properly what you’d expect from a 7542 as it brews out. Sturdy body, fairly mild bitterness. Due to the crazy prices of Dayi in 2020-2022, I do see why something like this would stand out as an affordable, good-enough tea, although I think there’s virtually no chance this reaches the levels of even something like the 601 7542.

    2009 7542 901 (B)

    This is an interesting one. It demands a significantly higher price than later batches from 2009 as well as the surrounding years. Alex of Taiwan Tea Odyssey compared this with other 7542s and found it was a bit more boutique feeling. And drinking these in close succession, I agree that it is different than the other years. The tea offers better pungency and more texture that become quite obvious brewed side by side.

    Is it worth the price difference? If you are remotely value oriented, not in my opinion. But it does seem like a more likely bet than the 2007-2008 or 2010-onward 7542s. I’d also say it is a different beast than the Jin.

    2008 7542 807 (C)

    From Taobao. Teas like this are extremely inexpensive right now (under $30 on taobao) although you’ll need to suffer through potentially drier storage. It has a sturdy body but is still pretty green. More sugarcane, florals, nutty. Sort of like the 2007s it feels a bit shallower than the 2005-2006.

    2008 7542 802 (B)

    Can post-reform Dayi hold up to good old traditional storage? Yee On decided to find out. While the tea is nothing special the answer is mostly yes. It offers more or less exactly what you’d expect. A  pungent tea that has been smoothed out by age. There’s a relatively low amount of sweetness but there’s good body and a strong textured mouthfeel.

    2007 7542 704 (D)

    Rough rough rough! This was from TSH a few years ago and was frankly just too green and feels too weak and thin. 2007 has a pretty awful reputation and I can see why. The 704 7542 has a sugarcane like taste accompanied with sourness. Very unimpressive. I do have a hard time attributing blame to storage and material but it’s likely both in this case.

    2007 7542 701 (C)

    Sent by Mr. Green who got it from Taishunhe. Thank you! It feels shallower than 2005/2006 other teas with a smaller body. A bit less sweetness on this one as well, but does feel at least stronger and in a bit better spot than the 704. The woody pungency does remind me of the earlier years, just lacks more of the expansive feeling. Certainly weaker, thinner, more taxed material in this one.

    2006 7542 603 (B)

    Pretty similar to the 502 and 504 in structure. There’s a strong pungency up front that gives the tea a really strong mouthfeel before it starts to level off. This one is a little drier stored than those two, so it gives a little less wet wood and chocolate and a bit more incense.

    2006 7542 601 (B)

    From Taishunhe. Relatively dry stored. The profile of it is a bit clearer and better than the 603, but not enough for me to raise its rating. Still has a bit of plum, antique wood resin. A decent enough aftertaste. Solid tea. It isn’t quite as big as the 502, but the there is some resemblance. I’d easily take this over the 2007, 2008, and 2010 I’ve tried. Although maybe the 901 could beat it. Not sure.

    2005 8542 501 (B)

    From brigmbg on Discord, and previously from Mr. Jin. Thank you sir! This is a bit drier stored than the 502 and 504 7542s I own. Tobacco, wood, a bit sharper, grassier, with a narrower profile. It’s still pretty classical and I’d definitely take it over some crappier 7542s. This particular one needs some more time but it has nice enough structure and I think it’s a pretty good value for the price.

    2005 7542 501 (A)

    The fancy white thread one. Thank you Toby! This is nice, nicer than the 502 and priced accordingly. Basically it offers a somewhat similar structure to the 502, but is more potent. While it isn’t necessarily overwhelmingly bitter it has a stronger mouthfeel, resinous activity and an impressive intensity with more mouth coating. It almost leaves an anesthetic numbing feel by the end of the session. Absolutely a tea that would be hard to follow in a session. The depth of the aftertaste is also good and it coats further into the throat than the 502. It’s interesting because it is clearly a very good tea but I’m not sure it is quite the same as the earlier era too. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the strength of it is quite unique.

    2005 7542 502 (A/B)

    I am quite happy with this one and have quickly drank down a good chunk of a cake. Thick, textured mouthfeel. Woody, chocolatey, antique, slightly wet wood. It has a strong taste to it and is quite straightforward. I’ve always been more of a 8582 guy, but part of it is the lack of availability of teas like this, which unfortunately remains hardish to find.

    2005 7542 504 (B)

    How is the 502 better? It is simply stronger, richer compared with the thinner 504. Otherwise these teas are pretty similar. This has also undergone a bit danker storage. Pretty ready to drink now.

    —-

    2003 Purple Dayi GD 7542 (A)

    Guangdong stored. I really like this tea. It has good strength and I think it’ll continue to age well. Probably stronger than the traditional Yun, good bitterness that all converts. Great, engaging texture. Lots of sweetness and salivation. Depending on the session can have some incense. I had this alongside the 1999 Dawen and it holds up pretty well. I also blinded this with the 2001 Traditional Yun 7542 and I think it is roughly the same level.

    2003 Purple Dayi TW Natural 7542 (A)

    Taiwan natural storage. Foresty, thick, oily. Very healthy body, and a more mild bitterness than the GD stored one. The GD stored tea (in my opinion) has a greater clarity of character with a more focused intensity. That being said there is still much to enjoy here.

    2003 Purple Dayi 7542 via Houde (A/B)

    This is my least favorite of the three Purple Dayis but I still find plenty to enjoy even if it does not come close to passing the speed test. It is definitely green and needs time. It starts out a bit thin but builds up in the first few steeps crescendoing to a healthy amount of bitterness and a nice mouth coat. It has a bit of that candied powdery texture throughout that is in the TSH version as well.

    2003 Blue Dayi 7542 (A)

    Roughly on par with the Purple. Maybe a bit stronger, although storage is a confounding factory. A bit drier stored than the GD . Not much smoke, but a good strong density here. Can feel its strength in my cheeks. Moving a bit beyond hay into more of a refined antique wood. Can feel the depth and sweetness coating the mouth. Great stuff and too bad it is quite expensive compared with other options.

    2003 HKH Serious Formula “7542” (B)

    I kind of knew what would happen here having this in sequence with 7542s. This is a decent tea that is not really a 7542 at all. It lacks the strength and pungency of any of surrounding year 7542s. Never quite found a spot for this in my pu’erh rotation, but I would not fault anyone for buying this as a good drinker that hits a nice age to quality ratio.

    2001 Traditional Yun 7542 (A)

    Very classical. Antique wood, resin, incense. Good thickness. Moderate, healthy bitterness throughout. There’s some light fruit going on here, maybe a darker plum sort. The aftertaste is also the sort you want, expansive reaching down into the throat. I’ve had alternating excellent and merely good sessions with this, although I’m inclined to blame myself for some of that. In recent sessions this hits the spot.

    2001 Simplified Yun 7542 (S)

    Very nice Malaysian stored version from Max of Teas We Like. I think this represents the pinnacle of this report and somewhat better than the other pre-reform 7542. Has that distinctive Malaysian spice aroma. Resin, tobacco, some mouthcooling. Leaves quite an impact on the mouth. Can get a bit sour. Moves into a bit more of an antique wood (as opposed to the more humid, darker wood of the Dawen). Overall brighter, stronger, and deeper feeling than that. The storage combined with the raw tea strength make for a dynamic and complex experience.

    When I had this with Max it was the winner of the blind taste, even when put up against four pretty heavy hitting teas.

    1999 Dawen 7542 (A)

    I had this with Max of Teas We Like when I visited Hawaii where it sat amongst a number of good Malaysian stored 1999-2001 teas. This one has been mostly Taiwan stored and even with the storage it maintains a high degree of strength. Having it on its own I quite like it. I do see the lineage here from this tea all the way up through the 2005 versions. It’s a slightly wetter antique wood taste with mushroom. Quite strong and the aftertaste extends into the throat. Causes a good amount of salivation. Very satisfying tea.

    Dayi Go Bag

    Takeaways & Changing Over Time

    The 7542 blend has changed significantly throughout the years. This can be attributed to two primary reasons (a) production quantity ramped up, watering down the leaf quality + overtaxing the tea plants and (b) demand for more quickly drinkable tea that does not need to be traditionally stored. Dayi has also shifted towards the numbered recipes representing more of their lower-end material, something that I don’t believe was as true in the 1990s or earlier. This has all resulted in the 7542 blend getting demonstrably weaker. Depending on the storage (a huge factor), 7542 can have a few different profiles but one I associate with 2005 and earlier is a strong, pungent mouthfeel that almost feels too strong for the initial steeps that eventually softens as you get into the mid steeps. This is not something that I find for the majority of the post 2006 products. Maybe the 901, but even if you don’t consider price I’m still uncertain on its future.

    Teas like 2007 and 2008 7542 (despite being nearly 20 years old) are very inexpensive (like $0.10/g), partly due to crashing Dayi prices (they were more $$ 5 years ago) but also because they aren’t great teas and never will be. At one point these were like stocks but now these are seen (correctly) as overproduced, humble, greenish factory tea. Another confounding factor is storage standards which have gotten drier as time has passed, with notable changes in the 2000s.

    There’s also a bit of a shift during the reform period. I like the 2005 7542s (502 and 504) I’ve tried but they don’t quite capture the power and expansiveness of pre reform 7542 like the 2003 Purple Dayi or Traditional Yun.

    7542 Timeline as I see it:

    • Pre-2004 – Expensive but good if you can find real Menghai TF. At some point before dry storage became more common in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the recipe was almost certainly intended for the more intense traditional storage.
    • 2004-2006 – Dayi reforms in 2004. Rather than a complete drop off a cliff the quality remained decent for at least 2005 and to a lesser extent 2006.
    • 2007-2008 – Pretty bad. 2007 in particular many of the teas are just not that good.
    • 2009-Onwards – The famed 901 is seen by some as a return to form. Otherwise there are some functional but not great teas in this range.

    Recommendations

    The pu’erh market is certainly not completely efficient in matching tea quality to price but when it comes to the most famous factory and recipe, it’s not exactly unknown ground so I do think quality will at least somewhat correlate with pricing especially when we are comparing Dayi to other Dayi. The fakes remain a problem if you are picking up tea. Certainly do not trust unvetted vendors peddling the cheapest version you can find. Storage is also important. Make sure you’re vetting the storage before going too deep in the water.

    • Value Pick – The 2010 7542/2011 7542 remains a good value at $50. 2009 7542 is a better tea, but not really worth the 3-4x price difference. I don’t think this will ever be that great of a tea, so I wouldn’t bother buying a huge amount for aging and I still don’t get very excited in the morning if this is on the tea schedule but it’s mostly fine. These two give a decent idea of what 7542 is about at a very modest cost.
    • If You Can Afford It – Honestly anything pre-reform (pre-2004) is worth trying if you can get it from a verifiable source, assuming it is reasonably stored and you can afford it. One of the criticisms I got of my pro-factory propaganda in recommending mid 2000s teas is that they don’t necessarily represent what makes the earlier era of factory tea special. Especially if you aren’t very price sensitive this is fair enough. So why not go for the good stuff? These are not value picks but there are qualities to these teas that are hard to find in post-reform Dayi. Quiche is probably currently the best place to sample them. If you want to talk yourself into it these are about $1.5-$2/g. So you are still talking sub $10 for a nice factory session. Again, it struggles a bit against other options but if you want a good 7542 these are it.
    • The Moderates – 2005/2006 7542. There is some ground in between these two. By 2007, the quality of the 7542 had degraded significantly and 2007 7542 is a fraction of the price of a decent batch of 2005 despite being barely younger. These teas (with the exception of 501) represent an area where quality wasn’t quite as good as earlier but still solid enough. Even within this narrow window, 2006 tea is significantly cheaper (and also lower quality) compared with most batches of 2005 7542. And within an even narrower window, the 2005 and 2006 batch quality differs significantly (i.e. 502 > 504). Things were changing quickly in this period. You can find a later batch of 2006 7542 for around $60-70 from a reliable Dayi seller on Taobao.

    VOATO & Which 7542 Make it Into My Rotation?

    Over the past year I’ve drank a fair bit of 502 7542 and I do think there’s a spot in my rotation for some of these teas. The 502 hits that mid point of being not too expensive but still pretty tasty.. There is a bit of a hard cut off as most of the post 2006 teas I do not think would pass the speed test and find a spot in my rotation.

    My Average Factory Tea Owned would be a solid B rating (say 2006 Dayi 8582) so, something like the 502 would be a +.5.

    Stay tuned for even more Menghai Tea Factory propaganda in 2026!

    Tea Rating VOATO (Dayi/Factory)
    2013 XG 7543 C -1
    2011 7542 C -1
    2011 Jin B 0
    2010 7542 B/C -0.5
    2009 7542 901 B 0
    2008 7542 807 C -1
    2008 7542 802 (Yee) B 0
    2007 7542 701 C -1
    2007 7542 704 D -2
    2006 7542 601 B 0
    2006 7542 603 B 0
    2005 8542 501 B 0
    2005 7542 501 A 1
    2005 7542 502 A/B 0.5
    2003 Purple 7542 TX A 1
    2003 Purple 7542 GD A 1
    2003 Purple 7542 Nat TW A 1
    2003 Blue 7542 A 1
    2001 Traditional Yun 7542 A 1
    2001 Simplified Yun 7542 S 2
    1999 Dawen 7542 A 1

     

  • Seven Taobao Picks (with Links!)

    Seven Taobao Picks (with Links!)

    For myself, the appeal of Taobao is the massive amount of tea that is otherwise unavailable or difficult to access outside of east Asia. I’ve held off on specific Taobao recommendations because the landscape can change quickly and I tend to create content with a longer release cycle. This post is an exception. I’m writing and releasing this post quickly so they are all currently available at this specific moment of time in February 2026. Some may still be there in a year, others may not.

    Taobao

    How To Buy

    1. The Direct Method

    For those comfortable with the Taobao app, you can buy directly and ship to a shipping agent (like ShipForwarder).

    • The Process: You buy the tea → ship it to the agent’s warehouse → they consolidate multiple orders → you pay for one international package.
    • Shipping Lines: * Guangzhou ePacket: Best for small hauls (under 2kg).
      • EMS: Faster, but expensive.
      • Sea Freight: The “slow boat,” but significantly cheaper for heavy hauls. Oftentimes unavailable.
    • Estimated Cost: Expect to pay roughly $0.03–$0.05/g in shipping fees.

    2. The Beginner-Friendly Method (Super Buy)

    If you don’t want to navigate the Chinese UI, use an intermediary like Super Buy.

    • Browsing: Use a standard Taobao account to find what you want. Alternatively if you don’t have a Taobao account you can use the Super Buy Browsing function but it is reportedly a bit finicky.
    • Fund: Send money to your agent (Super Buy) and have them buy it for you. Most will accept paypal or other methods.
    • Purchasing: Paste that URL into Super Buy. They buy the item for you, receive it, and take QC (Quality Control) photos.
    • Consolidation: Once all your cakes arrive at their warehouse, you trigger the final international shipment.

    Join the The Tea Table Discord. The Taobao channel is a valuable resource for real-time help with account lockouts or finding specific “hidden” storefronts.

    Price Range

    Taobao has all the price ranges, but western Taobaoers typically shop at what would be considered more of the budget price range in the western scene. I think more people should check out more expensive tea, but I also understand why people opt for inexpensive options when there are a lot of barriers towards pricier gambles. Regardless, I have not tried enough higher-end options to wholeheartedly recommend them so these picks are centered in the $0.05-$0.30/g range.

    The Picks

    In no particular order.

    Fancy Ripe: 2007 Dayi Anxiang via Chen Tang (link) $65/400g ($0.16/g)

    This is a fancy ripe. Credits to shah for turning me onto this years ago. It used to be pricier but Dayi prices have gone down quite a bit. Very refined and a nice aged profile.

    One major risk in Taobao is the storage factor. There’s always some unknown aspect to it. Different vendors have different storage and there’s often a decent degree of variability in the storage offered. For Dayi raw in this age range, much of the storage is a bit drier than my preference. It’s not unforgivable but the storage is an important factor towards how the tea presents. For ripe it’s not nearly as important making it a higher batting average category than raw.

    Daily Ripe: 2006 Dayi 7562 via Chen Tang (link) $25/250g ($0.10/g)

    A cheap brick? Really? Credits to Phobos for turning me onto this one and Chen Tang. It’s simply a very good daily drink, antique wood profile. Less tippy and high-end than the Anxiang but just as delicious in most of the ways that count.

    If you are a ripe enjoyer, Chen Tang is a good place to pick up a variety of ripes. Fan of 7572? They have a dozen options, almost all inexpensive. Same with much of the other popular Dayi recipes including raw like v93, 7542, 8582, Golden Needle White Lotus, etc.

    Dayi to Age: 2015 Dayi Purple via Chen Tang (link) $67/357g ($0.19/g)

    In an infamous Hong Kong Category III film, Red to Kill, an evil social worker goes from a seemingly well adjusted empathetic man to an absolute maniac when he gets triggered by the color red. This is how I feel about the western tea scene with the color purple. Purple wrappers seems to drive them into a mania to buy buy buy.

    This cake has been peddled around the west for various prices. Like many Dayi teas it was quite a bit higher about 5 years ago, but has fallen to a pretty reasonable price range. If you want to hear our thoughts on this tea search our video archives.

    Unlike the Purple, I highly unrecommend Red to Kill unless you derive as much enjoyment from absolute depravity as me.

    Mid-Range to Drink/Age: 2008 Liming Yayun via Pu’er Youxuantang (link) $98/357g ($0.27/g)

    In Taobao some of the shops sound like consignment or even old school pawn shops. One such store was selling this (not the one mentioned here).

    This tea is available from a variety of vendors for around $100-125. It isn’t super budget but it punches a bit above its weight. The Yayun has a pleasing old school, smoky, honey profile. I infamously mixed this up with the pricier 502 Double Lion in a blind tasting. Enjoyable to drink now but should improve. Denny and I split a tong.

    Mid-Range to Age: 2005 Nanqiao Blue Peacock via Pu’er Youxuantang (link) $107/357g ($0.30/g)

    Old school Bulang profile, a bit smoky and probably needs more time. I think this one needs longer than the Yayun but if you want some sturdy Nanqiao Bulang for a cheaper price (stares Double Lion down) this is your cake. It’s not quite the same tea as Double Lion but it has a strong, resinous, smoky profile.

    Daily Classic Raw: 2003/04 Xiaguan Jiaji (link, link) 2003: $16/100g ($0.16/g). 2004: $9.5/100g ($0.10/g)

    From good ol classic, Xiaguan specialist MX Tea, a classic tea. The burly, sturdy Jiaji is a workhorse tea that is worth seeking out and referencing. You can get these 22 and 23 year old tuos for an exceedingly reasonable price. 2004 is the better value, the 2003 is a bit better and still not very expensive. The value of MX over other Xiaguan dealers is they are more consistent selecting for decent storage whereas other vendors can be hit or miss.

    MX is a good place to find other inexpensive tuos, like the Teji.

    Mid-Range to Drink: 2004 Xiaguan Gold Ribbon Red Eye (link) $32/100g ($0.32/g)

    Like a true Taobao degenerate I check MX’s new listings regularly. They sometimes release one-offs or teas that are in limited quantities and sell out quickly. One such tea was the aforementioned Yayun, which was sold out by the time I received my sample cake (Denny and I bought the rest from other vendors). The Gold Ribbon Red Eye is one where I’m not sure how long it will be around. It’s a special production made by XY that is smoother than your standard Jiaji but retains a bit of that crane taste (moreso than the Nanzhao). The later years are better value (2006/2007) but I find the price difference worth it for something a bit older with better material. This is smoother and more easy to drink than the Jiaji right now.

    Come, open your wallet and join the Taobao Degen club.

  • Drinking Tea With a Purpose

    Drinking Tea With a Purpose

    It is fun and exciting as a novice to dive into the world of tea drinking and appreciation. In the beginner phase after you’ve had an introduction to tea, it can feel like the possibilities of different tea types and vendors is limitless. Drinking comes easy with a strong sense of purpose in tea drinking and exploration. (spoilers) This feeling does not last. You are only a new tea drinker once and while the tea world is vast there is a limit to the high of exploration. Only so many teas to explore that truly bring a higher or new experience and at a certain point you may start to feel burnt out. With the exception of tea drinkers that completely peter out, most tea drinkers settle into some sort of rhythm of tea drinking devoid of that initial sense of purpose.

    Drinking With a Purpose

    The understanding that the initial exploration high is transient can be a bit depressing. Drinking with intent and a purpose feels good. But… it does not necessarily permanently have to end. Now settling into a regular rotation of teas you enjoy that pass the speed test isn’t a bad thing and is enjoyable in its own right. The trick is finding the right context or angles to explore to keep things interesting.

    I’m about 15 years into more serious tea drinking and still find plenty of interesting new teas to try and discover. Part of this is due to the depth of tea to explore. But a lot of it is being creative, purposeful and varied in the context of drinking the same teas. I drink more or less the same types of teas I drank a decade ago, but I can still find different angles for exploration.

    Finding the Angles That Interest You

    One type of episode I’ve done quite a bit in the past year is a side by side comparison with another tea. The SbS (side by side) comparison helps distinguish more up front notes like flavor, texture, body, etc. When I drink tea with others we rarely drink this way, instead drinking a tea for several infusions and then moving on to another. This is a bit better for determining differences in aftertaste and seeing how a tea develops because teas are not put into such a direct contrast. I see all these methods as approaching the same tea from a different angle that can help in more fully understanding teas. Mixing up the way you are trying the tea can help you focus and concentrate on different aspects while keeping tea drinking fresh.

    It can sometimes be helpful for me to dictate the purpose of a session, whether it is to evaluate a certain tea, learn more about how its storage presents, or even if I outright say that a session is sheerly for enjoyment. This focuses my attention better and helps to dictate my angle. I also find this statement of purpose can be clarifying and let’s me just end a session rather than trying to extract 100% of it.

    Themes

    Another angle is a themed tasting. A great way to learn about tea in both an enjoyable and deeper way is to undergo a themed sampling. It is far easier to learn drinking similar teas in close proximity than it is to drink them over the course of a lifetime. Perhaps it is a specific brand within a certain age range, Xiaguan 2005-2008 or a small-leaf varietal (Yibang/Xikong) or a specific Heicha. As followers of the blog would know, I love this approach. Tastings in 2025 featuring Xiaguan masochism and the massive Yiwu-ish report along with a few smaller ones. Drinking themed sessions allows me to really appreciate the teas that stand out amongst their peers in a way that I might not if I had them solely on their own. I feel it also helps encourage a more profound, deeper understanding of a specific tea type.

    Tea

    Drinking Tea With Others

    Another great way to drink tea with a purpose is to have it with others. Drinking tea in the west is often a solo experience. Having people to talk about teas with is both enjoyable and a great learning opportunity. This can come in many forms.. If possible, sitting down for tea is always fun. I’ve had great sessions with people who are newer as well as old tea veterans. I’ve also had many fruitful conversations comparing notes on certain teas in online spaces, such as Discord.

    Drinking with a purpose almost always beats drinking haphazardly. Think about what would make tea drinking interesting to you. Not everyone’s answer will be the same, but hopefully this post gives people some ideas on how to keep the flame burning.

    As a soft recommendation, Listening to Leaves helps to combine themed tea drinking as well as drinking tea with others by coordinating tastings and creating a space for people to talk about the teas.