Ultimate Tea Collection

I took delivery of this collection from Purple Cane Malaysia. They call it the Ultimate Tea Collection. It comprises of 7 raw puer tea cakes, one from each year 2001 to 2007. The leaves used to make this tea were collected from primitive organic trees over 500 years.

This collection came about as result of a collaboration between Purple Cane Tea in Malaysia and Shuangjiang Mengku Tea in Yunnan, a famous tea producing company in China. The collaboration started just about the time when puer tea from China started getting a world wide audience. These 2 companies decided to produce 1000 cakes for each year. The collaboration ended in 2007 when the Chinese government prohibited tea plucking from these very old trees.

I have had tea from ancient trees, which receive this designation when they are more than 100 years old. But I have not seen tea from trees aged more than 500 years. And of course after 2007 it was no longer possible to pick leaves from these trees.

Each set is numbered and nicely packaged in a pretty wooden box. Should I open this set and drink it? Would be a shame to break the collection. But the tea is ready for drinking after having been stored for about 20 years after it hasbeen picked. And if I don’t drink it, why did I even buy it? Keep as an investment?