2009 Changtai "Zhengpin Banzhang"

What say you to my new piece of essential chadao?

Gurgle snooze hiccup

It brings the gurgles, hiccups, and (yes) snores of my dear son to the tea-table, so that I can keep an eye on him, or even an ear on him, as he sleeps while I'm drinking.

Thankfully, the system requires me to push a button in order for him to hear me.  This is an advantage when I am screaming in agony after drinking harsh plantation tea.

Such as today's Banzhang, from Changtai.  It's their bottom-of-the-ladder production, "zhengpin", which is one grade below their "jingpin" that I wrote about recently.

Red leaves aplenty in this modern Changtai blend

The higher-grade jingpin opened with a very lovely introduction of actual Banzhang, before fading into plantation grimness.  This cake skips the introduction and gets straight to the plantation.

Small leaves and fragments abound

You know that I love Changtai.  This is one of the first times in memory that I can remember actually disliking one of their cakes.  It has almost nothing to commend it, being a slog of plantation green-brown characteristics from beginning to end.

The soup is a solid orange, which justifies my raised eyebrows at the red leaves in the blend.  There are the barest hints of Banzhang, with its hints of clean, sweet leather, but I get the impression that this tea session is simply man vs. bush.

It's a genuine education to compare the various grades of Changtai, keeping the region and the year the same - thanks to Kenny for providing this sample, as he so kindly did with the "jingpin" version.