I looked up this listing before trying it to clarify that it is actually sheng pu'er, since the label presents it as "Banzhang Mountain Soil." It is sheng.
Why would it not reference Lao Banzhang, the village? A Google AI answer probably clarifies this, as the answer you would expect:
Lao Banzhang means "Old Banzhang," referring to a famous mountain village in Yunnan, China, that produces some of the most expensive and revered raw Pu-erh tea in the world.
Name Breakdown and Origin
Lao (老): Means "old."Banzhang (班章): The name of the village, located in the Bulang Mountain range of Menghai County, Xishuangbanna. The newer settlement nearby is called Xin Banzhang or "New Banzhang."
King of Pu-erh:
Connoisseurs call Lao Banzhang tea the "King of Pu-erh" because of its powerful energy (cha qi), intense initial bitterness, and rapid, deep-throated sweetness (huigan).
I reviewed a Xin Banzhang version from a local Chinatown shop recently, here. So this is probably not from near the old village area, but is tea from that general area, which would explain the pricing.
Banzhang Mountain Soul Sheng Puer (8.94 Euro for 50 grams, or $10.27 USD)
That pricing is low for standard sized cakes at this point, a $70 or so 357 gram version. Their description:
Banzhang Mountain Soul is a raw Pu-erh tea made from old-tree leaves harvested in the Banzhang region of Bulangshan mountain, Menghai.
The tea comes from high-altitude forested areas where the large-leaf varietals grow naturally and develop a strong, structured character typical of Banzhang terroir.
The leaves are picked by hand with a standard of one bud and two to three leaves, then withered, pan-fried (kill-green), rolled, and sun-dried.
The infusion is bright golden-yellow with a firm, penetrating aroma of wild herbs, wood, and mountain air. The taste is powerful and bitter-sweet, with the characteristic “霸气” (ba qi, dominant strength) associated with Banzhang teas.
A steady returning sweetness and long aftertaste make this tea suitable for both connoisseurs and long-term aging.
It's interesting there's no year cited for this. Maybe from spring of 2025?
Either way it sounds ok from that description; let's see.
Review
First infusion: this is quite good. Bitterness stands out, but so does distinctive floral range, fullness, and depth, and it's only the first infusion. Sweetness is great. Astringency is moderate, in a good form, positive in relation to the rest. There is good hui gan / carried over bitterness converting to sweetness. Even without tasting other rounds this is surely an absolute steal for tea priced at that level.
The other Xin Banzhang version I'd mentioned trying was good tea, but just a little off a most conventional form. This is it; this is what pretty good versions of this type should be like.
I've only tried about four LBZ versions, so I can't really conclusively pin down the right style or flavor range for there, but as far as my memory goes of that it's in the right general range. It's marked by a distinctive warm and rich floral profile, that is intense, with notable bitterness, but nothing on the highest side of the range, that doesn't integrate well with the rest of the tea character. Good intensity is matched by depth, and flavor range is especially positive, so heavy in complex floral tones that it almost leans to being fruity, because there is so much complexity and intensity packed in a limited floral flavor scope, carrying over to pronounced aftertaste. Does that make sense? Maybe not.
Moychay teas are generally solid, pretty good for matching type range, decent in quality, with range of value a little more broad, but they do offer some atypical hits and misses, outliers on both ends. I was hoping this would be an example of the first, and it seems to be.
Second infusion: I brewed this pretty fast; that can help with identifying flavors better, and it's intense enough that it's going to be positive and strong enough brewed lighter.
It definitely has a lot of flavor complexity to offer. Bitterness still stands out, but to me it's in an appropriate balance. It may be a little higher than some LBZ I've tried, but again I'm not trying to claim to know a typical profile range, based on only trying a few versions (3 come to mind, so it's probably more than that).
The floral flavor covers a narrow range, but it's also complex, which is an interesting effect. It seems to pack together a set of floral flavors that match and extend beyond what one flower smells like. Orchid might represent the brightness and sweetness, a wildflower variation might give it depth, and a warm toned flower the flavor richness. Part of that effect could be interpreted as a hint of citrus instead, maybe as a trace of lemon zest. You automatically "see" it as only floral, because those flavors seem to integrate and link, to be one complex experience.
It's hard to describe how the sweetness and feel contribute to that. I've not experienced extended aftertaste that much for awhile, drinking more moderate quality sheng that can be fine in positive flavor aspects, intensity, and complexity, but that don't express all of the quality related markers that much.
Since I'm finally doing a single type tasting maybe I could identify body feel some, cha qi. But I had breakfast before this, which seems to offset how fast that input hits you, making it much harder to identify. The long term health of my stomach is much more of a priority than drug-like effects from tea; I don't need those.
Let's switch it up and try to cite limitations or flaws; what isn't as positive? One could interpret that there is a dry edge to the pronounced mineral tone layer (that seems to associate; I'm fine with mixing flavor and feel range descriptions, if they seem to link). To me that's a bit of stretch; the entire feel and flavor range is very positive. But it probably does help define "how good" this tea is. It's quite good, but there is room for slight improvement. Related to even moderate aging input that might be positive; a touch of extra intensity in certain feel and flavor seems to tie to transition potential. To me it would be crazy to hold onto this tea and see what it's like in 15 to 20 years, since it's more than fine now, but preferences do vary.
Third infusion: a faint hint of smoke enters in; that's closer to a flaw than anything else experienced. It's always strange to me when that picks up a few rounds in, as occurred in a very recent tasting. If that's an external input why didn't it stand out at first? It may be a touch of natural smokiness, just how the mineral range is evolving, even though that sounds strange.
Sweetness is still good. It could be slightly stronger; back to the theme of looking for limitations, even in positive aspects. Feel is rich and full but it could be a little more intense. Aftertaste expression is pretty pronounced, that doesn't represent a thin spot in the character. Most of the rest doesn't either; I'm describing how good teas and great teas can differ.
The brightness and flavor complexity is quite positive. A touch of lemon stands out all the more, joining the other floral range, as it had last round, but a little more so. This tea is really good, only limited in relation to someone hoping for "great" instead. For someone like me, for whom basic, limited, pleasant, and interesting teas are enough, this is already better than it needs to be.
Maybe I am feeling just a little stony from this. It would be nice to be trying it outside, but it's the rainy season in Bangkok, so the cats and I were rained out of the outdoor tasting theme this morning.
Fourth infusion: not so different than last round. I should keep this round's description short to make this readable, and get back to notes on the next one. That hint of rougher astringency is gone already, evolved away, and depth seems to pick up. Bitterness falls into a lighter balance, with lots of floral range flavors resonating into the aftertaste experience. This is a tea experience worth taking time with, and not rushing.
Fifth infusion: it's interesting how the forward flavor complexity has dropped, the bright floral tones, bitterness, even sweetness, but depth really ramped up. There's a lot to taste; it's not thin. But the effect is unusual, occurring across a broader range than you normally get. That faint hint of smoke, which may have just been how mineral was coming across at one point, is essentially gone. Mineral is really pronounced too in this; that's part of what I mean by depth increasing, while the most forward flavor range fades into a more even balance.
It really fills your mouth; the feel and flavor intensity stand out, across different areas. The lemon tone switches back to warm floral scope. I think that kind of thing is varying based on very slight differences in brewing, maybe related to limited infusion time variation. Temperature probably varies with how fast or slow I brew rounds, with leaves cooling to soak up more heat. Some would also be ordinary round to round transition.
I definitely feel this more than five cups would usually cause, both a heady stoniness and deeper body feel. I don't necessarily value all of that as many others do. It's mildly interesting, but my normal body feel and mental state effects are fine for me. I put my time in as a stoner and it was enough. I suppose that could also be why it all seems moderate to me; bong hits of strong weed are 100 times stonier than this tea. I can't even imagine what that would be like today, since I quit all that 21 years ago.
Sixth infusion: I brewed this a little longer, to see what that changes. Flavor tones are warmer and stronger, and feel and aftertaste effects are a bit much. I suppose I like it lighter (brewed for 10 seconds or less, even a number of rounds in). Related to feel effect I'll probably walk around a bit; that is adding up.
It's interesting the way heavy mineral tone comes across, brewed strong like this. There's a continuity between lighter, brighter range, sweetness, floral complexity, and mineral depth. It hits across a lot of levels, but it all kind of connects. Maybe mineral and astringency don't balance as well, brewed just a little stronger.
Conclusions
Of course that tea kept brewing beyond that; that's just where I dropped taking notes.
It can be a little awkward placing "how good" a good tea version is. Good in relation to what? This was a lot better than most sheng versions that you would run across. Related to as good as versions can get is too complicated and subjective a framework. There is higher quality range, but it's more meaningful to people focused on that than it is to me.
Placing it in relation to a Lao Ban Zhang standard type doesn't go much better. I've only tried a few versions presented as that, maybe four, and they all were really exceptional, and all similar in some ways. Pronounced floral tones stand out, to an unusual intensity and related to a novel flavor set. Astringency was moderate for all of them, but then the rougher edge form of sheng drops out in better versions, for whatever reasons. They all expressed great depth, and in some cases body feel did stand out.
This was better than the Chinatown origin Xin Ban Zhang version I've reviewed not so long ago; that included good sweetness and floral range, but mineral tones came across the strongest in that. That's not a terrible outcome, but very pronounced floral range supported by bitterness, sweetness, and mineral depth is nicer.
It's really not fair for me to guess if this is better or worse than four other LBZ versions I've tried over a half dozen years, and it wouldn't mean much if I did. Who knows how great or how representative those were. As I remember most were just a little more amazing, but some of that can be about buying into the hype.
So this tea is quite good, as described, and sort of what I'd expect for the general type (as pu'er from a broader Ban Zhang area, most likely, not necessarily from right outside the older Lao Ban Zhang village). Value is exceptional; unusually so.
Some would turn all that around and focus on gaps in expectations instead; there is usually some room for improvement, and expectations can soar in relation to the most exceptional type ranges. Maybe flavor profile could center on different floral range, intensity and refinement could dial up just a little, and mineral depth, and so on. But this tea was really good; it made for an exceptional experience.
