When 7 cakes of Pu-Erh are packaged wrapped in bamboo leaves, the bundle is referred to as: seven brothers.
Meng Hai factory classic recipe 7572, packaged in 2006. I purchased these cakes from Mrs. Yang in Dongguan. Her husband just returned from a buying trip in Yunnan.
This bundle held by thin wire ..some are held by a string material, whatever is to hand at the time.
Notes:
what does 7572 mean?”
The first two digits of the code stand for the year 1975, when the blend was first produced by Menghai tea factory.
The third digit 7 is the “lowest” grade of leaf used in the blend. The grading system of tea leaves is from 0 to 9 (or sometimes from 1 to 9 depending on the factory) with the smaller numbers indicating a smaller leaf size and the larger number indicating a larger leaf size. If this number is 7, it means that the largest leaf used in the blend was grade 7, and the blend will usually have at least 3 other leaf grades of higher grade mixed in the blend.
The last digit in 7572, the 2, represents Menghai Tea Factory. Each factory has its own call number, such as Xiaguan factory which is number 3.
Menghai (Dayi)
The biggest, most high-profile of them all. Menghai (Factory #2) is still the undisputed king of ripe pu’erh and the home of the famous 7542, 8582, 7532, 7572, 8592, and 7262 recipes. Dayi is also based in pu’erh hotspot Xishuangbanna. These aspects all help to make Menghai the biggest and one of the most trusted big factory of them all.
Xiaguan
Factory #3, but really #2 to Dayi. Like Menghai, Xiaguan is an old factory and has been through China’s ebbs and flows. Xiaguan is especially renowned for their tuos and compressed cakes. Menghai and Xiaguan are responsible for many of the benchmark aged teas from the 70s, 80s and 90s.
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