The 8542 recipe debuted in 1985, drawing on the famous 7542: mainly grade 4 and coarser leaves from the Menghai Tea Factory. A sturdy, honest sheng built to age.
Tea Profile
At a glance: 2007 · Sheng (raw) puerh · 357g cake · grade 4 and coarser leaf · DaYi (Menghai Tea Factory)
- Compression & dry leaf: This tea is sold as a 357g cake. The dry leaf shows grade 4 and coarser leaf.
- Liquor: The liquor is typically amber to orange-amber for sheng of this age.
- Taste: Over time a sheng of this kind can turn mellower; how far depends on storage.
- Mouthfeel & body: An older sheng like this may feel softer and rounder in the mouth than a young one.
- Aftertaste: Sheng like this usually leaves some returning sweetness (hui gan).
- Best for: improving your tea experience — worth reaching for once you have moved past being a beginner.
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.
