Banzhang, the king of puerh, has finally arrived!

2008 spring Gushu puerh from Banzhang

Banzhang is a fairly new tea region in Yunnan. All the famous tea mountains from the "hao" era are located in the vicinity of Yiwu. The puerh craze in the early 2000s  led to exploration of other regions in Yunnan province. The fame of Banzhang shot up quickly thanks to the slogan: Yiwu is the empress and Banzhang is the king! But the fame also came with 2 problems: high prices and lots, lots of fakes.

This explains why, for 20 years, I haven't selected any Banzhang puerh. And the fakes are also the reason why I took the wrapper and neifei away from this cake, because there are many fake versions of it available and some might get fooled by it. In a world of fakes, only the most knowledgeable and experienced puerh drinkers can spot a fake. If one has had lots of fakes, believing they were genuine, than he will have difficulty to tell what is genuine from what's not.

In this session, I brewed a few leaves in my gold plated silver teapot in order to subject the leaves to the most intense heat. This is a great way to test puerh. Most will turn excessively bitter and undrinkable. This one still tasted pure and mellow with intense dark flowery fragrances. 

And after a while, the rise of the Chaqi. The energy of this tea is simply amazing!

I know, I didn't solve the first problem, the price. On the other hand, not only is it from Banzhang, but it's already 16 years old, nicely mid-aged. And it's so powerful that each time I'm brewing it, I stop drinking before the leaves are exhausted (which means I can continue later on.)

It took 20 years, but the wait is over, the king of puerh, which is the king of tea, has finally arrived! Long live the king!