Liquid Proust sheng intro, Bulang and smoked Cai Chen's Fire

Bulang left, Cai Chen's Fire right (or I think the label said that)

I've been off tea drinking and tasting for a week; that's different.  We went out of town for beach weekend outings two weeks in a row and I tend to use travel as a chance to back off of tea.  Most tea enthusiasts seem to take the opposite approach, enjoying the experience even more in free time and unfamiliar settings, but for me it works out well as a time to take a break.

That's largely related to stepping back from caffeine intake but also just get some space, to appreciate tea all the more for not drinking it ever single day.  As a high school friend once said, a true stoner takes a day off weed once in awhile.  That guy went on to be a pharmacist, so he was probably onto something.

the running theme, pools and water park areas

she had just learned to swim too; it all clicked that weekend

As it all worked out I took a couple of days off tea over last weekend, drinking one cup of coffee in the morning to prevent the withdrawal headache.  I had tea once Tuesday and Wednesday but then fell ill from a stomach problem and took two days off caffeine (one day off food in general; that doesn't come up much).  It's odd that doesn't come up more here; I think it was something my kids passed onto me since they'd both went through the same in the two days prior.  So of course I'm starting back in with sheng.  These have a little age on them, just not much; hopefully that will offset this going badly.  And of course I'm not drinking them on an empty stomach; that would be crazy.

I'm back to trying teas from an introductory set from Liquid Proust that was a lot closer to a free introduction to sheng than tea being sold (with the first samples reviewed here).

One is labeled as a 2014 Bulang, the other seems to say 2013 Cai Chen's Fire (or it could say Cai Chen's Five).  Chen isn't that unusual a Chinese name so it's hard to tell if that seeming to ring a bell really means anything.  I'm guessing the second will be quite a bit better than the first and that they won't be similar but who knows.  For most people I'd not recommend tasting dissimilar teas together, since it detracts from what you can pick up, but since I've been doing a lot of combined tastings that did or didn't match for two years I'll be fine.  The sheng-gut is something else; I might regret not going with a black tea or oolong.  I had a pineapple croissant before the tea and I'm already feeling that; not a good sign.

The subject of intermediate age shengs (young but not newish) not being generally desirable just came up in an online discussion so I'll address that briefly before the review.  It does seem like people tend to like 1 or 2 year old young sheng or 10+ year old aged sheng (more fully aged around 15) and not prefer what falls in between so much.  Different people cite different ages as the main awkward years, when versions lose their initial brightness, freshness, and intensity but don't gain aged character and different aspect range instead.  I won't go into that since it would vary by tea, fermentation and other aspect preference, and storage conditions, which change how fast aging transitions occur.

Suffice it to say that typically 4 to 5 year old sheng doesn't seem to match most people's preferences.  But then it seems possible, or at least conceivable, that based on a starting point for some sheng that could still be ideal, but it's just normally not.  Since this isn't a post about aging transitions, just a review of two tea versions, I'll leave it at that and get to it.

Bulang left, Chen's right (in all the photos)

Review

Even from the wet leaf scent, without actually tasting the tea, I can tell I'm going to be in for some smoke.  The Bulang seems to have a hint of smoke but the other seems to actually be smoked tea.  Could that be right?

The Bulang is what I expected, interesting, flavorful, potentially challenging depending on preference range.  There's a lot mineral in it, and some of that one odd flavor / mineral and earth aspect range in sheng people tend to describe as kerosene.  It's probably closer to the way tree fungus smells than kerosene to me but close enough.  Oddly I don't dislike it.  It doesn't completely click for me but it's interesting.  The smoke is a bit subdued; that works, since I don't like really smoky tea.  When a Lapsang Souchong balances well I love those but as often the smoke is too strong, or sour, or off in some other way.  It's too early to call anyway, barely getting started.

I'm going to guess this other one really does have to be a smoked version of sheng, the Chen's Fire (what I'll call it).  That's different.  At this point I'd be as likely to guess the kind of wood the smoke seems to be from as to say anything accurate about the tea character; it just tastes like smoke.  I think once I adjust to the idea more I'll like it.  Smoked black tea works because the sweetness and warm earth in the tea balances that warmth and tendency towards sour and mineral range in smoke, and this doesn't have that.  But sheng with even 5 years of age on it has softened and extended into warmer mineral range flavors, versus being more intense, vegetal, and potentially floral and sweeter in younger versions.  Bitterness just depends; that can be really pronounced in a young version, or not so much, and it seems to have largely dropped out of this.

The Bulang wasn't that bitter either, come to think of it; there's a decent chance I'd like it better as a somewhat aged tea like this versus a young version.  Comparing the two makes the Bulang seem a lot more bitter; I guess I got swept up in that mineral flavor range and didn't flag how pronounced it was.

Second infusion

The Bulang has a nice sweet layer that makes the rest work.  I don't love the rest of that flavor profile, the aggressive mineral, the kerosene / tree fungus, moderate bitterness, light smoke, and whatever else I'm not picking up, but it all hangs together well, it balances.  I'll try to flag what I've missed for aspects next round, but sweetness is standing out more, with flavor moving into a bit of citrus range (tangerine peel, at a guess), so it becomes nicer.  The tea isn't thin either; it has decent feel, and the aftertaste lingers, so it holds its own across the range of experience.  With so much going on this might be really nice in another 5 or 6 years, once that set of aspects shifts.

The Chen's Fire is interesting.  Smoke still dominates the taste experience but it falls into a nicer balance, and will probably work out even better next round.  The smoke effect seems to tie to an earthy sweetness.  That really could be pine smoke, as used for Lapsang Souchong, given the character, but it has good sweetness for being that smoke type on top of slightly aged sheng (not "aged" as in remotely fully transitioned, not even middle-aged, instead aged in the sense of adjusted; it wasn't like this 5 years ago).  It works a lot better than it sounds, or at least sounds to me.  Add that smoke to that Bulang and I'd expect it to be nasty; layer it on top of Yiwu and it would squander the potential of the tea (although I like Yiwu better younger anyway, so that's not a great example, it's just the origin I'm most familiar with).

Third infusion

My stomach is holding up.  I won't make it a half dozen rounds with these teas but within a couple more at least it'll point to where this is heading.  It would be easy to sip them a few times and bin the tea instead of drinking it and get through a full cycle but I'm not like that.  This blog is about passing on tea experience, not wasting tea.  It's disrespectful to the tea.

This Bulang is transitioning nicely; I didn't see that coming at first.  The sweetness isn't just saving an aspect balance I don't care that much for, it's part of a pleasant set.  I'll stick with tangerine peel citrus as a main element description, an aspect that is still ramping up.  Mineral is still pronounced, but not in a form recognizable as smoke.  It's more an underlying somewhat metallic theme, a base context, which works, to me.

The Chen's Fire is balancing even better now.  It's hard to describe what's filling in beyond the smoke though.  It's definitely not the sweet, warm, earth range in Lapsang Souchong, but it tastes warmer and richer than I'd expect in a 5 year old sheng.  Then again that describes this Bulang too, and per limited exposure I don't think I've had great luck with teas from that area.  This may taste a lot more like how I expected the Bulang to be, just smokier, due to that seeming to obviously be an added input.

If this isn't a smoked tea I'll be amazed.  I've tried some smoky sheng but nothing remotely on this level.  For a Lapsang Souchong I'd say they got the balance right.  Just to add a couple of actual aspects descriptions (fairly limited so far) this also tastes like underlying mineral, kind of in between slate and flint, with a slightly aged but greenish wood taste standing out more in the forefront.  Or it might be both; well-aged hardwood mixed with green young sapling.  The smoke actually gives it depth and broadens and softens the effect, versus balancing sweet range as it would in a black tea.

Fourth infusion

Bulang left, Chen's right

This may be the last round for now, and where notes stop.  I think two more would tell enough of the story but I'm pushing it, even if I eat something else to counter all this sheng.  Which reminds me, this table is loaded with cookies and other sweets from a cousin who bakes for a business dropping them off for our kids ("Sweet at First Sight"). 



[after a pause] A few cocoa and almond cookies really did seem help just now.  Thai cookies and deserts are often sickly sweet, only tolerable for a few bites, but with some practice she's got the balance right, and uses salt as a counter at the right level, barely noticeable but working for that purpose.


It can come in handy having kids.  When they're being terrible, which is an intentional running theme for them, I ask them why I ever wanted to have kids, and they laugh and remind me that it was to keep things lively and interesting.  They're not wrong; they definitely hold up their end.  I kind of hate to seem them grow up, even though the process is interesting, and the changes.  I was considering writing a post that isn't just about tea that talks more about them; I should do that.


Back to reviewing:  more of the same for the Bulang sheng.  I've surely not communicated how the flavor set is balancing based on throwing so many descriptions out there (sweetness, citrus, moderate bitterness, metal, mineral, etc.), but it works.  This wouldn't be a favorite style but I like it.  Actually aged it might be quite nice; there's plenty of aspect range and intensity to transition nicely, and seemingly little chance it would just fade.  Even faded it would be fine, but it should pick up complexity by swapping out more of that bitterness.

The Chen's Fire probably has shifted balance a little but it's hard to pick up; it wasn't much.  It's still smoky and woody with a mineral layer under that.

Conclusions

These teas are only half finished, not even fully transitioned yet, never mind brewed out.  But this covers where they were headed.  It was a stretch to drink the first tea in three days after stomach problems two days back as sheng.  My stomach doesn't hurt but in another round or two it would go from feeling odd as it does now to that, so I'll stop here.  I'll mix the rest and see what becomes of it cold brewed to work around squandering its brewing potential given how that went.

They weren't what I expected.  The Bulang picked up more sweetness and complexity than I thought, moving off the initial kerosene phase onto actual citrus fruit.  It wouldn't be a favorite but it was pleasant.  I'd bet that even within two years of settling in here in steamy and warm Bangkok climate it would be even nicer.

The Cai Chen's Fire (if that's what it was) was interesting for being smoked, or at least seeming smoked.  Smoke is on the list of natural flavors that emerge in sheng, along with bitterness, floral aspects, camphor, varying mineral, and the rest.  This just seemed way too strong to be a natural aspect.  Contact with smoke can add more of that range in processing, singeing the tea a bit during a heavy version of kill green frying, or indoor drying in an area warmed by smoke.  I don't know what the story was, only how it tasted.  I did ask Andrew of Liquid Proust by message by didn't hear back at time of first draft.

Both of these would make a great intro to parts of the range of sheng, with that second on an unusual tangent, no matter what it is.  People have mentioned before that you can tell the difference between sheng that's smoky because that aspect comes up and from actual smoke as an input.  This seems like real smoke.  Neither would be a personal favorite but then I don't love tea most for matching preference for a given style, at this point.  That still does work, for favorites, but I like tea for what they are, with variety being as interesting and pleasant as that matching.

visiting that friend at Tea Village in Pattaya

I just tried to explain this to a vendor friend I met when he asked what my favorite tea type is now.  I really don't have one.  I like black teas, oolong, sheng and shou, and white, and other hei cha can be interesting and nice, so I kind of just demote green to a second level.  I have favorites (Dian Hong for black, Cindy's Rou Gui and Wuyi Yancha for oolong, along with Dan Cong) but novel versions are nice beyond those.  Or even basic, plain teas, really.  I've only started this year to drink tea-bag black tea again (just not very often), from people giving it to me as a gift, and I've been dabbling in tisanes for the last couple of years again (after a long history with those, and a shorter pause in drinking them).  Even deeply flawed or limited quality teas can be interesting for expressing something you don't get to often.

I see it as similar to appreciating the company of people who I don't share much in common with, even if they have apparent shortcomings in character.  If you can relate to them there is still potential for interesting interaction, and the main step towards doing that is you setting your ego aside to enable it.  It's the same for tea; if you think "I'm a tea enthusiast and I'm too good for this version" you set up the distance from being able to appreciate the experience, it's not the tea character that does that. 

The flexibility in perspective to cover range can serve someone well, for experiencing tea and people.  Go and brew some Lipton from your break room, add milk and sugar to that, try it and let me know.  It might help to not think of it as tea, to separate from pre-conceptions, in the way a brewed coffee drinker might when drinking instant, or a better brewed coffee drinker might if drinking a Starbucks caramel latte.

It feels a little odd not mentioning what these teas are, like unfinished business.  I'll never know that, it would seem, especially in the "Chen's Fire" case since I can't even clearly read those words.  Searching on Steepster, Yunnan Sourcing, or Liquid Proust's sales site doesn't turn up anything promising as a match.  The set wasn't about being introduced to what to buy (mainly), but about beginners exploring the range of what is out there for sheng.  A Vietnamese rustic version of a sheng was a bit smoky not so long ago but this style is atypical, and more interesting for that.

As to saying more about the other tea's general range this Tea DB post from awhile back reviews lots of versions of Bulang sheng; it covers what the origin is all about, related to that blog reviewing a lot of versions in two to three sentence descriptions.