2004 Yuen Neun Hong Tai Chang Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

This is a sheng with a deep and mature character, giving the impression of time captured in every note. The dry leaf, with its restrained woody-sweet aroma, seems to invite you to dive into a journey through history. The warmed kettle reveals more intense facets, adding hints of prunes and pears, which become an expressive introduction to the rich flavor.

From the first spills, the drink is greeted with a softness and sweetness reminiscent of dried fruit and ripe plums and pears. Its thick, enveloping texture is like a golden liqueur, clean and bright. Woody accents and a slight smokiness complete the composition, giving the tea its versatility. The infusion itself is buttery, enveloping and thick.

This is a tea for those who appreciate refinement and depth. In each strain it reveals new facets while remaining whole and structured. Hongtaichang 2004 is like saying: age is not just a number, it is the art of time expressed through flavor and aroma. One of my favorite sheng. It can be brewed with boiling water and slightly cooled water (90 degrees), it turns out fine in any case. I also recommend you to read variant 0802 (2006), also my favorite!

Brief (5-10 seconds) steeps in 90 Celsius water.
Liquor is clear and dark golden caramel in color, similar to whisky.
Taste is clean and woody with a fruity note, prune-like, and a sweet aftertaste that ends with a hint of floral note.
Mouthfeel has a slight stickiness around the lips with no astringency.
Wet leaves are dark bronzed brown in hues mixed with stems, giving off a faint aroma of burnt fruit.
Strength of flavor starts to mellow down by the 5th infusion, thus best to steep longer from here onwards.
A longer (1 minute) steep in the next infusion gives a more pronounced sweet aftertaste.
I tried the 2006 HongTaiChang 0802 sheng before this tea.
In comparison, this 2004 sheng lacks boldness in both character and flavor.
However, it also lacks dryness and astringency that are prominent in 2006 HongTaiChang 0802, which makes this 2004 sheng a much friendlier old sheng for my palate to accept.
I must say, this is also one of the cleanest old sheng puerhs I have tried, which is a big plus on my book.

Thin-walled clay teapot 7g/150ml. I read reviews about it and had high hopes, but the tea did not impress with either the effect or the flavor. You have to expose it for a couple minutes for anything to come through. The tea is soulless.

Comment by TEASIDE:

We have been selling this tea for about 10 years. Since then, it has been tasted not only by experienced puerh lovers, but also by tea experts of international repute. In different years, in different countries. And always this tea has received the highest rating, which can be easily traced by the reviews on our website. All reviews on our site are honest and we never violate this rule.
Thus, it is evident that the problem is not the tea.

Old tea requires a careful, thoughtful approach. Any serious tea should be tried 2-3 times before making any claims about it. This is a rule I use myself, every time before new purchases.

In this particular case, I can recommend the following.
The first thing to do is change the water - it is best, in my opinion, to use the softest water possible. Hard water creates a feeling of lack of temperature, the tea does not open properly, and you have to increase the exposure time. At the same time, the mineral plume will still continue to mask the delicate and subtle shimmers of flavor.
Second, try brewing with a different teaware. And although water is much more important here, a change of ware will give you a chance to look at the tea from a different angle.

And then to develop the flavor. think, experiment and don't jump to conclusions.

-- Valerii Levitanus

Very dark and dense tea with a tasty deep woody sweetness that just led me away into dreamland. Half way through the session I felt a tickle on my leg and discovered a little spider crawling up to join me. We call them “jumping spiders” around here and admire them for their perfect form and for their feats of suddenly jumping from one surface to another. After my little tea friend had vanished and I finished the session I dumped the “spent” tea leaves into a 24-ounce Atlas mason jar, added hot water and let it brew in the sun for a few hours. Later on in the hot afternoon I poured over ice for several glasses of revitalizing refreshment on this first day of July, 2022.

This is my favorite “best value” sheng from Tea-Side.
It’s a middle ground between the reallt aged 90’s raws, and the seemingly less humid stored 0802-
at first I thought it might be traditionally stored puer..
It’s more aged and the taste is more blurred, but in a fun way- it’s still complex, and the taste is strong.
Like most TS aged gushu- Plum notes with plenty of steeps and good qi.
Highly recommended