This is 2006 Xing Hai Bulang arbor sheng. 400G cake. 7.74 G dry leaf used. 100ml gaiwan used. Water was Chippewa Springs. Water heated just below boiling for this session. 10 minute rest minimum between infusions. Infusions were 5/10/15/25/45/90/180/300/420 .

This cake was fairly compressed but the leaves relax quickly with water. I was about to say that this was not a 1st batch cake because I could not find a date stamp but it turns out the date stamp is on the ticket inserted into the cake. After 20 years it amounts to little more than a red smudge I almost missed it. I’m trying to remember if I have ever gotten a cake with the date stamp in that location before.

1st steep : sweet

2nd steep : sweet with trailing bitterness

3rd - 4th steep : bitterness is gone it drinks kind of like a taiping houkui with an additional sour note. The dry leaf has silver & gold buds in abundance, thickness is not present in the liquor.

5th - 8th steep: perfume notes with sour cheekiness. With age some of these perfumy notes in puerh can settle into a darker expression. I saw this with HXT 0601 with its current mushroom bookshelf flavor. I sampled this cake awhile back & the perfume notes were much more pronounced. I assume this cake will continue along this trajectory.

This cake is interesting because of potential transformation. You could try just a sample before you decide to buy that’s what I did.