7 grams of this gave it up early with a heavy Bulang brew. Leaf quality is excellent for a factory cake, many buds. Supposedly this tea cake contains 10% Laobanzhang. In my observation, I would say the 90% Spring Bulang is carrying the cake flavor-wise, and the LBZ is chop, appears to be either autumn or summer or just leftover chop used as filler. I get the full flavor of the bitter Bulang with apricot tones. The leaf has a sourish smell, and the soup is cloudy which tells me the beeng is busy fermenting.
The leaf quality and flavor bring to mind white2tea’s Amerykah cakes, and other higher quality Bulang I’ve tried. Gave out around 8 steeps for me, after that I could push it and get the bitter but not much depth left.
A point of ponder for me is the current price tag. It is $129 for 400 g at Tea Urchin which puts it on par with white2tea price-wise, aside from any reassurance people might get from the testing white2tea does on their cakes. One can expect the price of this cake to go up yearly. However, I don’t think the LBZ in the cake, which is what will drive the price tag, is enough here to justify the price. For me the question is whether I want to pay $129 for Bulang. Even though this would age well, I’m more inclined to purchase a decent 7542 factory recipe with 10 years age on it at this price point, and look for an all-Bulang cake at a far lower price. I’d feel more comfortable with this cake at around $80-90 which won’t happen because of the LBZ. The truth though is this is really a Bulang cake in the end in terms of how it goes with flavor now and later on.
Overall this cake needs 15 years which is too long and a deciding factor for me. However, I’d look around if I’m in the market for a young Bulang to age, I think I can do better on the price.
Flavors: Apricot, Bitter, Grapes
Preparation
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I’ve often thought it a myth that all LBZ material is of the highest quality. Seems to me that some of it’s got to be less than great.
I just don’t understand the theory that adding 10% of high-quality leaves will somehow raise the quality of the rest of the tea.
Glad I got this before the increase. After talking with Scott about this producer and his ways this will probably be the last one of these I get. I agree the LBZ thing is getting crazy. No fault by the sellers of this tea just the hype and ways it is done.
The leaf actually tastes great, really I’m just balking over the price for it now because it is all related to the LBZ when the whole taste profile is Bulang.
I agree, you ain’t kiddin about the price going up!
I think the LBZ movement is pretty dead in my collection. I have seen the prices on this stuff now. Really overpriced I think.
I’ve often thought it a myth that all LBZ material is of the highest quality. Seems to me that some of it’s got to be less than great.
I just don’t understand the theory that adding 10% of high-quality leaves will somehow raise the quality of the rest of the tea.
Glad I got this before the increase. After talking with Scott about this producer and his ways this will probably be the last one of these I get. I agree the LBZ thing is getting crazy. No fault by the sellers of this tea just the hype and ways it is done.
The leaf actually tastes great, really I’m just balking over the price for it now because it is all related to the LBZ when the whole taste profile is Bulang.
I agree, you ain’t kiddin about the price going up!
I think the LBZ movement is pretty dead in my collection. I have seen the prices on this stuff now. Really overpriced I think.