TeaChat

kyarazen wrote:i wonder how many teas can be like an LBZ 07 now? because it is an extremely good tea, the LBZ 07 of the one you had sampled is now easily $5k a piece in mainland now, the 08 LBZ is 4k+... in some way this is one style of "aged pu-erh", sealed storage of a single mountain gushu for the past seven years have paid off, but no one knows what happens after ten, fifteen, twenty or more years, will it pass its peak, or continue to "improve" further?

It is still questionable for aging LBZ as the style done in 2007 onwards was quite new. And it is crazy to pay for such price. I tasted the LBZ continously since 2007 and there are many faces of it and what comes out eventually is still a guess. It it not the greatest tea, there are better and cheaper tea e.g. a pure authentic Ziyah if processed correctly. I have one that last 30 brews and I think it is as good as LBZ, if not better if you consider other profiles that this tea has. And it is at the fraction of the LBZ price.

Cheers!

What, precisely do you mean by purple-leaf? Varietal, species, or high altitude tips?

Teaism wrote:It it not the greatest tea, there are better and cheaper tea e.g. a pure authentic Ziyah if processed correctly. I have one that last 30 brews and I think it is as good as LBZ, if not better if you consider other profiles that this tea has. And it is at the fraction of the LBZ price.

Cheers!

Hi Teaism,
With Ziyah do you mean one cultivar of the many purple Pu Erh existing?
If yes, great Pu Erh these of the purple varietals, high viscosity leaves, often not so well processed. When everything is done correctly, it is just an amazing Pu Erh.

shah82 wrote:What, precisely do you mean by purple-leaf? Varietal, species, or high altitude tips?

I think he is talking about one of the various varietals.
Or Ziyah stands for the entire family of purple teas, composed of various varietals?

Obviously only he can answer, but I think Teaism is referring to purple buds, not leaves (ye in pinyin). I generally see that name as referring to the natural ocurrence of such leaves in otherwise "regular" assamica trees due to lack of direct sunlight. Otherwise, there seem to be many purple varietals, including some "wild" non-sinensis trees.

I'd be interested in knowing from meister Teaism if he thinks the region/garden of this ziya tea is a major influence in its quality. 30 good brews is no joke.

Ziyah occurs in many tea varietals. The tea release a special compound to counter freak and adverse weather conditions and the color of the tea leaves turned into purple color.

Due to this special compound the tea is extremely full bodied, thick and fruity and sweet. The real ones are rare and it depend whether the weather allows the tea to do so. In 2006, there are "good" weather conditions for these tea and some producers have good material and spend some effort to produce it well. 10 pieces were brought to Singapore and it was expensive then at $300 per 300gm piece but it was not really hyped until the crazy LBZ price. I have some of it. It is an extremely rare tea but occassionally if the weather permit, look out for it. There are too many fakes of this tea though.

Cheers!

Teaism wrote:

kyarazen wrote:i wonder how many teas can be like an LBZ 07 now? because it is an extremely good tea, the LBZ 07 of the one you had sampled is now easily $5k a piece in mainland now, the 08 LBZ is 4k+... in some way this is one style of "aged pu-erh", sealed storage of a single mountain gushu for the past seven years have paid off, but no one knows what happens after ten, fifteen, twenty or more years, will it pass its peak, or continue to "improve" further?

It is still questionable for aging LBZ as the style done in 2007 onwards was quite new. And it is crazy to pay for such price. I tasted the LBZ continously since 2007 and there are many faces of it and what comes out eventually is still a guess. It it not the greatest tea, there are better and cheaper tea e.g. a pure authentic Ziyah if processed correctly. I have one that last 30 brews and I think it is as good as LBZ, if not better if you consider other profiles that this tea has. And it is at the fraction of the LBZ price.

Cheers!

From my view, if the tea is good now, it has already paid off. If another 2007 tea still tastes like crap, you are still waiting at the gambling table for some miracle/magic/hope. Which will you place your money on?

Tead Off wrote: From my view, if the tea is good now, it has already paid off. If another 2007 tea still tastes like crap, you are still waiting at the gambling table for some miracle/magic/hope. Which will you place your money on?

Hello my friend, I really wish it is as simple as that

Cheers!

puyuan wrote:Obviously only he can answer, but I think Teaism is referring to purple buds, not leaves (ye in pinyin). I generally see that name as referring to the natural ocurrence of such leaves in otherwise "regular" assamica trees due to lack of direct sunlight. Otherwise, there seem to be many purple varietals, including some "wild" non-sinensis trees.

I'd be interested in knowing from meister Teaism if he thinks the region/garden of this ziya tea is a major influence in its quality. 30 good brews is no joke.

actually i got to drink that tea at teaism's place.. we took it to 20 brews and it was still going. that was after 20 brews of LBZ in one sitting, excluding the dessert (tie lo han)

the particular Zi Ya that teaism had brewed was a limited release, where regular buds/shoots turn purple due to freak weather/climate for a short period of time, i.e. a period of cold/cool and suddenly snap switching of weather to super strong sunlight. these pigments are rapidly produced and concentrated in the tender buds to absorb excess radiation from the sun but are non-photosynthetic in nature, and thus solely acting like some kind of photoprotective sunblock. Dissipation helps to protect the photosystems in the buds/leaves from photo-inhibition and photooxidative damage.

the increase of such pigmentations in leaves/buds would mean much higher polyphenol content than usual buds, animals, bugs will not like to eat it due to added bitterness. with good storage over time, this tea would definitely be fascinating when aged.

Kyarazen,

It was fun and great to enjoy that Ziyah and many other tea with you.

On a general note, all tea comes in different quality. We should NOT dismiss any tea or mountain as every tea, regions, mountains and producer have their best or worst. The best Menghai can beat the current LBZ quality anytime. A good Linchang can beat it too. For tea sourcing, it is always important to seek the best quality. On the higher level of quality, all tea are great. Unfortunately, LBZ quality since 2009 has slide a lot so any decently high quality tea from any mountain can be better that it.

So for tea enthusiast, we must seek the best of each tea, at good value, before all the hype come in. It is more prudent to evaluate each tea individually and look at their actual quality rather than mountain, producer or fame.

So this rare good Ziyah, can definitely take on the LBZ anytime, I am sure there are a lot of other tea can do it too. We must look around more and don't follow the tide too much.

Again, I wish that it is that simple but unfortunately it is not so.

Cheers!

I do not think any famous mountain is easy. And plenty of not-so-famous mountains are quietly locked down.

shah82 wrote:I do not think any famous mountain is easy. And plenty of not-so-famous mountains are quietly locked down.

Agree with you shah82. The time is not now. It is like 2006/2007 period. When the market collapse, then we step up our search. Better chance of finding good stuff that way. A lot of new highways were built in the last few years and those remote areas are getting the hype too.

Just be patience and enjoy those tea we have.

Have a good day!

Cheers!

having a gua feng zhai gushu right now

nice aromatics, a bit heavy on the front end, on leaf inspection, a blend of spring + autumn leaves, of which the larger proportion of autumn leaves results in a more intense aroma

shah82 wrote:I do not think any famous mountain is easy. And plenty of not-so-famous mountains are quietly locked down.

I mostly agree, but it depends. There are famous Banna areas that are easy to find good teas from in the open market, even fine teas. They just aren't necessarily cheap anymore. And there are plenty of accessible finnicky teas if we start looking at the 200+ usd/cake level. Other than that, even Mansong is still accessible, and not from esoteric cabals. I'm just not sure how many people are interested in paying over 10-12k rmb per kg. Genuine scarcity is a minor problem compared to finding the right source (which could be a private group or maocha solicitor, for instance), and having the right money. Which is a lot more frustrating, imo.

kyarazen wrote:

puyuan wrote:Obviously only he can answer, but I think Teaism is referring to purple buds, not leaves (ye in pinyin). I generally see that name as referring to the natural ocurrence of such leaves in otherwise "regular" assamica trees due to lack of direct sunlight. Otherwise, there seem to be many purple varietals, including some "wild" non-sinensis trees.

I'd be interested in knowing from meister Teaism if he thinks the region/garden of this ziya tea is a major influence in its quality. 30 good brews is no joke.

actually i got to drink that tea at teaism's place.. we took it to 20 brews and it was still going. that was after 20 brews of LBZ in one sitting, excluding the dessert (tie lo han)

the particular Zi Ya that teaism had brewed was a limited release, where regular buds/shoots turn purple due to freak weather/climate for a short period of time, i.e. a period of cold/cool and suddenly snap switching of weather to super strong sunlight. these pigments are rapidly produced and concentrated in the tender buds to absorb excess radiation from the sun but are non-photosynthetic in nature, and thus solely acting like some kind of photoprotective sunblock. Dissipation helps to protect the photosystems in the buds/leaves from photo-inhibition and photooxidative damage.

the increase of such pigmentations in leaves/buds would mean much higher polyphenol content than usual buds, animals, bugs will not like to eat it due to added bitterness. with good storage over time, this tea would definitely be fascinating when aged.

I assume this mutation and increase in polyphenols increase the gelatinous content, then? That's not something I would have guessed. Sounds very appetizing. I had a ziya xiaobing offered to me by a taiwanese seller earlier this year. I couldn't possibly buy it now, sadly.


I always forget about posting my notes, but just to keep myself more OT:

2011 Xigui maocha sample from a mountain named Manglu. Tastes very much like tea from the village, with perhaps a bit less flavour. But it has loads of bite and didn't sit well with my stomach, so I had to cut the session short, which was already long regardless. It has good structure but nothing too noteworthy. Other than the spent leaves looking fairly impressive, that is. Very big buds. Not cheap, but much cheaper than tea from Xigui proper. In all honesty, normally I think I'd be more impressed but I was a bit bored by the lack of transformation from brew to brew, which is bias from having had just brewed a Mensong tea (JJT) that was very dynamic and transformative. I'll come back to the sample and others from the same vicinity, but I'm finding the price-to-quality ratio (2013 prices) unattractive.

Drinking 'cheap tea'..

03 (+-1yr) XG Baoyan 'shroom.

When I first bought it at Maliandao 3~4 years ago, I was almost throwing this way..but kept it.

This time I took it out, and it definitely improved..and got aged than I thought......but still not satisfying..too much 杂味. Should have some decades for this tea...ah the time.