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The Trails of LBZ, Case 6 of 6
(Liquid Proust search for his favorite laser beam zensheng)
Seeing only two samples on the us site for YS of this sold out cake… I had to.

Getting off work and picking out one of the few LBZ I have left was an easy decision, but I didn’t know which one to drink. Well, I bought this sample to split with a friend so I decided to drink some prior to packing some away. Prepare for a pretty in depth review:
Upon brewing this tea I noticed that there was a lot of broken leaf with much debris coming out of each brew. Once the first few steeps were in front of me side by side I ended up looking at the leaf while smelling it. Nothing unique or noticeable about the aroma, but the leaf had a semi orange tint to the veins which I have yet to see; whatever that means. The first few brews had a soup like texture to it. Starting off it wasn’t that appealing because there was a lingering tart to the taste which I really did not care for; it’s similar to astringency, but think of it like that after tang that raspberries have.
Roughly steep 7 to 8 there was quite a change in the hue of the liquid. I’ve never had a leaf brew so contrasting between just a few steeps when it has been going for a little bit. First thing I noticed was a change in the after taste and the mouth feel. Earlier on the liquid left its impact on the back of the tongue and the top of the mouth. These new steeps towards the middle hit the front of the mouth and lingered with a new taste similar to sugarcane while the earlier ones were much like apricot sweetness. As it become lighter, I found myself enjoying it more. For reference, I kept the steeping time the same instead of raising it as I brewed the leaf out; this is how I do!
Getting towards the double digits, around steep 12, there is a drop off in texture and the liquid becomes easier to drink as the tea taste starts to fade and the low key sweet notes pop a bit more. Such a transition was odd for me because I would expect the sweetness to fade and a little bitterness to come out or the tea to go flat.
At about steep 15 I decided that when I wrote this review I wouldn’t even talk about the way the tea made me feel because the most important part about this tea has been the taste. Between the changing of taste to the tenderness of the last steeps, I really found myself drinking this as if it was dessert in a way. Interestingly enough I think I’ll have to say that the 2012 Wild Monk will be moved to the second best sheng I’ve had and that this will go to rank number one. There is just something about the ending steeps of this that are so light and yet so tasty that make it a delightful journey as you steep through it.
This is one of my first $6 sessions that I can say was truly worth it. Most of the time I am drinking a treat due to the price it ends up being unique in the way that I am thankful to have tried it but will not purchase any more. This being sold out sucks . This is a cake I would save and purchase for $240…
p.s. I cashed out my loose change and had $51.41 so if anyone is willing to purchase the very last sample the the us sight has of this, I will pay you back. There PayPal payment on the us sight is giving me an error and if it’s there tomorrow I’ll try again… I want it!!!

Drinking a tea from my wishlist is always a treat :)
Been wanting to try this for awhile for two silly reasons: it says wild and it is from Tea Urchin.

The leaf is a bit darker then the pictures would suggest, but I’m here for the taste. It has a mild texture, almost a buttery tgy feel but not quite there. The taste is a mixture of green and lightly oxidized oolong to the point that its more like a creamy green. Some nice notes throughout but the loss of the crisp taste from steep one goes by steep two so the sharp notes become mixed in which makes it lose its delicacy (though it’s still nice). I’ll be honest in saying this is probably a tea better about a month after its done rather then later because I’m pretty sure it lost a freshness aspect in the taste that should be there; I could be wrong on this.

Fun tea for sure!

Drinking some 2007 Wu Liang Shan from CS. Too lazy to add it to the database, but I’ll write about it real quick.

A rather strong wild tasting aged leaf that is oiled. Texture is nice and the taste certainly shows aged, but being what it is… it’s quite odd and funky tasting.

It’s not as good as the Bada Shan, but it is nice. Maybe a little too funky and old tasting as I realize I like my raw a bit on the young side to showcase it’s strength (upfront)

Brewed this at work today and was kind of unsure what to do with it as I brewed… pretty sure it tasted like wet wood clippings that the sun was trying to communicate with.

I ended up saying to myself, ‘just brew the crap out of this’ and then i realized it was dark brown so that phrase was 100% appropriate.

I can’t really say it was camphor at all because it had no spice to the wood, just a dryness. It’s got a good age to it, but it’s not for me as dry teas are bleh

Currently I am drinking some amazing raw pu’erh… just decided to try this https://world.taobao.com/item/39221495535.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.Ji3vR3#detail
and well, all expectations were blown away. From the upfront sweetness to the body warmth, this is just excellent. Considering the price at around $25 shipped ($12 before shipping) this is pretty good deal as well.
While the liquid is on the dark end, which I tend to dislike, it isn’t really that strong; allowing some mild sweetness to come through the thin liquid that glides through and right away becomes body warmth.

Solid tea.

Releasing this tea and sampling it at the Midwest Tea Fest really just… blew all my expectations away. Not only is it absolutely amazing, easy to steep, exactly how you imagine a rum tea tasting, but it grabbed the attention of so many people.

Between the comments of ‘I don’t drink tea, but I can drink that rum!’ to other vendors telling people to come to me… I haven’t felt that amazing in awhile. I didn’t even know that I had given samples to other tea shop owners because I don’t know faces or anything, which is the way to go aka treat everyone the same, but it made my day 10x better to hear people who have been in the tea business for a long time to say what I did was a success.

This tea carries the rum taste for quite a few steeps, more then what I projected. Very smooth and delicious :)

(Quite interested on how the online sales of this will go as I just put it online)

So I began drinking this for breakfast while at my cousins and I was 100% confused…
This tasted like a lot of the early 00’s teas I’ve had so I was curious what the heck I was actually drinking. Insanely dark for a 5 year old raw pu’erh and a lot of age in the taste. Well, I did what I normally don’t do when I sip away at a pu’erh; I read about it. Turns out it was meant to taste like this! Whew, I’m not crazy then.
This still has some smokey/camphor to it, but it brews out around the sixth steep. The longevity of the brew is quite well depending on what you are eating or drinking with it because it can dry your mouth out in roughly 10 steeps… but I was going hard on my drinking as I am just chillin’ here :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFBrmH0RYCc/

The description on here included astringent which is how I would describe this. Quite an eye opener in regards to the strength of the taste. Dry malt in taste, but the mouth pucker is much more noticeable. It’s possible this would be more for someone who like their strong Assam or even Ceylon teas but for those who want a chocolate Dianhong or delicate Darjeeling this may just tickle your taste buds the wrong way.

Let me just say this: AGED OB IS ALWAYS GOOD.

ALWAYS>

This is super bizarre.
Here’s the best I can describe it: You know how people like grandmas basement taste/smell? Well… this is your best friends great grandparents who just past awayand now you are helping host a estate sale taste/smell