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Dayi V93 left, Bokuro gushu shu right |
On the King Tea Mall website--where these are from; samples shared for review, which is much appreciated--John mentioned he is shipping teas again, as of today. I'm not sure how normal things are back in China just yet but it's good to hear that some normalcy is returning.
It's a little strange to review shu right after writing a long intro post about exploring sheng, but of course these tea types are related. Aged sheng never really completely resembles shu, but that is kind of the general idea, and the character difference informs a lot about both; the overlap and the differences define both. I'll get into all that, probably more so for just considering sheng basics that much. I've been re-tasting a lot of what I reviewed last year (just not mentioning it in detail here), which also includes shu, just less of it.
It's not as if I have an endless supply of old samples but I do have enough to keep reviewing them once a week for awhile. I could live with this blog going quiet instead but it's also nice reviewing, even if experience and themes just tend to repeat. I expected these to be pretty good shu, and experiencing and placing good versions of tea types is different than the same related to examples that are only a bit above average.
Per standard approach I only knew what was on the labels when tasting these, but did look up and copy the descriptions here after.
2008 Dayi V93 (listed at $66 for 5 100 gram tuochas)
Origination: Started from 2005 year. Made from high grade tea materials and decently fermented.
Taste: Well balanced on thickness, mellowness and other taste factors. Aromatic and fragrant. Soft tea soup along with smoothness.
Storage: Guangzhou dry and clean storage.
That price looks a little steep related to it being for a set; when you divide it back out to $13 per tuocha it seems quite reasonable. At least I see it that way after trying the tea. The description works, that could just be taken in different ways. They list similar 2007 and 2009 versions but for as nice as this seems maybe better just to go with it.
That still doesn't seem like a lot of background; maybe checking in with Yunnan Sourcing's related offerings will add to that:
2017 Menghai DaYi V93 Premium Ripe Pu-erh Tea ($7.50)
This is a classic Ripe tea blend, called "V93", it was most recently released in 2006 and quickly became one the most expensive ripe teas on the market. To this day the 2005 and 2006 V93 Ripe productions have commanded very high prices due to the fact that this is one of the most sought after Ripe teas for everyday drinking. It is smooth and full in the mouth. It is fermented just enough to break down the bitterness of raw pu-erh while lightly fermented enough to preserve the stimulating cha qi and hui gan of a raw pu-erh. After-taste is sweet and thick.
So it's a relatively classic shu blend; that's it. It's really not that expensive to buy a newer version of it, but that might be better for sitting around another couple of years. Or it's probably just fine as it is; three years lets a shu settle quite a bit. I never mentioned aftertaste in these reviews, I don't think. I suppose it is notable but not so much in comparison with how that goes with sheng.
KingTeaMall "TONG QIN" (Guqin) Puerh GuShu Shou Cha Ripe Tea ($18 per cake or $86 for set of 5)
This tea was made from tea leaves picked up from GuShu tea trees in BuLang tea mountain in 2015 year and processed into shou cha in the same year. Then it had been kept into ware house in MengHai county, YunNan province to wait for smell off. We pressed that into cakes in May, 2018 Year.
High ratio of tea buds which are covered by many golden tea hairs.
Medium fermentation. Mellow and smooth. Clean and clear taste feeling.
Storage: From July. 2018, it has been stored in Guangzhou. Dry and clean.
I think that is an in-house label, Bokuryo. I tend to put more stock in how a tea comes across than branding or even background descriptions anyway. It being Bulang does matter, but that means a different thing for shu than sheng, since even if the starting point is quite common shu fermentation changes everything.
Interesting that this 2018 tea was really produced in 2015. It does seem really clean in effect, which isn't unheard of for tea that's not quite two years old, but for a version that's nearly five it makes more sense. The high ratio of tea buds part you can see. This being a small cake instead of a tuo it doesn't matter so much, but lower level of compression for cakes can make them age slightly faster and be less hassle to break off chunks from. There are probably more low quality tuochas than mini-cakes out there but that broad generality doesn't mean much; you're only drinking the one or two versions at a time.
Review
I brewed these for up towards 20 seconds to get the process started faster, to skip an infusion that just points toward what the teas will really be like in the second.
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V93 left, in all photos; the other is a bit darker, maybe just opening up faster |
2008 Dayi V93 Tuo: quite nice. Deep, rich flavors, very smooth character, pleasant intensity, and rich, thick feel. The overall balance is great. Flavor range spans dark wood tones into aromatic spice range, frankincense and myrrh or whatever else. Any hint of rough edges from fermentation process, if any had been present, are long gone. Sweetness is nice; everything balances in this. It's even a bit creamy.
2018 Tong Qin gushu: interesting for including a pronounced flavor aspect that's not completely unrelated from what I described in the other sample, but not the same. Oddly that same description would probably work about as well as any other anyway. It's slightly lighter, just a little towards a balsa wood tone, or aromatic cedar, or both.
This gives up some of the deeper, heavier underlying tones and richness present in the other. For being on the "young" side it's quite clean in effect [or since it's really a 2015 version not so much, what one would expect], it's just that the overall balance hasn't evolved to where the other is. Intensity is still good, just across a different range. I suppose it comes across as trailing over into root spice range instead of the aromatic, "deeper," and different bark spice.
I had been thinking that the amount of the first tea looks to be slightly lower (dry weight), not by much, but enough that it might require adjusting infusion time. Maybe not. It is hard to judge dry tea amount with compression level varying, so these really could be exactly the same. You would assume they were weighed; it probably just was about not appreciating compression level difference. Even if they're not the intensity of the first sample is very good (or both really), and it would work well brewed lightly.
Second infusion:
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color more even this round |
I brewed these a bit over 10 seconds, longer than they would need to get into a normal infusion strength range, but I tend to like shu a little strong. It would work to drink these on the inky side, brewed for over 20 seconds, but for reviewing them that's not ideal, drinking them at a higher than average infusion strength. If anything trying teas on the light side lets you identify both individual aspects and general character a bit better.
2008 Dayi: the creaminess picked up; that's a really cool effect. It's like how that comes across in Guiness Stout, just missing a lot of those heavier flavors in that, and of course the alcohol. This has a lot more depth than a Guiness, but to be fair it also gives up a good bit of high end for flavor range. The flavors are dark wood tones, with the other range I talked about, leaning towards spice.
Related to aged sheng this isn't as refined (versions that don't just fade to nothing), the way those layer together a lot of scope, even long after the astringency and bitterness drops out completely. This is probably somewhat close to how a 25 year old relatively humid stored sheng would come across, something I've tried not so long ago (ok, really 30+), just still different. Still pretty good though, for the range it covers.
2018 Tong Qin: not bad, not really changing. This version looks a bit redder (the dry leaf), as versions with bud content tend to (I never read descriptions before writing the notes; maybe they'll say more about that). That tends to pull the flavor in a lighter direction, that cedar-wood range, but oddly the shu tends to gain an unusual type of depth too. I'm using "depth" here in a couple different senses. The first tea covers smooth, rich, broad range that extends to mild, warm underlying mineral content; one type of depth.
My take--worth keeping in mind it's a work in progress--is that buds heavy shu tends to gain flavor range for including that mix of material content, and it lends the feel a texture that isn't necessarily rich or creamy but still has a more limited form of extra thickness. This post goes into all that, about a Gong Ting shu. I've got a Moychay version that's probably an even better quality example; it would take some doing looking up what that was, and the review, but I might get to it [not what I was thinking of but these work as an example].
It's interesting going back and forth between them and seeing which is better, and just how good both probably are. I think they're both quite good examples of shu, there's probably just still another level or two, just a bit more complexity or depth both could express. The Tong Qin doesn't come across quite as positively to me, for being a simpler tea, but the flavor range and intensity across a narrower range is good. Neither have any negative aspects, since I don't see limited complexity as that. I'll try another round and get back to that.
I suppose it is odd that a version made of gushu (old plant source tea) is less complex, and less intense, but starting point depends on a lot more than plant age. Most likely this V93 had significant rough edges that all rounded off.
Third infusion:
2008 Dayi V93: more of the same; I really don't expect these to evolve and change all that much. The warm mineral range (like what is often present in Liu Bao) picked up a little. This tea is nothing like Liu Bao, the rest of the set of aspects, and overall character, that creaminess, but mineral range overlaps. There's still a catchy warm wood tone, off redwood and mahogany. It's a bit less like Guiness for creaminess tapering off a little.
2018 Tong Qin: still about the same as last round. Wood tone might have shifted just a touch, but it won't work to break that down for as vague as the description had been. This would seem more well-balanced, pleasant, and complex without direct comparison to the other, which age probably helped contribute.
To be clear I'm skeptical that aging shu makes anywhere near as much difference as people often claim. Of course that seems to contradict this entire review. There's an exception, that some tar-like or petroleum aspect range can really smooth out and become creamy over time, or funky fermentation related range can smooth out, or really drop out. Maybe both happened in the case of this 2008, so the "rule" about shu improving with age was born out. I'm not so convinced that this 2018 version would be all that much different or better in another 10 years. Then again I'm not basing that on enough evidence and experience; maybe it will be.
It also runs against some strands of conventional wisdom that a shu could be as pleasant, balanced, intense, and free of flaws as this 2018 version is. Really lots of examples disprove that, even across some degree of quality and cost range; anyone who has drank a good bit of shu would already be clear on that part.
Fourth infusion:
2008 Dayi V93: not changed much; I'll leave it at that. Dark wood it probably picking up more, creaminess is still leveling off. It hasn't lost much for complexity yet but I'd expect it to narrow quite a bit over the next 2 or 3 infusions, since I have been letting these infusions run a bit long, over 10 seconds.
2018 Tong Qin: again transitioning slightly but the same general description still kind of works. This probably always did have a little more "high end" then I've been doing justice to. I had said the wood tone was a bit bright, like redwood, but that extends a little towards orange zest, it's just not quite there. It makes for an interesting contrast with the other, since it leans in an opposite direction. I often wonder if lower or medium level fermentation level shu doesn't have a lot more aging potential over the longer run, after 15 years or so, but I can't really guess where this stands in relation to that.
Conclusions
I tried a long brewed round next; that's a pleasant way to drink shu that doesn't contain any flaws to work around. These still had plenty left to produce a really thick, creamy, intense round, and are still far from finished.
It's hard to say just how good these versions are. To me--and this is just my own impression--shu tends to level off quite a bit at "well above average." I have reviewed a number of distinctive exceptions to that, that were different in lots of interesting and positive ways, but this is where a lot of relatively good shu lands.
That's not a bad thing; these were quite pleasant, and not at all the same tea experience. They're both not all that expensive. As I see it shu is more of a comfort tea, a type that's great with breakfast, or with food on a work break. There's less to focus on, and in a couple of senses less to appreciate, but good versions are quite positive, and hard to screw up in relation to brewing. It's also easier on your stomach; I could probably get away with drinking these without food first thing in the morning, that's just not how I start my day.
For people who focus in and see shu as their own preferred end-point I guess that personal likes factor in. I never had any problem appreciating buds-heavy shu, in the way it took time to really get black teas like that, but they're different. One concern with shu is slight or even significant negative aspects, a bit of extra off flavor from fermentation effect, and that's definitely not a concern for both of these.
I'd buy shu like this but I'm a bit too hung up on sheng. It's the same story for oolongs; I really like those, but it's not where I am for main preference just now. Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea) preference is never going to completely drop out; I keep mixing those in. But I can only cover so much scope, so I've been setting aside those types, and for the most part also Indian and Nepalese teas (which are great), whites, and whatever else. It also seems like it might be almost time to pull through this 2 1/2 year sheng cycle but I'm not quite there yet.
I don't know what will be next; take a break from tea, maybe? Some new theme will come up.
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where I'm editing this, but that was last week |
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maybe the last day in that outfit; things keep changing |
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lots of sweet kids for friends, wherever she goes |
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