Essence of Tea 2010 Banpen

From EoT: The cake is composed of 100% old tree material from trees around 3-400 years old & entirely hand processed. The leaves are slightly smaller this year due to the dry weather conditions, but display very good flavour.

Moonlight White from Bana Tea Company

2007 vintage from last spring harvest

Raw pu'erh, Grade 1

Production area: Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province
Vendor: Bana Tea Company
Taste characteristics from the Bana Tea's website: "This tea is produced using a special technique wherein the leaves are dried at night, allowing a slight amount of oxidation. The result is a peach-yellow colored tea that exudes a mellow nectarine flavor. The aroma permeates the room as the tea is brewed and the taste is very pleasing, particularly in the morning or afternoon."

3rd infusion

6th infusion 

2003 Raw Wild Puerh - Tea Masters

This tea was delicious! Loved the aroma of the dried leaves -  smelled a little bit like medjool dates. After a quick rinse, the tea was brewed in a 100 ml gaiwan, shorter steep. The light amber color of the brew was also pretty.

Vendor: Tea Masters

Origin: Yiwu, Yunnan

Harvest year: Spring 2003

2010 Jing Mai

Raw Pu-erh, Spring 2010

Harvest Area: Jingmai Mountain, Lancang County
Vendor: Bana Tea Company

This pu-erh was served at a workshop my husband and I attended during Kulov's tea festival in May. I fell in love with its crisp, fresh and sweet aftertaste as soon as I had the first sip. It was a kind of tea that I really like. Unfortunately the tea was not available for purchase. Linda, the owner of the Bana Tea Company, only had a small amount of this tea from her recent trip to Jingmai tea mountain. And that was not for sale. Good news that about a week after the festival Linda informed me that her farmer was able to ship a smaller amount of this tea via airmail and I could taste this tea again by end of May. 

The tea arrived sooner than I expected. Thanks Linda! I did Gongfu-style brewing method in a gaiwan using filtered water. I rinsed the tea with boiling water twice before brewing. 1st infusion: 10s, 2nd: 20s, 3rd:30s, 4th: 40s. I took a break after the 4th infusion. 5th infusion was for 1 minute then gradually increased the brewing time by 1 minute after every infusion. 

It was as delicious as I remember it.  And the spent leaves looked so pretty!

2007 Mengku Cake - Pure Puer Tea

Factory: Guagtong

Harvest Year: 2007

Type: Ripe/Shu

Harvest Area: Mengku, Shuangjiang County

Brewing vessel: 120 gaiwan

38 gram sample dari teh ini sebetulnya saya beli bulan Desember 2009 namun baru hari ini sempat dinikmati. Karena saat itu masih banyak persediaan teh yang perlu dihabiskan jadi sang pu disimpan dulu. Toh semakin lama disimpan semakin enak rasanya. Tapi gara gara disimpan di barisan belakang di lemari penyimpan teh, keberadaan teh ini sempat terlupakan. Baru ingat kembali setelah asik mencoba beberapa pu dari Bana Tea belakangan ini.

Menurut informasi dari vendor, teh ini merupakan hand-picked, stoned pressed dari Mengku, dibuat dari the finest Emperor leaf sized yang dipetik dari pohon teh kuno. Saya menggunakan gaiwan ukuran 120 ml untuk menyeduh 4 gram pu kering, dengan dua kali bilas. Hasil seduhan sangat smooth, samar-samar terekam rasa manis menyenangkan. Delicious tea. 


Update: 24 November 2010, I am finishing up this tea today after enjoying it for  several more sessions since the first session in May. Setting saya usahakan semirip mungkin dengan setting yang saya gunakan saat mencoba teh ini untuk pertama kalinya 5 bulan lalu termasuk tea cups dan kain batik untuk alas. Teh kering diseduh dengan menggunakan gaiwan dengan ukuran yang sama pula, tapi berbeda pada ketebalan dindingnya. Gaiwan yang dipakai sekarang agak sedikit lebih tebal dari gaiwan yang dipakai saat mencoba pertama kali 5 bulan lalu. 

Rasa seduhan tetap enak tapi terasa tidak semanis atau se smooth yang saya ingat. Mungkinkah karena pengaruh gaiwan yang dipakai atau karena teh tidak tersimpan dengan baik setelah kemesannya terbuka?

3 days later, it was still going strong and the color was still beautiful...

The leaves after more than a week and 15 something infusions ...

Treasure from 5 Mountains

Treasures from Five Mountains
2008 vintage from early spring harvest
Raw pu-erh, Grade 1
Production area: Lincang, Yunnan Province
Vendor: Bana Tea Company


From Bana Tea website: This tea is a blend of leaves from five different tea mountains in the Lincang area.  The raw materials of this cake were selected and blended  according to each tea’s strength, mouth-feel, body, aftertaste and an assessment of how each tea complements the others.  

2006 Silver Tip - Bana Tea

This vintage pu erh was included in my order from Bana Tea Company. Per the website, "the tea is harvested from arbor trees ranging between 50-100 year old. It is made entirely from tippy buds plucked during early spring."
The tea was so clean, light and delicious!


Harvest year: 2006
Type: Non-fermented, premium grade, 100% tippy buds
Origin: Nannou Mountain, Xishuangbanna Perfecture

2006 Jin Mai

Another delicious sheng from Pure Puer Tea. According to the vendor, the tea comes from the Jin Main Mountain in Simao, Yunan and the leaves are from 500 - 800 old trees, hand picked and stone pressed. 

Factory: Jin Yu Xuan

Harvest Year: Spring 2006

2006 Yi Wu Pu-erh

First time I tried Yi Wu pu-erh. Very delicious. I will definitely buy more in the near future. I am easily finishing the 28 gram sample that was bought from Pure Puer. According to vendor's website the tea was hand picked and made from ancient pu-erh tea that are 500-800 years old. Very delicious.

Factory: Jin Yu Xuan
Harvest Year: Spring 2006
Type: Raw/Sheng
Harvest Area: Yi Wu Mountain

Organic Pu-erh and Yunan Fancy

We went to Peet's again today and wanted to try something new. So we ordered pu-erh. In case we didn't like it, as a back-up, we also got Yunan Fancy, China black tea. 

Ancient Trees Organic Pu-erh

When our order were put on the table, I was a little bit intimated by the color of the liquor. It was bold, thick, very dark and didn't look appealing at all. Did we order tea or coffee? The aroma was so powerful and unpleasant. I was expecting to taste something bitter and strong but I was pleasantly surprised to find it actually tasted very smooth and was not bitter at all. I liked the fact the this tea is Fair Trade certified and 100% organic.

Yunan Fancy

I found this tea not as smooth as pu-erh, but has a more body and sweet taste. A little bit too strong for us. Maybe it was steeped too long? But after adding a little bit of milk and sugar, we liked it. This could become my morning tea if I hadn't discovered matcha.

What Peets.com says:"Yunnan Fancy is made from the broad-leafed variety known as Dayeh, an ancient variety that grows only in this province. In spite of the long pedigree of Yunnan teas, the current style F.O.P. black tea types have only been produced for the last 60 years or so. Yunnan Fancy has a full body and rich flavor, and it is a popular tea with the people who work at Peet’s. While the aroma is toasty, floral, and woodsy, the flavor is honey-sweet with firm fruity and spicy notes."