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Na Ka left, Ye Fang right (in all photos) |
More interesting looking samples from King Tea Mall (provided by John for review, to be clear; many thanks for that). I'll ramble some first, more or less off the subject. I've been on the theme of middle-aged teas, trying out those in the in-between years, but of course that doesn't apply to these.
It seems like the normal approach for exploring sheng would be to figure out regional character for broad areas first. Then one would try to narrow that to more local areas within regions, and to find out how limited the generalities that seemed to apply early on really are. Exploring sub-themes like autumn versus spring versions would come up, and blends versus single location types, more naturally grown conditions versions versus plantation teas, gushu (varying plant age sources), huang pian (yellow leaf variations), of course related to aging and storage locations, etc. I've just more or less skipped the part about being systematic about all that, which makes it very difficult to keep track of any of it.
I've tried autumn tea versions, plenty of them, and wild-grown teas (or those presented as such), and teas from Na Ka, and lots of areas. It's not really gelling into a matrix of consistent patterns in my mind. Sheng drinkers often mention having a few favorite limited tea areas, and that does make complete sense in relation to what I've experienced.
I'd mentioned James Schergen of Tea DB doing one-month focused tasting across a limited area before (in the past, an earlier practice), mentioning that related to Yiwu last, and I think Bulang at one point, and other places; that's a good way to solidify impressions better. I just can't imagine buying or collecting up 25 or so tea samples to drink in one month to cross-compare. Doing 8 reviews a month is pushing it, and that other approach adds lots more demand on the sourcing side too. If I were just a little better connected instead of these samples coming in randomly I could amass them from an area at will, with more help from vendors and friends.
At any rate I don't know to expect from these teas. There's a loose impression in my mind of how truly wild grown sourced teas taste or feel, in general, but that varies a lot, by factors that wouldn't necessarily be clear to me, not necessarily tied back to points on a map. I could look back through every Na Ka version review (not that there would be many), and extend that to seeing what is near there on a map, and check those too, I just won't. It's interesting appreciating that others really have explored to such an extent they are more familiar with a matrix of factors and inputs, and at the same time being skeptical of claims about that sort of thing in general. Not necessarily that the generalities exist, because they would, just that isolating those may or may not support discussion points made in different cases.
Why do I tell you this? It's a given that the people who have invested the decade + and considerable funding to get a lot further than I have probably aren't reading this, so I'm sharing how my path goes with the rest of you, about limitations that relate to having moderate levels of experience. Even someone who has only tried a dozen or so versions of sheng could make some real headway on the themes I just described.
Vendor product summary:
I'll check into what King Tea Mall (John) says about these versions as background.
The Na Ka:
Made from tea leaves of Gushu (old trees ) in NA KA village, Meng Song town, north of Meng Hai county as below (red word). This is not blend recipe, but a pure tea for recording the taste of this harvest in this season.
Strong Cha Qi and well balanced tea flavor. Honey like fragrance from cold cup is very obvious. Hui Gan (sweetness from aftertaste) comes soon and strongly. Tea flavor lasts long in mouth and deep into throat.
That is not very specific, and related to pasting this after doing the tasting not necessarily identical to my impression. It's quite pleasant, just maybe not including that notable an aftertaste effect.
This tea lists for $30 for 100 gram cake; not bad for what it is, about right (which of course is a judgement call). John lists the map to show where Na Ka is, which I've mentioned here before:
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upper left, not far from a lot of other familiar places |
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King Tea Mall photo of tea growing and village |
On the Ye She:
YE FANG CHA (” wild leaf tea ” or directly “wild tea”).
Bulang tea region in Menghai county.
Wild tea trees have average height of 3 meter.
Similar size (including diameter) tea tree is always called Arbor tree.
The taste has some similarities to tea from there like high level bitterness and astringency, strong tea flavor. But the bitterness is still some different from general tea trees even old trees. It has more sharpness on bitter feeling. The bitter feeling retreats fast. Hui Gan (sweetness from aftertaste) comes soon and feels like sugar cane with some coldness.
Again this didn't seem all that bitter to me, or with an overly pronounced aftertaste, but that is in comparison with expectations for young Spring teas. Both versions had some bitterness, and a reasonable mouthfeel and aftertaste effect, with both approachable and pleasant. They weren't as subtle as the rounded-off in intensity semi-aged teas I've been trying, but definitely not overly bitter.
This sells for $13 for a 100 gram cake; again a great value for what it is. That's something like $47 for a standard size 357 gram cake, but this is in a middle range for quality level and character type, and priced at the low end of that range instead. At a guess just as specific local area demand bumped that other tea's price up in this case the more limited area-name appeal dropped this cost. There's reasonable grounding to that; if people have favorites for aspects and character range that do tie to a local area, which would happen, then all that wouldn't only relate to image or buzz.
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no pictures of trees so I'll share theirs of this cake (credit) |
Review:
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barely getting started (Na Ka left) |
2018 Autumn Na Ka gushu: promising! It's probably as well to not do a flavors and aspects list until next round since this is going through the initial saturation process just yet, but it's nice. Bitterness is limited, but that does tend to ramp up fast as shengs become saturated. The tone is soft and warm, but with decent brightness, and very clean. There's a warm mineral aspect base that gives it great complexity, with plenty of other range supporting that I'll get to.
Ye She: interesting! This is promising as well, to be fair, and pleasantly unique in effect. It's warm in tone too but much less focused on mineral range as a base. How the aspects balance is critical but as main flavors go this might be about pleasant vegetal range, aromatic wood so far towards spice that it's not the typical "tastes like cured hardwood" review theme. There's a depth and complexity to it already, and it's barely getting started.
My understanding of autumn teas is that they trade out the normal intensity in Spring teas for being more subtle, and also somewhat different in character. I should be clearer on in what ways, but maybe that varies. As I was trying to express earlier inputs mix in why individual teas are as they are, and I've not extracted out individual factors very clearly just yet.
As for brewing process I'm using a lower proportion than is typical and longer times. That makes this trickier, since the most familiar process is easiest, but I'm on a time limitation here so doing a shorter set of rounds faster would be best, even if the results are slightly less dialed in.
Second infusion:
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rich flavors match the nice color, very approachable as young shengs go |
Na Ka: this is more like it; intensity ramped up quite a bit. Warm mineral is more of a context for this tea than the forward aspect but it definitely sets the tone. Bitterness joined in but not much at all for a tea within a year of being produced. Flavor range is great; lots of subtle, complimentary layers of aspects aligning with each other. This tea is "woody" as well but it's more of an aromatic cedar effect than a neutral tone that doesn't work as well, with the warm mineral extension helping that come across positively. In considering what else is there maybe some floral tone does support that, adding to the impression that a lot is going on. It's quite clean, with reasonably thick feel and decent level of aftertaste, and good overall balance.
This is identified as a gushu version, which again (to me) seems to often relate to mineral being more pronounced, overall intensity increased (although that would be offset by this being an autumn version), with aftertaste often more pronounced as well. I guess those somewhat opposing inputs land together in a place that makes sense. To be clear pleasant spring versions of sheng definitely don't need to be harsh, or overly bitter, with that particular aspect varying by origin location and other factors.
A tea with the exact same description as I've just mentioned might not be nearly as pleasant; how it all balances, and just how positive aspects like "mineral" really are makes all the difference. All the same reviews are about aspect lists, so I'll keep sticking with that.
Ye Fang: interesting complexity. There's warm mineral in this too, and wood tone, so these overlap, but this is slightly more complex in flavor and more unusual. That's not necessarily clearly a good or bad thing. Aftertaste is much more limited, and mouth-feel a little thinner; I suppose those are as close to objectively "not as good" as tea aspects ever get. At the same time for me I like the overall effect different aspects add up to provide as a unified experience, and the formula isn't necessarily that simple. I like the flavor, but it's different. Beyond those parts I mentioned there's a vegetal aspect that's not vegetal in any normal sense, a bit towards warm spice and damp forest floor, or even moss. It's positive, that last part just probably doesn't sound it.
More natural grown or wild teas I've tried in the past varied too much to really extract simple descriptions of a narrow profile, but being generally being flavorful in unique ways and approachable in character stand out. It's interesting to consider why those two vague trends would occur (effect of other nearby plants growing around them, shading, other factors?), but it's not meaningful to guess.
Third infusion:
Na Ka: the aromatic cedar range extends just a little further towards bark spice (not cinnamon, some incense theme version), a nice effect. This isn't intense in the sense of bitterness and strong flavor hitting you but it's not nearly as subtle as those semi-aged 6 to 11 year old sheng versions I was reviewing a week ago. For being a young tea it's drinkable, on the soft side, with bitterness that balances the rest but that doesn't stand forward as much as that in most year old sheng tends to. But the flavors are bright and clear, with the effect balanced out by some thickness of feel and aftertaste effect (a moderate level for both, but notable, and in a form that works very well). It's quite pleasant.
Ye Fang: this shifted quite a bit, but it's hard to say how. Feel thickened a lot, and aftertaste ramped up; odd. Flavor changed considerably too. This is hard to pin down; the flavor range is complex, there are layers to it, but at the same time it's lighter than average, of moderate intensity. Even if I did specify a list of 5 or 6 things that cover exactly what this experience relates to I don't think that would bring across what experiencing that part is like, since it integrates as a subtle but complex set in a novel way.
It's still on aromatic wood tone (not as far towards cedar as the other had been the round before this one), with the vegetal range moving from moss / forest floor (a clean version of those) to tree bark. It's very clean in overall effect though, and those make it sound as if it's not. Probably a trace of subdued floral is filling it in, making it harder to split apart, giving it the effect of complexity, because it is a complex set.
Fourth infusion:
I'll have to let this go after this round, off to meet someone. These are positive enough and transitioning enough that doing at least two more rounds would make more sense; maybe I can rush a second after, since it's part of Thai culture to run late [but it didn't work out that way].
Na Ka: at least this version isn't transitioning so much. One part is even catchier now, developing in a positive way. I've described it as closest to an aromatic spice, maybe moving from a bark spice towards a root spice. This is really close to a cool flavor range effect from a tea I wrote notes for yesterday, a Da Xue Shan. A description break-down doesn't do it justice. The thick feel is a bit creamier now; that's nice. Sweetness is pleasant, and bitterness is at a low level and in a positive form that works really well. Altogether this is quite pleasant.
Ye Fang: this is still transitioning; nice to experience that. Still hard to describe too. I think layers now relate to a floral tone background, mild and aromatic wood, a very light warm mineral base, and at least one part I'm missing. Sweetness ramped up; it's almost leaning a little towards something like fresh pineapple. Right, that's odd. It is odd how complex this is, and how well a broad range of flavors balance and shift from round to round. Odd in a pleasant way, since it really works.
Conclusions:
I didn't get back to writing more about those during the notes phase. The teas seemed nice, pleasant the way they combined young tea character with slightly decreased intensity and also reduced aspects that might be seen as negative, light on bitterness and astringency. The Ye Fang wasn't disappointing for being slightly unconventional in flavor profile, just not so far out there it would be hard to relate to. Eventually I will have to circle back to these narrow-area origin descriptions and try to piece together if I'm seeing patterns in aspects that I'm not necessarily always flagging as origin-specific.
I met a tea producer that day, Anna of Kinnari Teas, so I'll have more to talk about related to trying some Laos teas that are quite hard to come by. That and a discussion about South-East Asian teas had me thinking about how much range of that I've covered, and I'll do a post on sources and some generalities for sheng and shu produced outside of China. Doing so many review posts, two most weeks, has me a little burned out on that theme, and probably potential audience too, so I'll branch away from that a little. I finally wrote about tea culture in Russia, tied to visiting there awhile back, and also triggered by meeting two people visiting here from Russia this year. A sourcing options discussion about transparency has been interesting; I'm working on some thoughts related to that.
So I'll be all over the map, just less focused on reviews.
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