Lao Ban Zhang sheng pu-erh

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Lao Ban Zhang — 1400–1900 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

• Bulang — 1200–1800 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

The plants it is made from

Cultivar is the level below the variety group: a named selection of the tea plant, propagated as clones from one parent. Most consumer writing stops at the country and the category, which leaves out the layer that decides how the leaf behaves before anyone picks it.

• Menghai Da Ye — Camellia sinensis var. assamica

  Pu-erh’s ageing potential is often credited to storage alone. The cultivar is the precondition — small-leaf stock does not age the same way.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
2. 2. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
3. 3. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
4. 4. Sun-drying (shai qing) — Reduces moisture to a storable level at low temperature, leaving residual enzymatic and microbial activity in the leaf.
5. 5. Compression — Reduces the leaf’s exposed surface area and fixes it in a stable physical form, slowing and evening out subsequent change.
6. 6. Ageing and storage — Allows slow oxidative, microbial and thermal change to continue in stored leaf, gradually converting sharp young character into darker, rounder and sweeter character.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Sheng pu-erh — A green tea route with one substitution — sun-drying instead of oven-drying — and that substitution is why a cake can change for decades instead of going stale.

  Where it is practised: Yunnan, and legally so under the Chinese geographical indication for pu-erh. Comparable sun-dried material is made in northern Laos, in the Vietnamese highlands and in Myanmar, and is pressed and sold under other names.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Catechins.

• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Sun-drying (shai qing)
  • raises Beta-ionone
  • lowers Carotenoids
• Ageing and storage
  • raises Gallic acid
  • raises Pectins
  • raises Pheophytin
  • raises Thearubigins
  • lowers Catechins
  • lowers Chlorophyll
  • lowers Tea cream

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

Brewing

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  5–7 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 6 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

Common mistakes

• Judging it from a long first steep — this is a tea that has to be brewed short to be legible at all.

When the cup goes wrong

Written against dark tea and pu-erh as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 15 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• Every infusion in my gongfu session tastes the same — The cups are pleasant and interchangeable, with none of the change from steep to steep the method is supposed to show.
• My clay pot has changed how the tea tastes — A tea that tasted right in porcelain comes out muted, differently scented, or carrying something that was not in the leaf.
• My first infusion is always the worst one — The opening cup is thin, dusty or flat, and the second is markedly better — consistently, across different teas.
• My gaiwan is too hot to hold — The rim and lid become uncomfortable within seconds, the pour is rushed, and tea ends up on the tray.
• My gongfu tea is bitter even at five seconds — The timer says five or ten seconds and the cup is over-extracted anyway, with the later infusions dropping off sharply.
• My pu-erh cake will not break apart cleanly — The cake resists the pick, then gives way suddenly into powder and fragments rather than intact leaf.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Cheap vs expensive pu-erh — Price in pu-erh tracks a small number of specific claims, most of which a buyer cannot verify. Knowing which they are is the only defence. Put the two side by side

Journeys featuring this tea

• Exploring pu-erh — Someone who has had one pu-erh, could not tell whether it was raw or ripe, and wants the map.
• Exploring Yunnan tea — Someone who knows Yunnan for pu-erh and not for anything else it makes.

Guides covering this tea

• Ancient tree tea, and how much of the claim can be checked
• Why famous tea names are substituted, and how to read a price that does not add up
• Why the pu-erh market behaved like an asset market