This tea began with familiar raw Pu’er aromas, then became a ripe black plum: skin, flesh, juice and eventually the whole fruit. Its most memorable quality was how long that impression stayed with me—from the third infusion through a sustained middle stretch, and back again in the closing cups.
Review Summary
Category: Raw Pu’er → Commemorative Cakes and Others
This 2019 Macau Handover commemorative Jin Gua Gong Cha began with familiar wildflower and young-sheng aromas before resolving into a remarkably coherent black-plum character. Sweetness, bitterness, astringency and a juicy coating were strongest across infusions 3–8, while the tea retained its identity through 13 progressively longer brews. Its persistent fruit impression, lasting huigan and impressive longevity earned an overall score of 8.5/10.
Tea at a Glance
Tea: 2019 Macau Handover 20th Anniversary commemorative Jin Gua Gong Cha
Type: Raw Pu’er (sheng)
Form: Compressed golden-melon-shaped tea
Sample tasted: 6 g
Supplier background: Sold as a 2019 commemorative tea commissioned by Pu’er’s state-owned assets authority for the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return, using ancient-tree material from Banshan Tribute Tea Garden and made by Li Xingchang. These are supplier descriptions, not independently verified provenance. The tasting below describes this particular sample.
Brewing Parameters
- Leaf: 6 g
- Vessel: Porcelain gaiwan
- Water: 110–120 ml Volvic
- Temperature: 100°C
- Infusions: 13
- Rinse: 8 seconds, followed by a 60-second rest with the lid on
Infusion guide: 8s, 8s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 60s, 90s, 2½ minutes, 4 minutes and 7 minutes.
The water, temperature and timing details reproduce the guide given during the session; they were not separately confirmed as measured values. The later cups used progressively longer suggested steeps, so the infusion count is not an equal-time comparison.
Dry Leaves
The dry leaves smell like typical raw Pu’er, with the mild sweetness of wildflowers. The fragrance is light, not heavy.
Warm Gaiwan
Both the lid and gaiwan carry a familiar aroma that reminds me of 7542. This is an aroma comparison, not an identification of the tea’s recipe.
After the Rinse
Lid: a wildflower-honey-like fragrance, akin to the familiar scent of raw Pu’er.
Empty cup: warm peach and plum.
Tasting Journey — The Plum Appears
Infusion 1
Light amber liquor. A mild bittersweet taste, followed by sweet huigan. A light-to-moderate coating settles across my palate and tongue.
Infusion 2
The liquor is a little darker. The bittersweetness strengthens and the huigan rises a level. To me, it still feels like a younger sheng despite its few years of change. A fruity aftertaste appears; the empty cup smells of plum.
Infusion 3
The plum character strengthens, as though I am biting towards its core. Sweetness, bitterness, astringency and a particular texture come together.
Imagery: I am in a fruit garden. I pluck a ripe black plum from a tree. I admire it and taste the skin—sour, a little bitter, a little sweet. I bite into it. The juices gush into my mouth, leaving sweetness and satisfaction.
Infusion 4
The plum taste becomes more apparent. Its fragrance fills the cup, which smells like a fragrant sachet even when empty.
Imagery: The juices flow down my hands. The plum seems to get bigger as I bite into it.
Tasting Journey — An Abundant Fruit
Infusion 5
The plum taste stabilizes at its peak. Sweetness, bitterness, astringency and texture become one, with lasting huigan and a coating across the tongue and palate. My body starts to warm.
Imagery: This plum seems to have plenty of juice to spare as it drips onto the ground. I taste the liquor: a concentrated sweetness of its own kind.
Infusions 6 and 7
The same consistency holds. The tea remains at its peak.
Infusion 8
The tea has mellowed, but only a little. It has been very enjoyable from the third infusion through this cup, without much change.
Imagery: I have feasted on the fruit for a moment. A little less than half remains. It is still juicy, with its waters dripping down, although a little less than before.
Infusion 9
The tea shifts towards lingering sweetness.
Imagery: About a quarter remains. The juices have stopped dripping, but still overwhelm the fruit. It is like eating and drinking at the same time.
Tasting Journey — The Whole Fruit Returns
Infusion 10
Just sweetness. No bitterness, no astringency: like the latter infusions of many teas.
Imagery: I am left with a little fruit from where I started. I realise I have consumed its core and seed as well.
Infusion 11
The liquor retains its colour. Strangely, I taste some body returning. The texture of the plum emerges again, like its skin together with its flesh.
Infusion 12
The overall fruit is there again: seed, core, flesh and skin together, albeit a little blander. The liquor remains orange-amber.
Infusion 13
The whole-fruit characteristics remain, with the same consistency as the preceding infusion. The core and seed are part of the sensory imagery, not literal ingredients in the tea.
Final Reflection
What stays with me is not a long list of different flavours, but one fruit experienced more completely. First there was the skin, then the flesh and overflowing juice. The plum seemed to grow as I ate it. Later it diminished into sweetness, before returning as a whole fruit.
The most enjoyable stretch ran from the third through the eighth infusion, with the fifth to seventh holding a clear peak. Even at the thirteenth, the tea retained its identity, though it was gentler than before.
A plum that grew with every bite—and still had something to give at the end.
The Leaves, Before and After
Dry Leaf Appearance
The photograph shows several compressed pieces with dark leaves and some lighter strands. The sample contains both leaf sections and stems.
Spent Leaves
The opened material shows broad leaf sections, smaller pieces and numerous stems, with olive-brown and reddish-brown tones. I find the leaves supple to the touch. A light plum scent remains as they cool.
Leaf appearance and suppleness do not authenticate tree age, garden origin, maker or storage history. The strongest evidence in this session is the tasting itself: persistent plum character, lasting huigan and an enjoyable middle stretch.
Tasting Scorecard
Overall score: 8.5 / 10
| Criterion | Score | Session evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Dry Leaf Appearance | 7.5 / 10 | Compressed pieces; varied leaf sections and stems. |
| Dry Leaf Aroma | 7.5 / 10 | Mild wildflower sweetness; familiar raw Pu’er scent. |
| Aroma Evolution | 8.5 / 10 | Wildflower honey to warm peach and persistent plum. |
| Liquor Appearance | 8.5 / 10 | Light amber to deeper orange-amber; colour retained late. |
| Taste Complexity | 8.5 / 10 | Coherent plum-led interplay of sweet, bitter and astringent. |
| Mouthfeel | 9.0 / 10 | Juicy fruit texture; lasting tongue and palate coating. |
| Aftertaste (huigan / shengjin) | 9.0 / 10 | Lasting huigan and fruit; salivation not separately noted. |
| Throat Feeling (houyun) | N/R | No specific throat sensation recorded. |
| Qi / Body Sensation | N/R | Warming from infusion 5; recorded without a quality score. |
| Longevity | 9.0 / 10 | Whole-fruit character through 13 progressively longer cups. |
| Overall Balance | 9.0 / 10 | Sweetness, bitterness, astringency and texture integrated. |
The scorecard is an editorial estimate derived from my session notes, using half-point increments. It assesses this session’s enjoyment and expression, not authenticity or market value. The overall score is the simple mean of the nine rated criteria; N/R items are excluded. More bodily warmth is not treated as better quality.
Strengths and Limits
Strengths: A vivid and consistent plum identity, integrated bittersweet texture, lasting huigan and a sustained enjoyable middle phase.
Limits: The late cups are blander and require much longer steeps; throat feeling was not assessed. This session cannot substantiate the supplier’s provenance claims.
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