ITea World Hubei hei cha (dark tea)

 

the color didn't look light like that in real life

I'm reviewing the Hubei hei cha / dark tea sample from ITea World, a set they sent free for review (many thanks!).  

Their Liu Bao was pretty good; a bit approachable and mellow as those sometimes go, but that trade-off seemed fine, giving up some intensity along with not including typical edginess, rougher feel and slate mineral base.  

This website information includes limited description of the Hubei version:

It occurred to me during the tasting to look up what this might be in more detail, beyond "dark tea from Hubei," so I'll include a couple of other references about potentially related types after the review section.

Review:

#1:  this is what I really like about hei cha; it's warm, sweet, rich, and mild, with good depth.  It's not distinctive and refined related to a set of subtle aspects standing out and balancing as occurs with good Wuyi Yancha, and not as intense and complex as sheng pu'er, but it's pleasant.  

The flavor comes across as one distinct range, but it is complex in its own way.  That might include woody tone, towards cedar, and mild and deep spice, along the line of incense spice.  And it's just opening up; that list should run longer next round.

#2:  Intensity, complexity, and depth did pick up a lot.  I don't think I'm going to do description justice; a lot of this range is unusual, not all that familiar to me.  It might taste a bit like leather, but in an unusual form, not like a shoe smells, or baseball glove, more how old books smell.  

The tannins related range is interesting, how this isn't all that close to black tea range, or even shou pu'er, but kind of in between the two.  One part tastes like an aspect in black teas, like that tannin edge, but the rest is rich, complex, and earthy, like incense spice, or Chinese medicinal spices.  One part is probably like root spice, yet another range I can't pin down well.  

It's interesting how this tastes like a range of different things that I can't clearly describe.  Sometimes when you read other reviews a flavor you've missed identifying seems clear, something odd like pine smoke, but in this case I might not be able to relate to even a long list.  It might be interesting to cite the vendor's take and a couple of other related product listings, to see what else turns up in those.

The effect is quite clean; this could easily be a bit musty, or contain an off range aspect, but it doesn't.

#3:  the flavors and overall balance shifts.  Intensity is pretty good, and in this drinkable range it could be brewed quite strong and still work.  I'm brewing the 5 gram sample in a 90/100 ml gaiwan, using 10 to 15 second infusion times, and it's still extracting plenty of flavor.  Feel is interesting, the way it really settles on the center and rear of your tongue.  There's a pine-sap like aspect that's picking up, that was present earlier, but was harder to identify when it was less dominant.  

Someone really looking for fruit tones (or that and floral range, two main review description scopes) might cite this as including dried fruit, dried mango or tamarind, and that's part of it, but definitely not the main range.  

A mineral base stands out, linking with the medicinal herb flavor aspect, grounding it in a flavor similar to what I tasted as a child in my grandparent's artesian well.  I suppose that only related to the rock content in that area, that the natural pumping process from underground pressure doesn't add any one particular flavor.

#4:  more of the same, I suppose.  There's a more subtle shift of what had already been there, the balance, but it's not unlike the last round.  Feel and aftertaste ramp up a bit as I brew this slightly longer, but it's not really fading yet.  Intensity is good for this tea version; for a tea this ground up it could extract really fast and then fade, but intensity was quite good to begin with.

#5:  heavier woody tones are picking up, what one would expect from later rounds.  This is moving through a transition cycle fast for being so ground up, and for using 15 second infusion times instead of really short brewing.  For 5 grams per 90 ml gaiwan it works out to brew a bit longer, often longer than this, and then for higher proportion, 8 or so, more standard for me, using quite short infusion times works better, under 10 seconds.

A dried fruit aspect also picks up, but I still can't really identify it.  It would be possible to interpret that as a warm and rich floral tone instead, but I think it's closer to a dried fruit.  It might be closest to dried longan.  I don't suppose that would be familiar to most, but it might be my overall favorite dried fruit.  Once I start on a bag of those I can't stop, and if I ever see that I buy it.  Fresh longan is nice too, and we buy that, but drying it warms the flavor range quite a bit, and the sweetness ramps up, and those are already sweet to begin with.  I might have been mentioning sweetness more in this review; it doesn't stand out as much as in some tea versions but that is what's tying all the rest together, making it seem pleasant.

I think I'll stop notes here because this runs long, and gets repetitive.  I really liked this tea.  For lots of the other ITea World samples they're just pretty good versions of basic types, which is nice, but not all that novel or interesting to me, having been through all that for many years, but this is a little different.  To me hei cha is usually either pretty good or else it kind of clicks, and is that much better, and this works well for me.

What is Hubei hei cha?

Hubei hei cha is probably not all one thing, but a couple of references from other vendors about hei cha versions from that area might be interesting.

2009 Chuan "Qing Zhuan Cha" (Green Brick Tea) 1700g Dark Tea, ZhaoLiQiao Tea Factory, Hubei Province (listing from King Tea Mall); this sells for $5.99 for 100 grams, not much)

"Qing Zhuan Cha" (Green Brick Tea) is a type of dark tea, distinct from green tea, originating from Hubei province. The name "Lao Qing Cha" (Old Green Tea) is used to describe this tea, where "Lao" signifies a traditional naming convention rather than the age of the tea, similar to the term "Lao Shi" meaning teacher, not specifically an old teacher.

As is common with dark teas, the material used for Qing Zhuan Cha is of a rougher texture. This tea is known for its dark appearance, elegant fragrance, and its ability to age gracefully over time.

The tea liquor is a rich red, nearing brown, with a notable brightness that speaks to its quality.

In terms of taste, Qing Zhuan Cha is thick, mellow, and smooth, making it a delightful choice for tea enthusiasts.

This tea is particularly popular among people living in regions like Mongolia and Tibet. It is valued not only for its flavor but also for its digestive benefits and cost-effectiveness, making it a practical and enjoyable choice in these areas.

Sounds nice.

2021 Hubei Dong Zhuang Brand Qing Zhuan Cha 50g, Chawang Shop listing, selling for $3.50 for 50 grams.

Traditional old style dark tea brick from Hubei province made by traditional technique (selection, fermentation, high temperature steaming, compression, drying). This style brick is made for Iner Mongolia - you can see old Mongolian script in wrapper, which is still used in Inner Mongolia. Clean deep orange brewed tea is sweet and herbal flavor in mouth with light floral aftertaste. This tea can be brewed in gaiwan or cook for a long time without astrigency or bitter or also can make nomad milk tea:

Living in Inner Mongolia and some areas adjoining to the province, the Mongolians mainly live on beef and mutton, complemented with rice and vegetables. The brick tea is an indispensable beverage to herdsmen and drinking salty tea with milk is a Mongolian tradition. The salty tea with milk uses green or black brick tea as its main material and an iron pot as the cooker. Fill the iron pot with 2-3 liters of water, and then put 50-80 grams of brick tea pieces into the pot once the water boils. After another 5 minutes, pour milk into the pot with a ratio of 1/5 to water and stir it, and then add certain amount of salt. Once the whole pot of the mixture boils, the salty tea with milk is ready to be served.

"Dong Zhuang" is the abbreviation of Yang Lou Dong tea house. Yang Lou Dong Chibi city is the origin of Qing Zhuan, the invention began in the Tang Dynasty, but the prosperity actually was during the Ming and Qing Dynasties time.

I don't think I'd experiment with making salted milk tea, boiling it together, but that does sound familiar.  It would seem to be at least vaguely related to the yak butter variations made with different types of brick teas.

Looking back it's odd that this tea is a year and a half old, even if it was pre-fermented more than these other product summaries seem to describe.  It wasn't green in character, not bitter, and didn't seem that young.  I'd expect that if it was pre-fermented that it would have more rough edges when so young.  Then again these aren't really clear processing steps summaries, and it's not clear that the three versions are identical in style.  

It's still interesting hearing about other potentially related types, and the main thing is still how the reviewed version comes across, how pleasant it is.  If it's a type of tea that sells for $5 or 6 for 100 grams, and it is similar to these, then the experienced character and quality seem amazing for that low pricing level.  It's common for different quality level versions to sell at different pricing levels; if this is a relatively identical style but a better quality version it may sell at a higher market value.

Greengold Daisi black / red tea

 

I'm trying another Georgian tea sent for review by Greengold, following review of a white / green version, an oolong and roasted green version, and two black teas.  All of these have been interesting and pleasant, and none really completely match styles from other places, standing alone as novel type versions.  Quality was good for all of them.

It works as an intro to clarify that often vendors sell relatively fully oxidized teas as either black or red tea.  Red tea, the more literal original Chinese designation, is often used for styles that are less oxidized and sun-dried, matching some Chinese processing range.  Black tea is almost always used for Indian / Sri Lankan style black teas, which tend to be more fully oxidized, and may or may not be presented as very broken leaf.  Those conventions can be a little loose; either term could work for any related teas.

From an online product listing on their website:

It was really nice, and the review descriptions I wrote match that fairly closely, as follows.

Review:

#1:  brewed a bit light, still opening up, but already malty.  It includes warm and sweet tones similar to malty Chinese black teas, not a bit drier and stronger as is typical for Assam.  It leans a little towards cacao but flavor might be centered more on fruit, along the lines of dried fruit.  It's complex, but unpacking that to a list might be difficult.

#2:  brewed a little too strong; funny how that cycle happens so often, overcompensating for a last round.  A few layers of flavors dial way up in this.  Mineral base picks up, including an inky aspect.  Savory sun-dried tomato range joins in.  Some warm tones remind me of an effect from roasted teas, no longer close to cacao but more into coffee range.  That mineral is so pronounced that it seems to include salt.  Sweentness is fine; it helps the rest balance.

It will be interesting trying this brewed more optimally, if I ever get to that, to see how these flavors balance when it's brewed better.

#3:  better!  Mineral still does include a touch of salt, seemingly, which matches with the savory note, and kind of works, offset by the rest.  Complexity is really good in this; there is a lot going on.  None of it really seems like a flaw, just interesting character instead.  There is no sourness or tartness (maybe a trace, balancing with the rest), no musty flavor; it's clean, rich, and bright.  

I can't place this as similar to any Chinese tea, or from anywhere else.  I guess that's fine, that it's novel and distinctive.

Fruit range is interesting, and a bit hard to place, towards a fruity version of floral experience.  It might taste a little like the Thai roselle tisane, rich and sweet, a little towards rose petals, but not exactly the same.  The warmer fruit range might be along the lines of dried tamarind.  It's hard to separate those inputs out and define them, with all the rest going on.

It's a little early but I might try to place how much I like this.  It's good, pleasant and interesting.  I keep having the experience of it being more complicated relating to a completely novel tea experience, at this stage in my tea journey.  It's almost as if repeating variations of earlier experiences would be easier to relate to, versus having new ones.  People seeking out repetition of an earlier experience might not be as interested in this tea.  Then of course it's also pleasant for offering something new.  I had neighbors new to better tea experience try one of the Greengold teas I had reviewed earlier and they absolutely loved it, one of their favorites in a set of interesting versions.

I've been drinking a Thai version of shai hong, Yunnan sun-dried, slightly lower oxidation level black tea, that this is closest to.  It's as different as similar, with that a little more tart, and flavor set not exactly matching, but the range is closest to that.

#4:  warm and sweet tones pick up, and the savory range stands out more than the mineral aspects now.  I like it slightly more like this, and it was already pretty good before.  It balances in a more conventional way.  I would guess that this would brew quite well using a more conventional Western approach (conventional across the count of all tea drinkers; probably more tea enthusiasts would tend to Gong Fu brew this kind of tea).

You experience this across your tongue and the rest of your mouth in an unusual way.  It's intense, and the experience coats your mouth, as flavor and feel, with that pronounced mineral range and sweetness lingering on.  Feel isn't dry or rough, but it has full body.  For the aftertaste some warm mineral, fruit tones, and a lighter cacao / coffee sort of input carries over.  That last part has shifted back closer to cacao brewed lighter, or maybe that's just part of the transition cycle.

Oxidation level seems low in this; that probably contributes to it having an unusual character.  Tones would warm further and flavor range would be more familiar oxidized more to a conventional level.  As it stands the result is quite novel.

#5:  Fading a bit, but still quite pleasant.  This will stretch for a few more rounds if I add more infusion time, and it seems those will still be pleasant, but it's on the way out.  I'm not noticing a completely new transition, more a mix of what occurred before.  Some of what I listed out seems to fade as a root spice tone picks up.  That savory edge and unusual mineral, right at the edge of salt, is still there, and most of the rest, just faded now.

Conclusions:

Pleasant, complex, and novel.  Note there were no mentions of any kinds of flaws, typical for their teas.  

This did seem to be processed to back off full oxidation level slightly, evident in the color of the lighter brewed rounds, and in the flavor listing.  Of course I'm not mentioning vegetal tones here or anything like that; I mean that maybe it's not completely oxidized, but not in a more medium oolong-level range.  It's good.

It always helps to place how good a tea is in comparison to value, relating quality and pleasantness in comparison with cost, since that range matters.  A pretty good tea selling for 15 cents a gram can be a much better value than a better version selling for 30.  Greengold is a producer, selling their teas wholesale through other outlets, so their website that I mentioned isn't listing per 50 or 100 gram prices, or any prices at all.  

This tea holds its own with quality level for most of what is sold through Western outlets related to teas from other countries, all the way up curator sites where only the absolute best quality teas are sold for quite a bit, well over that 30 cents per gram range, then this might stand out less.  If this somehow absolutely matched someone's style preference then never mind how much or how little it costs, it would be fantastic.  I really liked it.

Sub-cultures in US states

a small town near where I'm from, Oil City, Pennsylvania

A friend just asked about me sending a postcard to her daughter's class, since she is now a teacher back in rural Pennsylvania where we grew up.  That relates to the kids learning about local regional US sub-cultures by way of having people send postcards and thoughts on distinct local culture, practices and perspective unique to that area.  

I just wrote a little about local Hawaiian culture, here, and will send a postcard and some thoughts.  Due to living abroad for so long, in Thailand for most of the last 17 years, it's odd considering how similar culture is in US states, since it seems more uniform in comparison with Asian cultures than different, but that still works.  I'll add my own thoughts here.

wild turkeys at my parent's house

Pennsylvania:  really this spans a range of local culture forms, since the West side is more like the Midwest, and the East side the East coast, even a bit like New Jersey.  The two main cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, each have their own character.  Beyond all that there still is a distinct local PA culture.

People are friendly and open, especially in rural areas.  Maybe too open; it's normal to talk to strangers in restaurants or shops, and people love getting into other people's business, gossiping and offering opinions.  Older parts of US culture tend to be valued, things like older holiday tradition observances, harvest fairs, and other festivals related to seasonal themes.  Following sports is unusually popular, at every level, grade school and high school, college, and professional teams.

People tend to be conservative; supporting Trump is a main current theme, and anti-vax sentiment.  People hunt (kill animals for food and sport).  There aren't many minorities so the typical related conflict between races doesn't come up as much, outside of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  I suppose for people without a mainstream, white, conservative perspective things could seem rough, even just for being a minority or gay.

The "rust belt" economic shift is a real problem where I'm from; the former industrial area is currently living through economic despair.  It's a shame, because it's a beautiful area, with a wonderful natural setting and four season climate, with lots of quaint and picturesque little towns and villages.

my daughter's school, in Honolulu

Hawaii:  it's awkward for me to say much about local Hawaiian culture, because I don't represent that in any way.  A close family friend, sort of an extra uncle, is truly local, so I've been in on some insight, but I can only state some positive generalities.  Local Hawaiians value family, nature, traditional social roles, and family gatherings.  All that is true of everywhere, to some extent, but all the more so "here," (I'm in Honolulu now, living here for three months again).  They don't necessarily feel alignment with mainstream mainland US culture, but to some extent lots of people might feel that way now.

Another type of local is people with mixed non-native background, or that plus outsider input, and there are plenty of other Asians, and some white mainlander transplants.  Culture is mixed as a result, not at all unified.  All the same people tend to be relaxed, to value nature and outdoor activities, and to try to de-emphasize forms of tension and conflict that can come up in the mainland of the US.  That's even though people do seem to align with either the mainland left or right political inclination form, in relation to transplants.  Military personnel tend to be conservative and lots of other types of people are somewhat liberal, even into "hippie" range.

The economic pressure of a high cost of living definitely divides people, at least in Oahu.  There are beautiful communities full of high end shops and nice restaurants and then poorer local living areas and other bad parts of town.  That pressure has lots of younger, more native locals moving to the mainland, where eventually buying a home is much more practical, since home prices don't typically start at a million dollars, for the lowest demand locations.

Colorado:  this is where I've spent the most of my adult life, in the States.  People there really value nature as well (I guess I'll just keep on saying that), and sports participation.  Here in Honolulu people surf and swim, and running is popular, while winter sports, hiking, rock climbing, and biking are the main themes there.  People sometimes tend to be conservative and liberal at the same time, taking up parts of each spectrum of perspectives.

It's a state full of transplants, as California always was, so local US cultures tend to mix.  Maybe that dilutes some themes a bit, eg. a consistent take on holidays like Christmas.  Commercial influence is diluting the traditional forms of that kind of thing anyway.

Fleece is like the default local uniform; that plus an outer shell in the winter.  The weather is a factor that shapes daily life.  That's true in PA too, where winters can be long and cold, but in CO in higher elevation communities winter lasts half the year.  It almost has to be seen as a positive factor to put up with it.

where I lived in Baltimore, Fell's Point

Maryland:  I "only" lived in Maryland three times, for a total of less than two years, so it's the state I'm least familiar with.  I suppose it's representative of East Coast culture.  I've lived in Baltimore and Ocean City, two completely different places.  

In all of these places sub-culture varies by economic level, by social class, and I suppose that's as pronounced as anywhere else in Maryland.  I mixed with the low and high ends there, oddly.  Being from a rural area, from modest means, I've always felt plenty of connection with the modern working class.  That was stretched a bit trying to communicate with people working on the docks in that shipping related part of town; the local accent could be hard to understand.  

People can be very genuine and generally kind; it's not like New Jersey, where rough edges stand out more, or NYC, where really high population levels lead to people keeping to themselves.  I found the people in the lower social class levels more open to talking to an outsider, where at the other extreme there could be more emphasis on placing you, related to being one of them or not.  I was clearly not one of them working in piers and warehouses but in general they didn't care.

downtown Austin, Texas

Texas:  I've had uniformly positive experiences living in Dallas and Austin.  I suppose my experience isn't up to date or relevant for this time since all that was long ago, in the 90s, long before modern social problems evolved in the US, drug epidemics, crime, and political divide.  Transplants seemed relatively welcome back then, and local perspectives were open and flexible.  

Racism could've been a real issue, given the influx of Mexican immigrants was already far underway, but even that seemed somewhat moderate.  I lived in a Mexican neighborhood in Austin and it was nice, not as well-maintained as it could've been but comfortable and friendly.  In both Dallas and Austin it seemed like the divide between black and white didn't go as smoothly as with Mexican immigrants, the related class division.  Mexican immigrants were fine with carving out their own place in society even if the work placed them at a lower class level, but entrenched poverty is something else.

In one sense Texas seemed to have a unified culture, to me, but in another all the different communities and types of areas were a bit different.  Dallas had a lot of transplants, as Austin did, and El Paso seemed to be a completely different place (which I only visited a couple of times).  

Austin was quite liberal, and Dallas was progressive in a lot of ways, but still a bit more conservative.  I never noticed anyone being racist in Dallas, for example.  Racism takes different forms, and can tend to come in degrees, and as a white person you wouldn't necessarily be "in on it," if there were subtle forms of differences in opportunities, or if the legal system seemed to include a bias.

In all of these states you could move around freely, because that's a main running theme in the US.  Hawaii might be slightly different, since there is some bias against new people moving there, especially outside of Honolulu, or similar transplant areas on Oahu.  That seems somewhat justified, to me, since economic pressure partly related to people moving to local areas is a different kind of problem in Hawaii.  Austin may seem to be bursting at the seems related to a lot of new residents moving there over the last year or two but it's still not really the same kind of thing.

Next one might wonder about main common themes, and main differences, across areas.  Is Christmas observance generally the same, or are typical diets the same or different?  Christmas seems uniform, and I suppose typical diets are more the same than different, which may have been true even 40 or 50 years ago.  Regional foods vary, but those tend to be things people eat some of, as much as the basis for eating completely differently.  

In Texas I would often eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and routinely ate Tex-Mex and barbecue, but still other food choices were common.  In Maryland people ate a lot of seafood, local blue crab, shrimp, and mussels, and from what I experienced less fish, but most other foods were similar to elsewhere, meat and potatoes, fast food options, etc.  Hawaii has a lot of local and Asian influence.  White people are a small minority here, so many more locals have Asian heritage.

Beyond that minor differences add up to local perspectives that are hard to capture, even by listing out minor differences, and what those mean to a larger picture.  Religion may be a main running theme or somewhat less emphasized, or work forms and work ethic might vary. 

 

The transplant theme really shifts everything, muddling it.  Most of the people I knew in Dallas and Austin weren't from there, and in Colorado, which is true in a different sense now in Hawaii.  Some of my friends in high school ended up in Virginia and North Carolina.  It can be tempting to put a time-frame on shifts in population change, to say that an older and more established residence base was already there in the 90s, and then people new to areas in the 60s and 70s hold more claim to local status.  The next generation following the one that moves there is definitely "more native," having been born in that new place.  

Growing up I experienced a much older form of rejection of immigration:  members of the last wave of foreign transplants were regarded negatively, as outsiders, while earlier immigration patterns were more accepted.  Irish people moved to the US somewhat long ago, related to me being born in the middle of the 20th century, but somehow a more recent wave of Polish immigrants left them less accepted, as the butt of residual Polish jokes and negative stereotyping.  Some of that pattern applied to Mexican immigrants later, but there were so many spread across so many areas in different distributions that lack of acceptance was inconsistent.

Comparing US culture and Asian culture
  

This is outside the scope of any of this, but a few sentences might clarify what culture is even doing, for people who lack broad exposure to have noticed this.

There is no unified Asian culture or perspective.  I've seen lists of oppositions, points like emphasis on individuality versus group-role self-definition, and those can work, across all of Asia.  That said Thai culture and corresponding forms in places like Japan, China, Korea, and Indonesia are all relatively different.  Immediate manner of being, how you portray your public image to others, varies a lot.  Self-definition at the next level down, about being defined in relation to levels of connections with others, instead of as a list of personal attributes, might be more common.

Differences in food preferences and such seem important in a sense but also somewhat trivial, to me.  I'm not rejecting Anthony Bordain's consistent commentary that relationship with food and the overlap between that and social connections defines people, as much as anything else.  I'm saying that if you swap out all the Thai dishes for Vietnamese equivalents, keeping all the customs, aspects of self-definition, and daily lifestyle patterns, that it doesn't matter so much that you are eating something else. 

It's interesting how US perspectives, local sub-cultures, seems fairly unified in comparison with forms and patterns across other countries.  For sure the East coast, Midwest, South, West, and Southwest are all different places in the US but they're all relatively identical in comparison with the vast differences between Thai culture and perspective and the versions in Japan.  The difference between worldview in Mexico, Canada, and the US is also narrower than that divide, per my understanding.  At the risk of oversimplifying and trivializing complexities I'll offer my own too-limited summary of what I mean.

Thai culture emphasizes self-definition in relation to social level and roles, as I've said.  There are no Thai nursing homes, that I'm aware of, for example, since families take care of each other.  At work, or even in all public exchanges, differences of opinion are minimized, and all conflict is avoided.  In some cases it's regarded as easier and more appropriate to say yes when you really mean no.  That's hard to unpack; I don't mean that people don't have freedom of expression and speech, but they are encouraged to use their public expression within the bounds of accepted norms.  

People are pleasant; they smile when they are happy, and other smiles indicate agreeableness without happiness, or even disapproval, in some cases.  You can see the difference in their eyes, with practice.

Japan is a lot more restrictive.  Social connections and forms are experienced even more so in relation to levels of social closeness or distance.  People are said to have multiple faces, to show others versions of selves in relation to how close they are.  It doesn't tie to the idea of being "two-faced," to being ingenuine or deceitful.  It means that who you show yourself to be, the persona you interact through, is different with family, close friends, acquaintances, business contacts, and strangers.  Really that's happening in all cultures, to some extent, but it tends to be emphasized and encoded in more extreme or rigid form or else largely set aside, depending on the culture.

Americans are quite genuine, in general.  I know a lot of Americans would disagree with this broad claim, thinking that most others they know adjust how they come across, and the content communicated, based on varying goals and social forms, in essence rarely being completely open and transparent.  I accept that's true, but I'm claiming here that within Asian cultures additional social constraints are added to those social context forms.  

In Thailand you shouldn't come across as angry or unhappy, ever, in general.  That seems a bit odd at a funeral, but it carries over even to there.  By the time you get in a bar fight it's fine to express anger but most Thais would never be in any comparable situation, or even a tense and vocal argument at work.

I can't compare that to Japanese culture, since I've had Japanese friends (some close ones), and have visited Japan (twice), and have worked for years with Japanese work colleagues, but my exposure to that culture is still more limited than to Thai perspective.  It's my impression that Japanese people filter what they tend to communicate quite a bit, not just shifting form to be pleasant and screening out harsher elements, but adjusting it all a lot in relation to what is expected.

That's barely a sketch of differences, but it seems like enough to help place how the limited variations I've described in regional US perspectives compare.