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“Part 4 of my 2016 CWS review. First steep had a pleasant straw/apricot flavor. Slightly sweet. Silky in the mouth. 2nd (10s): Straw/tobacco nose. I’m already feeling the cha qi from the first...” Read full tasting note
“This is an interesting tea. It is a border tea, produced in Myanmar, and is very cheap at $12 for a 200g cake. It is definitely good, but certainly rougher than typical young sheng we’ve all...” Read full tasting note
“Steeps: rinse, f, f, f, 15s, 30s, 1min, 2, 3, 3, grandpa style. Sadly, I don’t have much to say about this tea. It looked promising at first – not too tightly compressed, long sivery leaves, honey...” Read full tasting note
The raw materials of this cake came from Jingdong, Myanmar, just west of the Xishuangbanna. The tea is not expensive but does not come by easily. Nowadays border tea is very popular on the market, Myanmar tea is very good to be used for blending. There is a particular recipe for “Lao Ban Zhang” is blend Myanmar tea with Naka and Lao Man E.
It tastes a little bitter with rich aroma of mountain flowers. Mellowness with a pleasant finish, not astringent.
This tea is made by Mingshan tea house. 200g per cake, 5 cakes in one bamboo tong.
Company description not available.
Part 4 of my 2016 CWS review. First steep had a pleasant straw/apricot flavor. Slightly sweet. Silky in the mouth. 2nd (10s): Straw/tobacco nose. I’m already feeling the cha qi from the first steep. Nice tobacco/straw flavor and silky texture; Similar to first steep. 3rd(20s): Still rich, but the flavor has shifted from sweet and silky to slightly bitter, tannic and acidic. 4th (30s): Initially sweet, then bitter, then sweet again in the finish. Very powerful finish. Strong cha qi. 5th was an oversteep (90s). Strong without excessive bitterness.
This tea is what I think of when I thing of Chawangshop teas: solid and good value, but not the highest quality. Having said that, I have to note that two of the teas I’ve tried so far, were in fact of the “highest quality” according to my rating system >=90.
After finishing my review I read other reviews that talked about the bitterness of the tea. It certainly became more bitter in later steeps, but I didn’t find the bitterness excessive. I also found that the bitterness was reduced if I used shorter steeps in later cups, yet the straw flavors still came through nicely.
This is an interesting tea. It is a border tea, produced in Myanmar, and is very cheap at $12 for a 200g cake. It is definitely good, but certainly rougher than typical young sheng we’ve all probably been tasting in recent years. It’s kind of tart, somewhat bitter throughout, and very green. It is also very strong, both in body and in qi, and was very long lived. I think those who like strong and bitter would find this tea interesting and appealing and well worth a try at this price. Chawangshop says that this kind of border tea is often used as a mixer in high end blends, like Lao Banzhang. I can see how that would work…
Steeps: rinse, f, f, f, 15s, 30s, 1min, 2, 3, 3, grandpa style.
Sadly, I don’t have much to say about this tea. It looked promising at first – not too tightly compressed, long sivery leaves, honey and floral aromas after rinsing … But the tea itself was consistently bitter with a barely noticable astringency over multiple steeps. Maybe there was some sweet aftertaste in the initial steeps. The body was on the thin side.
It wasn’t a bad tea and the bitterness wouldn’t be an issue if it had anything else to offer.
Maybe it just needs some time to calm down?
Flavors: Bitter, Floral, Honey
