2008 LBZ Premium Ripe Puerh Tea Cake

This is one of the puerhs I received many moons ago from Michelle. Thank you!

I took two days off; as I really need it and moreover I have too many overhours and I am supposed to have zero in the end of the year. And they refuse to pay overhours as it is more expensive for them. So… two days off. Who cares that on Friday I will stay there again to the evening?

And as I am almost home alone, I decided to call it a tea day… if possible drinking some old teas (and this one definitely fits); and also found unopened bag of Green Valley by teakruthi, 4 years old green tea. Whoops!

Anyway, this tea… served in a gaiwan, 7 grams (note to self: 3 grams remaining), 125 ml, boiling water, short steeps starting on 5 seconds; quick rinse, 5 minutes humidity absorption in closed gaiwan.

Very earthy in the nose, both liquor and leaves, the latter one being also wet forest floor and little bit of tar (reminds me tar shampoo from Finland).

The liquor is thick, smooth and maybe a bit of creamy? In terms of flavour I would say woody and creamy, no matter how those two does not go well together. Later steeps have more thickier texture and more wet forest notes, however never got a too strong or too barnyard notes as some puerhs have.

Definitely, this is a tasty puerh. Yes, it tastes somehow typical for shu… but for me, most importantly, it doesn’t have any off notes. Clean and woody. Wet forest. Great for gloomy days.

This tea is sweet, earthy and fairly tasty. I don’t know that it is real LBZ material. The Puerhshop web page says that the market went bust in 2008 and it was possible to make a reasonably priced ripe tea from LBZ. They could be telling the truth, they could be lying. In any case I wanted to try this tea. It’s good, just not incredible. I also think that all LBZ materials are not of equal quality. This is definitely not of the very highest quality. There are a variety of sweet notes to this tea but I am having difficulty identifying them.

I brewed this tea four times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 9.8g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec. I don’t know if I will go back to this tea or make something else later.