I'll copy the vendor's site listing here before posting this review, and just write a few comments first, then the notes. Bing Dao is one of the two higher profile, known sheng pu'er types, along with Lao Ban Zhang. Other origin area types would be great too; it just worked out that way.
I've not tried much of it, at all, maybe only a couple of versions. So this won't get far with describing what it type-typical, and will focus on this tea. I think it should be sweet, floral, and complex, with great depth and refinement, supported by a pleasant mineral base, and balanced bitterness. But then that works for a lot of sheng range in general. Maybe the flavor range should be distinctive, in a way I'm not recollecting. Let's see how it is, and maybe refer to a second or third reference later, beyond the product listing description.
This is presented as a coin, or tiny single serving cake. To me that opens up faster and works better than the dragonball / pearl style, letting all of the tea infuse at the same rate.
It's in an 8 gram size, with an indentation in the coin enabling splitting it to drink in two 4 gram parts. That would make sense; for better quality tea it can work to go lighter on the proportion (than 7 or 8 grams per 100 ml volume worth), to enable more careful control of brewing timing. At 8 grams you are more just flash infusing the tea, versus really dialing in the strength you want.
I'll still use 8 for this initial tasting; it's more my habit, my own personal norm, and that changes things. 7 grams would be enough, but 8 isn't too much, even though I'll probably end up mentioning the trade-off for using a higher proportion in this.
Let's check the Oriental Leaf site listing:
Bingdao Aged Raw Pu-erh Coin Cakes — Mengku Rongshi ($17.50 for 40 grams, for five 8 gram coins)
Raw pu-erh from Bingdao's core growing area, made from 2020 harvest material that was aged before being pressed and released. Mengku Rongshi — the brand widely credited with establishing Bingdao's reputation — has been sourcing from this area since 1984. Classic Bingdao character: rock-sugar sweetness, a clean cooling finish, and strong salivation that stays long after the cup is empty. Compressed into 8g coin cakes, packaged in small boxes of five. Available as a single box (40g) or a full set of eight boxes (320g)...
Mengku Rongshi has been sourcing from the area since 1984, long before it was a name anyone outside the local tea trade knew. When the brand released their first Bingdao tea, the "Mother Tree" ( 母树茶), in 2005, it was among the first to formally introduce this material to a wider market.
The raw material for this tea was harvested in 2020 from high-grade Bingdao area gardens — one bud plus two leaves, selected to the same standard as the brand's other Bingdao products.
Rather than pressing immediately after processing, the brand held the material in dry storage at their Yunnan factory — allowing it to settle, integrate, and develop before compression. The first batch was pressed and released in 2023 after aging in dry storage. Subsequent batches — released in 2024, 2025, and 2026 — draw from the same 2020 material, pressed and released in their respective years.
After leaving the factory, the tea has been stored in Xi'an, in northwest China. Xi'an's climate is dry, with low annual humidity and clear seasonal variation — a natural dry storage environment that allows aging to continue cleanly and slowly, without the intervention of high ambient moisture.
To me that was interesting background, so I included a bit more than I usually do. I don't include the typical "is it real?" discussion point in this. It probably is, but some people always question everything related to high demand origin teas, and there isn't much more to say about that. For some maybe the cost would seem too low; it is a bit reasonable, which some could see as a red flag.
So this is 2020 material; interesting! I didn't guess that it was that age transitioned. Value seems really good for this high an in-demand region, and the quality and character is positive. On with the notes then.
Review:
First infusion: the smell is already sweet and floral, before trying it. This will be a bit light for taking notes on flavors though; it's still opening up. Initial impression is positive; it is sweet, floral, and complex. But the next round will tell a more detailed story. There's a bright, fruity, creaminess to this already, even though the intensity is low.
Second infusion: bitterness emerges, along with more other sweet flavor range. Intensity is good; this really hits on a lot of levels, even though it's really still opening up. The mineral is a little intense, along the range of a dry rock type, maybe limestone. Bitterness balances reasonably well, but it's still evolving, not even at its normal, opened leaf infusion character yet. Flavor range is mostly floral, but it leans towards fruit.
Aftertaste is starting to pick up already, even though the tea intensity and character isn't in its normal form yet. It's clearly quite good. Given how this is coming across I'd expect the next round to be much more intense, even brewed fast, with bitterness, mineral, and an astringency edge as pronounced as it will be, evolving to soften over the next two rounds after. But we'll see.
Third infusion: intensity is interesting in this, even for being brewed fast. So it's on to the trade-off of using a high proportion already; there is no dialing the timing down to try a lighter infusion, at this proportion. The mineral tone seems to include a little dryness, which isn't coming across as a flaw, but it is distinctive in a way that some would love and others might not. It will probably fade soon anyway.
Intensity is good; it's a strong tea. Sweetness level is pronounced; that works. Floral range flavors--they're mostly that--are positive, complex and reasonably well balanced. All of this seems a little non-specific, but that's my early impression so far. I'm wondering how new or aged this is; I didn't catch a year. It has a bright, fresh, young sheng character, but the warm tones suggest that it may not be completely new, maybe 2 or 3 years old. But it's hard to tell. A tea could be this fresh after 6 years in cool and dry storage, or longer, and a year or so of heat and humidity could draw out this kind of character here in Bangkok. Within 2 or 3 years teas start to take on middle-age form here, what would be more conventional after 5 to 10 years elsewhere. [Later edit: it's 6 years old, older than I expected].
At this stage the hint of dryness in the strong mineral base would determine a match to preference for someone. Then if that evolves, as I think it will, it would be something else later.
Fourth infusion: a syrupy feel picks up; this had expressed fullness of feel structure before, but now it's in a different form. The flavor tones warm just a little. It's still mostly floral, but a hint of caramel range is emerging. Someone could interpret this as expressing a light citrus edge; that could make sense. Or I guess if you are really "looking for it" it could be as fruity as floral, maybe along the line of including some mango, or dried longan. It's complex, but within a limited range.
Then mineral is a lot of it as well. The dryness that I associate with that mineral tone isn't dropping out, maybe only shifting form slightly. It comes across in the aftertaste expression, and seems to match with a dry structure in the feel. This includes bitterness, but it doesn't carry over as a strong hui gan aftertaste sweetness effect. Moderating intensity may serve this well, using the 4 gram approach instead. It has plenty of sweetness and flavor to express, and brewed quite light it might fall into a different kind of balance. That's not intended as an "oh no, I've screwed this up" kind of observation, more about where an optimum might be.
I drank a little cold water to reset my palate after this round, and experienced that sweetness effect that can come up, where it tastes like there is sugar in it, a carry-over from the tea effect. The mineral and trace of dryness seems to mask that part of the aftertaste effect, for me, the sweetness after swallowing, but the water really brought it out.
This tea seems a bit strong, the stoney cha qi effect. It would be nice if I liked such a thing more. I have a history with drug use, well in my past now, so I avoid almost anything that shifts my balance of perception, I guess with the exception of running. Tea also does, but I eat first, or with the tea, to offset that. My normal mental balance is fine; my energy level varies a little, but my mental state is typically clear and positive enough.
Fifth infusion: this is the most positive this has been. The bitterness and astringency edge are fading, and strong flavors stand out all the more. Mostly floral, still, or that could be interpreted as floral with some fruit input. The touch of creaminess that stood out very early on is ramping back up. It comes across as creamsicle, as a touch of orange combined with actual cream, or ice cream. The other fruit range I was describing included a hint of citrus, and the rest isn't closely related, but it adds to overall complexity. Intensity is pretty good too; I'm not intending to downplay that here. And overall balance, refinement, etc.
This tea should evolve positively over the next few years, and then I probably wouldn't like it as much as a more aged version later on, since it's positive now. It's not one of the more approachable, easy to drink, oolong oriented style sheng pu'er versions, but it's not challenging at all either. Mineral intensity, bitterness, and a touch of dry feel (astringency) balance well with the rest, but those wouldn't suit everyone in the same way.
For feel input alone drinking 4 grams of this at a time might make more sense. It's strong. Five rounds of two teas--a common review comparison form here--usually doesn't contribute the same kind of stoney effect. I'll either try one more round and get blasted or take a 15 minute break and come back to this. Maybe the break; it's kicking in plenty already.
Sixth infusion: it falls into better and better balance. The bitterness, astringency, flavor range, and depth are all the best they've been. Tones were warming, and I suppose that hasn't changed since the last round, but it's warmer than earlier rounds. The flavor list stays the same as described earlier. I suppose within a round or two the overall balance will shift enough that it will seem different, or if I brew the next round fast enough that might change things.
Seventh infusion: for brewing two infusions one after the other, and a second one lighter, intensity finally dropped off a little. It's fine this way, but it's not more magical, or completely different. To me the feel range is positive in this, but it's also intense, with a bit of drying effect, just less than earlier. Good sweetness and positive flavor balances that, but in other really nice tea versions that can come across more as fullness than structure, if that makes sense. Taken one way it sounds like I'm describing oolong in comparison with sheng; I mean within the typical range sheng expresses.
It's interesting that it's a cool morning, at 10 AM, but I'm sweating a lot. This tea is affecting both my mind and body. It has been an unusually rainy monsoon season, raining every day for a couple of weeks; that's a lot of it too.
During that flooding cycle period last week it was over 80% RH during the days, the most humid I've ever seen it. It must be in the high 70s just now (77%, 30 C, feeling like 32, my phone says; that relative heat index sounds a little unreliable). A second source says it's 89 F (32), 73%, and feels like 103. I'm going to go run in an hour anyway; I finally beat that foot problem I had, by taking a month off of running.
Eighth infusion: smooth, balanced, complex, and tasty. The mineral starts to resemble a hint of smoke, changing form from rock to include whatever other range. It's definitely not dropping out. For someone who absolutely loves sheng intensity this expresses an interesting and positive form of that. That distinctive feel might not be for everyone, the heavy astringency structure and bit of dryness. For a young sheng drinker it's just normal though, not even that pronounced in form, since remotely "young" factory sheng would express much more rough structure and dryness. 7542 would take a dozen years to be this approachable, or maybe 20 under dry storage, and by then the positive fresher flavor aspects would have shifted to a less distinctive, middle-aged form.
I suppose it's fair to say that I liked the Ban Zhang tea version character I just reviewed better. Stronger sweet flavor range stood out even more, and feel wasn't as structured, or dry at all. That's because I am acclimated to tolerate, or even crave, challenging, intense sheng versions, but I like strong flavored and sweet but approachable forms the best.
Conclusions:
So very positive. It's not meaningful to say that I happened to like some other origin and source version better; that was more about my own style preference than a quality judgement. Looking back on the review notes comment that might have related to really liking the fresh, bright, intense floral range that can tend to start transitioning to warmer tones within a few years, even if it can come at a cost in terms of heavier bitterness and astringency in some versions. For me a broad range of bitterness is fine, if it balances with the rest.
It's interesting considering that this is a 6 year old tea version. It had definitely transitioned some, but not nearly as much as any tea spending 6 years in Bangkok would, regardless of starting point. The initial brightness and freshness is long gone when a tea spends that long here. It seemed younger, to me, but that probably partly relates to that biased expectation of rapid aging. 10 year old dry stored sheng versions seem really fresh to me.
General quality level seemed positive, and character was nice. It was a good sign that it kept brewing positive infusions, even well beyond the 8 described here. It just wouldn't give out. Let's consider their type-typical aspect description:
"rock-sugar sweetness, a clean cooling finish, and strong salivation that stays long after the cup is empty."
I don't know. It was sweet, and flavors were very positive, with good aftertaste expression, especially related to length and "returning sweetness" effect, hui gan, even without a higher than average level of bitterness. Body feel and stoney effect really stood out; I tend to not notice that much, but for this I did.
I looked up an old Bing Dao listing to see if the character seemed similar or not, even though comparing two random versions of a general type or origin example is relatively meaningless. The sample size is too small. But I did review a four year old Bing Dao tea coin in 2022, here. I guess it sounded a bit similar. I didn't have a cost to compare it to; that seemed to be something a friend had shared earlier. So I guess the point here is that you really need to keep trying different versions to have a baseline for comparison. A couple of examples seeming somewhat similar is hard to place.
This tea experience reminded me of a recurring theme in this blog, about how sheng drinkers acclimate to bitterness and then later really crave the tea intensity (more about the second). This tea was intense. To me that's a great thing; it made for a very pleasant experience. For others maybe it could seem a bit much, if they were more into oolong or whatever else. It didn't have challenging feel structure, overwhelming bitterness, or unusually heavy mineral tone intensity, but it was intense across different range, just refined and balanced at the same time. Especially for a 6 year old version; it must have softened and mellowed over time.
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