This is a warning…
If you drink puerh long enough it is inevitable that you will one day go on this journey… This is especially true if you aim to try and own or collect “the best puerh”… then it will be your destiny! There will be no avoiding it… you will at some time in your puerh drinking go on a quest to understand why Laobanzhang is considered the best puerh producing area. Even if you disagree with the argument that it is the best of the best the only way to know for certain is to actually immerse yourself in it….. and yes the journey is not cheap… and often you must luck out, or it must come from friends in high places. You have to wade through the stuff that is faked or only partly blended and also the vendor’s wink-wink nudge nudge descriptions of things that are not really or not as, or only a little bit Laobanzhang.
The journey at its core is a journey to understand Laobanzhang but to do do you must also sample enough to become familiar with the profile. Although, it is possible, if the sample is right, to understand it in one glorious sampling!
Understanding Laobanzhang is one of two opposite journeys that every long term puerh drinker will usually eventually undertake. The other complete polar opposite yet complimentary journey is to understand and appreciate the classic Menghai Tea Factory 7542. To understand both is to grasp at the Yin and Yang of puerh appreciation at its purest. With the strong factory plantation 7542 being the Yang and the refined bliss of the Laobanzhang being the Yin. At its highest state the Yin being old arbour single estate Laobanzhang the Yang being the 88 Qingbing. To ask a hypothetical Question: if gifted only one which would you choose? In my everyday life I would choose the 88 Qingbing but in a “trapped on a dessert island” scenario it would be hands down old arbour Laobanzhang! I digress…
Anyways, I have been down the Laobanzhang journey before long ago when prices were more sane without ever touching the highest of the highest stuff… and thankfully it was mainly with the help of friends in high places. Even back then I thought the price of Laobanzhang was too rich for my blood and not worth the price to enjoyment trade off. Recently I mused how back in the day lots of people used to send you a bit of Laobanzhang but nowadays it’s too expensive so nobody does (But someone has!?!?).
MarshalN- he’s been on that journey before… same for Hobbes of the Half-Dipper… and Liquid Proust back in his Steepster days… it’s an amazing journey actually…
Consider yourself warned…
Peace
6 comments:
I see where you're going with 7542 on the one end, but I'd personally put "single origin old tree" on the other end of the spectrum and I find Yiwu area tea more representative of it.
To me, LBZ has some strength and power that put it a tiny bit closer to factory tea than Yiwu area tea has.
Then again, true LBZ has some extreme levels of refinement and I probably don't quite fully get it yet.
Does Yiwu tea has that too to the same level or it's more simple sweet-thickness?
Maybe Yiwu doesn't have that much of a quest because it's much easier to love? (I call LBZ "easy to like, takes a while to understand/love)
Anyhow, I wonder if this opinion difference simply reflects when and with which tea we "grew up" in puerh. (For me has been just 5 years starting from wet stored factory, while just from your blog it looks much, much longer ago.)
Anonymous,
Hahaha… this is a great comment because as I was writing the post I was pretty much thinking along the lines of this comment…
I think you are dead on with your thinking and, I think the LaoBanZhang vs 7542 comparison is more the Yin and Yang of the powerful most sought after puerh or maybe the Yin and Yang of Menghai!
Most will compare something like a Factory Bulang (Yang) to some Yiwu single origin (Yin). I think you could even go further and compare a fresh factory aggressive 7542 or Bulang to one of those aged ethereal feeling and tasting like nothing but kind of like lots of little subtle things happening Yiwu single origin.
I was also thinking about how this is kind of influenced by which puerh we grew up with as well… haha you picked up on this too! I kind of implied this from going into my personal experiences in the post…
However while I was writing I was thinking it might be different from someone who has tried lots of antique puerh especially some of the most famous stuff…. Or maybe some who is quite new …
I have just never read or head a discussion pitting 7542 vs Laobanzhang so I went with this unique angle.
Peace
Yin and Yang of Menghai! I'm with you.
In the end, there are infinite levels of classification we can make (non-exhaustive list from closer to less close: nannuo vs banzhang, single origin vs factory, sheng vs shou, oolong vs puerh, chinese vs japanese tea, tea vs coffee...) and the yin/yang of menghai is indeed a unique contribution to the field!
Peace
Anonymous,
Oooo… tea vs coffee …. Yikes!
Hahaha
Peace
Yes, the 88 Qing Bing is technically a 7542, but was it made from the same kind of material as a modern 7542? Not according to the Chinese puer blogger (and factory owner!) who calls himself Da Dian Feiyang. if you take a look at this post I translated, you’ll see that in the late 80s taidicha still wasn’t part of the Menghai factory input. So thinking of a modern 7542 as a Qing Bing in waiting is optimistic to say the least.
Lew,
I always think about the 88 Qing as the last great 7542 and I guess your article explains why it is so. I always think of it somewhere between qiaomu and taidicha but maybe it is simply qiaomu.
Peace
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