2003 Menghai Tea Factory Purple Dayi
This is a comparison between a verified 2003 Purple Dayi 7542 (shown above) and a version from Houde which may or may not be an official Dayi production. Thanks to iso231 for making this tasting possible! I tried these teas side by side but also several times by themselves.
First the Dayi: Smoky wash, with sweet pungent empty cup aroma. First steep is classic Dayi warmth, sweetness, and a touch of smokiness. Mid steeps are super concentrated, reddish brown, with a juicy sweet plumminess and a blast of heating and focusing energy. Calming, somewhat lethargic. Quite astringent in the mid steeps. Later steeps are herbal, with a more narrow mild bitter-serious profile.
The Houde tea (the lighter colour in all photos) starts with a milder, watery, and slight green arrival. Some throat activity, with a faintly juicy background. Some brassiness, and some harshness especially in the mid steeps. The Houde storage is particularly strange, giving this 20-year-old tea a combination of acrid dark green notes and some nice pungent honey aroma. Quite a lot of chalky astringency. Strongly warming in the mid steeps. The overall profile is quite thick, gasoline darkness, with acridity. Uplifting energy.
The Houde tea presents as much younger tea without the expected aged notes, but it is very plausible to me that these are essentially the same teas. Wet leaves are quite similar in terms of rolling and size distribution. Both show more serious leathery Menghai and Bulang character, with the Houde tea being a bit more narrow and less juicy than the Dayi. The Taiwan-stored Dayi resembles other 7542 from that era, but is more Bulang-forward, narrow, and serious than, say, the 502-7542, which is sweeter and juicier. Interestingly, I find the 501-7542 is stronger than this tea, although both would benefit from significant further aging. The Houde version needs quite a few years in the hotbox!
4.7 (Houde storage) / 6.2 (Taiwan storage)