520 Brick
Shu Puer Brick 520g 2008
A dark and mighty chunk of tea.
Dense with young buds, the 520 shu brick brews thick and sweet with cool camphor-like sensations, a hallmark of age. Darkly woody aromatics further augment the brew with suggestions of palo santo, forest rain, and a mineral character reminiscent of nixtamal.
Note: tea brick weights are approximate and subject to variation.
Original price was: $197.00.$157.60Current price is: $157.60.
7 in stock
- Tea Origin
- Lincang Tea Area and Pu'er Tea Area, Yunnan Province, China
- Tea Bush
- Yunnan Large Leaf Tea Tree (Yunnan Dayezhong)
- Tea Maker
- Hu Haoming and Wang Xiqun
- Harvest Time
- June
- Plucking Standard
- One bud, two leaves
This hefty aged shu puer brick was pressed in the Jinggu tea factory using young ripened leaf material from both the Puer and Lincang tea areas. Until we imported these bricks in May 2025, they had remained in storage at the factory for 17 years.
This shu puer brick’s numerical name isn’t a recipe code. It comes from this brick’s curious background as a commemorative pressing by Cha Ma Si tea company to honor Ma Ying-jeou being sworn in as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on May 20, 2008. At that time, Taiwanese tea collectors and merchants were the major buyers of these iconic pressed tea cakes and as such a large part of the tea industry in Yunnan.
“520” also has a second meaning. In Chinese, these numbers said aloud sound similar to the words for “I love you.” May 20th (5/20) has become a yearly celebration of love observed by many internet-savvy young people in China. Similarly to Valentine’s Day, people often celebrate their partners, but it is also a day for gathering and giving well-wishes to all your loved ones, including family and friends.
For us at the Seven Cups teahouse in Tucson, Arizona, we also love the coincidence that “520” is our home area code. Maybe it’s just the power of suggestion, but the flavors of the 520 Brick even seem to offer some impressions of the desert Southwest. For us, this brick’s brewed aroma conveys aromatics reminiscent of palo santo incense wood, the Mount Lemmon pine forest after rain, and a mineral character that brings to mind nixtamal for fresh corn tortillas or tamales.
