"the world stands upon 'Tea' things"- 2017 lao ban zhang sheng

 4 tevet 5781 

this is the young puer my coworker bought at Uwajimaya. he gave me some to take home and im finally ready to try it. i added some moisture to the bag it was in and had it stored where im keeping my aged sheng so it now has taken on an aged smell. i am not mad about this because i like aged tea but it will be curious to see how it tastes now.

 

just from that small time with the aged puers, its taste has changed. even its leaves have darkened. its smell still carries that smokiness but it is now more like a hickory smoke and smells like good barbeque, including thick, sweet, and sour barbecue sauce that has been cooked on in the smoker.

 

the taste also has left behind a lot of the young flowery, fruity, sweetness. it is mellow with a hint of smoke, tobacco, and wood. there is some bitterness that coats the roof of the mouth, but it is not over powering. the mouth feel is pretty thin, the taste doesn’t have a lot of complexity, and the flavors didn’t hold up for that many steeps (around 10, but losing flavor around 6), but i will not complain because, as i will say 7,000 times in this post, it was given to me for free and if i bought it myself, it is still a super cheap cake.

 

the qi is fairly moderate and feels more present in the back of my head yielding a stimulating mental focus without any overwhelming racing of the mind. i am not getting any sweats or big bursts of energy and i am happy with that (this was 3g in a 60ml gaiwan. i usually do 2.5-3g depending on the puer).

 

i have some photos of the tea at the bottom of the page on the fourth steep and then a picture of some of the leaves. i also took a cheesy photo opp of the full cake outside. the leaves are mixed in size which might mean they come from different varieties and hybrids in the ban zhang area (maybe???). the leaf colors are fairly consistent which hopefully means the sha qing was done well (again, just a guess…) and there isn’t that many stems. im not much of a picture taker.

 

drinking this tea has given me a lot of excitement. it has also taken away some of the stress i get from puer buying. this tea is super cheap and i am enjoying it. not only that, but it is also giving me a beautiful mini lesson in tea changing over time. i am so concerned about not knowing how to choose a tea for aging and worrying that to get a good one i have to drop some serious dough. based off this tea, that is not so. i am thoroughly enjoying this tea and would not have the pocketbook stress with buying it that i get with other puers that lead me to feeling that i must enjoy this tea and it has to be good or the money i spent would be a waste. when i go back to seattle i will pick up a cake to do an aging experiment. its $12-20 for 228g, why the hell not?

i did some digging and found out where this cake is form. the company is Tienxi and is based in WA. the website does say upfront it is not actually Lao Banzhang but is from Banpen Village (in Bulang and near Lao Banzhang). so props to them for being upfront.

here it is from the website listed on the plastic outside wrapper for $19.

and here it is for more money on amazon (bleh) and eBay