In 2008, Menghai Factory released an iron-pressed embossed tea cake called "Hong Yun" aka "Red Flavor/Rhyme". A year later, Liming Factory, Dayi's ever-chasing doppelganger put out its own version, in nearly identical packaging (Dayi on left). Edit: the box looks too much like Chinese cigarette packaging for my taste.
Dayi Face:
Liming Face:
How do they measure up?
2008 Dayi Hong Yun (available here and here)
Although it looks as compressed as plywood, digging my tea knife into the cake surface I managed to scrape chunks off without pulverizing the leaf.
Creamy, loamy flavors and velvety thick texture, my flushing face tells me there's energy in this tea. The Dayi Hong Yun coats the mouth and hits every part with flavor. I swear I can taste it on my soft palate and inner cheek (weird?). The milky flavor is a treat and reminds me of hong kong pearl tea. Sweet for shu, this reminds me of a more refined version of the famous, darkly fermented 7262 recipe.
The negative of this shu lies in its long stretch of similar flavors. From the second infusion until the tea nearly dies, the creaminess takes its time changing into chalk and wood flavors with a side of bittersweet, more like liu bao than shu pu. To that point, Davin walked into my brewing several infusions in, and toward the end had to ask what we were drinking; he said had I told him this was tea other than shu, he would have believed it.
I try to compare small portions, like tuo and mini cakes such as this one, to the price of larger cakes. At $6.45 to $8.45 for 100g, this is the equivalent of a $23 to $30 for a 357g cake, on par with other Dayi greats, the 2007 Golden Needle White Lotus cake, 2007 Yun Xiang, and even some aged shu pu cakes from 2002-2003. I feel that for the quality, this is competitively priced. And only having to invest under $10 to try it, it's easier on the wallet than the slightly better and slightly cheaper per-gram Golden Needle White Lotus.
2009 Liming Hong Yun (available here)
The Liming, once you can pry off a chunk, has dark, earthier flavors. Like the Dayi, the higher grade leaf makes the heavy fermentation release a creaminess, but unlike the Dayi, it offers a hint of unpleasant pondiness. While both teas are velvety in the mouth, the Liming leaves the mouth and throat dry after swallowing, not achieving the olive oil slipperiness of the Dayi. A few other tasting bits: it leaves a rocky/mineral and bark mulch flavor in the mouth, and sometimes has the flavor of baked bread, much in common with your average shu, but a few degrees more interesting.
But darn that fishpond flavor when it sneaks in!
A cardinal rule of reviewing is to review something for what it is, not what it is not (thanks, Aristotle!). The Liming Hong Yun tries hard to be the Dayi Hong Yun, and so I compare them. Standing apart, the Liming is a good value--moreso at its taobao price of 9 Yuan ($1.31; Dayi Hongyun from 2008 sells for $4.40 on taobao)--but even at its price at Puerhshop, considering its durability (8+ good infusions). It's a third the price and over a third as good. At US prices, it costs about 1/2 to 2/3 the price of the Dayi cake, making it a tougher decision if you had to choose between the two.
Still, I wish they had marketed the cake on its own. Why not, Mulch Rhyme (土幂韵)? Or Mineral Spring Rhyme (矿泉韵)?
Dayi Wet Leaf on left, Liming Wet Leaf on right. Notice Liming has larger, less fermented leaves in greater proportion:
