Zhen Cang Kong Que — “collectible peacock” — is DaYi's premium-series peacock: aged strong threads with silver hairs, a distinctive smokiness. This is the 2016 first batch.
Tea Profile
At a glance: 2016 · Sheng (raw) puerh · 357g cake · aged strong leaf · Menghai Tea Factory · 1st batch
- Compression & dry leaf: The leaf is compressed into a 357g cake. In the dry leaf you can see well-formed threads and visible buds.
- Liquor: The liquor is typically golden to amber at this stage.
- Taste: From the first steep the taste is mellow and fresh. Once the leaf opens up, expect a smoky character in a sweet and balanced cup. New details keep appearing in the later steeps.
- Mouthfeel & body: Expect a thick, rounded, mellow mouthfeel.
- Aftertaste: After each sip there is a returning sweetness (hui gan) and plenty of salivation.
- Best for: improving your tea experience, especially if you already know a few sheng teas and want to taste more closely.
Brewing Guide
- Water: bring it to a full boil — 100°C (212°F).
- Steps:
- Use about 5g of tea per 100ml of water.
- Rinse the leaves once with boiling water, about 5 seconds, then pour it away. Cover and let the leaves rest for around 10 minutes.
- Steep 10–15 seconds for the first infusions, adding roughly 5 seconds each round.
- Decant into a sharing pitcher.
- Serve. Sheng puerh stands up well to many resteeps.
- These are starting points, not fixed rules. Play with high or low pours, fast or slow streams, and adjust across seasons until you find your method. Getting the best out of the same tea in any year, season, weather or place takes practice — and that skill is the real goal.
Storage
Store the cake somewhere ventilated, cool and dry, out of direct sunlight and away from strong smells such as kitchen spices or smoke. For aging over years, paper or clay containers allow better airflow than sealed plastic.
A Note on Appearance
You won't find these on every cake — they tend to turn up more often in teas that have been stored longer.
- Small dark specks: on naturally stored puerh, tiny dark specks can show up on the wrapper or around the cake edges. Harmless — just brush them off before brewing.
- Tea oil spots: yellowish spots sometimes appear; they come from the tea's natural oils and are not a defect.
- Torn wrapper: the cotton paper may pick up small tears or holes during storage and handling. The tea inside is fine.
