Haiwan Tea Industry, The Beginnings 1999/2000 Sampler 48g

Zou Bingliang, the creator of Haiwan Tea Industry possibly is easily one of the most influential names in puerh. From 70+ years of industry experience from The Menghai Tea Factory to starting Haiwan Tea Industry in 1999, it should entice you to look up everything he's accomplish; like doing the 2024 Yun Tai 8582 with Xi Zi Hao a Taiwanese boutique.
This of course is render down to short text, but if you grab this do some searching and enjoy reading while you drink: 邹炳良

16g of 2000 LaoTongZhi "Yi Wu Shan Ye Sheng" (Yiwu Wild Leaf Cake)
^I've had some conversations what is blended in this and the storage conditions because it strikes me as a sheng/shou blend stored in Hong Kong but each time I go through the leaf I think it really is just that wild leaf.

16g of 1999 Yunnan Wild Cake Tea 7068 Haiwan Tea Industry Zou Bingliang supervised production, dry stored in Malaysia.
^ One of my top daily drinkers this year as I've drank it multiple times. There's something so sweet and alluring about it to me. This production has two versions to it that you'll see if you look around. Quite the enjoyable tea with more notes on my listing of it.

1999 LaoTongZhi "Gu Cha Shu Bing" (Old Tree Tea Cake) 380g Puerh Raw Tea Sheng Cha
^Probably one of the most signed cakes as it's known as the first, but I'm here to say I scored a few for this set and it's not going to be turned into profit because I want the exposure out there and share the fun I had with you all!
For the first time, I think I'm going to say a puerh has a fairly close flavor to clove. Between warm spice note behind the wood notes, comes out this faded bitterness and fun mouth feel. There's also this hot dr pepper thing going on that for me is hard to place because I avoid cherry flavor and I'm not sure if it's that or a blend of spice notes in warm flavor presentation. From what I've read and seen about this cake with its potential according to age, it might be the most accurate for drinking I've come across yet: This has serious potential. It reminds me of how the 98/04 I sold earlier this year was maybe a perfect contender to drink now and enjoy over time or put away because that leaf was stored dry with more life to it than I have patience! No surprise that the storage of this is the same, these teas might of actually been within feet of each other as they aged too coming from that dry Malaysian storage. Personally, I suspect these cakes were kept away from others for a few reasons but I haven't inquired because I don't really expect the best answer after all these years but given the source and their other cakes, I have a high confidence these were kept away from others and probably even drier but the age on them comes out well. With a little time to condition them, it is quite possible to bring this alive. *Upon drinking this again, there is some really interesting callouts that I may not be able to put into words but I will try: There is this drying effect on the mouth from drinking that makes the aftertaste feel like the bitterness from brussel sprouts but has the flavor of what I can only really imagine in my brain as a cooked kiwi which does not sound appealing but in a liquid form there is something so oddly satisfying trying to wrap my brain around what it is I am tasting. Coming back to this to try it again just has my head spinning on why the 1999 Big Green Tree has so much hype around it when something like this in my opinion has more life to give over time with a far more interesting flavor profile going on. In fact, now that I am jotting down my own thoughts... I have had a few 1990s-2000s that are a fraction of the cost of the 99BGT to which I wish I could get it quite a bit cheaper so others can experience what I have and see what conclusions they come to as this is a subjective matter... after all, we are talking about personal preferences with flavor.
**Actually coming back to this, I think I figured it out... the complex flavor is like cough drops when there's medicinal notes the bleed into the warm fruit/honey notes. Now that I think about it, this is kind of like that. The way it feels in the mouth, the throat cooling, and the flavors. Much more enjoyable though, doesn't leave a film in the mouth but rather a dry likeness that makes you want to continue and drink it. Okay, no more going back and writing more. This is what y'all get!