2003 7542 Hong Kong Commission

// Published July 6, 2025 by mgualt

I just attended a conference where I met a good friend (and great mathematician!) from Hong Kong who happens to be a long time puerh drinker. I asked if she brought any teas to the conference, and she showed me a ziploc bag filled with ~6g chunks of puerh pulled from a cake back home. From smelling the bag, it appeared to be a mid-aged sheng with very good natural dry storage. Despite my protests, she insisted that I take the whole bag, minus a couple of chunks she needed to survive the conference. Now that I’m back in Toronto, I can review the tea properly.

We don’t have much information about the tea; she believes it is a 2003中茶7542. To my eye, it seems like it could be the 2001年中茶绿印繁体云7542 official production from Menghai Tea Factory, but it could easily be a private commission from MTF in 2003, using the 7542 recipe. The blend certainly looks and tastes like other 2001 or 2003 7542 from Menghai that I’ve tried, but with natural dry storage. The wet leaf is strongly rolled, slightly wider distribution of sizes than modern 7542, and does not have any toad skin blisters.

The smell from the wet leaf has a very subtle smoky aroma, as well as a slightly sweet woody incense aroma. No geosmin. The liquor starts off light orange, gets darker orange but doesn’t quite get to red. The tea starts off mild, sweet, with a classic Menghai taste with dry storage. As it opens up in the next few steeps, it gets quite juicy, with a medium oily texture and a satisfying mouthfeel with medium astringency. The empty cup aroma is mild but excellent, with sweet agarwood resin.

I asked my friend what she likes about this tea; her answer was simple: it makes her feel good, and significantly better than many other teas she’s tried. It’s an uplifting tea, with a clear satisfying profile and attractive taste. Not overpowering, no heart racing, and no sluggishness. It doesn’t last for very many steeps but it has quite sufficient longevity. A very enjoyable and impressive tea with excellent Hong Kong storage. Another comment about the storage: the dry tea has a subtle matte appearance, in which the various tones of light to dark brown somewhat blend together in a more uniform appearance — this is quite different from many Malaysian natural dry storage examples, where the contrast between light and dark leaves is accentuated. Hard to explain definitively, but it is a pattern I’ve noticed with other teas. Many thanks to my friend for her generosity! 8.1

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