Retaste: 2003 Yuanjiutang Ban Zhang

I recently retired this free sample from Tiago at Tea Encounter as a comparison to the other older Lao Ban Zhang and it compares favorably to them at a much better price… Nice wine floral sweetness with hints of bitter coco and some faint astringency.  Nice stoning Qi as well.  Warming energy pushes me to sweat.  Nice coolness and long icing surgar sweetness with nice dry storage on it.  Nice saliva producing pops.  There is this beautiful mouth numbing quality to this one in the early infusions that is quite dynamic with the stoning relaxed Qi.  This is comparable to the 2005 Greatful Tea Factory with this 2003 Yuanjiutang a bit less deep with less stamina but probably strong Qi.  This session is a bit better than my first and my memory of it.  It was a great price while Tea Encounter still offered it. 

Peace