Toasted sugar and vanilla nose, strongly coating empty cup (guabei), picks up big exhaling through nose. Nose opens to comforting vanilla and preserved pears. Sweet rich broth, very Bulang in neutrality. Tongue acclimates to bitterness in an instant. Gripping astringency transforming to mouth watering quickly. Cheeky. Sugary, evanescent huigan with notes of dried cherry, booze, black licorice, and jasmine. Each infusion, which should be flash, reveals another layer, also changing with temperature. Strong qi thundering first in the belly, before reaching chest and head. Both huigan and qi are its strong suit. Organic. Stored and in LA since Feb ’23.
Palace, gongting, is a designation almost exclusively assigned to ripe productions of the highest grade, i.e., smallest leaf. Because of this smallness it yields fewer infusions than typical. Outstanding long term storage potential. Banzhang Zhengshan TF (BZZS) is a boutique factory established in ’06 with a focus on productions that “everyday folk can afford to drink and store.” Their material draws almost exclusively from the Menghai broad-leaf variety. It takes at least 15 years for most new comers to gain a reputation, as only time tells through the productions themselves. Through a deft marketing strategy and branding, BZZS has a number of offerings that have appreciated to a price reflecting their quality. Vanilla Palace is a very good value.
23¢
| Size | 30g, 400g |
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