2006 Pasha Mountain Gu Shu (Guangdong stored)
Background I had a 25g sample that several sessions with left me unimpressed in 2025. I now have my brewing parameters more dialed in.
I am comparing this to my previous session of Gu Ming Ban Pen “Gu Shu”. This Pasha tea performed honorably, withstood some abuse, held its components together into the end, and rode softly into a graceful sunset.
10g / 140ml (minus the broken rim).
It went 18 steeps and every steep from 12 on was 3 minutes. Morning 10 steeps; lunch break 3 steeps; evening 5 steeps
Aromatic progression — Turkish tobacco & tonka/licorice casing → Oiled saddle leather → Stewed fruit/ambrosia → Dark pumpernickel & rye crust → Cool camphor
Texture / finish : High viscosity through steep 10. Eased into a mentholated, rock-sugar tail through steep 18 before early hints of sourness/failing leaf structure appeared.
Qi: creeping, sinking central nervous system Cha Qi (required a soufflé buffer for tea drunkenness) at steep 6). Deep, expanding throat cooling. It was still able to deliver Qi into the final steeps
25g sample was purchased for around $12. I would consider pulling trigger on a 357g cake at $117.50. ~$0.33/g
For me it’s a better value than the Gu Ming Ban Pen “Gu Shu” which purports “entirely” consisting of 200-300 year old tree leaf; which structurally failed within 10 steeps. ~$0.48/g. Then again that Gu Ming is a clean stored bulang and may arguably be an accessible benchmark for an aged bulang — $6.50/10g sample.
Both are samples from a previous year’s YS haul