How does it look ? ( CNNP/Xiaguan from 2001-2? )

[Maerskian]

Supposed to be made of 1999 Yiwu maocha pressed into an iron 400g cake around 2001 or 2002 . Even received a sample of it i need to taste some weeks from now.

Not really familiar with how it should look but wondering if anybody has something similar on their stash .

[StoneLadle]

have you tasted this? got pics?

[Maerskian]

have you tasted this? got pics?

Just noticed now... sorry i didn't notice this earlier.

Yes did taste it already. Lots of cups ( lost count, certainly more than average shengs ), nice looking dark color... and think i'd be inclined to say it tasted nice if it wasn't for this omnipresent ( did 2 long sessions with this same sample ) cardboard note spoling everything.

Arguably it could have been storage contamination... which i find awfully strange because:

1) Bought more puerh ( Haiwan sheng & shu + some 2018 Lincang maocha ) from this same store and everything taste as it should and happy with all of it .
2) Both owners seem to have a good understanding of what they have in hands, these CNNP cakes were stored inside a clay jar with similar teas around the same age.
3) The owner told me this sample came from his own cake... the one he was using for his own sessions.

Still... can't get that cardboard taste away from my mind; even though there was some nice notes further away that unpleasant note didn't allow my tongue to "see" properly.

[Balthazar]

Assuming this ain't a tiepai and we can trust the wrapper...

... these two pages have some (Google Translate friendly) info about this tea:

https://bababu24.pixnet.net/blog/post/210323675

http://taishunhe.com/01xghytbzcp.htm

The second link is a vendor, selling the tea for around USD 400 a cake. Don't know what your source charges, but if the price is too good to be true (Xiaguan pre restructuring usually carries a significantly higher price tag), then bad storage might explain it. Cardboard taste certainly sounds like a storage issue.

The Jade Leaf offers it at a "reduced price" (though the 50g sample size price would put the cake price at USD 557) due to too dry storage...

[Maerskian]

Assuming this ain't a tiepai and we can trust the wrapper...

... these two pages have some (Google Translate friendly) info about this tea:

https://bababu24.pixnet.net/blog/post/210323675

http://taishunhe.com/01xghytbzcp.htm

The second link is a vendor, selling the tea for around USD 400 a cake. Don't know what your source charges, but if the price is too good to be true (Xiaguan pre restructuring usually carries a significantly higher price tag), then bad storage might explain it. Cardboard taste certainly sounds like a storage issue.

The Jade Leaf offers it at a "reduced price" (though the 50g sample size price would put the cake price at USD 557) due to too dry storage...

Thank you very much for the additional info!

Certainly was under the impression it looked like a good deal ( 188€ shipped ) but the thing is... the stock from this store didn't change much over the last 4 years and is a well known reliable one for the most part ( just talking about their small sheng / shu section... mostly Haiwan cakes with Euro prices, although those doesn't have the usual Euro markup, relatively reasonable for what it is ) .

They also had at some point two other CNNP aged ( older ) cakes priced at 210€ & 300€+ that sold out with this lone one remaining.

The moment i inquired about it they had 3 left, i suspect they updated their store to reflect the ever tempting "only 1 left" shortly afterwards.

Talked a little bit with one of the owners after placing a multi-cake order ( just some regular Haiwan cakes ) and on top of - apparently - caring about storage and being upfront about the source for this cake ( dry storage ), he was confident enough to send me a 15gr free sample of his own CNNP cake sharing his own notes... where such note isn't mentioned.

Needless to say not talking about such storage defect on this line of business doesn't make much sense... which made it even more surprising, although it'd also explain why this lone cake survived even if it was a dry stored one.

Shame... was under the impression it could have been a nice one, everything else but the cardboard taste felt nice enough.

Not sure if it's possible to get rid of such notes. I own one 2006 Xiaguan Nanzhao Royal Cake ( from KingTeaMall ) that arrived inside a carboard box and smelled like wet carboard... unsurprisingly it transferred to tea as well. It's been a couple years since i last tasted it now i think abou it... need to locate it - easier said than done - and check if there's some progress on that front . Already aired this one for a few nights taking advantage of our light tropical summer nights, not sure if it helped.

[Chadrinkincat]

Assuming this ain't a tiepai and we can trust the wrapper...

... these two pages have some (Google Translate friendly) info about this tea:

https://bababu24.pixnet.net/blog/post/210323675

http://taishunhe.com/01xghytbzcp.htm

The second link is a vendor, selling the tea for around USD 400 a cake. Don't know what your source charges, but if the price is too good to be true (Xiaguan pre restructuring usually carries a significantly higher price tag), then bad storage might explain it. Cardboard taste certainly sounds like a storage issue.

The Jade Leaf offers it at a "reduced price" (though the 50g sample size price would put the cake price at USD 557) due to too dry storage...

These are two different cakes. The one from Emilio was ordered by XY where as the one from Taishunhe is an iron cake custom ordered by someone else.

This should be the same cake as the one from Taishunhe. https://www.sthirtytea.com/product-page ... low-ticket

Here is another example of cake that Emilio sells. https://houdefinetea.com/product/2001-x ... red-batch/

Also, type of paper used on Maerskian’s cake looks different than the Iron cake from Taishunhe.

[Balthazar]

These are two different cakes. The one from Emilio was ordered by XY where as the one from Taishunhe is an iron cake custom ordered by someone else.

Thanks for pointing out, didn't notice the "中茶牌" instead of "珍藏品" on Jade Leaf's while mobile browsing.

[Balthazar]

Shame... was under the impression it could have been a nice one, everything else but the cardboard taste felt nice enough.

It's always sad when an otherwise nice tea has only one, but a very prominent, defect. As for whether or not you could get rid of the cardboard taste, I'm not sure but I wouldn't bet EUR 188 on it

[Maerskian]

Shame... was under the impression it could have been a nice one, everything else but the cardboard taste felt nice enough.

It's always sad when an otherwise nice tea has only one, but a very prominent, defect. As for whether or not you could get rid of the cardboard taste, I'm not sure but I wouldn't bet EUR 188 on it

Me neither ^__^ , if anything was some thoughts in the air more connected to the one 2006 Xiaguan cake i do have with such a defect ( even though that one leans more to moisture spoiled old books rather than plain cardboard ) .