2007 Organic Banzhang Tribute Pu-erh Tea Cake

This came with my recent order from PuerShop.com, after I placed the order I read the other reviews and I was really wishing I had NOT ordered it because they are quite dismal. In any case the entire beeng was only $18 so I’m not losing out on much by trying it.

I broke off a small chunk of it to stick it in an infuser mug. I definitely wanted to rinse this one quite thoroughly. After that I let it steep for about 1 minute. I’m not getting any aromas of a dirty pond, which is what I was afraid of from the first review. But okay, it might be a tad bit “eau du barnyard”.

This is kind of woodsy, and earthy, it also has a big chocolate-y element. It isn’t the most interesting shu I’ve ever had it terms of flavor and quality but it isn’t that bad either… I didn’t think it was very light like another reviewer said. Could there be a vast difference in the quality of these beengs or maybe I just don’t know what I am talking about when it comes to pu-erhs? lol. It’s true I’ve only been drinking them for about a year.

Since I have the whole cake I might just let this one air out and age for a while too…

I wanted to like this tea, because it was a free sample that I received with an order, however, I just couldn’t.

The dry leaves were very chopped and very tightly compressed. They had a typical pondy, off smell that one associates with shu-puerh. The tea soup was a deep ruddy-brown with the aroma of wood, chocolate, raisins, and sewage. Honestly the flavor was not bad: sweet chocolate flavor with notes of wood, wet leaf, and raisins; but right after I swallow heavy notes of pond water show up, making the tea taste incredibly…odd.

The ‘pondy’ taste remained through the 4th infusion. I couldn’t bring myself to drink anymore so I called it quits. I should also note that I don’t like the flavor of chocolate, which was heavy in this tea. On the other hand, the mouthfeel was incredibly smooth and thick. Full-bodied and very rich. There was also a minty-cool quality to the aftertaste. I just couldn’t get over the chocolatey-pondiness of it, but if you’re a fan of that then I guess this would be a good tea for you.

Brewed from a free sample from the vendor which was unfortunately too small of an amount for my larger ripe puerh yixing so I brewed this one in a gaiwan. The sample also contained a lot of dust and crushed leaves which I am not sure is at the fault of the cake or the person who broke up the cake. Even though the vendor claimed that rinsing was not needed for this extra clean puerh I started out with a quick rinse anyway for consistency purposes. The first infusion was clean and very light with a slightly fresh minty taste to it; which I think I might have under brewed. The next infusion I brewed longer and it was still on the light side with some smoothness and a light taste that reminds me of being a bit like Liu Bao. Depending upon one’s overall preference Liu Bao either comes off a as a cleaner taste than most ripe puerh or as a more plain and boring taste. Personally I am not that fond of Liu Bao overall so unless you do or you are curious about it I would not recommend this cake to you. I’m guessing that it probably would have been possible to get 2-3 more infusions out of the leaves but I had no desire to drink more of it so there was no third infusion.