Menghai Banzhang Tea Co (King Tea Mall, AliExpress)

From Liquid Proust’s MX-King Tea group buy

Just got the box today but couldn’t wait for the tea to rest. Had to try some. It’s really good; much better than I expected for the price. I’m glad I decided to go for a second cake.

The cake was fairly well compressed, but I was able to easily chip off a sample. The leaves aren’t whole, but are large pieces. Looks like a quality cake. The dry cake smells grassy, which isn’t surprising for a young sheng.

First steep had a light straw flavor. Very pleasant but simple. Strong cha qi. 2nd steep is more complex, with some apricot and wood along with the straw. Slight acidity adds texture. Tons of cha qi. 3rd : I’m overwhelmed by the cha qi. Several more enjoyable steeps. I kept drinking it for most of the evening, getting something like 30 ounces out of my 2 gram sample, though the last couple of steeps were weak after a 2 minute steep. I kept taking breaks because the cha qi made me light-headed.

Thanks so much to Liquid Proust, the tea detective who found this bargain. I can’t wait to try the other teas!

Bought this tea a while ago from Alexpress King Tea and am just now getting around to trying it. It has a fair amount of fermentation flavor. This flavor while I don’t use the term fishy, was less pleasant then some ripe teas. It lasted until around the fifth steep. There were a variety of sweet notes too. It was dark and rich in the first few steeps, even with notes of chocolate. It developed a nice flavor in the last few steeps. I would say notes of dates but that is an interpretation. This was, judging over ten steeps an excellent tea. If you just looked at the first two steeps it was not as good. It developed into something quite nice.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. If I had a desire to drink more tea I’m sure I could get another few steeps out of this one. King Tea seems to be out of this one. I have tried a few of this brand from King Tea and they have been good. They are, however, an example of a Chinese company trying to sell with a famous name. After all this tea from the Menghai Banzhang Tea Company doesn’t actually have any Lao Banzhang tea in it, they just use the name. I think, however, that they make a fairly tasty ripe. King Tea has other ripe available from this company.