Tea Tasting: Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha Sheng Pu-erh

[Richard Kilgore]

LuckyGirl - please clarify how you are brewing? Filtered water? Are you measuring the water and weight or eyeballing? What type of brewing vessel and its capacity? Are you pre-heating the vessel and cup? How are you rinsing?

It is some times surprising how a seemingly small difference or adjustment can effect the result. Even backing off the temp to 195 and the timing to 5 seconds may make a difference.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Yes, that first long hot rinse made all the dilution unnecessary. While doubtless I was pouring off some of the good sweet too, this tea has so much to give that I don't miss those early infusions.

Tonight, sweet and lovely with a bittersweet edge, very short infusion after very short infusion--about 5 seconds with water 195-200 degrees, in porcelain gaiwan, a bit less leaf than last night and using a little less water per infusion, I think the proportions are close to 1g/1oz.

The leaves are in very good shape, whole or torn in just a couple of large pieces, not very small, or particularly delicate, just pretty entire green leaves. About 25 leaves are filling my cups tonight.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I just reread Greg's description of the bittersweet taste, and find I am tasting more sweet with a whisper of bitter, with my short wonderful infusions.

And like the Lao Mansa last year, I would love to fast forward 5 years to know what this leaf could do with aging. Will the sweet flavors stay? Will the bitter mellow? Are the starting elements for the smoky earthy wonderful puerhness here, in this, or do they need to be started by further compressed fermentation?

Wishlist for puerh tea-mastery:

Stasis chamber, to put samples of tea in at set intervals, so I can then follow the evolution of tea by a comparative tasting at one time, with samples removed from stasis together but different 'aging' times.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

This is my first time checking yixing vs gaiwan, after seasoning, as closely as I can control the conditions--so really more of a test of infusion vessels rather than a tea tasting, but still, since it was with this tea, it goes here....

1.6 grams leaf (did trade a few straight overly long leaves for some slightly curled ones to get all to fit without breaking leaves)

50 mL water close to boiling

One very small gaiwan

One very small, newly seasoned, 'yixing' pot

2 20-second rinses first

5-second infusions thereafter (wait 5 seconds, start pouring, takes about 10 seconds to get all out)

Liquor is yellow, sweet, delicious. Leaves are variable sizes, mostly intact, twisted and curled but not rolled tightly.

As for the gaiwan vs yixing, I found the sweetness and liquor seemed slightly stronger from the gaiwan, as though the yixing clay is keeping some sweet for itself. Just a tiny difference, not so obvious in every infusion, but each time I could detect a difference, it was the gaiwan-brewed that was sweeter.

This tea is amazing.

Edited April 24, 2010 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[cdh]

I still don't find this sweetness you're talking about. I get a vegetal and astringent note up front, followed by some roasty, lightly smoky notes, followed by long herbal tail. Nothing thick or sweet going on in here at all.

[cdh]

Am now trying 2g to 2oz near boiling with 5 second infusions, and still no sweetness. There is a mouth-coating astringency, and the herbal tail really does remind me of the aftertaste of herbal liqueurs like Chartreuse. But nothing sweet yet 4 infusions in. I'll give it another 4 or 5 while watching the talking heads talk this morning and see if anything sweet jumps out later on.

[cdh]

A few more infusions in, I think I get the sweetness descriptor... this tea is sweet in the same way that raw green beans or asparagus are sweet. Heavily vegetal with a sorta sweet note in it. I'm tasting it as vegetal rather than sweet, but it is a sweetish sort of vegetal.

Edited April 25, 2010 by cdh (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

Hmmm. My first infusion was dominated by that umami without much sweet, probably closer to what you're describing, when I infused at very low temps. Then the hot rinses and flash infusions brought sweet out so strongly that it's hard for me to understand how you're not missing it, because you started out with that infusion pattern.

Fortunately, I've been brewing miniscule amounts, so I've got a couple more grams to play with to try to figure this out.

[LuckyGirl]

LuckyGirl - please clarify how you are brewing? Filtered water? Are you measuring the water and weight or eyeballing? What type of brewing vessel and its capacity? Are you pre-heating the vessel and cup? How are you rinsing?

It is some times surprising how a seemingly small difference or adjustment can effect the result. Even backing off the temp to 195 and the timing to 5 seconds may make a difference.

I use water from my Brita pitcher for tea and use a digital thermometer for temp.

I guess you would say that I eyeball the water. I know where to fill my ceramic mug for 5 ounces because I have measured it so many times before. I'm not measuring or weighing the water per cup like I do the tea.

I have been brewing this tea in a 12 oz. ceramic mug. I did not pre-warm the mug save for the two 20 second rinses which I poured out through my stainless tea strainer.

Today I used the other 5 grams of tea and did two 20 second rinses in the same ceramic mug and steeped for 30 seconds with water at 195 degrees. What a difference 5 degrees made. There was far less astringency in this cup and I enjoyed it far more than the first tasting. I don't really get the sweetness that WC has mentioned. I get a light bodied cup of enjoyable camphor and some smokiness with an astringent end. I would call this a dry cup of tea. The smokiness reminds me of a specific wood and the way it smells after it's been cured vs. before it dries. I wish I could tell you the wood I'm thinking of but I can't put my finger on it.

I wonder if the shocking level of astringency I found in my first brewing was at least in part a result of my taste buds being used to the sweetness of the kabusecha and sencha that I have been drinking the last few weeks. I did try this sheng pu-ehr not long after my morning sencha while today there were several hours between my drinking the sencha and having the pu-ehr.

I am enjoying this brewing far more than the first steeping of my first brewing and far more than I had expected to. I am off to do a few more infusions.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Preconditioning of the taste buds could be a big part of my taste experience with this one too.

When I first tried some more formal tea tastings I would eat bits of plain crackers between sips and between teas; I've gotten more precise about my temps, mLs and brewing vessels but a lot more carefree about what I may have eaten before/during tastings. But the first time I drank this and was overwhelmed my umami, I was using cooler water, and longer infusions, without the longer hotter rinses, don't think I was eating anything with it; the second time, when I was discovering the sweetness, I was eating some mints in between infusions; the 3rd time, I was eating some quinoa with pinenuts and cheese, and apples for dessert. No mints, but both times when I was eating other stuff I got the sweetness.

The sweetness, BTW, is most apparent with slurping sips of still quite hot tea: could it go away with cooling/sitting or be renewed with the extra aeration/mixing from slurping?

[Richard Kilgore]

Yes, always worth paying attention to the last thing eaten or drunk before tasting any tea.

It's amazing how different each of you are experiencing this pu-erh. There are usually some differences, but this time seems more than usual. I am not sure what to make of it, but somewhat different descriptors for the same tastes may be part of it. Any ideas?

[cdh]

Perhaps I'll try much hotter water than the last few grams... My water has been in the 195 range. WmC indicates she's been using much hotter water... maybe I'll use the last 2 grams with boiling water and see if that cooks the sweetness out of these leaves.

[LuckyGirl]

Yes, always worth paying attention to the last thing eaten or drunk before tasting any tea.

It's amazing how different each of you are experiencing this pu-erh. There are usually some differences, but this time seems more than usual. I am not sure what to make of it, but somewhat different descriptors for the same tastes may be part of it. Any ideas?

It is weird how differently we have experienced this tea from one another.

It is particularly curious to me that Wholemeal Crank finds a sweetness in it and really has enjoyed the tea when I was struck with such a strong astringency. I usually don't mind and often enjoy a bite of astringency and from what I recall of many of WC's posts she is somewhat sensitive to it. Granted we brewed the tea differently. And weirder yet that she is brewing so much hotter than what I did.

I saved the tea leaves from the last session that I posted about and steeped three more times the next day. I dropped the water down to 4 oz because 5 oz to 5 g tea was giving me what I found to be a very thin cup of tea. Perhaps that is how this tea is supposed to drink but I preferred it a little stronger. I didn't go further because I felt like I was not in sync with this tea.

I am glad that despite my first steeping of this tea, the one I found hugely bitter and astringent, I was able to drink the subsequent brews with some enjoyment and appreciation though this was not my favorite tea.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Apropos of nothing here, someone just posted a recipe that I must go right home and try NOW so I will be able to give the Lao Ban Zhang another spin shortly.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Still sweet. This one had a rocky start: the last 2 g of leaf, in a gaiwan, and at the point of the 2nd 20 second rinse with water just off the boil, I bumped the gaiwanm, spilled leaf all over the counter, but I'd been doing dishes and just wiped the counter, so scooped it up, gave it one more flash rinse, and have drunk a couple of infusions.

The taste is sweet up front as I slurp/inhale/sip, and rich with depth that is astringent, and probably a bit bitter, that starts to take over afterwards, but the sweet is so good that I am not wanting to spit it out like I did the nilgiri teas I tried some time ago (I was just reviewing that topic earlier today, and remember vividly the strength of the bitterness that was just intolerable to me). I like this one enough to shepherd it off of the counter and back into the gaiwan; a lesser tea would have been consigned to the compost heap at that point!

It's as if something about the combination of the heat and the sweet keeps my tongue so busy that I miss the bitter until after the sip is swallowed, and by then I am already more focused on getting that sweet heat back with the next infusion and next sip.

Does that help?

Edited April 30, 2010 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

Finishing the last batch of leaves, left in the gaiwan overnight, and after a flash rinse, the liquor is still gentle, pleasing, sweet. Drank a little keemun earlier tonight as part of a palate reality check: this is much less bitter. Also compared to hot water from the kettle without tea: not sweet.

Fun as this stuff is, imagining it pressed into puerh, aged to mellow the bitter so I wouldn't have to lose so much with those first rinses, wow....

[Wholemeal Crank]

Flash rinsed to wake up last night's leaves, a quick infusion went overlong as I got distracted, so I diluted it a bit.

The earlier experiment with keemun this evening had primed and reminded my tastebuds about serious bitter: this has definite astringency but nothing like the keemun when it was overinfused. This tea is not in that class for bitter.

Then I drank a bit of hot water from the kettle to be sure, and no, my tongue is not so scorched from a day of drinking hot tea as to think plain water is sweet. This tea is sweet.

It's a delightful thought experiment to contemplate this tea pressed into beengs and aged.

[cdh]

Tried the boiling water infusions, and (as expected) they intensified the bitterness, but didn't bring out any sweetness. Maybe WmC and I have different water chemistries, or different taste buds... but we taste this tea in totally different ways.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I too find this so strange, because I am experiencing a very intense sweetness that does seem inseparable from an astringent aftertaste, but not the kind of shocking bitterness I find in black assams.

I wonder if it could be affecting my taste buds differently?

My water is LA city tap water, generally medium hard, quite chlorinated.

[cdh]

Hmmm... I'm PA Dutch country well water, no chlorine... lots of hardness unless it's been through the softener... must wonder if chloride or chloramide is the catalyst for your sweetness...

Edited May 4, 2010 by cdh (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

I don't have anymore left to try with different water.....

[Richard Kilgore]

A huge thanks to Greg Glancy at Norbu Tea for supplying the samples of this interesting 2009 Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha Raw Pu-erh. And many thanks to cdh, LuckyGirl and Wholemeal Crank for making this one of the most interesting discussions we have had in the TT&Ds.

I will say that this is the best young raw pu-erh I have had. Not that I have had hundreds of pu-erhs, but a few dozen and enough for me to put it at the top of my personal list.

A new TT&D from The Cultured Cup is in progress (only one sample left), and another organic Japanese green tea from yuuki-cha is coming in a few weeks. If you subscribe to the Coffee & Tea forum, you'll be among the first to know when a new TT&D is announced.