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No probs. I panned this tea myself, actually--told people not to buy it. I regret doing that today. In any event, reviews like yours are not uncommon at all. MarshalN panned this tea way back when it came out. A taiwanese teablogger had a similar issue about the nature of the flavor much more recently. Anyways, one thing I should warn you, is that LBZ does not retain high notes as it ages. They get all walnuts, aged/fermented stone fruits--more apricots than plums, deep woods, and mellow sweetness. The huigans lessens, and the activity in the mouth is less emphathetic. The niceness of aged banzhang materials tends to be about mouthcoats of shimmering sweet flavors, kinda hard to describe, except as an aged huigan that spills instead of spouts. The young tea is relatively different. Never had an old banzhang with that strong orchid note.

Anyways, for me, the sample I had of this tea sold it to me in a way I never got from a cake session. However, whenever I compared leaves from the cake to another lao banzhang, this XZH wins. The taste is more sophisticated than most LBZ, it's one of the few LBZ that's durable, and I like the creeping qi feel. For sure, I haven't had enough lao banzhangs, but we all ran out of time to cheaply investigate what's good and what's not. Feel very, very, lucky you got to try something Zhou Yu would treasure, you bastard. On the other hand, day before yesterday, and yesterday, I was drinking some of that Nadacha ManNuo, which can be very much like LBZ, and I had a blast, with the good ole Elephant Stomp Qi that was orgasmic to boot. There is always a way to get your fix.

The 2005 YQH is flaky, but that one is awesome when you get it to go, as well. How come you didn't manage to get the 2004? I've not had bad sessions with that one, and it's blow-your-bum-out-the-water when it's good.

And basically, people who want to pay $600 for a cake of tea like that are either very rich, or more mostly after status. Like with all of those $600 2012 LBZ and Bingdaos. Full stop, I'd only pay that sort of money for good aged (15y+) tea.

Can you please point me towards the Nadacha ManNuo that you mentioned?

Yeah, Zhou Yu effectively told me the same thing, that I was a lucky bastard for missing my plane, coming to his teahouse and getting to taste Zhang Yao's teas. The Yibang that I noted in the post above was also from Zhang Yao, and I think I'm in love with it. It was the 2nd or 3rd best showing tea that night, out of 6 or 7 that Zhang brought.

Too bad I didn't buy into the '04 YQH for keeping. I put my money on a tong of the '05 because I happened to like it when I sampled it and it's the year of my 1st daughter's birth. I wonder how I can get my hands on some of the '04 today.

135F2> I had a sample of this XZH 06 from houde, i think it was the black wrapper. i must confess that i didn't like it: too much wildness for me i think... after several brews the tea was very interesting (salivation effect, oily mouth,...) but the first brews were almost a pain for me to drink, and the qi wasn't stellar. so i'm not surprised by what you say, even if some people seem to like this cake for good reasons too.

Yesterday i had some 09 douji LBZ and i was surprised by the chocolate flavours and texture. The tea was excellent and with amazing durability, strong qi, but very different from all the others (supposed) LBZ i tried. It made me remind of the 07 guangbielaozhai from houde wich had chocolate too, if i remember well because it was some time ago...
(the wrappers of those 09 douji mini-bricks smell vanilla, it's weird)

The douji '09 is a banzhang. I don't think they did a LBZ since '06 or maybe '07. The '07 is the Jing Mei Tang, right?

135F2, Essence of Tea does not have that tea available anymore. It sold out the first time after a notorious Hobbes post. It quickly sold out a month or two ago, when Nada put up a few more tongs.

What are two things you can say about your Wu Family Yibang?

you're right, i just checked the wrapper and it's a ban zhang, not a LBZ like i was thinking all the time! that explains why it was so "different"...
yes, the guangbielaozhai is the Jing Mei Tang (you've tried other brands?). I tried a sample of this one last year... i ordered another sample: for my memory i hope it won't taste green apple this time...

The Wu Family '12 Yibang
Potent: knocked me drunk with the first infusion
Pretty: orchids, sweet wood/incense, feminine

But durability needed to be pushed after the 5th or 6th infusion.
Like all Zhang's teas that night, it's very drinkable fresh and young -- doesn't torture your stomach and palate like young shengs tend to do.

fdrx wrote:Yesterday i had some 09 douji LBZ and i was surprised by the chocolate flavours and texture. The tea was excellent and with amazing durability, strong qi, but very different from all the others (supposed) LBZ i tried. It made me remind of the 07 guangbielaozhai from houde wich had chocolate too, if i remember well because it was some time ago...
(the wrappers of those 09 douji mini-bricks smell vanilla, it's weird)

FDRX, that chocolate banzhang tea actually sounds quite good to me
Can you tell me where you got it from please?

Yeah, the 06 XZH LBZ is a strange duck to me right now. Who knows, maybe one day it's a swan.

I bought this douji mini-brick (75g) on ebay two years ago, you can find more recent years but 2009 is probably sold out long time ago. I never tried other years. maybe "chocolate" is not how other people would describe this but i can't find better... i must say that i didn't air the tea and the box smells vanilla or something like that, doesn't help. http://bit.ly/PdXlkh

the other one we were talking about is this one http://bit.ly/RLAQ5n

another expensive one that was full of chocolate when i sampled it... (it was also half the price) : http://bit.ly/TxgN71

Man, fdrx, that's the first review ever of any GuangYa puerh in english. I think.

Well, if you want something nice and chocolatey, try...
http://www.white2tea.com/tea-shop/2008- ... u-laomane/

Lao Man'E does seem to develop into chocolate and wood notes...Even a Teaurchin spring Lao Man'E had some chocolate when I tried it last winter.

the first review ever of any GuangYa

I hope GuangYa people are going to send me a free beeng for that!
I’d pick their 1Kg brick wich is so good : yiwu(?) full of juice and anise... maybe this can turn a bit too much "abricot marmelade", i don't know unfortunalty, but if not, that will be seriously good.

Thanks for the link: the only LME i tried wasn't drinkable: too strong even if i liked a lot all the "vinegar" it let on the gaiwan... I’m glad to know they make things a bit more subtle too, probably über-expensive ^^

You know, if you want chocolate, you can always go for this

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... IEBEPMCMAA

Anyway, I think GuangYa's prices are crazy.

I head it form 'tman' on HK Tea Forum, GuangYa used to be Fujin dealers based in GuangXi, but there aren't enough Fujin cakes go around, and they got fed up and started their own thing instead and try to out do Fujin. That's certainly the case in term of pricing of the cakes.

And we all know Fujin is basically crap, for the price anyway

Resolved!