Childhood stories from growing up in rural PA in the 70s

 

A recent post brought up the topic of childhood stories, in a very personally impactful way.  I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, with the first childhood home I remember in Cranberry, PA.  We moved there when I was 3 or 4, so I have very vague memories of living elsewhere earlier, but those are only fragments.

Someone recently posted an image of a postcard of that early home in an online group.  Where I lived had been a really old version of a resort, kind of like a motel, but based on the theme of people renting cabins while they traveled on an old US highway.  Even that form of travel experience had ended long before I was born.  US 322, that road, was more or less equivalent to the old Route 66, replaced by the US interstate system in the 1950s.  I grew up there in the 70s; I'm getting up there in age now.

those cabins were kind of elaborate, just small, as houses go

I wrote some stories of that childhood experience in that post, as comments, which I'll share here.  It was another time and another world.  The fragments of memories paint a picture of earlier US culture that is still recognizable, but far different than the current form.  

What was different?  It was a simpler time.  There were no cell phones, no internet, and not so much in terms of societal problems (crime, gangs, drug epidemics, random shootings, child kidnapping, etc.).  It wasn't ideal; some people still did terrible things, and US society was struggling to place that.  Drinking alcohol was so completely accepted that maybe in today's framing it would have been considered an "epidemic."  One set of my grandparents declined in health in their 60s and died in their 70s from impact from that.  

What I communicate could seem idealized, because it relates to positive memories, and societal trends were colored by positive filtering.  Was it so much better that people would more often ice skate, go sled riding, and build snowmen back then?  Maybe, or maybe not.  A reader can place that framing bias for themselves.

On with some stories then, starting with what I typed for comments:

I grew up there, moving there just before kindergarten, and moving away at 13. These comments are right; it's right beside and behind the Cranberry mall, which is where the Sky High Drive-in had been. There was a mini mall complex there at one point. There had been a mini golf place in front of it. My parents had a pond renovated there, but I don't remember what the pond was like before then.

Most of the cabins were there when we moved in. They rented out the best condition cabins as small homes, maybe a half a dozen earlier on. Two older guys who escaped from Polk mental health facility lived there, and lots of other tenants. One of my earliest childhood memories is of climbing under those cabins in the winter to fix frozen water lines, of course at the coldest times. One larger cabin had burned down, and as kids we thought that maybe someone died in that fire.

A giant sawdust pile well behind the cabins area was related to the history of the native forest being cleared to the ground, in the early 20th century. One giant oak remained of that old forest, and the rest of the woods was only some decades old. We called that oak tree George. We lived in the main cabin building, which the next residents destroyed when they moved in. I grew up in the woods behind those buildings, on 100 acres of land. My mom would ring a good sized bell to call us in, from being left to our own to ride bikes, climb trees, or do whatever else.

We planted the trees in a then-empty field that would now block a view of there.  In the winter we would ice skate on that pond. Old artifacts in abandoned cabins were treasures for us, but there wasn't much of value left behind. My parents had an oil well drilled, and it produced, but not much. There were remnants of older oil well equipment on the land. We tapped maples to make syrup there, and picked wild blackberries and elderberries that my mom made into pies.

It was a pretty busy 9 years, and growing up in the 70s I experienced the older world. Holidays felt completely different; family connections were different. My parents developed haunted hayrides that extended from earlier Halloween parties. People didn't even eat the same diets then.  If you look in an old Betty Crocker cookbook people really were eating those odd sorts of foods, casseroles, Jello salads, and such.

That house on the right is where I lived; I remember all sorts of strange aspects of it. There was a root cellar; now people might not have heard of such a thing. I raised pigs in a building that probably should be in-frame blocking the view of the house. 

I learned to drive a bulldozer by the time I was 10; I remember my sister nearly getting injured logging when she would have been about 8 (spectating, but I also did the work). Mowing all those lawns was crazy. Somehow as kids we liked all the garter snakes that lived in the yards, and would bring them inside for a visit, which freaked out our mother. It was an amazing time.

Differences in culture and lifestyle then

All of this paints a picture of a different time, like the Wonder Years movie experiences, and it was really sort of like that.  Things seemed simpler.  Really people had the same sorts of aspirations, habits, desires, and limitations.  It didn't seem like a booming economy made life simple and easy; people worked hard to build lives for themselves.  Both my parents worked, and we rented out those cabins, and did projects like an external house renovation to add income to support their financial stability and goals.  We did our own auto repair, and our own home maintenance, essentially everything.  I raised pigs to support our food supply, and we hunted for game for sustenance, more so than for sport.

Some parts seem idealized in relation to changes that are as negative as positive now.  Holidays have become more commercial.  As children Christmas was about us getting gifts then, but people held family gatherings more, and schools made more of traditional themes like singing carols, and making artwork.  Of course all of that still applies, but not in the exact same forms as back then.

Sky High Drive-In, 1950s (the area in front of that home, photo credit here)

To me this picture reference tells a couple of interesting stories, one part related to what was in those notes.  The small patch of woods in the upper left would be part of that property but not the part shown in the postcard photo.  That's further back (out of frame at the top), and facing right in this photo perspective.

They had stripped that land bare to develop it for farming, which had to have happened prior to 1948, if that drive-in movie theater went in then (per that article).  Based on my understanding of forest and tree growth now that entire forest area around that home really might have only been about 30 years old, or maybe a little older, even though there were lots of 20-some foot tall trees there then.  To me as a child it was a mature, primeval forest, but looking back that's just not how it was.

There were lots of connections to even older culture, and older industrial / economic forms there.  I'd mentioned old oil well history on that land, and my grandparents lived in a place where coal mining had been prominent for quite some time (in Coal Hill, not so far away).  These aren't really cultural aspects, in the sense of talking about holiday observances, but economic themes, land use, and culture all tie together.  

Oil City, one of two nearby communities, was a booming center for petroleum processing in the US in the 1970s, and that has completely ended since; it just doesn't happen there.  Oil was first obtained by drilling in Titusville, PA, a main step in the US industrial era.  An entire manufacturing sector boomed and faded to essentially be gone now between the late 40s and the current day, mostly gone in the 90s.

Drake Well; the first oil well based oil production in the world (and my family)

a reconstruction of Drake's first oil well

Mall culture came and went, since the end of when I lived there and now.  That Drive-In theater was replaced by the Cranberry Mall, which now sits vacant.  A Wal-Mart nearby more or less put it out of business, along with online sales preference, and so on.

These fragments don't seem to do justice to describing the culture I grew up in.  Maybe it sounds more ideal than it really was, or I suppose maybe worse than it was, to some.  More specifics about my own life might help place that time and perspective

Other defining early memories

I grew up with foster siblings.  My father was a social worker, for an entire career, and that idealism, and awareness of that process and system, led them to help kids who needed a temporary place to stay.  At least one lived with us for years; it wasn't always so temporary.  Maybe 20 different kids stayed with us.  It might seem like I'm claiming that it was a more idealistic time, but of course the same general theme carries over to today.  Those agencies compensate host families for providing that support.  Those kids were fine; we never really experienced any of the problems one might imagine coming up.  They were grateful to be well cared for and we were happy to share space and experiences with them.

We grew up with tenants living nearby then too, and had a lot more contact with extended family than seems normal now.  Community orientation seemed different, not just for me, but in general.  I've lived in a number of places since where transplants make up a lot of the local population (Dallas and Austin, Texas, two places in Colorado, in Honolulu, and others) and people seem less connected to areas that they weren't always from.  Family networks aren't there, for transplants, and there are no childhood memories and old family practices to continue on with.

Maybe in some sense even the economically impoverished local area is better off now, in some ways, than it was back then.  Not for the more vacant areas, or hardest hit families, but to me there is a feeling of comfort and plentitude "back home" that wasn't the same in the 70s, to the extent I remember it then.  People didn't necessarily own two cars, a medium sized house, ATVs and golf carts, motorcycles, and so on, and a higher degree of ownership and consumption seems normal now.  It was normal for people to work hard to live a basic life.  Eating out in restaurants was more of an event than a normal part of life, as it has become.  Even trivial new things like McDonald's starting to serve breakfast seemed really novel.

Electronics has changed a lot, of course.  Local television had three channels growing up, as was true everywhere in the US.  We would get some degree of fuzzy UHF reception, where we could watch black and white Godzilla episodes, but there just wasn't much there.  My grandparents had a "party line" phone; you shared the access with neighbors, in the same way two people in a household might both try to use a land line at the same time.  

In general the rest was what one would expect of that level of development.  Later VHS tapes being developed took some emphasis off movie theater experience.  I played Atari video games a lot after that time period, but in my early childhood such things didn't really exist.  We did own Pong, essentially the first video game, as far as I know.  Two vertical white lines simulated paddles, and a dot was a ball, so it was like tennis or ping pong.  

As kids we did a lot of real life playing outside, because even something like cartoons were only shown on Saturday mornings.  It was rough play, in a sense, jumping ramps on bikes, shooting bows, and so on.  Our parents bought us a javelin to play with, the Olympic / track version of a throwing spear.  We took a lot more risks then but somehow it seemed to work out.

this was where we lived next, not far away

I remember nature experience playing a big role in my childhood life experience, and the change of the seasons being very meaningful.  I suppose all of that is roughly the same now, and the main difference would relate to nostalgic framing.  Nature certainly hasn't changed.

the next two generations, mixed together, having one of the same experiences

What does all this really mean, in relation to mapping out societal or culture change?  As much changed in my life circumstances as did related to US culture.  I live in Bangkok now, most of the time, and in Honolulu part of the time.  It's the exact opposite side of the world (that Thai city).

I like the idea that Thailand is just behind the US in a development curve, and a lot of local Thai culture from the past 20 years maps over to the US culture in the mid-20th century.  That's not really how it works, but some parts of that perspective might hold up.  Economic development is occurring just now in Thai society, over the past 20 years, as it was in the 50s through 80s in the US.  There is a relaxed feel, and optimism, and some forms of problems haven't developed yet.  Then also the two cultures are just different.

It's all what you make of it, anywhere and in any time period, and there are always plenty of struggles to go along with the potential and the successes.  The real meaning is tied up in personal relationships.  Maybe that did slip away, just a bit, with so many people in the US living with strangers in shared apartments, versus in homes with relatives they'll know across their entire lives.  It's harder to say to what extent personal financial development is still available in the US.  If you are born into the top 50% of income level it's all but a non-issue, because parents can give their kids the running start they'll need, but I've seen plenty of that bottom half in the past 35 years.  I lived that out, for an extended time.

Again I'm mixing themes.  They seem to naturally mix on their own, that different Americans would have different experiences based on personal history and financial fortune.  Maybe I've only lived in an actual "slum" once in those harder years, and that kind of didn't count, because it was a Mexican neighborhood.  No one there had any problem with me being white.  Now onto race issues; the darker or more complicated themes mix with the rosier images of the past.

I grew up in such a white area that there was no minority theme to feel positively or negatively about.  I can relate to people looking back on that simpler time and appreciating reduced problems, even if I can't usually follow perspective and interpretation of what that had been about, or how it applies to today.  Obviously my wife is Asian now, and I'm the minority, living in Bangkok (most of the time, at least).  Even in Honolulu people tolerate me being white, while seeing it as negative, in general.  It's quite a perspective shift, actually being the minority, versus just being open to whatever degree to others are living that out.

Chinatown outing; not a running theme in my childhood (and Eye represents Cranberry!)

I'm glad that the US became a more diverse place, and that people who are minorities, or gay, or identify through other minority status are more openly accepted.  Does that extend a bit far now, to the extent that some people are just making up status orientations that make no sense?  I really don't know.  Time will tell.

It was nice being a part of that earlier world too.  It had some bright spots.  Challenges were extreme enough that the rougher-edged stories I didn't really cover here could sound awful.  My family built the one house shown; I worked long days bringing that to exist, for most of a year, or it probably was a year in total.  I put roofs on lots of buildings as a child, by the age of 12, or maybe even 10.  I did many things that OSHA would not have approved of.  The toughness comes at a cost.  The worst example was crawling into narrow, enclosed spaces to spread out fiberglass insulation.  The level of exposure to glass fibers, and later effects from doing that, were kind of horrific.

My kids have it easier, but the life of greater ease comes at a cost too.  Work ethic isn't something you pick up without experiencing trade-offs.  Doing a sport isn't the same thing as building a house.  The challenges that they have faced have been quite considerable, just in different ways, relating to adapting to different kinds of schools, and moving from one country to another.  

They've experienced being poor, for better or worse; we are middle class in Bangkok and dirt poor in Honolulu.  Maybe that part is ok, not so much as a memory to be nostalgic about (but then time will tell), but related to being exposed to different conditions and challenges.  They won't look back with mixed feelings on their fingers and toes going numb doing building maintenance work, but it probably will seem funny thinking about sleeping on a floor, or walking places to save money in comparison with riding a bus.

Oddly they never really did need to make peace with being an outsider, even though they're essentially immigrants from another country.  That's part of why we started our US residence there, where my wife and I both went to grad school (at UH Manoa).  Most people are Asian, mixed race, or from somewhere else, and being all three makes you seem more normal than I would ever be regarded as locally.  Maybe the whole world got smaller?  Where I grew up didn't change that much; people are still isolated in that limited range local culture now.  Which isn't such a bad thing, even if there are negative aspects of that, along with the positives.

One last story I wanted to pass on, about how open I was personally to diversity as a child, something that I can't fully place even now.  My grandmother made Raggedy Ann  and Andy dolls for us as kids, and asked us what we wanted, how ours should appear.  I asked for mine to be black (and named him Frank, not really an important part of that story).  Somehow I had a sense that my narrow life experience wasn't all there was, and even as a young child I felt the lack of that exposure.  My narrow horizons have definitely broadened since then, but I now appreciate that cultural background all the more for it.

building a snowman in St. Petersburg, Russia

they visited back home to build them in PA, just not very often

Farmerleaf Jing Mai Miyun and Cang Yuan sheng pu'er

 

I'm reviewing two more sheng pu'er samples from Farmerleaf, versions William had on hand and shared when I met him in Bangkok recently.  One is their Miyun version, and the other Cang Yuan.  The first rings a bell, and I've added what I remember of it in notes, so for now I'll just list Farmerleaf's site descriptions (partial citations; there are more details on those pages):

Spring 2024 Jingmai Miyun ($60 per 357 gram cake)

The 2024 version of the Miyun is slightly improved. Due to the low demand in fresh leaves this year, we managed to get some of the best 'shengtai' tea in this blend. We've mixed the production of our Liu Dui garden with tea made by our cousin, growing close to Da Ping Zhang plateau. We'll see how this supposedly superior material will develop as the tea ages. 

At the time of release, right out of the pressing factory, the tea tastes lively and vibrant, with a light bitterness, moderate thickness, good sweetness and some Huigan. This is a good tea for beginners and as a daily drinker. 

Spring 2024 Cang Yuan ($86 per 357 gram cake)

Spring 2024

Old tea garden material, Pa Pai village, Cangyuan county, Lincang

Complex fragrance, medium body, good punch without much bitterness

This is a well-balanced tea with plenty to deliver. Somewhat similar in profile to Baka and Hua Zhu Liang Zi, it is a highly fragrant one. 

We haven't visited the area, it is located is a remote county at the border with Myanmar, in the far west of Lincang county.

I might add that samples that have been travelling a bit could lose a little intensity, for going through changes in environment, or being opened and closed.  Both of these could be marginally more intense as carefully stored, full cake versions.  Depending on exposure some aromatic range could even evaporate off, but I'd imagine at most they could have just lost a little intensity.

Review:

Miyun:  it's pleasant.  Flavor complexity stands out already, even brewed lightly, a bit of pine or related vegetal edge, and what comes across as floral range.  Feel has some thickness to it.  Intensity will pick up a little on a second infusion, and it will be easier to add more details.

Cang Yuan:  there's an interesting flavor range in this version.  The other had a nice brightness, and this is warmer toned, towards warm mineral, or maybe cedar / redwood / other spice.  It seems negative, describing a tea as woody, but a supporting note matching cedar isn't so far off incense spice, and it can play a similar role in positive flavor balance.  The rest is nice, the sweetness, other flavor complexity, decent feel, good overall balance.  

It's too early to try to place these in relation to a higher or medium quality level, but that is something that will come up, related to talking to William about such things, and considering it for the last tea version I reviewed.  It's not so much distinct aspects or markers that stand out, but that refinement can be better, intensity, clarity, aspects being distinct and clean, balance, feel playing an extra positive role, and so on.  I don't over-think such things; I'm drinking whatever tea I happen to have, and exploring to the highest possible quality level was never a main part of my own exploration project.

There is an old understanding that people tend to appreciate tea for flavor first, then learn to appreciate body / mouthfeel, then later can identify and value body feel (cha qi).  Of course for the third category I couldn't separate the input of both tasted together, but it seems to me that people often really like a drug-like effect that stands out most when they drink sheng on an empty stomach, a rush of change in internal state that you can't easily notice in the same way if you have eaten.  I'm not really endorsing this breakdown of forms of appreciation here, just mentioning it.  I like how teas come together, and different sets of attributes make different teas appealing.

I think the other, the Miyun version, is supposed to be their more budget-oriented version, so more moderate in quality level.  It would be normal to achieve good results using less exceptional material through blending, to balance what a few inputs can offer, but I don't know if that's part of it.  Of course that could come at the cost of diluting down some of the more positive range of one exceptional version, some really interesting flavor input, or a special kind of feel structure, and so on.

Miyun #2:  the brightness is nice in this; there is a fresh, bright note that combines some floral and near-citrus input.  Sweetness level balances that nicely.  Bitterness is moderate for a young sheng, in the normal range, which is pleasant to me.  Astringency is normal; feel has some structure, and there's some edge to it.  To me it tastes like an above average quality version of a relatively normal style of sheng.  I guess Jing Mai origin range tends to be like this?  Pine sometimes stands out more; you can notice that, but it's probably as much from expecting it and looking for it, and you might not place it without that.

So it's good.  But it feels like I'm leaving out how it could be better, what it would be like.  Across all of that range, which is all positive, it could be dialed up just a little.  Feel is nice, and aftertaste adds to the experience, but it could be richer, with that more pronounced.  It could have more distinct, cleaner flavors.  I think that one bright flavor tone range is a main strength; to me that really works.  A bit of vegetal edge is fine, but then I love teas with much stronger versions of that, that tend to have a different overall balance, with more intensity, sweetness, and different novel flavor inputs.

Cang Yuan:  that one flavor range is nice.  The warm tone matches well with a richer feel, which carries over into a slightly stronger aftertaste experience.  It includes some bitterness but lacks the slight rough edge of the other.  Intensity is moderate, as young sheng goes; I wonder how William would take that?  This is still more intense, complex, and dynamic than any oolong, green tea, or black tea; it's all relative.  It's good.  A hint of dryness matches well with the warm tones, rich feel, and aftertaste expression.  I suppose it plays a similar role in the experience as a vegetal edge and slight roughness in the Miyun version.  

At this stage, judging between the two, I like the way the Miyun aspects fall together.  The brightness and sweetness is offset well by some pine and astringency.  It might be more challenging for someone who doesn't drink sheng, because of those, but then it's hard to say what people not started on acclimating to bitterness would make of any sheng.  I'm not saying much about bitterness in these because it's moderate, to me, but it is present.  To me it balances well in both, not really standing out.

Miyun #3:  there was a sort of synergy to how the citrus-like edge and what I interpret as floral range came together, along with sweetness, and that has developed further.  It almost tastes like a lemon drop candy.  That hits your palate first, as you taste the tea, then feel structure next, then the flavor paired with that, a touch of vegetal edge, then aftertaste after that.  It's a nice complex tasting experience.  To me--and this part is completely subjective--this is the kind of tea you could drink two or three days a week for an extended time, and it wouldn't get old.  It covers basic range in a novel way.  

The Vietnamese tea I've been using for that purpose, one a Son La version from Viet Sun, that I'm on my second cake of, is more intense, but also edgier, even harsher.  I'm fine with that; I don't think it would necessarily be better with a couple more years to mellow out, losing some brightness and intensity in exchange for the sharp edge softening.

Cang Yuan:  it's interesting how different this is.  Flavor profile is quite different, warmer, almost into spice range, but it's hard to place within that.  I could relate to someone interpreting dried Chinese date as a flavor inclusion.  Feel is full instead of being expressed as an edge.  It's not necessarily rich, not quite to that sappy sort of character, but there's some thickness to it.  It's mild, as a sheng this age goes, but there is a good bit going on, across a few dimensions.  This seems like it could be an autumn harvest tea, that limited intensity and slightly reduced range.

Miyun #4:  the aspects integrate better and better, and that lemon sort of edge becomes more pronounced across rounds.  I really like this.  The light vegetal edge and astringency are in a perfect very-moderate range to complement the rest instead of detracting from it.  

I did break form and look at these vendor listings between rounds (always added during editing), and this is what I'd described, their moderate cost version, using blending to optimize results, selling for $60 a cake.  To me it's a great value at this pricing.  William mentions in the description that it's a good year for this particular cake, that the material is better than normal.  I could see how with just a little less of that positive flavor, a little less sweetness, and a touch more astringency and vegetal edge this would be pretty ordinary tea.  As it stands in this it's quite pleasant.

It makes me think about that "daily drinker" theme, what is implied.  It seems to sweep in that you would drink better tea some of the time, and then an inferior, budget oriented version a lot of the time, the kind of thing you'd have with a rushed breakfast.  That mixes two sets of ideas that don't necessarily go together:  quality level (also relating to value), and general character, what kinds of aspects would work best for tea with a breakfast versus what you'd enjoy in an hour long session focused on the tea itself.  Who knows about the second; people would find different experiences most interesting.  

Good black tea is great for a really rushed breakfast, but I can brew 10 cups of sheng pretty fast for a standard experience.  One trick is to use two cups, pouring from one to the other to pull out a bit of extra heat.  Not pouring back and forth; once would do, or if you really like the tea cooler you can drink a little cold water from one first and it will draw out more heat.

Cang Yuan:  it's not really evolving much; it is what it is.  Would this have greater "depth," giving it an extra dimension of experience the other lacks, one relative superior range?  Not really.  That can be meaningful to me, it can work out like that, but in this case it's more just mild, and expresses a novel flavor range, warm in tone, covering a good bit of spice, potentially partly interpreted as whatever else.  

For someone who dislikes the edginess in a lot of sheng this may be perfect.  That would seem odd, seeing young sheng experience as harsh instead of positive, at least in relation to better quality tea range, as these are.  Of course anyone drinking almost any "factory tea" is going to be put off by astringency and high bitterness, maybe appreciating drinking those on the still challenging side 10 years later, or after 25 years of age transitioning.

Conclusions:  

Pretty good, especially for these being on the lower side of their pricing range.  The style of the Miyun suits what I like in young sheng, the brightness, freshness, floral and touch of fruit, and sweetness, which is fine with a bit of vegetal edge.  Feel could be richer, and aftertaste more extended, with hui gan carry-over kind of limited, but to me it all works.  I talked through ordering this or not in my mind, since it's not so much, and this plus some good Dian Hong (black tea) for under $100 is a great value for basic range tea to drink for awhile.  I only drink basic range teas, for the most part, it just varies in character because some is from Thailand and Vietnam, lately.  And I tried a lot of samples last year; that's nice for mixing things up.

The other, the Cang Yuan, seems well-suited for someone initially adjusting to sheng, not quite ok with bitterness and astringency yet.  It's a little odd considering which sheng would be good for people who don't like sheng, but I guess preferences would always map out over a range.

I wouldn't expect aging concerns to be much of an issue for these teas.  They would mellow a little more over a few more years, but they're drinkable now.  Maybe someone else would be looking for a relative optimum that I'm not familiar with, something really approachable.  The slight extra edge to the Miyun might transition better over limited aging, but I can't imagine that there would be any reason to hold onto it for a decade or longer, or even to see what it's like after a half dozen years.  To me it's just not that kind of tea.  

Then again I've bought an extra cake of something similar before, just to see how it turns out; I should go back and figure out what that was, and how it's doing.  It was from Tea Mania, that I bought about a half dozen years ago.  They had this annoying habit of labeling white paper cakes with Chinese letter stamps, so it would be a bit of a project sorting out what it is, even after finding it.  Any sensible person would've just written on the label before stashing it, but I have a few cakes like that, not so easy to identify now.  For the ones in only blank white wrappers I never will know what they were.  At least the experience of drinking them is the same, with or without that background.

I never did guess at why the second version of this lacks intensity to this degree.  I don't think it related to the sample experiencing air exposure; that could change things a little, but not this much, to shift the character to a relative opposite.  Versions from Lincang are known as being more intense and bitter, if I'm remembering that generality right.  But then different factors come into play.  Plant types can vary, and not all local areas within a broad area will be the same.  Micro-climate and terroir issues come up related to local environments.  Harvest season changes things, but these are both spring teas.  

Often more wild-origin teas (which this isn't described as, just natural growth, less managed plantation sourced) are more flavorful and distinctive, and also more mild.  I'm not sure if that relates to plant types varying, or the growing environment changing outcome.  So in the end I really don't know.

Aged Lapsang Souchong (2014) and Dan Cong (1995)

 

Lapsang Souchong left, in all photos

I'm reviewing two more aged teas from an ITea World aged tea set.  Most have been pretty good so far, and a 1995 Shui Xian oolong was really interesting.  I've tried different aged teas in the past but covering different types at those sorts of early ages is still new ground, at least those particular iterations.  This will be something different too, a 1995 Dan Cong.  

The rest of this set is this:

That's definitely novel; it's hard to judge if a $75.90 pricing (for 100 grams) is about right or a really good value.  It depends on the teas, and some have been exceptional, others just interesting and characteristic for the types.  They seem to offer different discounts at different times, and I think for a reduced rate below that value is pretty favorable.  

As I keep mentioning related to lots of teas I don't buy tea at 70 cents a gram or so (they passed this on for review; many thanks to them!), so value really depends on what you like, and what budget you are working with.  It would cost a good bit to buy these from any market outlet sort of vendor, if they were even available.

To me aged teas can be hard to place, because experiencing them is definitely novel, maybe more so than for any other type range.  But then in terms of pleasantness, refinement (one level quality relates to), or intensity of the experience they're often not as positive.  For buying random versions of them online storage issues often all but ruin them; mustiness can be a main aspect.  

In the last week or two I've written about a 2010's version that had probably been stored near incense, picking up a flavor input that seemed foreign.  So far none of that has impacted these tea samples, and it has only been that quality was exceptional for some and more medium range for others, or so it seemed to me.  We'll see how these go, or rather I already have, since I often write intros and conclusions during editing.  One is really good, very novel and pleasant, and the other just good.

Review:

2014 Lapsang Souchong:  interesting!  That picked up a lot of spice tones with the aging, it seemed.  It almost tastes like a spiced tea version.  I was expecting this to not be a smoked version initially, and there is no smoke, but it's hard to say how that flavor input would've held up over 11 years.  

It balances pretty well.  There is mixed spice input, which I'll try to break down more next round, then a warm toffee sweetness beyond that, and some neutral warm-toned base mineral.  There is no sharp black tea edge, but even in newer, higher quality Lapsang Souchong versions there might not be much of that.  Feel is interesting, especially for it being the first light round, a bit rich.  It seems clean and refined.  All in all it's pleasant to experience.  

Going back and comparing it to the other version a touch of sourness stands out, which is more evident in comparison.  First impressions can miss things like that.

1995 Dan Cong:  there's quite different spice standing out in this.  I don't remember spice tones picking up that much in aged tea versions before, but then I've probably never tried an 11 year old Lapsang Souchong or 30 year old Dan Cong.  This is a little sharper and more pronounced, like clove.  

The other came across as a mix of different flavors, that were hard to separate.   There is some fruit or floral base beyond that spice in this, and warm mineral again, but the sharper and more pronounced spice range really stands out most, and kind of blocks experience of the rest.   It will be interesting to see how these evolve, how the flavors transition in relation to each other.

Lapsang Souchong #2:  I brewed that first round about 20 seconds, and I'm going to stay with using decently long infusion times, maybe 20-some this time instead.  Drinking these brewed light would also work, using faster infusions, and they would produce more rounds, but I expect the effect will be most positive with intensity bumped to a medium-high level.  Or at least infusion strength; we will see what extracts.

More spice, no surprise.  It's mostly in a cinnamon related range.  There is a little sourness to this.  From being stored a bit damp?  Maybe.  It's far from ruined; that kind of works with the sweetness, otherwise clean flavored nature, spice tone, and underlying warmth.  But I suspect that people would have different natural tolerances or preferences for or against that inclusion, the sourness.  It was off-putting in a Thai shai hong style black tea I tried with Huyen and Seth, for her, and I still love that tea.  It might be more common in Dian Hong range than for other black teas, related to some processing form input.  I don't remember ever trying Lapsang Souchong that seemed sour to me, but earlier on I probably wouldn't have noticed it.  

To me this tea is good.  For others reaction to that one flavor input might decide it.

Dan Cong:  an interesting spice and aged wood tone has picked up.  This is really interesting.  It tastes like really aged furniture, a bit towards Chinese medicinal spices, what those Chinatown shops tend to smell like.  One note is still related to clove, but there's a lot more going on, all across spice and wood-tone range.  

Some lower quality aged sheng pu'er tends to taste woody, in a completely different sense.  That tends to taste like well-cured lumber, while this is a hint of cedar, or towards incense spice range, just not exactly that either.  It tastes like what I'd imagine exotic Chinese medicinal root spices might taste like.

Would this naturally be appealing or off-putting for many people, the same question I just asked of the other tea version?  I would think the novelty would generally be positive.  The overall balance is nice too; it's not musty, or heavy across an odd flavor range, lacking body / feel, or too dry in some odd way.  A bit of toffee sweetness helps the rest tie together well.  For well-aged sheng two different problems can enter in, that haven't here.  Those can be musty and earthy so that they require a few infusions to clean up, or some versions just tend to fade.  This definitely changed due to aging input, but not in those ways.

Lapsang Souchong #3:  I brewed these a little longer, to see what happens when they are pushed a bit, on towards a minute.

Spice is still pleasant in this, still mostly centered around cinnamon range, but more complex than just that.  Sourness is reducing, even brewed strong.  It's not unusual for some aspects to "burn off" over a few initial rounds, and that seems to have happened.  It comes across as a little sweeter, cleaner, and more balanced, with warm tones playing a larger role.  A toffee sweetness stands out.  Other warm tones seem to include just a touch of leather, not the musty horse saddle range that can turn up in hei cha or some pu'er, but a lighter, sweeter note.  It's tempting to go on and on about types of leather, but ultimately not informative, so I won't.

Dan Cong:  this changes every round, which is an interesting effect.  A lot of the description I already covered still applies, but the overall balance is quite different, and I had been listing out a lot of range before.  Wood still stands out, but a very novel form of it, a touch of cedar, well-aged furniture, and then the overlap with Chinese medicinal herbs.  A sappy feel enters in, connecting with one part of that, the unusual herb or spice range.  There are bark spice tisanes one can seek out, not cinnamon, and not like cinnamon, that this might resemble.  There is a lot going on.

It's not so unusual for some aged teas to fade, but this absolutely did not do that.  It's unique, clean, complex, and balanced, expressing flavor range that isn't familiar at all.  I suppose this is what one might hope aged tea would be like, it just usually isn't.  I'm guessing that the sheng and shou versions in this set might seem kind of ordinary to me, which I'll get around to checking on, but this doesn't.  One more round will tell enough of this story.

Lapsang Souchong #4:  kind of the same.  This may be fading a little already; an input like aging might transition the material to include novel range but could also cost it intensity and the ability to brew a lot of rounds.  The same can come up with oxidation and roasting steps.  

This tea isn't done, but it might've passed the most interesting part of the infusion cycle already.  Or the next couple of steeps could still be regarded as more positive than the first 3, since the sourness transitioned out.  This one I brewed a little faster so the intensity dropped some, but it's still fine.

Dan Cong:  it's interesting brewed lighter; different flavor range comes out.  A lighter spice range emerges, almost including a citrus note.  Aromatic range is interesting.  It tastes like aged furniture, but not in the musty sense, instead related to those fragrant preservative oils that are used in some places (like here in Bangkok, where old traditions and practices sometimes stick around).  This also isn't better brewed so light, but it is interesting trying it in different ways.  It still works.

Conclusions:

Those teas really were on the way out; they kept brewing, but they were already declining by then.  The 10+ infusions theme relates more to younger, powerful teas, not those so transitioned by aging input.

The Dan Cong was a really unique experience.  I've been a little skeptical that it really improves teas much to age most for 10+ years, but it held up, and changed into something very novel.

The storage input to the Lapsang Souchong wasn't quite as positive; a light early sour note threw off results a little.  I'd expect that being stored with more humidity in the tea made that difference.  In the past people often talked about re-roasting teas, to keep them dry and positive in character, but it later seemed like storing them well-sealed at an appropriate humidity level works out much better.  They're not changing related to fungus and bacteria inputs, fermenting, as sheng pu'er and other hei cha are, so they don't need limited air input and a higher degree of humidity to support that microbiome.

I'm not sure that everyone can appreciate what a market value for a well-stored, high quality, novel 30 year old oolong might be.  There isn't much of that around; it could be hard to identify that.  I wrote about types and transition patterns in aging oolongs before, back in 2020, and mentioned reviews of a half dozen versions of different ages.  It had seemed a lot of what had been around was already sold by then, with some pricing getting a bit crazy.  The TeaDB blog wrote about that awhile back (this time in 2016, but I was looking for something else).  Pricing for everything mentioned was all over the map, in both posts, often way over $1 a gram, but one thing would be the same from both:  those aged teas selling in 2016 to 2020 are probably all gone now.

Or are they?  I looked up one I tried earlier on, well before 2020, a 1995 Thai Qing Xin oolong from Tea Side (a Thai vendor), and it's still available.  It sells for $40 for 50 grams, exactly the same rate as this sample set.  I thought it would be sold out, or would sell for more if available.  Two Moychay aged oolongs (one Qilan listed here, and another) from 2004 and 2006 sell for 24 and 30 Euro for 50 grams; a little less, but those are a decade younger.  I guess that it's still out there.  This vendor sells 70s Dan Cong, for around $300 for 50 grams.  If you have an open enough budget this 95 version isn't the far extreme.

For people seeking out this kind of experience this set has been reasonable, a mix of really exceptional and unique versions and others that at least represent the range fairly, and the value seems fine.