Hello!
I hope I am able to infuse some perspective to this interesting discussion about the mid-1980's 8582 that EoT offers.
Firstly, to address Shine Magical’s initial comment:
I've had about 6 1980's sheng (supposedly), but they cost somewhere between 5 to 12$ a gram.
How old a sheng pu’er is has no correlation whatsoever with its price tag or its expected/actual quality.
What was said next, on the other hand, is rather true:
frankly I had never liked any of them very much because I always felt like they had a thinned out body.
Most old sheng pu’er are just that: old and underwhelming. The emphasis is on the word “most”, because there are few and rare 50, 75, 100+ yrs old teas out there that will blow anybody’s mind and alter one’s understanding about what a great old pu’er is all about and why they are valued in the six or seven figures USD per cake. The biggest caveat is, of course, storage and provenance. Storage makes or breaks a great tea; that is an undeniable truth.
Secondly, when we are talking about a genuine mid-1980’s Menghai Tea Factory 8582, there is absolutely no need for any flashy description whatsoever. To borrow a wine analogy, a 1982 Chateau Petrus neither needs an introduction nor a flashy description; those who know, know that the name and the vintage speak for itself, and very loudly so. I mean no offense, but if a flashy description is your deciding factor to buy or not to buy, then perhaps you shouldn’t waste your money until you understand why it never needed a flashy or romantic description.
Having said all the above, the mid-1980’s thick paper Menghai Tea Factory 8582 on EoT’s site looks genuine from all details and visual cues in the photos provided, and it has been stored impeccably clean considering its age. It has telltale signs of past humid storage (light to medium-light), but that was a long time ago. It seems that the cake being offered (and photographed by EoT) has been stored well in a natural dry environment for many, many years (natural dry ≠ cryogenic-bone dry). Overall, I would say it looks great. To be a bit more specific, among the 3 versions of mid-1980's 8582 ever produced, this is the thick papyrus paper version, and therefore, it was custom ordered by Hong Kong Nantian Trading Co. in the mid-1980’s (1985 – 1987) and produced by Menghai Tea Factory on Nantian Co.’s behalf.
Lastly, the million dollar question: does it taste great?
And the million dollar answer is: there is only one way to find out,
BUT you’d be missing the point if you expect and demand that the tea must be great for you. After all, it's $36/gram, one would say.
The proper midset, however, should be about the experience and the learning you may (or may not) gain from tasting a genuine 8582 from the very era it was first produced. What you’ll obtain for your money is perspective and reference with which you can use to compare and contrast any 8582’s made in other years/decades/eras, as well as the various mind-numbing batch numbers.
You may
not like this tea (so please don’t say you weren’t cautioned). Why? Well, maybe the tea had been stored poorly, despite all the terrific visual information provided on EoT's website. The likelier case, if you didn't enjoy the experience, is you don’t understand it yet for lack of mental reference and experience on what good old teas are like. And if that's the case, perhaps it isn’t such a bad idea to give it a try. After all, every learning experience has its starting point, so might as well start it. Oh, and the learning never stops.
Hope this helps. And I sincerely apologize if my candor offended anyone.
Kindest regards,
Phyll
