2011 Lao Man' E GuXiangGuChun Shou Cha

Bought this tea a while ago from Alexpress King Tea and am just now getting around to trying it. It has a fair amount of fermentation flavor. This flavor while I don’t use the term fishy, was less pleasant then some ripe teas. It lasted until around the fifth steep. There were a variety of sweet notes too. It was dark and rich in the first few steeps, even with notes of chocolate. It developed a nice flavor in the last few steeps. I would say notes of dates but that is an interpretation. This was, judging over ten steeps an excellent tea. If you just looked at the first two steeps it was not as good. It developed into something quite nice.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. If I had a desire to drink more tea I’m sure I could get another few steeps out of this one. King Tea seems to be out of this one. I have tried a few of this brand from King Tea and they have been good. They are, however, an example of a Chinese company trying to sell with a famous name. After all this tea from the Menghai Banzhang Tea Company doesn’t actually have any Lao Banzhang tea in it, they just use the name. I think, however, that they make a fairly tasty ripe. King Tea has other ripe available from this company.