The Trails of LBZ, Case 1 of 6
(Liquid Proust search for his favorite laser beam zensheng)
A lot of chatter revolves around the three letters LBZ so I went through my stash and found five samples and bout another. A lot has been said about the vibes that this tea provides and I want to test out as many as I can; if you have some and would be open to a swap please PM me!!!
The dry leaf has nothing speaking to me so I went ahead and gave it a quick bath. The freshly wet leaf smells kind of murky and I don’t like it very much, however after a few minutes the smell is appealing. This was kind of odd to realize as I don’t know what changes the aroma in a freshly bathed leaf versus one that had dried off a bit.
The first steep threw me off as I was expecting something a little more upfront with me as I invited it into my house. First thing I noticed was the texture; pretty thick. Rather mild to the taste, which I favor, but even into steep two there is no tingle or warmth in my mouth anywhere. Liquid is going down quickly as I sip it with a nice smooth taste; just wish the texture left something behind for me to feel. With no bitterness and a creamy texture, I’m looking forward to some more steeps… just hope I end up upside down or feel different.
On steep four only 35 minutes of being home from work and my mom calls because she has a flat tire and my dad is out of town. Putting this trail on pause…
Random story time: So I drive through 40 minutes of traffic to get my mom, which I’m 100% okay with because I love her and all, but… she never informed me that the van doesn’t have a spare tire. This van didn’t even come with one, it just has a large deep trunk; come on!
Anyways, I started back on this tea by a flash steep. First two steeps were as I just remembered two hours ago; thick and easy going. Notes of squash and roasted vegetables arose (for me at least). Still no lingering mouth feel or body warmth, but I think I have some tea high coming along because my neck is becoming a spring by the sixth steep; for those who are curious on that amount, it’s roughly 2 ounces per steep so I’m at 12 ounces.
At this point I’m curious to see the maths of this tea. $170 for a full cake at YS which is 250g, so it’s at .68 cents a gram; therefore I am going to push it to about 15 steeps and write more because the taste is staying without bitterness and slightly roasted light vegetables with a thick texture.
So… DAYMN, this tea just kicked my ass. While there was no warmth at the sixth steep, at about the tenth steep I realized that the top of my head was sweating and that life was sideways. Overall qi feeling is a bit different than the 2011 Bang Wei that turned me into a wet noodle. This certainly is strong and it makes my head feel like it was put into something and knocked on its side.
Sadly it’s teas like this that make me contemplate if oolong really is the best type of tea. See , these crazy strong raw pu’erh tend to provide a feeling that is not explainable until someone tries it.
Really hoping the other three I have from YS and then TU are similar because I foresee myself buying all sheng with the word bang in it.
Random questions:
1. Anyone else drive without a spare?
2. Where else should I shop for LBZ?
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Comments
Anyone have http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pu-er-Raw-Tea-Lao-Man-E-LaoShuBanZhang-Old-Tree-Ban-Zhang-Sheng-Cha-400g/32220909278.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.115.hrBjM1&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_9,searchweb201602_3_10017_10005_10006_10034_10021_507_10022_10020_10018_10019,searchweb201603_9&btsid=ac405d07-3a64-4c54-95f9-2eaa027bbc3c or this one http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pu-er-raw-tea-2014-Lao-Man-E-LaoShuBanZhang-Old-Arbor-Ban-Zhang-Sheng-tea-400g/32220498073.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.200.hrBjM1&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_9,searchweb201602_3_10017_10005_10006_10034_10021_507_10022_10020_10018_10019,searchweb201603_9&btsid=ac405d07-3a64-4c54-95f9-2eaa027bbc3c for me to try? Wish King Tea had samples
The Lao Man’E will have a much more pronounced bitter note to it. I would stick to people that have the ‘Real’ stuff. There is so much forgery and demand for LBZ that it is readily faked by many companies. It may have 2% LBZ and they market it as such. Buy from where you trust.
The one you link above may not actually be LBZ it may be Lao Man E Lao Ban Zhang Tea Company which is the name of a tea company that King Tea sells.
This one from Mengku is legit via Yunnan Sourcing though right?
Yeah Scott has the legit stuff. If you noticed he hasn’t restocked any in a while because of the issues above. That and Chen Shen Hao locked up about 90% of the mountains production driving the pricing way up. Ruined the mountain in my opinion.
What year did he ruin the mountain?
Here is a real LBZ from King Tea. It is a bit pricy though.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Free-shipping-Puer-raw-tea-2008-CHEN-SHENG-HAO-Lao-Ban-Zhang-MOUSE-CAKE-sheng-tea/1220054_2028753195.html
So I should buy this ASAP because of the price? http://teaurchin.com/chen-sheng-yi-hao-2010-spring.html
If you notice that is a blend of Banzhang and Bulang material, I’d be surprised if it was more than 10% Banzhang.
There is always this although who knows if it is real.I do know the company is legit.
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=289
Hmmm…. I would 4 way split that cake. Maybe even splitting this http://store.thechineseteashop.com/2013_100_Lao_Ban_Zhang_Collector_Edition_p/pugc-13-lbz.htm
I think it was 2010. The one from TU only has 10% LBZ in it.
If the Awazon people collected the leaves in 2006 that could account for the low price. In 2006 LBZ was not yet expensive. I have not generally seen Awazon raise prices because they could so maybe it is real.
Pretty much anything labeled lbz is either an outright lie, very small part of the blend or probably the worst maocha from there. The real and good stuff ranges from a thousand to thousands usd a kilo. The same goes for almost all other famous regions except their yield is so small that it never actually makes it to market. Like bingdao, unless you have a crazy connect or get lucky to know someone that has the real thing youll probably never get a chance to drink it, there is that little of the real thing, maybe a few hundred cakes pressed a year. All of those are spoken for long before anything is sold publicly
LP have you tried the 2006 version of LBZ? Whenever I sip this sort of tea I only use around 60-70% of the usual amount of leaves.
Anyone have http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pu-er-Raw-Tea-Lao-Man-E-LaoShuBanZhang-Old-Tree-Ban-Zhang-Sheng-Cha-400g/32220909278.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.115.hrBjM1&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_9,searchweb201602_3_10017_10005_10006_10034_10021_507_10022_10020_10018_10019,searchweb201603_9&btsid=ac405d07-3a64-4c54-95f9-2eaa027bbc3c or this one http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pu-er-raw-tea-2014-Lao-Man-E-LaoShuBanZhang-Old-Arbor-Ban-Zhang-Sheng-tea-400g/32220498073.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.200.hrBjM1&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_9,searchweb201602_3_10017_10005_10006_10034_10021_507_10022_10020_10018_10019,searchweb201603_9&btsid=ac405d07-3a64-4c54-95f9-2eaa027bbc3c for me to try? Wish King Tea had samples
The Lao Man’E will have a much more pronounced bitter note to it. I would stick to people that have the ‘Real’ stuff. There is so much forgery and demand for LBZ that it is readily faked by many companies. It may have 2% LBZ and they market it as such. Buy from where you trust.
The one you link above may not actually be LBZ it may be Lao Man E Lao Ban Zhang Tea Company which is the name of a tea company that King Tea sells.
This one from Mengku is legit via Yunnan Sourcing though right?
Yeah Scott has the legit stuff. If you noticed he hasn’t restocked any in a while because of the issues above. That and Chen Shen Hao locked up about 90% of the mountains production driving the pricing way up. Ruined the mountain in my opinion.
What year did he ruin the mountain?
Here is a real LBZ from King Tea. It is a bit pricy though.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Free-shipping-Puer-raw-tea-2008-CHEN-SHENG-HAO-Lao-Ban-Zhang-MOUSE-CAKE-sheng-tea/1220054_2028753195.html
So I should buy this ASAP because of the price? http://teaurchin.com/chen-sheng-yi-hao-2010-spring.html
If you notice that is a blend of Banzhang and Bulang material, I’d be surprised if it was more than 10% Banzhang.
There is always this although who knows if it is real.I do know the company is legit.
http://www.pu-erhtea.com/TeaDetails.aspx?TeaID=289
Hmmm…. I would 4 way split that cake. Maybe even splitting this http://store.thechineseteashop.com/2013_100_Lao_Ban_Zhang_Collector_Edition_p/pugc-13-lbz.htm
I think it was 2010. The one from TU only has 10% LBZ in it.
If the Awazon people collected the leaves in 2006 that could account for the low price. In 2006 LBZ was not yet expensive. I have not generally seen Awazon raise prices because they could so maybe it is real.
Pretty much anything labeled lbz is either an outright lie, very small part of the blend or probably the worst maocha from there. The real and good stuff ranges from a thousand to thousands usd a kilo. The same goes for almost all other famous regions except their yield is so small that it never actually makes it to market. Like bingdao, unless you have a crazy connect or get lucky to know someone that has the real thing youll probably never get a chance to drink it, there is that little of the real thing, maybe a few hundred cakes pressed a year. All of those are spoken for long before anything is sold publicly
LP have you tried the 2006 version of LBZ? Whenever I sip this sort of tea I only use around 60-70% of the usual amount of leaves.