Dry leaves smell of a salty savory floral… very different
odour.
First infusion has a woody almost metallic savory and
puckering taste. Not much sweetness.
There is a bit of pungent menthol then some creamy metallic salty
sweetness. Kind of a slight bitter then
flat finish. Unusual tastes for
Laobanzhang. Head stuffiness.
The second infusion has a bitter to not really sweet but
more medicinal savoury salty tasting.
This is a really unique savoury taste with a metallic, salty, medicinal,
bitter taste. Super unusual profile
which reminds me of some of the salty savoury puerh from Yiwu and Northern
areas like Simao but with an obvious Menghai area strong feeling and quick
movement from bitter to not that sweet.
Heady feeling Qi.
The third infusion has a salty bitter metallic taste that
moves to menthol taste with fluffy candy like finish. The candy finish has a bitter taste hanging
out under it. The mouthfeeling has a
chalky pasty finish. There is a
lingering bitterness on the tongue.
Stuffy heady and spacy Qi feeling overall.
The 4th infusion has a coppery metallic salty
savoury bitter presentation that integrates medicinal menthol tastes and
returns with some sweetness underneath kind of creamy custard sweetness but
really blanketed by bitterness. Fuzzy
gripping bitter mouthfeeling and tongue pulling sensation. Qi is pretty spacy and strong in the
mind! This is a strong puerh as the
Heart now races and the mind escapes.
Salty and vanilla tastes come out in the finish minutes later. This is a blended material with most of the
blend being of high quality older trees and possibly some LaoBanZhang blended
in there? There is lots going on with
it- too much for single origin.
5th has a salty licorice that turns to bitter
woody salty taste there is some sweet creamy candy under the long bitter
presentation. Very savoury tastes, some medicinal,
bitter, lesser sweetness. Not typical
Banzhang taste but maybe something underneath.
Relaxing head.
6th has a menthol honey salty onset with not as
much bitter but still quite bitter. It
turns in to a medicinal honey salty almost candy sweet underneath. Qi beats the chest and spaces me out a
bit.
7th has a sweet salty licorice almost candy onset
with a bitter taste that stays throughout.
There are some grassy and woody notes.
Bitter and salty mainly with some cooling and medicinal tastes as
well. The mouthfeel is a tugging
bitterness from teeth to tongue. Nice
spacy Qi with strong heart beats.
8th is left to cool and gives off a nice sweet
malty salty woody medicinal taste. Still
quite bitter.
9th has a woody almost coco bitter caramel onset
with lots of savoury woody layers still.
Nice cooling pungent. This is is
really not that sweet but has a consistent bitterness. Nice clear mind Qi.
10th has a bitter savory salty onset with a
underlying long bitterness and almost no sweetness left. Lots of interesting woody, grass, weedy,
dandelion, taste with bitterness. Flat
tight bitter mouthcoating.
11th has a bitter creamy almost sweet woody salty
weedy taste. Lots of layers in this
savory based blend. Tastes sweeter in
the longer aftertaste like custard sweetness over bitterness. Flat tugging bitter mouthfeeling.
12th has a bitter medicinal taste with weeds
woody grasses, salty tastes and a long sweet finish on the breath. The sweetness has been picking up and
lingering now minutes later on the breath.
Usually this is when bitterness starts to overtake the sweet but it’s
the opposite here… still more savoury and salty and bitter but a long flat sugar
sweetness now.
13th has a weedy bitterness with a chalky thick
mouthfeeling, less bitterness allows for a long sugar sweet almost creamy
custard finish. Nice spacy focusing
now. Not much bodyfeeling in this one.
I flash steep this one a few more times before walking away
from the pot at the end of the day but it was hard to walk away from… it
started to get much sweeter in these later infusions with a custard like sweet
taste emerging in long aftertaste that can be felt even 10 minutes later along
with a mild spaciness and relaxing effect in these later infusions. There was still some bitter strength and
savoury flavours… this was an interesting experience for me… but I’m not too
sure how much LaoBanZhang it contains?
The a long overnight steeping is woody and still savoury
with a metallic flat taste and a touch of faint bitterness and a bit of creamy
sweetness that is hard to grasp…
The taste profile isn’t really that classic LaoBanzhang
taste, it doesn’t even really pretend to be this. The Qi is strong spacy and Heart beats…
pretty nice gushu feeling not quite typical Qi for LaoBanZhang but close. There is a nice bitter and sweetness thing
happening here but under lots of complexity it must seem like a blend but from
where… I’m not too sure???
Either way I really like the experience…
Peace
1 comment:
Hey there. I'm fairly certain this Guangyang Hao cake isn't a Lao Banzhang which you picked up on in your review. I believe the cake itself is labeled as Banzhang area and the seller who sold the entire brand's collection said it was from an area near Lao Banzhang, but we all know proximity in the realm of puerh can differ dramatically ;) Especially when you are discussing an area as famous as LBZ. Considering the other teas they sell/sold, some of which blatantly rip off Yangqing Hao wrapper design, makes me lose a bit of trust and not take them at their word. Thanks for the review!
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