Don Mei : Hey teaheads!
This is Don from Mei Leaf.
In this video I'm going to be introducing you to Sacred Owl.
In this video we're going to talk about this tea, I'm going to SCOPE it with you, and then
we're going to taste it.
This video is going to go under the "Single Tea Tastings" playlist.
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Okay.
So this is Sacred Owl.
Let me give you a nice look at that, focus on it.
There you go.
A beautiful illustration of an owl.
This is a Mei Leaf exclusive, and this is part of our elite tea collection.
What that means is that occasionally we find tea that we think we can't stock in large
quantities, but we're going to get a small amount in because it's an extraordinary tea,
or very unusual tea.
So this is available in very limited edition.
The link to purchase this tea will be somewhere around this video.
Okay.
So let's SCOPE this tea.
SCOPE, for those that don't know, is what we use at Mei Leaf to remind clients of the
questions they should ask whenever they're buying a tea.
So SCOPE stands for : Season, Cultivar, Origin, Picking and Processing, and Elevation.
So let's go through that.
"S", Season.
This is a spring picked tea.
So this is a spring-picked Puérh, [and] it was picked in 2010.
I'm speaking to you from London in November 2015, so this is five years old, currently.
But this is also a ripe Puerh, not a raw Puerh. "C", cultivar.
The cultivar for this is the classic cultivar for Puerh tea.
It's the Assimica, and it's [Da Ye Jong?].
So the big leaf tea Assamica varietal which is commonly used to make Puerh tea.
"O", origin, this comes from Ba Da mountain.
Ba Da mountain in south Yunnan, close to the Burmese border, inhabited mostly by tribal
people like the Bulan and Hani tribes.
So, south Yunnan.
Yunnan has many different areas, and different mountains, so this this is very close to the
borders of Burma.
"P", picking and processing.
This is a RIPE Puer.
So for those that don't know, a ripe Puer means that after the tea is picked and processed
and sun-dried, they pile the tea in wet conditions to speed up the fermentation process.
So this is a ripe Puer, and what's unique about this tea, and the reason why it's part
of our elite tea collection, is that the material - the Mao Cha, the raw tea that was used to
make this ripe Puer - is quite unusual.
This is from a THOUSAND year old ancient arbor tea tree.
So a thousand year old.
I mean, most Gu Shu - or ancient, [old] - tea trees, kind of, start at around 300 years
old, upwards.
So to have tea that's a THOUSAND [years] old is very, very rare.
And to have a COOKED tea - or a RIPE Puerh - that's a thousand years old is almost unheard
of.
That's why we have it as part of our elite collection, because it's a very unusual thing
to find; Gu Shu material made into a ripe cake.
The reason for that is that the ripening process requires quite a lot of work, and so they
reserve it, usually, for large quantities of leaves, not small quantities of leaves
from ancient tea trees.
So this is very unusual, and I spoke to the producer of this tea, and it was almost a
little experiment on his part.
The picking on this is larger leaves.
So we don't have buds here.
This is second and third leaves.
The reason for that is that for thousand-year-old tea trees you would want to save the absolute
tips of the tea pickings for your raw - your Sheng Puerh, your raw Puerh - because that
would command a much higher price, and also, you’d get all of the wonderful complexities
of a raw Puerh, from fresh all the way through to aging.
So they've used the second and third leaves.
But as you will see, really the age of the tea tree still shines through on this tea,
and it's an amazing experience to drink.
For those that don't know, the older the tea tree the deeper the roots, and it means that
it can really reach mineral layers in the soil that other tea trees can't reach, and
really bring a lot of minerality and goodness to the tea leaves.
Also, because it's an older tea tree it slows down its growth.
So again, the tea leaves have plenty of time to build up a lot of nutrients and minerals.
Finally, "E" stands for elevation.
This is a very high grown tea.
This is just under 2,000 meters.
So, high up, equivalent to some high-altitude Oolong teas in Taiwan.
So it's high-altitude, high elevation tea.
Okay.
So that's the SCOPE-ing of Sacred Owl.
Now I'm going to pull the camera around, and we're going to take a look at those leaves.
Okay.
So here we are with a close-up of the cake.
You can see this gorgeous illustration here, and you can see, up here, "1000 Ancient Arbor,
Ba Da, Ripe, Spring 2010".
So "1000 Ancient Arbor" represents the age of the tea trees.
Then "Ba da" is the area.
The fact that this is a ripe tea, and not a raw, and is from Spring 2010.
Okay, so I've already opened this and started using it.
[I] couldn't resist.
But here you go.
Here's the cake.
Look at that color!
Look at that.
[laughter] That's something special.
This is really -- I mean, the clumps of leaf here are amazing.
It's really well fermented.
It reminds me of when they produce LOOSE ripe Puerh, [where] you get these lovely little
clumps of tea called the "tea crowns" or "tea heads", which represent the highest quality
leaves in the ripe Puerh collection.
Okay.
So lovely color.
Beautiful dark, nice and glossy, so you can [really] see that the oils have been lifted
onto the surface of this tea - so beautiful, glossy surface.
It's a quite loose cake, so I can quite easily pull some of these tea leaves off without
breaking too much.
So again, you can see here, [it's] beautiful.
It's not got a lot of bud, so you're going to hardly see any bud here.
You can see second and third leaves, but very, very, very well produced tea, nicely ripened,
and I'm very much looking forward to tasting this tea.
So we're going to brew this now, and we're going to have a taste.
Okay so I've put 7 grams of the tea into 150 ml gaiwan.
So quite a lot.
I want to taste this tea.
I really want to get the most out of it, and I plan to sit here and have many infusions.
So we're not going to waste this tea.
But I've given the tea a rinse, and already it's starting to reveal some very nice notes.
Really interesting.
So none of the horrible, kind of, dried squid, or marine, sea-weedy kind of smells that come
from badly ripened Puerh.
This smells like leather.
It smells like wet wood.
So it's get a really lovely starting nose.
So let's give it a quick flash-brew.
I'm brewing with just-boiled water.
So again, I plan to sit here for a while and drink lots of infusions.
So I'm just going to go through the first infusion with you, and then I will sit alone
and have many infusion.
Yeah.
So you get this nice, kind of, leathery smell.
You get earthiness, obviously, as you would expect.
But slightly woody notes, and slightly medicinal notes as well.
Kind of, Chinese herbal, medicinal, like red date and ginseng, and things like that.
Really quite rich.
Lots going on there.
Let's take a look at the brew.
Okay.
Nice and dark, as you would expect.
Kind of like a very fortified wine, or a dark, dark brandy kind of color.
Let's have a taste...
The texture is nice and thick at the beginning, but then goes very nice and clean, and quite
quenching.
So it has a very smooth mouthfeel, but the finish is very nice and brisk and cleansing,
which is why this kind of tea is so nice if you pair it with rich foods, because it just
cuts through the fat.
It allows you to cleanse the palette really well..
In terms of flavors I do get some of those medicinal notes.
I get, kind of, wet fruitwood, like applewood.
Those kind of quite fresh, wet, freshly cut applewood.
I get the really characteristic, large cavernous, kind of, wet cave.
Those are the notes that I get off this smell as well.
So, lots going on.
I'm going to sit now, have a few infusions, and we'll come back and see how I feel, and
my thoughts on tasting...
Okay.
guys.
We're back, and I am 12 infusions in on this tea.
The age of the tea tree is really, really shining through.
I mean, it just keeps on giving, this tea.
It just won't stop.
It's wonderful how the flavor has changed from fusion one to where we are at now, at
fusion twelve.
So it started off with a lot of that woody, earthy, wet cave flavor profiles, with a,
kind of, leather - almost “varnishy” - kind of, start; freshly varnished leather.
That kind of a flavor profile.
Certainly nothing roasted, or tobacco-y at all.
It’s very earthy, wet cave, and a very nice, clean finish.
Then it starts to move into a little bit more of a simple mineral sweetness.
Then what starts to come in is the fruitier notes of, kind of, Chinese herbs, and fruity
notes like prunes, but quite dried prunes, or slightly heated, roasted prunes.
So you get slight bitterness, but this lovely, overwhelming sweetness as the minerals start
to coat your tongue and your throat.
The age of these tea trees means that it's REALLY mineral-rich.
So there's a lot of sweetness.
There's a lot of lingering feeling, and flavor, from the throat.
It's a really delicious, coating tea.
It's going to be a GREAT digestive, like really good after a heavy meal, because I can feel
how lovely, and quenching, and brisk it is - but then you get this lovely, rounded sweetness.
I also noticed the age of the tea tree because it's starting to give me this - after about
infusion six or seven, I started to feel this tingling sensation all over my tongue.
Like a very light tingling sensation.
Similar to if you've ever had Sichuanese Chinese food, and you bite a Sichuan peppercorn, you
get that little battery-acid tingle that's going on around the tongue.
That's usually a sign of the age of the tea trees because it means that the tea leaves
are full of minerals.
In terms of the feeling, [it's a] nice, settled feeling.
It's not an energetic drink.
[It has] a lovely, settled, balanced, kind of, down energy.
It feels like it has, kind of, centered me.
Some teas get you very hyper.
This one is definitely something to relax into, and enjoy - [a] really balancing tea.
The smell of the empty cup [is] another sign of how mineral rich the leaves are.
It coats the empty cup.
The smell of the empty cup smells exactly like a kind of brandy smell.
Really, really nice.
[A] really gorgeous tea.
That's Sacred Owl.
I do hope that you are able to pick a cake up if you're interested.
We have a limited amount in stock, and part of our Elite Tea Collection, and something
to DEFINITELY get your hands on in terms of the rarity of using such old leaves for a
ripe tea.
Okay.
That's it, teaheads.
If you made it to the end of this video then please give the video the thumbs-up.
Check out our playlists, and let us know if there are any videos you would like us to
make.
If you're ever in London, come and visit us in Camden to say "Hi" and taste our wares.
If you have any questions or comments then fire them over.
Other than that, I'm Don Mei, from Mei Leaf.
Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from the tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because
nobody deserves bad tea.
Bye.