2010 Gu Ming Xiang "Lao Ban Zhang Gu Shu" Raw

brewed in gaiwan

smells rich, smooth and smokey, but not sweet.

After just the first tiny sip, a wave went through my body, not enough to get goosebumps, but a wave of expansive gentle energy from my very center moving outward to the edges of my skin.

The flavor is a bit of ash, malt, straw, apricot, not too complex, but smooth and balanced. No bitterness.

After 2-3 cups my tongue got a very gentle dancing tingling in the middle of it.

After about 4-5 brews I started feeling the tea drunk coming over me.

Huigans and aftertaste, etc were all pretty weak. The only thing I noticed was the tea drunkeness. Not sure if I really enjoyed it though. I would have to say right now, this is not my cup of tea. It will make you drunk, but I don’t like being drunk. If I want to get drunk I’ll drink beer.

Its expensive for sure.

I can’t authenticate it, but it sets a benchmark so anything of lower quality is most definitely not LBZ. Worth a sample at least.

2010 Gu Ming Xiang “Lao Ban Zhang Gu Shu” Sheng Pu’erh
Dry leaves smell of herbs, grass and smoke. Wet leaves have a pungent, smokey hay aroma.
10s rinse/10m rest.

Steep/Time: Notes
1/10s: Light, honey-like sweetness. More sweetness at the back of the throat. Pleasant full mouth feel that’s more noticeable in the aftertaste. I’m always a little uncertain when I detect that first bit of cha qi, but this one is noteable.

2/10s: Sweetness much more pronounced in the mouth, back of the throat and aftertaste. Tastes of grass and honey. Cha qi developing as a slightly light headed alertness. Wow! Good qi! I pushed this just a tad too long as I can detect a tiny bit of bitterness.

3/10s: This tea as a really interesting mouthfeel. Almost as if your tongue is being coated with a very light weight oil or wax that vanishes a few moments later. The finish is only mildly dry. Sweetness has mellowed just a touch in this pot though still very noticeable at the back of the throat. Ok, I think there’s something to Lao Ban Zhang teas when it comes to qi. Wide awake right now and super focused… though not always on the right thing, LOL!

4/20s: Very good tea. A bit of what I can best describe as tanginess now going along with the sweetness. I have to test a Lao Ban Zhang without my moring coffee. That may be why I end up so reved up with this tea.

5/30s: Love the sweet after taste. Have to be careful though not to push this tea too hard. Otherwise there’s a bit of a bitter note when the tea first hits the tongue.

6/30s: A little of the honey like taste is tapering off.

7/45s: Good, but I’m thinking this tea will end around 10 steeps. Still has that nice sweet after taste. Not noting any new flavors or anything.

The Trails of LBZ, Case 11 of 6
(Liquid Proust search for his favorite laser beam zensheng)

First time I ever saw Yunnan Sourcing doing a 10g sample was when I bought this. I ended up only using 5 grams for this session which means I can do another with someone.
This is very smooth and clean tasting, but it knocked me out. I ended up becoming very restless and four hours just passed by. I’m not sure if it was the tea or if there is an invisible tick on me, but I can barley recall drinking this earlier this morning which is odd.

I guess I’ll try the other 5g another week and see if this happens again.

This tea was an interesting experience for me. I bought a 10g sample and have a session with a half of it, and remember it being all that spectacular. Today I wanted to have a session with a really high quality tea and LBZ is supposed to be the cream on the crop so I decided on this one when going through my collection. I used the final 5g in a 150ml gaiwan. The first three steeps were a disappointment. There was not much flavor that stood out. No bitterness or smokiness, but nothing really stood out it was kind of neutral for me. Then it started to creep in… I started feeling the cha qi, a stony kind of tingling in the body and brain. The tea has quite a bit of astringency to it. The camphor flavor and astringency finally saturated my tongue and mouth and it’s like the tea came alive! Once my mouth was all numbed up from the first three steepings, the next seven were lovely! Once the numbness in the tongue and mouth had taken hold, the tea had a thick mouth feel and several flavors became noticeable. The tea had incredible balance and which flavor stood out depended on which I was focused on at the moment. Apricot, honey, honeydew melon, a mild kind of spice there was a lot to pay attention to. This tea certainly made an impression and I am glad to have been able to experience it. Given the price of $380 and rising, it’s not worth it IMO unless you are looking for a piece for collection and long term storage of 30+ years. This one will be a gem in the 40s and 50s! As for one to drink now, given the price it’s not worth it to me.

I never drank such a well balanced tea before.
A very complex sweetness with a lot of nuances. The bitterness ist really perfectly in sync with the sweetness. Everything is at the right place. Wow!

1. 90°C 20 Seconds
2. 95°C 30 Seconds
3. 95°C 45 Seconds
4. 95°C 60 Seconds
5. 95°C 70 Seconds
(Yes, i`m tea drunk… and in (deep) love with this tea)

This is a sweet puerh with notes of apricots and stonefruits. I bought a sample of this with my last order to see if it was worth spending nearly $300 on. While it is really good puerh, for me to spend that on a raw puerh the words tea drunk would have to be involved. I felt no effect from this tea at all, although it was relaxing. The fact that I drank it without sugar is proof that it was sweet, I always add sugar to raw puerh. I wanted to get the full effect from this tea without dulling the effect with sugar, there was no effect anyway. I would not say that I experienced any major qi with this tea. It was good though, sweet and smooth throughout. There was a slight sour note in the first two steeps that soon disappeared.

I brewed this 13 times in a 125ml gaiwan with 5.1g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min and 4 min.