Old Thai Master 1996

This tea is from the archive of a recently deceased Thai producer of Chinese origin, Mr Dao Jian Zhong.
Dao Jian Zhong was born in 1930, and he witnessed several historical changes in puer production during his life. In 1965 he deserted from the Chinese army, fled to Laos and finally settled in Thailand in the Chiang Mai region. He worked for 20 years in the famous Thai tea factory Hong Tai Chang, where he learned many ways of making puer tea. After the factory closed in the 1990's he joined a small factory, where he directed production up until his passing in 2019. Even though his signature has never appeared on the cake wrappers he stood at the birth of many puer cakes with his enormous experience woven into them. Upon request from Hong Kong teahouses, he learned the production style of old Yunnanesse family companies from the beginning of the 20. century, the recipes of Thai "Hong Tai Chang" and Chinese "Menghai" factories from the age of large nationalised tea factories. Many of these cakes in original wrappers travelled to Hong Kong, Macca, China and Taiwan, without anybody knowing the story of the man behind them.
This cake is a phenomenal example of 26-year-old wonderfully aged shu puer, made with traditional Chinese methods brought over to Thailand. It's taste may remind us of very old puer and liubao. In total there have been only 168 cakes left available.