Myanmar Keng Tung (Shan State) sheng from Noppadol

that outing

I met Noppadol again a month or two ago, the local Thai tea vendor who helped out in running a couple of free tea tastings last year (a part time vendor, who sells teas from Lamphang and from other places).  He passed on another sample of a Myanmar loose sheng that I'm only getting around to first trying and reviewing now.  All I know about the tea is that it's from Meng Pok District, Keng Tung city, Shan State, Myanmar.  That's a good start.  I've been talking a good bit about wild-growth, local-cultivar, old-tradition sheng versions and some of that source context probably applies to this tea but I'll probably never know how much.

Some of the other sheng I've tried from Myanmar has been on the bitter side, which was consistent enough that I took that to relate to an input of a local plant type (just a guess, though).  They were still pleasant, just more bitter than some other sheng versions, with good sweetness to balance that; probably good candidates for setting aside for a couple of years to mellow out a bit, if I had more than a sample of it.

Review

just getting started

On the first infusion it's still a bit light, still opening up.  It's nice; light and subtle, not bitter, complex on the earthy and aromatic side.  It's probably as well to hold off on the aspects list until the next round though.  More naturally grown sheng tends to be milder as astringency and bitterness goes, with more complex flavor; maybe that pattern relates to this tea character.  Or plant type really could have been a main input related to that one aspect and this could be from a different tea plant version.


On the second infusion (brewed stronger, infused for just over 15 seconds to assure the leaves are started) a smokiness emerges.  In general I don't like that flavor aspect in sheng but it might balance out ok as mild as it is in this version.  It's my understanding that it can occur as a natural flavor aspect in sheng, which I assume this is (it seems to be), but it's hard for me to be certain that it didn't pick up any flavor from contact with smoke.  I've heard the claim made that it's easy to tell the difference but one would need a baseline of a couple examples that are definitely each to be more certain.

Beyond that astringency and bitterness are still moderate, lighter than I'm used to from Myanmar sheng.  The feel structure includes a bit of fullness and a slight dryness; that's not bad.  The rest of the flavor is light, mild, and earthy, in a range that would make sense with that smoke aspect.  A dry form of mineral underlies the rest, towards flint (not as simple, light, and dry as limestone, with a bit of unusual character and depth).  Beyond that a mild earthy range could be described in lots of different ways:  as dried wood, as dried hay, etc.

Sweetness and complexity picks up on the third infusion.  The dryness is still evident, and a pronounced underlying mineral layer, but the smoke aspect fades quite a bit.  To me the tea is better, and it may evolve further given it's this early on in an infusion cycle.  The description from the last round still works but the flavors "warm up" a bit; in the next round a different description and aspects set will probably work better.


It hasn't evolved much on the next round; the changes may be gradual from here.  The mineral seems different, warmer in tone.  It's easy to imagine the well-dried hay / aged wood aspect shifting just a little into a more aromatic spice range but it's just not quite there.  There might be a hint of sandalwood aspect, it's just faint enough that it's barely present.  The smoke is fine at this very light level, also hardly noticeable after fading. 

The tea is nice, I'd just prefer a slightly sweeter and more aromatic range more, a touch more floral or even a vague hint of light dried fruit.  Light spice would seem a more natural other range this might cover though.  The complexity is fine, and the feel is nice, and those and a moderate aftertaste make the experience seem to not be thin or shallow.  The flavor range just isn't a great match for my main preference in natural-growth style sheng.

Sweetness picks up even more on the next infusion; it's notably sweet now, especially for being in that general flavor range.  It helps the tea character quite a bit.  With a shift away from that sweetness and warm aromatic range and the hint of smoke and dry mineral increasing instead this could've come across more like the smell of an ash tray.  Instead it moves on to include a faint aromatic aspect just a little towards tobacco; that part works well.  It's not the just-like-tobacco range that some aged shengs pick up, but leaning towards a cigar-tobacco smell just a little.  Someone else might peg that as closer to cedar (aromatic wood).  It's faint enough and mixed in with enough other complexity that it's hard to isolate for a good read. 


It's nice that this tea keeps changing; if affords a chance to experience a broad range of character in the same tea.  It's not far off the last round but an aspect like aromatic wood picked up even more, now more of a dominant aspect.  That range could be interpreted alternately as cedar, redwood, aromatic cigar tobacco, or even sandalwood, although to me one of the first two woods is closest, potentially extending a little into both of the others. 

This is obviously good tea; well-made and from decent material.  The earlier smoke / drier mineral / dried wood flavor range wasn't a great match for my personal preference but it balanced well, the flavors were clean, and the rest of the character was positive, the sweetness, feel, and aftertaste range.  This infusion matches my preference better, and given that it has evolved this far I wouldn't be surprised if it ran through another change before fading.

I tend to not say a lot about "cha-qi" or drug-like effect even if I feel it since I'm not so into that experience but this tea is having an effect.  I just had breakfast too, so that's tempering how that would've came across; it would have been even stronger.  It's a heady sort of buzz, not as close to being stoned on marijuana as some even stronger young sheng versions can bring about, but still notable, and towards that type of experience.  I feel functional, like I could do a lot of different things "on" it.  I just tried a Tea Side 1980 sheng with my friend Sasha, a version he picked up from that owner (which I reviewed before here) and that had more of a sedative effect, a body-feel combined with acting as a tranquilizer.

Bitterness is picking up a little on the next round; odd that kicks in so late.  It always had enough to balance the other range but it's falling into more of a balance I would've expected all along, or maybe even slightly lighter, given that Myanmar sheng seems to include a good bit of that (from what I've tried of it, probably still less than a half-dozen versions of sheng).  Warm mineral still supports aromatic wood tone, not unlike the last round.  It may not have evolved into a range I'd see as a personal favorite but I like this character, more than the smoke and the rest earlier on.  It's warm, sweet, and complex enough that I could imagine someone interpreting this as including a touch of dried fruit as well.

It seems to have settled into a final character, a range it will just transition from due to changes brought on by using longer infusion times.  This must be around infusion 7; not bad.  It probably won't make it to 14, at least not without stretching it by just not giving up, but it's far from finished.  If the flavor stayed positive it would keep producing infusions for as many rounds as it has covered; it's just a matter of where one tends to give up on it and not see the rest as being as positive.  For me I tend to only drink 7 or 8 of these cups at one time, at the most, so I'll probably come back to this in the afternoon and try a few more to see what I make of it.  In that visit with Sasha we tasted 20-some relatively small cups but that was really a bit much.  I just don't feel compelled to get that blasted on tea.

I never did do this description justice related to pointing out how the mouthfeel evolved in an interesting way.  At this point you feel a tenseness at the sides of your mouth, with the main feel extending down the middle of your tongue, extending to a bitterness, tightening, and sweetness effect at the rear of your mouth that lasts forever after drinking the tea.  I've experienced a stronger hui gan effect before (the last part) but it's notable in this, especially so given that the tea doesn't come across as mainly expressing that range of characteristic mix of bitterness, flavor intensity, and sweetness.  It's good tea.

If I hadn't been spoiled by trying so many really nice versions from so many other places in the past half a year this would seem like that much more of a unique experience.  As it all stands I see it as novel, pleasant, and complex, but still kind of normal, and I tend to compare it with what else I liked best, maybe even instead of fully appreciating it for how it is.  The smoke probably helped push me towards that context early on; I'm not so into smoky sheng.  This isn't one, I don't think; in a sheng version I'd consider as smoky sheng that would've been much more pronounced.  I mean instead that it seemed to put me on that page, to set up how I reacted to the tea.

As to tasting process, it really is nice to drink teas a few times to pass on a more complete review impression, to see a tea from a couple of different angles, and account for variance in mood and random changes in impression, like that one.  But if I'm going to be reviewing one or two new teas a week it doesn't work that way, since I don't have that many completely blank one-hour time slots to work with.  It is nice just trying a single tea like this; that uncomplicates things, in relation to doing a lot of comparison tastings.

back at swimming class on a warm-up break