2015 Lao Ban Zhang

Freaking unbelievable! I have to agree with LP on many facets of this tea. The entire session is SMOOTH, almost silky! I waited 3 months for this tea to arrive(God I hate China Post) and now can confirm that it was worth it. The aroma of the dry leaves is so intense and sweet. Truly unlike most puerh on the market. I love how Tea Urchin kept this in maocha form as you can really appreciate the beauty of the full, thick leaves. The first couple steeps are quite light but already show a fantastic huigan and oilyness. Not to mention an unsurprisingly strong sweetness. The bitterness shows up in the middle steeps(definitely not overpowering) but fades quickly. It adds more to the texture and mouthfeel than anything else. I am really starting to notice that grape skin texture that LP mentioned. Moving on to my favorite part of this tea: the Qi! Holy shiiit this tea is STRONG. By steep #2 I was heating up. I can feel this heaviness in my chest. I’m on steep # 4 right now and am most definitely gettin tea wasted. It’s more of a motivating energy for me as oppose to the relaxing, stoned feeling from the 05 Naka. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase and seriously guys if you have the funds go buy a sample! Yes it’s expensive but having access to a tea of this quality from the mystical Lao Ban Zhang is a rarity to so the least.

The Trails of LBZ, Case 10 of 6
(Liquid Proust search for his favorite laser beam zensheng)
Eye candy before reading https://www.instagram.com/p/BGXhClmxYAJ/

First I just need to reiterate as I do many times that I wouldn’t drink all these ‘top notch’ teas if it wasn’t for the amazing tea community. Many times I am surprised with random acts of kindness that I myself am use to being the sender and not receiver. There’s something special about teamail, especially when it’s something you want but can’t afford currently. This time, someone from Instagram hooked me up. A huge thank you to this person as it provided happiness as I went through the samples sent to me. This type of generosity is not just found by those who spend hours online talking about tea and sending it out. The tea community is very welcoming to trade with many people so please never shy away thinking your cupboard wouldn’t interest someone as many times it’s the idea that helping anyone out is an invitation that has been waited upon.
On to the tea.
I could easily sum this up as: Worth the price. However, that would be prior to shipping and what not. A 5g session, which is what I had, runs $8’ish and I firmly believe that what it provided was well worth that tag; speaking in which 5g brews out 20+ steeps while a glass of wine doesn’t refill itself.
The first three steeps were not bitter, but it was easy to tell that the leaf had a little unfurling to do before the smoothness of the session began; but I will make the comment that the lip smacking sweetness is gone by steep four as it begins to mellow out. Once I got this leaf down to where it brewed out something similar on each brew, I began to notice how gentle each sip was in the way that you describe the higher end rice used for sushi versus everyday rice; if you know what I mean, imagine the difference of ramen noodles versus handmade noodles (good ones).
It wasn’t long until I started to taste a combination of squash and a dry sweetness like grape/apple skin. While dry ended teas are not my thing, the flavor of this one made it acceptable in the way that a great yancha also does. It’s hard to say if the look of the leaf or the taste is more appealing as the leaf is just beautiful.
Going into the later steeps it mellows out and provides a thinner soup base texture; this may be due to the drying of my mouth and wetness making contact, or a possible increase in viscosity as it brews. I found myself playing with some steeping time as it went on to see how 45 seconds would do and it didn’t bring out any bitter notes which was awesome; but if it is brewed longer there comes a tart like sweetness at the end of each sip rather than a minor grape/apple skin taste.
It’s the clarity of this leaf that leaves me considering a purchase, but I’ll wait for a group buy and jump on 25g as that would be 5 sessions; and if I find friends who would share near me it would be what… $2 a session if 4 people join in. While it’s not as powerful as the 2009 stuff I had, or as remarkable, it has that purity to it that I found in Last Thoughts, Midas Touch, and spring Bang Dong (which I suspect will double in price as I drive the market to it… :P )

Grateful to have tried this once, online banking will disagree with me by the end of the year : )
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGXhUpaxYA_/ Bath time.