After leaving the land of copious amount of biscuits and gravy, I realized I had left out a set of pics from a 2009 Dayi Hongyun session in the U.S. of A. Different people translate the name Chinese Hongyun into English in different ways. The hong [红] means red, pretty straightforward. The yun [韵] on the other hand is a bit trickier. Dictionaries list it as
A beautiful sound, appeal, vowel, rhyme, charm
Or the mighty Babelcarp tea dictionary says
literally Tea Rhyme: what might be called the personality of a tea abstracted from what the sensory organs take in
People toss this word around kind of like Qi [茶气], to the point where individual people have vastly different definitions of what exactly they are trying to communicate. I am not a linguist, so pick whichever translation you prefer and let’s be on our merry way.
Dry ripe puer cake from Dayi
2009 version, material from a bit earlier
The Dayi Hongyun is an inexpensive little disc, parceled out in 100g portions and boxed up as pictured above. Pretty convenient for taking on a short trip, if you are lacking ripe puer. The compression is tight and the leaves are all tiny, gongting [small, high grade of leaf] size, but not that high of a grade – just my opinion.
A little clay pot (not my own)
There are several iterations of this cake, the first being a 2008 pressing. The horn of tea jutting out of the clay pot above is from 2009. I recently had some of the 2012, which seemed to be a little stronger because of the recent pressing, but that could fade with time. It is a stable blend, smooth and easy.
Warming up the pot
As far as Dayi shu is concerned, this is a safe bet of a tea. Not the most exciting or dynamic tea out there, but also far better than a lot of the non-Menghai big factory productions. It is creamy and leaves a smooth warmth in the throat that is very pleasant. If you wanted to introduce a new tea drinker to ripe puer with low risk of scaring them off, this would be a fine place to begin. Taobao prices vary, depending on year and vendor. 500g worth is about $20+ in the mainland.
Smooth, dark brew
Speaking of things that are warm, creamy, and pleasant – I will sign off with some pictures of biscuits and gravy I enjoyed on my trip to the states.
‘Merica
Shock and Awe
From Sea to Shining Sea
Ever Increasing Adult Obesity
THANKS, OBAMA!
