2012 Guang Yang Hao Lao Ban Zhang: A Strong Savory Attempt

This free sample I recieved is available in the In Search ofReal Lao Ban Zhang tasting set here.

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 4^th 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.

5^th 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.

6^th 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. 

7^th 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.

8^th is left to cool and gives off a nice sweet malty salty woody medicinal taste.  Still quite bitter.

9^th 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.

10^th 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.

11^th 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.

12^th 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.

13^th 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