Today I sat down with the Mr bumble ‘Ban po Lao Zhai’ Gushu…
Tea Guru veterans May remember this cake, it was part of a release back in 2017 alongside a few other Gushu and Da Shu varieties. It’s quite sad to see the end of an era come near, only around 20 g of this tea remains in stock, in fact if you’re quick you might still be able to grab some for yourself! In this first ever release of a Guru cakes we purchased the teas in white wrappers and then used foodgrade paint to create these funky designs. The second era of Guru teacake releases were a one wrapper fits all situation with stamped names for each cake. Now in 2020 the 3rd era of Guru puerh tea is being released as I write this. Now with a more professional printed wrapper for each teacake release.
I released a YouTube video at the time tasting this tea. It was interesting because I tasted the 2014 Mr bumble, at that point was three years of storage in steamy Yunnan The tea was extremely sweet with honey notes, hence the name. Notice notice in the video tasting session that the tea I was tasting was of a very different character. Instead of being super sweet and expressive the tea was extremely bitter, in a good way. She was very hard-hitting, in fact this is the only tea tasting to have given me the full on sweats, a reaction that no other tea has ever given me. Video below.
So how did this Gushu raw puerh taste three years down the line with UK storage? Well, the crazy bitterness has subsided somewhat. The super sweetness as yet to peak but promising signs are here with sweetness emerging. And adorable herbal hui gan is noticed and she is still super rushy and energetic. The mouth feel is slightly tonic like and the broth is a full on yellow now. I must admit I do yearn for the super sweet honey experience I tasted back in 2017 with the original 2014 cake but our UK storage has yet to give! If you’re one of the lucky ones to have a cake of this in your storage please let me know your thoughts on how it’s progressing.
Thanks for stopping by, happy cupping!