Tuesday, June 26, 2007

2007 Mengyang Guoyan Phoenix of Yiwu 380g Shengpu



As some of you know from reading previous post, I do like Guoyan products and this product is no execption. Ms. Dong a former employee of the MengHai Factoy prides herself on crafting pu-erh that is both high in quality and econonomically priced. For further information please vist the Guoyan website at www.guoyancha.com or simply view my previous post.

Product Information

The Mengyang Guoyan Phoenix of Yiwu Pu-erh 2007 380g Shengpu is limited to 10,000 beengs and is certainly to become a prized collectable. Guoyan suggests that this beeng is entirely made of organically grown, wild arbor, and early spring leaves from the YiWu area which were subsequently processed utilizing traditional methods such as pressing the mao cha with stone molds.

Initial Impression

The dry leaf seem to suggest that it is spring and wild arbor as there is a significant amount of down on the back of each bud. It has a real nice floral smell with no smokiness.

Brewing Parameters

Source - Dragon Tea House (Ebay Vendor)

Water-Bottled spring water. Source of water - Frontier Springs, PA

Amount – 5g

Water Temp - Boil then cooled for 3 breaths

Brewing Method - Gongfu

Brewing Vessle - Yixing Teapot 150ml

Infusion times
1-15s
2-12s
3-16s
4-17s
5-19s
6-26s
7-34s

First Infusion

Aroma - The aroma was very soothing. It had variable hints of honey, floral, fresh grass and the slightest melon. Very herbal.

Taste - Light and refreshing. Sweet honey and citrus were most noticible. It was slightly bitter which played well with the sweetness.

Second Infusion

Aroma - The citrus and honey are now stonger. Both aromas were wrapped with a hint of dried fruit, possibly peach.

Taste - More youthful this time but not brassy. A quenching and soothing sweetness playing well with the tantilizing bitterness. A delicate taste of natural rubber is introducing itself. Lovely viscosity.

Third Infusion

Aroma - Citrus now fading, however the honey is still very noticibale. Still very floral with a fruity undertone. I believe I am smelling more peach.

Taste - Really nice this time. All of the flavors seem to marry well including the natural rubber. A bit more bitterness but not intimidating. Still has a very nice viscosity. I would expect my throat and tongue to be coated by now, but suprisingly, they are not. There is a subtle but lingering pineapple aftertaste. Excellent!

Liquor Differential

First Infusion




7th Infusion



Spent Leaves



I assume that it is wild arbor.You can clearly see nice buldging veins which typically would indicate that it is not plantation.

Overall Impression

This beeng is fantastic for the price. It was a delicate yet assertive drink. Its taste was very characteristic of semi-wild arbor than true wild arbor as I suspected as I would expect to pay more for true YiWu wild arbor. Nonetheless, from what my taste buds have told me it did resemble YiWu mao cha with the delicate flavors of first-flush buds as the description implies.

I believe that the leaves will age nicely since all of the indicators were present. All in all it is a reseasonably priced beeng which should become a collectable as there were only 10,000 beengs made and nicely crafted. All I have to say is DaYi and XiaGuan better take notice! Oh, and I thought that I would have fun with my camera today LOL.

14 comments:

Salsero said...

Lovely photos and review. This sounds like another "must have" sheng!

Thanks.

Bill said...

Thanks again Sal for you encouraging words! I would definitely recommend this beeng!

Michel said...

Bill- Have you tried the Dragon of bu lang?
And the Pig? What do you Know about M chen teaming up with Guyan ie XI shi cha bengs?

I like your blog- I too am disilusionned with the downward spiral of Xiaguan and Mc Menghai!

I strongly recommend Yong De on Yunnan sourcing!

teajar.blogspot.com

Bill said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill said...

Hello Michel, I have not tried the Dragon Bulang or the Pig. But I have the Star of Bulang cakes. Have you? On hand I have the

Classical 99
Star of Bulang
Phoenix of Yiwu
Ancient Arbor Yiwu

All of Guoyan


If you would like I can review one for you and let you know my humble opinion. - All except the Ancient Arbor since I have done a review already.

As for Mr. Chen, Guoyan is not exactly producing the XiShi. Mr. Chen has ONLY commissioned Guoyan to process the mao cha nothing more. It is my understanding that he did this soley as a consquence of demand. He could no longer produce the amount needed to satisfy the distributors. All of the growing practices and leaf selecions are entirely under the supervision Mr. Chen.

Thanks Michel for reading!!

Space Samurai said...

The pictures truly are fantastic.

venant tout droit de provence , said...

michel is right : yong de is a good stuff !!
also the dehong 2005 .
try it .
sorry i don't speak very well english.
but good blog ;-)

Michel said...

Hi bill;

Thanks for the info, do you rate M chen stuff, or is it overpriced collector bengs?

Where do you get your Guyan beengs, what's the ancient arbor yi wu like compaired to the phenix..
Guyan seems to be no nonsens, are there any of their beengs you do not recommend?

So many questions, sorry..

Bill said...

Thanks for reading bejita. I may have to see what you guys are talking about. Oh bejita, please don't worry about your English as my French is MUCH MUCH worse!!

Michel, Those are good questions. I must make a correction however before I proceed go give you my opinions. The Guoyan that I have is only Arbor not Ancient Arbor YiWu.

Mr. Chen's products are nice. Are they overprized? Well, that depends on who you ask. I personally have not bought of his products, but do have a few samples of his products. They are collectors beengs and IMHO are meant to savor later and make other jealous for having them. However, I feel that his prices are somewhat inflated but this is not to say that he does not have a premium product. He does have access to great and I do mean great mao cha. Unfortunatly, IMHO will only be worth a little more and even less when the pu-erh bubble bursts. I personally like to buy beengs that are generally much lower in cost. There are some comparable products out on the market at half the price.

Personally, I like the Phoenix more than the arbor. There seems to be more complexity in the liqour than the arbor beeng as I recieved many more flavors. I did review the arbor yiwu as well if you are intrested for a comparison.

I buy my Guoyan from Gordon of Dragon Tea House on Ebay. Please mention my name and where you read about his products if you will. ;)I may get a sample or two out of it to review on my blog. As of yet, I have not ran into a beeng that I dislike from Guoyan, but again, I have only bought the mid-quality beengs or above so I can't comment.

I hope this helps, thanks for reading!

Michel said...

Thanks Bill-

Send me your adress on my email hicbibitur@hotmail.com and at some point i'll send you samples of pu you might like.

Unknown said...

Guoyan does produce better teas than, say, 6FTM, and I think it is of reasonable quality for a reasonable price. Just don't take the ancient or arbor tree claims too seriously, as I think they are at best a mix.

Michel said...

thanks bill and MarshalN-

MarshalN- Do you know Yong De's on yunnan sourcing?

I am a fan of your blog!
You are right: 6 famous is a waste of time after 2003 anyway. So guoyang is very decent !

Bill the Dragon of Bulang is well worth it!

MarshalN said...

No, I don't know the Yong De brick. Never tried it, never even seen it in person, for that matter.

Thanks for reading my blog though :)

Some 6FTM stuff aren't even worth their shipping cost, IMHO.

Adrian Baxter said...

I just got my beeng of this in the mail today. Just sat down with my first 10 oz of it, and it lasted all of about 30 seconds. All I can say is wow! This is the best sheng I've had thus far, bar none. Some of the more expensive ones I have tucked away may be a bit better after some aging, I don't know, but I do know that if I have any hope of letting this one age, I am going to need some more beengs! I do like it quite a bit more than the Star of Bulang, or any of the others for that matter. A truly remarkable cake. Thanks for turning me on to it. I let him know that it was you that did so when I bought it.

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