80s-90s Broken Pieces Sheng Puer

This tea consists of broken pieces from a single batch of sheng puer produced sometime during the 1980s or 1990s. According to my source, the cakes were intentionally broken apart before being acquired in the early 2000s to encourage the humid storage character to fade more quickly. Unlike many lots of broken puer, this is reportedly a single tea rather than a blend.

Having spent significant time in Hong Kong’s humid storage before arriving in Taiwan, its history is still evident. However, after years of subsequent storage in relatively dry Taiwanese conditions, these storage notes have settled into a very approachable profile.

The liquor is dark with good body, offering a mellow, smooth profile with a nice aged flavor and notes of forest floor. Although softened by years of humid storage, the tea still retains a recognizable sheng character. There is some roughness to the texture, but it never becomes drying. Instead, it promotes ample salivation and leaves the mouth nicely coated.

This tea has good endurance, continuing to produce satisfying cups well into the later steeps. Its energy is what I expect from aged sheng puer, making it particularly well suited to slow, focused, and contemplative tea sessions.

While it may not possess the refinement and complexity of exceptional aged sheng, it offers something increasingly difficult to find at this price: a genuine, mature sheng puer experience with good depth.