Dried apricot, cool camphor, and a sweetness that only nineteen years of quiet aging can build. Soft Power '07 is a sheng pu-erh (生普洱), a raw tea that was sun-dried, pressed into a cake in 2007, and left to transform on its own. The result drinks nothing like young pu-erh: no bitterness, no bite, just a calm, honeyed cup that gets better with every steep.Tasting NotesThink warm dried apricot with a honey-sweet finish, like fruit leather dipped in caramel. The liquor pours clear amber-gold with a camphor-laced woody scent rising from the cup. First steeps land smooth and round, coating the mouth without roughness.Later rounds shift toward plum and a faint medicinal coolness that sits at the back of the tongue. The mouthfeel stays thick and silky through a dozen steeps or more. Nineteen years turned raw leaf into this — and the plum note past steep ten is something only time delivers.Where It Comes FromYiwu sits in the southeast corner of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, near the Laotian border. Tea trees here grow at around 1,300 meters in red laterite soil under forest canopy. That altitude and humidity give Yiwu tea a natural sweetness that other pu-erh regions struggle to match.This cake was pressed from leaves picked in April 2007 in the Yiwu township of Mengla County, Yunnan. The area has produced Yiwu raw pu-erh for centuries, and its terroir makes leaves that age with grace rather than force.How It's MadeSheng pu-erh starts as maocha (loose, sun-dried leaf before pressing): leaves wilted in the sun, pan-fired to stop oxidation, then dried and steamed before pressing into a dense cake. Unlike shu pu-erh, which uses accelerated fermentation to darken the leaf in weeks, the raw version ages naturally through slow microbial activity over years and decades.This particular cake spent its years in Yunnan's warm, humid conditions, which pushed the aging forward steadily. The tight compression held moisture inside, and the transformation crept inward layer by layer over nearly two decades.How It AgesAt nineteen years, Soft Power sits in a sweet spot. The raw grassiness of young tea has faded, replaced by dried fruit and camphor over a rounded body. Well-stored Yiwu cakes from this era are considered strong candidates for long-term keeping as the flavors continue to deepen.A 25g piece gives you around five sessions to explore what nearly two decades of aging taste like. If you have tried younger pu-erh and found it too sharp, Soft Power shows what patience does to the same leaf. Pair it with the rest of the collection to taste the difference age makes.BrewingBrew 5 grams in 100 ml of fully boiling water (100°C) for 30 seconds. Five grams is about a tablespoon of tea. Rinse the leaves once with a quick pour of hot water before your first drinking steep to open the compressed leaves and wash off storage dust.A 25g piece gives you about five full sessions, with ten or more steeps per session as the tightly compressed leaves unfurl slowly and keep releasing flavor. Add a few seconds to each round once the sweetness starts thinning.FAQWhat is sheng pu-erh?Sheng pu-erh is raw tea from Yunnan that gets sun-dried and pressed into cakes, then aged naturally over years. Unlike shu, which goes through accelerated fermentation in piles, the raw leaf transforms slowly through storage. Young cakes taste green and astringent; aged ones turn sweet and deeply layered.How does Soft Power compare to Nectar Protocol?Nectar Protocol '24 is a young cake with bright florals and crisp energy. Soft Power is the opposite end of the timeline: nineteen years of aging turned its brightness into honeyed depth and camphor calm. One is spring morning, the other is fireside evening.How many steeps will I get from a session?Expect ten to twelve steeps per session, sometimes more. Nineteen years of compression mean the leaves unfurl slowly, releasing new layers of flavor with each pour. Add a few seconds to your steep time after round five or six as the sweetness starts to stretch out.Is aged raw tea harsh on the stomach?Aged sheng is gentler than young sheng. The slow transformation over two decades breaks down much of the astringency that makes fresh pu-erh rough on an empty stomach. Most people find well-aged cakes like this one smooth enough to drink on their own, though pairing with food never hurts.