Type: Raw Pu-erh (non-fermented) Grade: Premium Production area: Lao Banzhang, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province
It has been said that "Banzhang is king, Yiwu is queen." Lao Banzhang has been proclaimed as the "King of Pu-erh" and is probably the most highly sought after Pu-erh in recent years. Every spring, tea aficionados and dealers travel to LaoBanzhang to source this famous tea. The Banzhang region consists of five tribal villages. Lao Banzhang is one of the five and is widely known to produce the best tea. The area is not big and the annual yield from the old trees is far below the demand. As such, being able to source the genuine Lao Banzhang tea is not an easy task.
Taste characteristics: "It is bitter as it enters the mouth and gradually dissolves. Subtle tea fragrance moves through the mouth as threads of hui gan spin around in the throat." This describes the profound experience of tasting Banzhang tea, according to The Art of Tea Magazine.This Lao Banzhang brick is made with 100% first spring picked leaves from Lao Banzhang. Additional measures were applied to ensure the authenticity of the leave source. This tea offers you a high level of enjoyment and is a 'must have' in your Pu-erh collection. It should be noted that the supply of this tea is very limited.
Caution: This brick is very tightly compressed to preserve its fragrance. Please use great caution when loosening the leaves from the brick.
NOTE: free shipping on sample.
BREWING INSTRUCTIONS: - Use 5g of tea leaves and brew in a 3-4 oz gaiwan or Yixing teapot. - Use a mixture of chunks of leaves and the small broken leaves to balance the timing of the release of flavors.
A good Lao Banzhang tea with a caveat09/17/2019 ByWong Richard I have purchased the 5 gram sample before purchasing the 100 g brick. This Lao Banzhang (老班章) tea definitely has the classical taste I associate to Lao Banzhang or the Bu Lang (布朗山) tea. It has that strong "chi" fragrance. Very slightly bitter but disappear in a few seconds. It creates also a unique taste at the tip of my tongue. In my opinion, the price is quite reasonable ($2.5 per gram) for this high quality tea. My main issue of this tea is that the tea brick is compressed too hard. I can pry it open with a tea knife fine, but the tea brick breaks into smaller pieces and sometime dust-like. Not only this hard-compression yields lower quantity of the precious tea leaf, but it can lead to a different brewing style too. Smaller size tea pieces will need to be much quicker brew. Overall, I think the tea leaf quality is excellent, but the tight compression hurts the overall quality. I still strongly recommend the tea. 4 stars.
Our responseRichard, I agree with the tight compression issue. I usually poke a few holes on the side, break the brick up in half and work from the inside. It helps a little bit.
Incredible!03/21/2019 ByOlivia Oldaker So smooth and long-lasting tea with incredible aroma. A true Lao Banzhang!
