Phongsaly (Laos) old plant source sheng from Somnuc

label reference:  old source Phongsaly sheng

the other "young" version; maybe more yellow leaf (huang pian)

This follows up on an earlier post about comparison reviewing a Vietnamese bundled tea along with a Laos sheng.  That second tea had only been identified as "young," which I usually use to describe sheng that hasn't aged, but in this case which seemed to refer to plant age.  That's per Somnuc Anousinh (who gave me these teas), but I might hear additional details if I get a chance to meet him later this week when he passes through Bangkok.

People tend not to visit me here all that much.  Thailand is not a tea culture hub.  And it's on the exact opposite side of the world as where I'm from, a 12 hour time difference from the US East Coast when it's not daylight savings time.  Oddly this week seems to be an exception, although there have been other exceptions.

I also met Anna of Kinnari Tea of Laos this week, and a friend of Narendra's dropped off some Nepal tea samples earlier this week as well.  I suppose I'll say more about those visits and sources when I get around to reviewing those teas.  Meeting Somnuc might work out, but that often depends on timing, if availability allows.

I visited here again, Chinatown

a look at other parts of Bangkok from a Chinatown river view

some cool building art I saw walking around

This tea an old plant source sheng, assuming that I'm understanding the labeling convention right.  Based on trying it the tea isn't aged, which I don't really get into in the description much, but it would be different if it was.  It's my impression that the practice of aging teas isn't even common there in Laos, or in Northern Vietnam.  They've surely heard about pu'er in Yunnan transitioning with age, but they seem to just drink their own teas as they would any others, when they get to it, versus after any certain number of years.

I've been comparison reviewing a good bit of interesting sheng and shou.  Some were Yunnan versions, so the "real" tea, as labeling convention and original source area goes, and some from Vietnam, with a post draft in the works for another two from there.  It'll seem like being on break to just try one tea.  I am on break (or was when I made these notes and post draft), using up some extra vacation time since I somehow didn't get out that much this year for actual vacations.  Blog posts mentioned ducking out to Pattaya, or earlier to visit Keo as a novice, or to a library-commissioning theme in Kamphang Phet, but those were all rushed weekend trips, on time-frames designed to not pull the kids out of school.  That works out to be the opposite of a vacation in terms of relaxing, since you pay a price in being exhausted if you travel over a three-day weekend.  Especially if fighting holiday weekend traffic, which is usually how that went.

Review

just getting started

The first infusion is a bit light (back to that starting point), but it tastes a bit like a lot of older plant source teas from South East Asia that I've tried.  It's sweet, a bit floral, with some bitterness and a lot of a specific mineral aspect standing out.  The floral tone in this one is inclined towards fruit; that may be closer to dried apricot than flowers as it gets going.

basic version of a tasting set-up

I didn't mention I'm going with an outdoor tasting environment for the second day in a row.  Yesterday that was because the whole family was in the house making noise and today my kids are back in school, so it's just to avoid my wife making noise or asking questions.  It's nice outside, but sleeping in makes it a lot hotter than yesterday, probably close to 30 C, or over 80 F.  This cool season isn't all that cool.


More of the same on the second infusion.  Heavy mineral lends this a different form of dryness, even though it's not all that bitter as it might be.  That floral / fruit aspect splits between a warm, rich version of flower and dried apricot, which works for me.  Mineral really stands out the most though.  It's a lighter mineral than I've been going on about in lots of other teas lately, more towards flint or limestone.  It's a young tea (not aged); that description did relate to the plants, not when it was made.


The tea doesn't have that much of a full feel as some versions do, just a bit of structure, and the aftertaste is limited to that mineral really hanging around.  The aftertaste version is even slightly more metallic, like tasting a spoon (which shouldn't come up; spoons shouldn't taste like anything).  As I often say that's probably more positive than it sounds.  The style and character works for me but it's as much mineral as would still balance reasonably well in any tea of any type.  The mouth-feel is a little dry the mineral is so heavy.

I might have drank a whole round without making notes, related to talking some online by message.  That's really the story of this tea already, and it's not transitioning that much.  Mineral stands out, and other aspects and sweetness gives it decent balance.  I'm used to bitterness coupling more with that mineral in similar teas but it's not strong in this version.  The fruitiness is nice, that there even is fruitiness.  For me it works best related to being novel, even though the general style is familiar.  Related to match for my personal aspects preference it's so-so.  It's enjoyable and positive but not exactly what I love most in sheng.  It's rare that mineral is almost too much but in this that's where it stands.

Related to aging potential I guess if it doesn't need to hang around to be positive then why bother; why trade out the initial intensity for what may or may not develop.  It definitely has enough intensity and structure to it that I wouldn't expect it to just fade but it would make sense to me to drink it young.  I've tried a very bitter version similar to this from Thailand (before this blog even started prior to 5 years ago, so there's no write-up), and that's a different case; a few years would probably mellow such a tea out, and allow for positive transition. 

That on Lamphang area (Thai) sheng was different (reviewed here in comparison with a Myanmar sheng version).  That other Thai version was even more bitter than that), but it works as an example; it'll probably be quite nice in 3 or 4 years, and very interesting in a dozen.  If you knew for sure that a few years would increase that fruit range in this version I'm reviewing it would be better, but I'm not the right person to best guess about finer level aging / fermentation transitions like that.

I finally gave this tea a really long infusion (forgetting about a round, not intentional) about 8 or 9 infusions in, so I can report how that works.  The mineral resembles tasting a tree branch tip when brewed stronger, or a bit like the potato peel aspect in that one bundled tea.  That mineral is really strong across my tongue made that way, and this will probably signal a good time to stop drinking the tea.  There's not much for flaws that showed up.  If mineral being on the heavy side is seen negatively this tea didn't work start to finish, but the flavors were clean and the balance was pretty good beyond that.

Level and type of mineral usually stands out as a marker for where a tea is from (the "type" part), with level also seeming to tie to plant age, per noting what vendors pass on.  To some extent that's still guesswork but it's informed guesswork; I've tried lots of sheng in the past year to base guesses on, and a good bit the year before that.  Other characteristic flavor range seems to mark out when a tea is wild-grown versus a farmed plantation product; those tend to be sweet and mild with a distinctive soft spice and warm fruit earthiness, often with bitterness very moderate. 

Processing differences shift things so much that it's as well to muse over cause inputs and use source descriptions to match up teas to preferences but as well to not take all that too far.  This tea seemed atypical to me, but then different is good, to some extent.  For someone who sees level of mineral as the main factor in what they like in more-local sheng, with more always being better, this would be just the tea for them.  I liked the young plant source version better (reviewed here), but then it's hard to place if plant age was a main factor, since it would seem likely that plant type, growing conditions, or processing differences also could be.