1996 Menghai 8582

Here is another classic worth mentioning, the Menghai 8582. I have tasted an 80's example before which was sweeter and really wet-stored, and absolutely yummy, and had a balanced qi. Today I'll be sharing my experiences with a 1996 8582.

As you can see the broth is clearly aged with nice clarity, and a ring on the cup that is still slightly green. (In fact, I had ordered enough to really play around with this one and purposefully overbrewed in subsequent sessions, and easily pulled a really harsh and bitter soup as a result, indicating the cake has a lot more transforming to go. This is an interesting tea to play with, it has a surprisingly restless nature for me.)

My infusions were rather quick, close to 10s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 22s, 45s, 90s, 3 min, 3min, 15 min. There is a a strong mouth-coat after only a few sips. The taste is 'Menghai', with a very strong sweetness on the swallow, and an almost industrial scent, maybe of rubber. The later drawn out infusions hosted a malty sweet soup, still with a decent aroma.

As you can see, it looks like pretty standard stuff, not too compressed, appropriate texture for its age, pretty uniform leafs, with a few of much lighter color than the rest.

{Insert wisdom about 8582}

One brewed one gone.