2017 Dayi 7452 Ripe Puerh Tea Batch 1701 - Dry Stored

2017大益7452熟普洱茶1701批次

Before 7572 became the yardstick by which all ripe puerh is judged, there was 7452. The recipe number tells a quiet story: "74" marks 1974 — the year Menghai Tea Factory, still refining its newly acquired fermentation technique, pressed its very first ripe tea recipe. "5" denotes a grade-5 leaf blend, noticeably finer and more tender than the grade-7 material that would later define its more famous sibling. And "2," of course, is Menghai. While 7572 went on to become the world's most recognized ripe puerh, 7452 remained something rarer: a connoisseur's pick, known to those who look past the obvious.

The 1701 batch revives a recipe with an unusually dramatic production history. After a brief initial run through the 1970s and 80s, 7452 was discontinued in 1988. It stayed dormant for nearly two decades until 2006, when Menghai brought it back to mark the recipe's 30th anniversary — this time with a red silk ribbon pressed into each cake, an honor reserved for the factory's most distinguished products. The 1701 batch carries that lineage forward. Since leaving the factory, these cakes have been held in our Xi'an dry storage, where northern China's naturally low humidity has preserved the tea's purity and kept it entirely free of the damp, warehouse-like notes that compromise lesser-stored ripe puerh.

Where 7572 announces itself with weight and caramel intensity, 7452 takes a quieter approach — fitting for a tea made from finer-grade leaves with a lighter fermentation hand. The dry cake shows a neat, rounded press with a generous scattering of golden tips across the surface. Once brewed, the soup runs a clear, deep red — brighter in tone than a heavily fermented ripe. The aroma is clean and restrained: aged wood, a hint of sweetness, nothing musty. On the palate, the tea enters smooth from the first steep, with a rounded sweetness that holds through the finish. The bitterness is barely there; what lingers instead is a gentle, woody aftertaste and a subtle returning sweetness. It steeps generously — eight, ten rounds before the leaf begins to tire. The wet leaf, plump and dark brown, tells the story of careful fermentation and clean storage.

Product Details:

Specifications: 357g cake, 30g sample

Producer: Menghai Tea Factory (勐海茶厂)

Storage: Stored in our Xi'an dry storage since dispatch from the factory, under natural storage conditions.