Tea riddle...

Early morning, spring in the air

I was drinking a very nice tea these days. It rarely happens to me that I prepare the same leaves for several times in line. I enjoy it so much that the competitive part of my brain would like to call it "the best sheng of 2013 I have tried so far" Its name and origin lets be hidden for a while. I am going to send 10g of it to the first one who will find out about which tea I am talking here. Just guess and post it to the comments section. Your clue let's be the music below...

Thank you for reading! (...and also for listening and the guessing this time)

Bulang brotherly competition

When I am drinking tea I am usually far from referee's state of mind. I do not drink tea to find the best one but rather try to cultivate myself through the leaf. In this spirit, side by side testing here is not about looking for the winner in intransigent fight. I like how it force my senses to be focused. It is like sitting in dark forest, listening to all sounds around, trying to softly emphatize to all those stories out there. But here it is not about hearing. Taste, smell, feelings in our mouth, throat and our body are things which count.

Three samples from Bulang villages were gifted by friend Peter of Pu-erh.sk. I did not remember with what storie were those leaves given to me. And I think this is for best.

Three bags with nice chunk of cake in each. Ji Liang, Man Nui and Man Xin Long are names of villages as I read them out. All with 2013 label. I thought that it would be interesting to take pictures of each, wet leaves, first brew, second brew...till left over leaves. But during the session I have realized how pointless it would be. Leaves are very similar, brews with slight variations, even if I have them in front of me live I can not tell which one is which and why. Differences are there but impossible to take a snap of.

Leaves are grey green, in all three cases with hairy silver leaves mixed with dark green ones. Leaves are rather big, with maybe just one piece of stem for 10g of tea. All three samples looks clean and smell as fresh sheng from south west of Xishuanbanna. Heavier tones of citrus fruits, flowers and even chocolate.

After rinse, I spent quite a while with smelling, nose deep in my small shiboridashes. Man Xin Long was the strongest, heaviest in this point. Even after this "smell chapter" I knew: Three times 3,5g of such leaves will be quite an experience, especially for my morning empty stomach. But there is no way back now!

After first two brews I made some notes and all further cups just confirm those findings. All three teas share basic characteristic of good forest Bulang. Pungent smells, strength, bitterness. It starts shortly in second brew and keep going much longer then one morning driker can take. Brews of of Man Xin Long was darker whole time, strongest guy. Ji Liang shows what I appreciate most: purity and sparkle like feeling in mouth. Just Man Nui was a little bit watery. Maybe without side by side comparison I would not notice. But with the same amount of leaves, brewing method and time, brew look a bit cloudy and taste was a bit watery (when bitter and strong). I would be curious to hear what makes that difference. Less sun during withering, bad weather?

After maybe six infusion (3*6=18 cups of strong bulang leaves, don't do it on empty stomach!) I give it a brake, return to my tea table in late afternoon. One warm up/wake up brew and teas give another four, five rounds. It was still good! I decided to visit Pue-hr.sk eshop to check prices, availability or any other informations. But unfortunately, any of those teas are there. Writing directly to Peter, I got quick answer. And pretty interesting. All those teas come from last year spring trip to Bulang, where Peter met with TwoDog of White2Tea (If the Bulang material in that "New Amerykah" cake is as good as those samples, I have to try it!) and Eugene of TeaUrchin. They pick some moacha which they like and TwoDog had let press some cakes, just for themselves. Reading this answer I have recalled one very interesting Eugene's blog post from last spring. Enjoy the reading, down the article you can find more of the story. And stealing Eugene's picture, here they are: Three Tea Musketeers.

Tea connects people, that is (among others) what I love about that plant.
At the end, lets play some music...When I was about to be slowly defeated by power of those teas, my thoughts were: It is killing me, but It is killing me softly.

Thank you for reading!

Two teas from Lao Banzang

There were many fresh teas in my cup through the summer. Top grade gyokuro and kabuse from The Teamountain, first flashes, both green and black, from Nepal, generously given by friends from Darjeeling.cz, powerful shengs from chawangshop's and teaurchin's selections and I enjoyed every sip of them. Despite of the season, I boldly combine these with mid-aged and aged shengs. Two samples I am about to talk today were nicely sended by Peter from Pu-Ehr.sk. One fresh, one mid-aged, but both teas came from - sit down please - Lao Banzang.

When we hear Banzang, our credit cards start to shiver. It is (one of the) most expensive puehr village and when you are buying a LaoBanzang then, in most cases, you are buying a fake. According to Lui Ying Yin article in The Art of  Tea magazine no.6, price of spring maocha rise up from 8RMB in 2000 to 1800RMB in 2007/8.  Another article I would recommend to read is this William's post on his (great) BannaCha blog Despite of that or maybe just because of that we are (ok, I am) tempted and curious to try such famous/expensive leaves. Especially when it comes through trustworthy seller. Few years back I had very nice sessions with sample of 05 Gan En Lao Banghzan from EOT, but it is already sold out. Unfortunately it was too much for my wallet at that time. Unfortunatelly...

First I tried tea from 2004, which was pressed in bamboo tube...

Pictures of dry leaves are from Peter's eshop. With my small, cheap camera and my poor photographic skills  I can not compete. And one more reason for using borrowed pictures- somebody (me) have stolen (get lost) all pictures from that banzang session from my computer and let me just one, which you can see on the bottom of this page - and that picture is saying nothing about that tea...

It was 7g sample and I hesitated for a while - should I use the whole sample or just half of it? For my 60ml teapot, I have finally cut the piece in two. How would my life look like if I had use it all?  Let it be mystery for now...

The aroma of wet leaves, as well as first two brews, are here as a proof of Taiwanesse storage. I have heard some complaitns about such thing, but I, in most cases, do not mind. After those two, in third brew the leaves already talk in Banzang-bamboo language. Probably thanks to my light dosage, I did not find there the renowned bitterness of LBZ, but bamboo sweet taste was combine with calming energy, calming Qi performance, if you wish.

When I put my expectation of powerful bitterness aside, I like that tea a lot. My short note says "bit like aged oolong - mouth are full of complex, sweet taste". I just promised myself that if I will have a chance, I will try to make it in "more leaves- shorter times" fashion.

Second sample was fresh one and labeled as Lao Banzang 2013.

Pictures are from today morning and I can still evoke a clear memory of its aftertaste in my mouth.

What you can see on the picture above are half broken leaves from bottom of the sample bag. But originally leaves were very long, nice looking spaghetti style (as I call leaves, which have to be soak first to fit into my small pot). Hairy, greeny-grey and clean - It is fancy tea indeed.

Wet leaves are full of citrus aroma. The first brew is bright, yellow-green and I know what is going to happen...

Young, strong, bitter...why I am drinking such thing? To paraphrase The Verve's song "Couse it's Bitter Sweet symphony, this life tea..." When assocations like wormwood or dardelion are crossing my mind, I am enjoying thick liquor. Especially from fourth brew, when the first power steps back a bit, I found the mouthfeel to be very pleasant. And my empty cup is full of flowers....How is that happened?

Long-lasting aftertaste is what I remember from this morning most. Maybe you know that feeling: Your mouth and mind are so coated in tea that you don't want to drink even water. You don't want to lose that moment...then you know: The aftertaste is good!

Notes and wonderful picutres from session with this tea you can find also here

When I am wondering now, which of those two LBZ teas I would like to have more in my collection, I would say The 04 bamboo version. I know, the fresh 2013 cake is probably better tea - stronger, cleaner and more noble. But the age and most importantly its medicinal impact on my body and mind talk for small leaves stored in bamboo tube.

When I talk about teas from Lao Banzang I can not miss prices...As you can expect, those teas are expensive. I also just find out that they are already sold out. Peter told me that he is trying to get more of the 04 one. He has offered this tea for around 60USD for 100g. The fresh cake was much more expensive, if I am counting right then 160USD for 100g. Most of us are not going to buy a tong of such tea, are we? But good thing is, that Peter (and others) gives us opportunity to buy small samples. A chance to try expensive and rahter rare teas in middle of Europe, a chance get a bit more experienced. Few grams of tea leaves can make a difference in our day, in our live, in our world. Thanks for that.

New waste water bowl during trial...

Thank you for reading!