2003 Xiaguan Yellow Mark Iron Cake Special Commission

This product ships directly from the teashop Taishunhe in Taiwan.

Chinese name: 03年下關黃印鐵餅-珍藏品

TSH says:

A Xiaguan classic made specifically for the Taiwanese market, a limited edition collectible treasure. Rare on the market, stored in a dry warehouse in Taiwan. The one-bud harvest of young spring tea provides a pure and rich tea fragrance, a red, vibrant, and clear tea soup. After drinking, the mouth is full of lingering fragrance with a strong returning sweetness. Floral and honey notes, long-lasting aftertaste, moistens the throat and generates saliva. The tea base is uniform, with strong vitality, Good tea!

This tea was produced by Yunnan Xiaguan Tea Factory around 2000. The packaging is very special and easy to recognize, with fine, checkered paper. No counterfeits have been seen so far. It is recorded in the New Pu-erh Yearbook as 2003, but the record may be incorrect. Because this tea was imported by a Taiwanese tea merchant named Qiu (a Xiaguan agent tea merchant) before 2001, it cannot be a 2003 product. If compared with the 2003 grade Zhongcha iron cake, the surface of this tea cake is yellowish and oily, which is significantly different from the 2003 tea sample.

The strips of this tea cake are distinct and well-defined, with thick leaves that are clean and oily. It's a beautiful and pure Yiwu arbor large-leaf variety, with strong qi (energy) and a long-lasting yun (lingering aftertaste). A hint of dominance is faintly felt in the elegance. The soup color is amber, clear, and oily, with a gelatinous texture. At this stage, the bitterness is slight but not obvious, and it transforms quickly with a strong returning sweetness. Excellent on the palate, with a distinct Xiaguan mountain qi (terroir). Truly a representative work of the Xiaguan Factory in 2000, the limited production quantity makes it extremely valuable for collecting.