Video: unwrapping and breaking down the cake
This 357g cake is DaYi's "Jin She Qi Tian" (Golden Snake Soaring to the Sky - Lunar Snake Year Commemorative Cake), a sheng (raw) puerh from 2025.
Tea Profile
At a glance: 2025 · Sheng (raw) puerh · 357g cake · Menghai Tea Factory · 1st batch
- Compression & dry leaf: The leaf is tightly compressed into a 357g cake. The leaf itself shows neat, tight threads and visible buds.
- Liquor: It brews a clear, bright, amber to golden liquor.
- Taste: The first steeps are fresh, with some bitterness. The middle steeps bring out floral notes with a touch of honey, plum and orchid, with a sweet and rich taste.
- Mouthfeel & body: In the mouth it feels thick, silky and rounded.
- Aftertaste: Look for a strong hui gan, salivation (sheng jin) and a long finish after each cup.
- Best for: improving your tea experience — worth reaching for once you have moved past being a beginner.
Tasting Notes
DaYi’s official tasting notes, infusion by infusion:
- 1st infusion: Deep yellow liquor; lively, soaring powdery sweetness with dense fruit-honey notes; sweet, moist entry; fragrance blooming on lips and tongue; swift returning sweetness and salivation.
- 2nd–4th infusions: Amber-golden, radiant; honeyed wild breath like rain on orchids; thick and robust, deeply flavored; returning sweetness flowing like cool mountain springs, waves of lingering sweetness.
- 5th–7th infusions: Lustrous honey-yellow edged in gold; fruit-honey richness with powdery nobility; potent and intense, sweet-bitter harmony sweeping the mouth; throat perfume, visceral thrill.
- 8th–9th infusions: Bright honey-yellow; floral, honeyed sweetness in graceful arcs; robust depth yielding to grace; sweet resonance prolonged.
- 10th infusion: Clear yellow-bright; enduring tea essence; refined, cool and sweetly vibrant; salivation drawn out, echoes infinite.
Brewing Guide
- Water: fully boiling, 100°C (212°F).
- How to brew:
- Add around 5g of tea for every 100ml.
- Give the leaves one quick rinse — cover with boiling water for about 5 seconds and discard. Then put the lid on and leave the leaves to open up for about 10 minutes.
- Start with 10–15 second steeps, lengthening by about 5 seconds each round.
- Pour the liquor into a sharing pitcher.
- Serve and resteep — sheng puerh goes many rounds.
- Think of this as a starting point rather than a rigid method. Try pouring high or low, fast or slow, and adapt to the season until it suits you. Brewing one tea at its best in any year, season, weather or place is a skill built over time — and that is the real goal.
Storage
Keep it in a ventilated, cool, dry spot, shielded from sunlight and strong odors (cooking spices, cigarette smoke). If you plan to age it long-term, paper or clay containers breathe better than airtight plastic.
A Note on Appearance
Not all cakes develop these — the chances simply rise with longer storage.
- Small dark specks: naturally stored puerh can develop tiny dark specks on its wrapper or edges. They are harmless and brush off easily before brewing.
- Tea oil spots: yellowish spotting can occur from natural tea oils. This is not a flaw.
- Torn wrapper: minor tears or holes in the cotton wrapper sometimes happen in storage and transit. The tea itself is unaffected.
