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“Brewed up 9 grams in about 110 ml water, two rinses and long 30 second first steep. This tea cake is only a few months old, essentially fresh green tea leaves and not really fermented at all yet....” Read full tasting note
Phôngsali is a province of Laos, bordering Yiwu, Yunnan. It is located high in the mountains, approximately 450–1,800 metres above sea level. Phôngsali is well know as ancient tea caravan in the past, is also one of the important origin of yunnan puer tea in history. In recent years, with the ancient tea market continued to heat up, more and more people set their sights on the border tea that come from unknown villages in Myanmar or Laos.
The ancient tea trees resources in mountain area are extremely rich, but the local tea making techniques are poor. Laos pu’er tea is seldom seen on the market. Many raw materials are bought by Yunnan tea makers and sold as more expensive Yiwu tea.
We made a trip to Laos in March and really got some nice tea from two villages .
Ban Payasi is another village, deep in the mountain. This place has many ancient trees and 50-100 years old tea trees.
Local people from Payasi didn’t want to sell fresh leaves. Most of people make maocha themselves. We carefully selected good materials from different families. If compare with other two cakes from Ban Komaen, the character of taste is quite different. Tea soup is light yellow with light herbal scent, this tea has unique cool feeling in mouth. Bitter-sweet and powerful, great tea for long term storage !
200g per cake, 5 cakes in bamboo tong For 25g sample please click here
Production date : Early March 2014, pressed 19.3.2014
Harvest Area : Ban Payasi, Phongsaly, Laos
Weight : 200g (22USD per cake, 90USD per tong . 1kg)
Company description not available.
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ChawangshopBrewed up 9 grams in about 110 ml water, two rinses and long 30 second first steep. This tea cake is only a few months old, essentially fresh green tea leaves and not really fermented at all yet. My tong of this tea is quite fragrant sitting in crock storage.
Laos tea cakes are often compared with Yiwu because the Phongsaly area of villages is just over the border from Yunnan. The tea doesn’t disappoint in this comparison, very floral and mellow, with lemony undertone. I pushed the tea because I am used to a much stronger puerh brew.
My shoving of the tea got me 5 good steeps before showing signs of fade in the soup color. No real smoke here to speak of. The leaf quality is excellent, with buds and whole leaves. I am not sure why this tea cake costs less than half the price of the neighboring village cakes which Chawangshop also sells, maybe this cake is just more mild. But the $22 price tag drops to $19 per cake with a purchase of a tong of 5, I paid $96 for the tong. I think this is a great steal either way if you want a mellow Yiwu flavor.
At the same time, Chawangshop’s own 2012 Yiwu costs only $12 for the same size cake. I have that cake too, but don’t feel it is fair to compare Yunnan with Laos cakes even though the border is a political division and not really how tea trees decide where to grow. We do know about the Laos cakes as the government there strictly bans any pesticide or artificial fertilizer use in the region on tea trees.
Great choice of tea cake for people who enjoy fresh “puerh” cakes. Gulp without guilt. Works for me.
Much different narrative than this plus a couple photos at http://deathbytea.blogspot.com
Flavors: Floral, Green, Lemon
i have so much fun reading your blog ;)
I do like that your blog post is so different from the post here. Good read! And the tea sounds good, too!
Thanks! The tea is actually really good, for a new tea. It is a shame collectors don’t view Laos cakes favorably when really it is the same tea as just over the border. However, I have read that Yunnan factories buy this leaf for filler in Yunnan cakes, who would know the difference?
Your note is very timely. I’ve been curious about Honza’s offerings from Laos so I think you’ve given me a reason to try them. By the way, I love the 1st paragraph on your blog post for this one – let’s just say that I took it personally. ;-)
She is a trip!
O€O. It is hard work picking teas, cuz I don’t have a Chairman Meow who wants to help me. Thanks guys!