Dragon from Bulang and two teacups from kiln

Yesterday I visited Daniel Kurek from Nomad and after that I brought home the second of two cups by Petr Novak I have bought few days ago. Also I got two samples which were kindly given by Daniel. They were: Tie Guan Yin 1998 and Long Feng Exclusive Production- Dragon from Bulang 2010.

Weather is rather cold and windy these days in Bratislava, but again this morning was surprisingly sunny and calm. Perfect opportunity to test new cups and tea.

When filled to the top cups are about 100ml in volume. They are made from rought, very porous clay glazed with creamy white glaze. Combination of  clay and glaze used created really interesting surface and texture with lot of pores in the glaze.
Each cup has a bit different size and both of them are little irregular, but it makes them unique and perfect in their imperfection.

As I mentioned in another post, wood fired pottery shows its real beauty after some while when you use it for tea. I was positively surprised today when I saw these cracks in the glaze that just began to fill with tea! I havent noticed them before! I knew it was a good idea to use them for a Shu Pu erh yesterday :-)

Thats why I like to use wood fired pottery and yixing. It evolves right before your eyes! Porcelain teaware is beautiful for its purity and simplicity, but sometimes I miss the spirit and warmth that is hidden in yixing and wood fired pottery.

This morning I enjoyed tea with two of my friends, so it was good opportunity  to use my teatray made by Mirka Randova (Petr Novaks partner). I rarely take it outside my flat because it is very heavy but this was different when someone helped me with tea accessories :-) I used my Modern Duan Ni teapot.

Bulang Dragon comes from a pair of cakes pressed for a occassion of Mr. Zdenek Prachars marriage in Peking. As he mentioned on his site -"Exceptional occasion needs exceptional tea." I couldnt agree more. Mao Cha for this 100g cake comes from the area of Bu Lang Shan in Zheng Jia San Dui village just 15km away from famous Lao Ban Zhang. It was harvested from wild trees of age up to 250 years. Tea was hand-pressed using traditional stone forms.

Leaf releases heavy and sweet aroma when both dry and when put into prewarmed teapot. Aroma is a bit smoky, but not that kind of smoky aroma that is typical for lower grades of young sheng. It is noble and it reminds me a bit of good cigar.
Leaves produce a very strong liquor with a pleasant (at least for me :-D ) a bit raw taste. I am used to drink very young shengs so I really enjoy this tea, but for some people it could be too strong. In that case, you wont hurt anything if you store it for 2-3 years and then try it again. Long term storage would be very hard in my case, because I wouldnt be able not to drink it now :-D
I dont drink teas from area surrounding Lao Ban Zhang very often due to thier high price, but when I do, I really enjoy their complexity and their woody and dry taste, which reminds me of a good scotch- also case of this particular tea.

In my opinion this tea is very similar to Hai Lang Hao "Lao Ban Zhang Gu Shu" or Douji "Veteran Edition Lao Ban Zhang" .
If you like typical Ban Zhang taste, definitely also try this one.



P.S. Next week Im going to a holiday to a place with beautiful nature so you can look forward to some nice pictures :-)