7542 Qing Bing (7542 青饼, 7542 qīng bǐng)

puer · Yunnan · GI · puer

botany material

• Yunnan large-leaf tea bush (云南大叶种, yúnnán dàyèzhǒng).
• maocha (毛茶) — loose 晒青毛茶, undergoing the classic sheng pu-erh production cycle.
• 7542 is not 纯料 (chúnliào), but a blended tea. The master blender assembles leaves from different areas of Menghai (勐海) county and the wider Yunnan region to maintain a consistent taste profile year after year, regardless of the caprices of a single harvest.
• The digit "4" in the code indicates relatively tender, but not the top-tier, raw material: leaf material fine enough for aromatics and structure, but with a proportion of more mature material that gives body density and potential for long aging. It is precisely this balance — not the utmost tenderness of buds — that makes the recipe stable in storage.

classification origin

category: CHINA-PUERH TEA — blended (not single-mountain) pressed pu-erh.

• 唛号 is a recipe-blend formula, not a production date or a marker of storage duration. The same 7542 has been pressed for decades, and batches from different years vary in raw material, pressing style, and degree of aging, while remaining "the same recipe."
• 7572 (the benchmark shu cake, shú bǐng) and 8582 (a coarser sheng cake based on a 1985 recipe, commissioned by the Hong Kong firm 南天).

origin: Menghai Tea Factory (勐海茶厂, now the 大益 Dàyì brand), Menghai (勐海) area and the broader Yunnan region. type: sheng pu-erh (生普, pressed "green"/raw cake — 青饼, qīng bǐng).

organoleptic

• with years of proper storage, the profile shifts — sharp bitterness recedes, and notes of dried fruit, wood, honey, and "old library" (陈香, chénxiāng) emerge; the liquor darkens to amber and orange-red; the body becomes oily. It is precisely the predictability of this aging curve that made 7542 a foundational asset of the collection market: it is bought "for the years ahead."