Denong Pu-erh Brick, Bana Tea Company

Denong Pu-erh Brick, purchased from Bana Tea Company

2006 vintage, autumn harvest

Type: Ripe (fermented) pu-erh, Grades 4-6

Production area: Menghai, Yunnan province

Dried leaves are well-compressed. Once wetted the aroma smells of chestnuts, earth and toasty wood. Color of liquor is a rosy sienna at first infusion but darkens to a beautiful deep mahogany afterward. Mouthfeel is slightly thick. Taste is smooth with no bitterness or dryness. Sweet and soft on the tongue with a mildly sweet aftertaste. This tea has a very mild qi with a relaxing effect felt through the whole body. Not particularly long-lasting, this tea seemed to give it all on the 2nd and 3rd infusions (even pouring streams of dark thick color from the gaiwan on the 2nd infusion), and quickly diminishing after that.