2004 Dayi purple label 7542 sheng pu'er

The first thing many people would consider related to a tea like this is "is it real?"  The original draft of this post only said a little about that, but then after talking to a friend and tea expert I added more on that theme.

There's a pretty good chance that this tea is what the label implies that it is, but even that takes some unpacking, for missing reference to a number or version name.  The source and back-story is that my favorite local Bangkok Chinatown shop, Jip Eu, bought this tea quite awhile ago.  According to them it's a 2004 tea purchased by them in 2004, from a Dayi outlet, a version of 7542.  It spent almost that entire time here in Bangkok.

In Facebook tea groups and other circles people often suggest that any tea that hasn't been verified by a tea expert, or traced back to an original source purchase, isn't "real."  Rumors can even start based on limited or bad information.  I'm not that sort of expert, or interested in those forms of hearsay.  

There was a local rumor going around that this particular tea isn't authentic, based on what may or may not be good input.  I've heard more about that story, the moving parts, but it seems as well to leave it at that, to mostly just dismiss it here.

I'll cite a reference that may be a type description and earlier review, which is quite likely talking about this tea from this same source, since it's from a local Thai blogger.  He's not identifying the version as a numbered type, but in looking around references come up (there or here) to a time-period version of 7542 having a purple label as well, and the shop--who bought it--at least now thinks it is that numbered type.  That other reference:

2003 Purple Dayi (Menghai Tea Factory) (reviewed in 2015)

The 2003 Purple Dayi is one of a series of reproductions from 2001 to 2004 by Menghai Tea Factory to replicate the iconic 1996 Purple Dayi. The tea is old style Menghai production consisting of plantation raw material that is brutal in character. The tea is made for long term aging... 

Upon its initial released to the market I found the 2003 Purple Dayi to be almost undrinkable such was its brutal nature. Whilst the passing decade has served to mellow the tea and darken its character, it remains a powerful storm of aggression. The raw elements are present in strength and with vigor. The brew gives off a storm of wood smoke and erodes the senses with rough waves of bitter astringency that leaves the mouth faintly numb. Close to the finish, after the storm has subsided a rainbow emerges and the sweet taste of a new beginning reveals hope for a brighter future. 

Poetic, interesting.  "Brutal;" I like that.  I'm not sure if that version description is accurate.  This photo citation seems to match up, but doesn't provide a lot of extra background:

Even if this really is that version (which isn't clearly identified as 7542, or tied to any number recipe) the better part of 6 years is a long time for a tea to age / ferment here in Bangkok, related to that January 2015 review date.  Any tea not held in air conditioning is subject to hot and humid conditions, a combination that would change tea character fast.  The exact same cake wouldn't be remotely the same. 

So one strange part is that Dayi seemed to be using the same plain purple wrapper for two different teas at the same time.  Or maybe not; that's only going off parts of different references.  That reviewer said the tea was from 2003, and if it was the exact same version it could be that the vendor bought it in 2004 and it had been a 2003 tea.  I mentioned in a post recently about Kittichai, that owner, making a version himself, literally processing the tea, and saying it was between 2012 and 2014 when he did that, mentioned at the end of 2019.  Getting old is like that; you need to see the old email trail or photo caption to even pin down a year that something happened.

A friend (Ralph, for those of you who know him) looked up an online reference that he felt confirmed it was "real," based on minor errors in the label matching actual errors in that label (eg. a letter being slightly crooked), from this vendor source:

Checking Steepster turned up a review of a 2003 Menghai "Purple Da Yi 7432" Raw Aged Puerh (but of course no label photo).  That's only so relevant, since I've not fully determined this is from the same year or version type, never mind the same batch, but it's still interesting (from a 2014 review):

The dry leaf promised much with its hot hay aroma. It smelt good and promised a robust and pleasing experience. Sadly the liquor failed to deliver. It has a nice bitterness at the back of the mouth and in the throat and is quite smooth, but in the end it left me feeling that something was missing. There is a slight smokiness, perhaps a hint of grape, a soupçon of sweetness but really not much more...  It is bland and underwhelming, and failed to enthrall me. If I wished to damn it with faint praise, I would describe it as nice. That is all it is.

Then again 11 years of dry-storage aging for a lot of sheng would go badly.  That's towards the end of the period where it wouldn't be even close to fully aged yet, not softened or deeper in aspect range, but not exhibiting the positive fresh flavors from earlier on, which probably went along with a challenging astringency and bitterness for a tea like that.  Going through a relatively flat phase wouldn't be unheard of.  This cake spending 16 years in a very hot and humid place would put it in a completely different place for fermentation character and level, which of course varies along with the starting point.

I asked a real sheng expert for input, since I'd been bothering the author of a Tea Addict's Journal about some other point recently.  From looking over the pictures he said that it doesn't look obviously fake, and that the paper fold in the back may provide a good clue.  That alone is interesting to consider, but a bit hard to check out, since you then need to become familiar with how it should be.

Now that I think of it I last reviewed a 2003 Dayi 7542 version two months ago, a tea that was part of a Liquid Proust sheng sample set; I guess that's a fortunate coincidence.  This post is really about how this tea is, not a comparison with that, or any other.  And to return to the point I think that this is a 2004 tea, but it would be easy for that shop owner to forget that they had bought a 2003 version instead back in 2004.  With varying storage conditions it wouldn't really make sense to try to look back to whether the starting point was probably similar or identical, even if I knew two versions were from the same production batch, although that "separated at birth" theme can be interesting.  

Going in I was wondering if this wouldn't be a bit musty, since the teas they pull straight out of storage at Jip Eu tend to be that way, and then that seems to clear off relatively completely after two months or so.  It's my current impression--which may well change later--that limiting airflow quite a bit, by which I mean restricting any exposure to air, not "sitting out," does cause a sheng to become musty over many years time, but that this can "clear off" well.  My review impression here doesn't bring that up as a factor.  If it was out in a cabinet near the front of the shop for awhile that would support that "airing out" function.

I still wonder if this won't change a bit over the next month or two.  Teas settling is a funny thing; sheng often tends to develop depth and shift aspects a little over that time-frame.  The standard take is that shipping related temperature and humidity changes cause that, but I think moving from one set of storage conditions to another also would, even without getting cold or dry.

It goes without saying but "Bangkok storage" definitely wouldn't be just one thing.  The first and second floor temperatures in our house vary a lot, every day, and our home environment is probably a lot more humid for there being so many plants in a jungle-like yard and garden there.  Air contact changes a lot, as the background smells of any type of environment would.  I'm not going anywhere specific with this, just pointing out the obvious, that lots of little variations would add up.

one version of the house jungle, just after a thorough pruning

Review:

First infusion:  interesting!  I expected some mustiness but this is quite clean.  An earthy range stands out, towards leather or dark wood, like that pleasant smell in a Lipton tea bag, which doesn't necessarily carry over to flavor in those.  This has an edge to it, a form of astringency I'm not so familiar with. 

The flavor and character is in the range I'd expect for a tea of this type and age, it's just cleaner than I thought it would be.  Really the next two rounds will show more where this is going; this is an early take.  It's very promising; I can't imagine that this won't loosen up to show a lot of depth and complexity, and become approachable in a very interesting way.  It's not unapproachable now, but that flavor range and a slight resinous feel should soften and deepen.

Second infusion:  this has tons of depth, and it's very clean.  The storage issue I spoke of in the intro doesn't seem to apply to this, a potential trace of mustiness.

Flavor covers a lot of range.  Warm mineral provides a nice base context, like a clean version of iron bar.  At the forefront a complex set of flavors stand out, like cured, tangy leather, with some dark wood, a bit of dried fruit, along the line of Chinese date / jujube, carrying over to dry autumn leaf high notes.  It wouldn't be wrong to interpret traces of wild mushroom in this, just a clean version of that, no odd funkiness that can come across as fungus related.  

The feel is cool, and the way all of that experience trails as aftertaste.  It works.  I think this fermentation level and form are positive, although really developing a broader perspective on those inputs and outcomes is where I am headed, and not there yet.

Third infusion:  really hitting its stride, but this will probably keep shifting over the next few rounds.  A faint touch of mushroom, probably slightly stronger in this round, might put some people off, but compared to how that plays out in some Xiaguan tuochas there is none of that at all.  Intense warm mineral really gives this great depth, along with the list of other flavors from last round.  Really it's just a touch cleaner in feel than the last round, and a faint trace more complex, but it was fine related to both then.  Spending a lot of time in Bangkok has led to this being quite far along for fermentation, but none of the potential off flavors tie to that, or at least the worst versions of those, mustiness, basement or attic related flavor, geosmin (dirt, give or take), or touch of char.

Fourth infusion:  that touch of mushroom is giving way to warm mineral that's closer to a touch of char, I just wouldn't usually describe this as that.  I like the balance, the flavor set, and the feel and aftertaste range also works.  There's a lot of intensity to this tea; it must have started out really strong. 

Fifth infusion:  the flavors list mentioned before shifts towards tree bark, a warm, earthy, heavy flavor, but one that is still clean in overall effect.  It matches that slightly resinous feel.

Sixth infusion:  a root spice sort of depth that was present in last round, but less significant than the bark tone, picks up.  It's cool how this keeps shifting.  The balance really works in this tea; it's hard to describe that in terms of the lists of aspects description.  The flavor range, feel, and aftertaste effect all combine well.

Seventh infusion:  the same aspects keep shifting; probably even a two second difference in infusion time is changing the balance of what is experienced.  I should have went with a lower proportion; these rounds are brewing for around 5 seconds and at this rate it's half done, or could go a lot further.

some later infusion; I'm not sure of the count for this photo

Eighth infusion:  more of the same; minor shifting.  I could imagine people absolutely loving this tea or seeing it as a bit "meh," depending on their relation to this set of flavors.  Experienced sheng enthusiasts always make a lot of drinking tea for "cha qi" effect instead, or aftertaste, or overall balance of aspects, but it would seem that flavor range would have to be a factor.  I'm just not well tuned for noticing "energy" effects in tea; I can only tell when quality is an issue, because the negative range stands out more.  A bad version of tea can make me feel like I drank a cup of coffee.

On the positive side the intensity, balance, complexity, and cleanness is quite positive.  On the negative side if a little of that mushroom, iron-bar mineral, and tree bark shifted to sweeter dried fruit tones or more root spice this would come across a lot differently.  I suppose it's possible that this is still coming out of storage influence and could shift, even over the next two months, but it just didn't have any of the cement block / basement / musty attic storage flavor range I had expected.  

Ninth infusion:  some of that kind of transition I just spoke of seems to still be playing out as the rounds progress; this is a little sweeter, with flavors covering a slightly different range.  What I meant before by "bark spice" relates to that.  Cinnamon is the only bark spice that comes to mind, and casia, roughly the same thing, but when I was going through a long run of tisane interest many years before others came up.  It would work to interpret the flavor as not far off dried tamarind too, which is catchy, especially within the context of the rest.

Tenth infusion:  I'll probably let this description drop here; I've got stuff to do, and the main story has been told.  I'd guess this will still be very positive out towards 15 rounds for using quite fast infusion times.  I let this round brew for well over 10 seconds, the first round I've really stretched out timing like that.

Still not so different than last round.  That long list of flavors I keep mentioning is about where it was last round.  Letting infusion time go longer and longer will draw out more of the heaviest mineral range.  Feel is thinning, and aftertaste intensity.  The overall effect is still similar, and the late rounds shifting to a cool flavor range is nice.  

This is nothing like those cases of drinking a 10 year old, somewhat dry stored sheng, and guessing when it might be more ready.  It's ready.  If it cleans up just a little, and sweetens and gains a little depth, over a few more months of getting a little extra air contact it will be exceptional.  But I really like it just as it is.

Conclusions:

I tried a few more rounds of this later but it was tapering off.  It would've worked to keep drinking it but things just didn't work out that way, since I was busy.  I didn't emphasize it much but some of the feel seemed to hint a little towards an astringency dryness, as if this wasn't through whatever transition it was going to complete.  If it is 16 years old, or even 17, then some people might expect it to potentially have further to go with fermentation, but usually that's an awful lot of time for here.  

That 2003 7542 I mentioned recently reviewing (said to have experienced Hong Kong natural storage) reminded me of Liu Bao in early rounds, for fermentation related effect covering so much wet slate / heavy mineral range.  It was really fermented tea; you could taste it and see it in the leaves:

that Liquid Proust 2003 7542, "HK natural stored"

this tea, which spent the time in Bangkok

Re-reading these different earlier reviews reminded me that different people would describe the exact same experience in different ways (which really does go without saying).  Some type of underlying earthiness could be associated with a version of wood tone or as cured hay, for example.  One person would focus a lot on feel effect, and another might emphasize flavor.  To me this de-values the usefulness of tea reviews, but it's not as if some degree and detail of impression can't be communicated.

All in all a cool experience, something I look forward to repeating.