2003 Purple Dayi 7542

// Published March 6, 2018 by mgualt

Thanks to Johan for sending me this generous sample of Purple Dayi 7542, which is originally from Olivier of Puerh.fr fame.

It is the second time I’ve tried this tea, my first taste was from dry Hong Kong storage.

There is a dark aroma on dry leaf. No geosmin, no funk. Very light aroma overall. Clearly the storage is dry.

  1. Thick texture, light flavour. Dry storage is clear from the get-go.  Nice sweet empty cup aroma. The style of storage is not familiar, it is very different from any storage I’ve tried – different from HK, Taiwan or Malaysia. The closest is Mike Pong’s storage in Malaysia/Singapore in the sense that this had a kind of rose incense aroma, but this tea has much less prominent storage note.  It is different but very good I think, and not obtrusive.  Mild salivation after. Significant alertness and some mini-frisson.
  2. Solid orange. Slightly cloudy. Good liquor aroma. Dark, woody. More sweetness in taste, slick texture. Significant small tannins. Aftertaste is very good, tart, gripping, and salivating with sweetness. Excellent aftertaste. Quite impressive frisson. Major waves beginning to travel about the body.
  3. Big tannins on roof of mouth. Concentrated flavour. Mild arrival of bitter herbs. Development is juicier, progressing quite a lot to salivation in the finish.  Crazy waves of frisson including ears, neck, arms. Clear orange liquor. Dense liquor. Much full-mouth salivation. After 3 minutes, full body skin-buzzing effect, frisson about the head and motion throughout the body. Slow breating. Very strong, quite inspirational.
  4. Super mouth gripping due to tannins, but of the good kind. Storage notes are still detectable, it’s low intensity and it’s a kind of meaty-floral incense. Storage taste is quite neutral and light but the difference from what I’m used to makes it stand out.
  5. Quite aggressive tannins and more bitterness
  6. More fruity now, Incense on empty cup, fine tannins.
  7. Losing quite a lot now. 2 minute steep, light orange. Bittersweet. Strong tannins. Very astringent. Lighter but actually has the oily rim of flavour effect. Salivation still present.
  8. Salivation continues, strong tannins. Light flavour. Juicy melting effect. Residual mouthfeel is indeed rich. Tannic salivation.
  9. Thick after 5 minute steep but low flavour and very light orange. Mild bittersweet flavour.

This tea seems like a properly dry stored Dayi 7542. The storage is clean, and slightly unusual, with a very light meaty-floral incense aroma. It is also more aged than the HK Dry stored one I tried earlier. This has a darker colour and a faster trajectory through the steeps, and has much more sweetness than what I experienced with the other cake.  I believe the HK Dry stored one was more bitter and stronger in qi, although this still has very strong energy indeed.  I would guess that this cake has seen hotter temperatures than the HK dry stored one and has developed just a bit faster.  My favourite aspects of this tea are the wonderful mouthfeel and salivation in the early steeps and the intense waves of energy buzzing throughout the body.

 

Comments

  1. Martin
    September 2, 2023 @ 7:22 pm

    What a review! Your description of what the tea does is bith specific and imaginative. I also appreciate the reference to the source and the analysis is storage. Very interesting to me as a tea novice. Thanks!

    Reply

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