Tag Archives: Lao Banzhang
White Tea Trials on the Big Island and the Memory of a Mentor
Perspective, the genius and inspiration of Mr. Gao, and a Hawaiian grown white tea Continue reading
Pu erh’s Needed Basics
Mystification in Puerh’s world comes from some of its legitimate claims, but it also comes from regurgitated misinformation, marketing, and the intensely pretentious. Mystification, though, can also serve to hide or manipulate knowledge and create hype, and it is at this, that this little bit of writing is directed. Continue reading
Lao Ban Zhang Pu erh – A Tea of Endurance
Few teas that sit in my collection of leaves have ever not made a journey with me, accompanying me as a stimulant companion, ally, and vegetal mate. It is a kind of rite of passage to be taken, prepared, … Continue reading
South Tea Sips 5: Concluding Sips…for now
Last days inevitably require ‘last sips’, though no sips will really be ‘last’ ones when it comes to tea. Having left Lao Banzhang, Marco and I head back to our base of food, operations, community, and what is left of … Continue reading
South Tea Sips 3: Moustaches and Matè Unleashed
Those who enjoy tea’s ability to “lay the hammer down softly” have always held Jing Mai teas in regard. These words were used once by a Guangdong friend of mine whose abilities to discern teas – despite a ferocious … Continue reading
Pu’erh´s Ancient Green Home- Part II
We are heading to one of Xiao Yang’s ‘uncle’s’ homes for a sitting and sipping of a potent new batch of sheng (raw/green/unoxidized) Puer. Here the black Pu’erhs are referred to as “candy”, something “useless” and worse – something that … Continue reading