Brewing Weak Tea Weakly - 03 Not Menghai Yiwu Big Tree

Due to stormageddon, I'm stuck in SFO with a box of teas but no where to brew.   While running around like mad yesterday gathering gifts including Japanese erasers in shape of a lobster dinner, I brewed up some aged sheng to figure out what to take on my trip. My mother has expressed some interest in trying puerh so I tried to pack the most inoffensive mild mannered teas I could muster.

Feb. 2006, I got this Yiwu Big Tree from M&J - the first of the suspicious eBay vendors I'd burn through.  When I opened the wrapper, my heart sunk- it looked like the pressing was a home job and the cake barely held together.  I was such a pushover then and did not make a fuss over the fake or the XG Canger tuocha sent with a big bite taken  out of it. I just never ordered from them again.

The tea was not bad.  It does take a good five turns to get it going. The first few brews are weak and thin but then then it turns to orange blossom and some huigan- enough to feel pleasant that you didn't waste your session.  Back then I actually liked this imposter because it was one of the few I could drink. But a lightbulb did not go into my head that I should be looking for older weak teas.  It tastes vaguely like Yiwu.

This tea responds well to weak brewing. At $27, I could have done better back then. In today's dollars, I guess it's all good. 

p.s. My plan for making tea money is foiled and I lost a few thousand dollars instead. But I'm not deterred.