Today’s review is a puer from Meimei Fine Teas – a 2017 Spring harvest, Ba Nuo Ancient Tree sheng. This tea is from the Mengku region, at Ba Nuo Villiage which has 100-300 year old trees.
I am impressed with the amount of information Meimei Fine Teas provides about this tea, from harvest time, elevation, varietal (Mengku Da Ye), video of the trees, and photos of the fresh leaf and maocha before pressing.
Leaf and Steeping Instructions
The dry leaf of the 2017 Ba Nuo Ancient Tree Sheng Puer smells quite stone fruity and sweet.
Like usual, I used 1 gram of leaf per 15 ml of vessel size, gongfu steeped in boiling water. The wet hot leaf continues to smell strongly fruity sweet.
Tasting of MeiMei Fine Teas’ 2017 Ba Nuo Ancient Tree Sheng Puer
First and Second Infusion: The early infusions are sweet and soft. Each sip adds a layer of fruit and cream. The tea leaves a balmy feeling in the mouth and a sweet stone fruit and a floral aftertaste. It strangely already has a penetrating aftertaste, like I feel the fruity fragrance is coming out of my throat, not from the mouth.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: Wow, Ba Nuo Ancient Tree sheng is a very fruity and sweet tea. It leans on apricot skins, with a heavy body that feels fuzzy like peaches. The main attraction of this tea is the heavy fragrance that blurs between apricot, honey, and floral. Sipping it you can smell the fruity sweetness, then it floats around in the mouth after. It is more I’m smelling the tea through my sinuses rather than an aftertaste.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Infusion: I’ve said Ba Nuo Ancient Tree sheng is sweet many times, but this time it is really sweet. It is now dripping honey sweet, much sweeter than previous infusions. Interestingly, the tea is not dry or bitter at all. The aftertaste has shifted more to a floral perfume, somewhat magnolia like. The flavour level here is on the finger-snapping intense side. This sheng can give a high mountain oolong a run for its money.
Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Infusion: I’m finally testing the limits of the Ba Nuo Ancient Tree sheng. I am getting a slight bitterness but it only hits the back of the throat and is greatly masked by all the floral going around. The aftertaste is still powerfully long, sweet magnolia floral.
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Infusion: I did a 15 minute infusion and it was soft tasting and a bit dry on the tip of my tongue, with a long floral aftertaste. Slightly buttery as well. Each steeping got a bit weaker and drier. Likely I could have gotten a few more infusions if I used a teapot instead of a gaiwan due to heat retention.
Comments
Meimei Fine Teas’ 2017 Ba Nuo Ancient Tree sheng puer is an elegantly floral and sweet puer. This tea is beautiful and complex with a high amount of aroma and lingering aftertaste. It is decently flexible to steep and thick bodied.
Who’d like this tea? Oolong drinkers would go crazy for this. The floral is bright and classy, it is luxury tea drinking of perfumey puer. This is perfect to drink now as it isn’t particularly bitter or grassy. 2017 Ba Nuo Ancient Tree sheng puer is spa day treat yourself tea. It’s a tea I’d want to make it as a perfume, roll in, and then hit the town feeling like a million bucks. If you didn’t guess already, 2017 Ba Nuo Ancient Tree Sheng Puer is a highroller cake, at this time priced at $208 for 357 grams.
(tea provided for review)
