An early Xinghai Tea Factory production from 1997. This is a plain (beige rice paper) wrapper brick aged in Kunming since 2001 (previously in Menghai). Xinghai is one of the earliest of the Menghai area tea factories to undertake wet piling of pu-erh to make ripe pu-erh tea. This 1997 production is very clean tasting and quite close to similar vintage "Da Yi" (Menghai Tea Factory) productions in taste. It's very balanced in taste, not tending to be overly sweet at the expense of being complex. There is some slight cacao-like bitterness, camphor woodiness, and mushroom sweetness. All of this is delivered to you in a vividly bright and clear burgundy tea soup. The tea has excellent full mouth-feel and body with a long-lasting after-taste that is pleasant and soothing to the mouth and throat. The cha qi is gentle and warming, and the tea can be infused well over 10 times when brewing gong fu style. If you are looking for a complex and satisfying aged ripe pu-erh tea, then I highly recommend this one to you. 250 Grams per brick Beige Rice Paper wrapper with no writing or marks of any kind
