This is the first in a series of free Laobanzhang samples giftedfrom Paolo of Puerh.uk in my first order and offered for review. Some of these are from the “In Search of RealLao Ban Zhang” series that he offers.
Its kind of a cool idea that has been overlooked by Western vendors as
of late. Its name implies that maybe
they are not 100% or pure LaoBanZhang but some kind of search or journey with
some LaoBanZhang-ness to them…. Sounds pretty fun… most of these samples are
for sale at Puerh.uk but others are not yet offered. I sampled these
Dry leaves smell of smoky meaty BBQ odours.
First infusion has a light buttery clear and clean floral
taste with some very faint smoky mesquite BBQ nose in the finish. Elegant and clear with nice mind focusing
energy right off the bat. There is a
subtle creamy sweetness. Nice oily
mouthwatering effect.
Second infusion has a pure creamy floral taste that builds
the oils in the mouth it has a super faint BBQ finish but is primarily elegant
and pure creamy sweetness with a very soft mild velvety texture. Nice soft velvet-chalky fine feeling in the
mouth. Deep mild mind euphoria… this type
of Qi certainly feels a bit like Lao Banzhang to me.
The third infusion is left to cool and gives off a pure
sweet creamy oily taste that is really clear and nice. There is a fine full velvety-chalky
mouthfeeling. Nice floral almost
tropical fruity taste. Creamy oily sweet
taste. Nice dry storage on this one
gives the tastes a clear pure feeling.
The oily saliva returning taste holds the creamy sweetness in the
aftertaste. Very faint fleeting
background smoke.
The 4th has a very very faint smoke and watery
creamy sweet taste upfront. It is subtle
and elegant and pairs nicely with the oily expanding textures of creamy sweet
pure tastes. Strong-ish deep euphoria
type of Qi that you would expect from Laobanzhang. Deep sighs and good uplifting.
The 5th infusion has a watery juicy creamy sweet
onset with an oily mouthfeeling there is a subtle smokiness to it in the aftertaste. Nice saliva returning creamy sweetness. Nice pure taste and feeling overall with some
faint face, jaw sensations.
6th is left to cool and gives off a creamy sweet
subtle faint smoke creamy oily sweetness.
There is a nice saliva returning.
7th has a creamy lubricating oily simple sweet
onset with a background late emerging smoke.
The Qi is becoming less strong and has more of a mind slowing relaxation
now.
8th has a buttery creamy taste with faint
smoke. Still oily and saliva returning
but less so and coarser mouthfeeling.
Relaxing more than euphoric Qi now.
9th has a longer 30 second infusion and is a
subtle caramel creaminess still really nice clean pure tastes the smoke seems
to fade as the infusions go on. Nice
creamy solid sweetness with still nice oily textures. Pretty satisfying with the subtle faint
background smoke.
10th 60 second infusion then left to cool is a
bit smoke, a bit bitter, a bit woody, a bit melon rind but mainly smoky in this
longer infusion. Not much sweetness
left.
11th is a long few minutes long infusion but is
mainly just watery smoke now with lesser sweetness coming out in the
aftertaste.
It’s a pure and even simple feeling puerh but has nice
elements of clear pure taste
Peace
2 comments:
hi Matt,
I included this tea because it's one of the few tea that taiwanese people seem to agree is verifiably LBZ, indeed from my understanding it seems to have LBZ character, but the material is not excellent.
When you say "I wonder about the price, you might be paying for location here" I think you're bang on.
I don't sell this because it'd be quite pricey for what it is (nicely bitter-sweet shengtai).
But I think it's useful as a part of a sample set to understand LBZ, which by the way is the same quest I started on myself few months earlier and am still involved in, I simply shared some of the tea I bought for my own quest
Peace,
Paolo
PS: If memory doesn't fail me everything BZ/LBZ I sent should now be online, but the label could be different from the name it ended up online as (most notably the 2018 huangpian brick doesn't say huangpian on your label)
Paolo,
Thanks for giving us some background and rational for including it in the sample set!
The huangpian was really delicious and in my tasting notes I wondered if it was huangpian but the leaves aren’t the crazy large obviously yellow so it left me wondering.
Peace
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