Moychay sent some really good tea to try with versions in a set; I've not started in on the best of it yet. I was busy with some other samples and don't tend to try teas in any particular order.
I don't know more about this tea than the year or location. I reviewed a Hekai maocha (loose) version from Chawang Shop last year, and that post included a map of where it is, in Xishuangbanna, in the Bulang area within Menghai County.
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Xishuangbanna prefecture, from the King Tea Mall site, original image credited to this site |
I hadn't planned to say more about locations or even try to compare it to a local area version I tried a year ago. Per my understanding teas vary a lot based on different factors (general area location, growing conditions, age and type of plants, processing, etc.). To add more depth to that part I'll cite a reliable, well-written source for pu'er input, a vendor business owned in part by Jeff Fuchs, Jalam Teas:
...Red clay earth, superb humidity and drainage, and not so much sun have long provided ideal surroundings for tea to thrive. The Lahu people have long been one of the lesser-known minority groups in the area and their teas have long been collected by others to produce outside of the region because of inconsistent production. Now the Lahu have benefited from being ‘tutored’ by the nearby Hani people, and their teas have reached level of predictable strength. They now cultivate, harvest and produce their own teas and Jeff’s expectations have been sated.
He Kai lies west and south of Menghai in southern Yunnan province near the fabled ‘Ban Zhang’ area of consistently high quality teas (and stupendous prices). Teas from in and around the Bulang Mountain region have a long fabled history and now command huge interest and the expected prices...
The "gushu" part I've had some exposure to, but even for trying a good number of teas represented that way I'm still more or less guessing on generalities. It seems a little strange to be saying roughly the same thing about exposure level that I would've said three years ago, before spending those years focused mostly on sheng, trying a lot of versions. I guess I'm still somewhat new to exposure but in a different sense now.
Dry leaf scent is very promising, sweet, fragrant, and complex. I don't typically start any breakdown until the actual brewed tea though. I can cite the vendor description, which I didn't read before editing:
"Hekai Gushu"(“Old trees of Hekai”) made in Hekai village (West Xishuangbanna) from the spring shoots of ancient tea trees.
In appearance: large, twisted tea tips with long cuttings. The aroma is restrained, woody-balsamic. The infusion is transparent, with a shade of white grapes.
The bouquet of the ready-made tea is fresh and vibrant, woody-balsamic, with floral, herbaceous and nutty notes. The aroma is complex, woody-balsamic. The taste is refined and full-bodied, sweetish, oily, a bit astringent, with a fruity sourness and minty chill, turning into a juicy finish.
Brew tea with hot water (80°C) in a gaiwan or a teapot made of porous clay. The proportion is 5 g per 100 ml. The time of the first steeping is about 5-10 seconds. After that do short steeps (just for 1-2 seconds)
That lists for 50 cents a gram, which may even be a good value for what the tea is. But I don't have the right background to make that judgement, lots of exposure to very similar origin-source teas. To me it seems quite fair.
Any brewing advice is a matter of preference, and that sounds reasonable, maybe just a bit fast. It would be fine for using flash steeps, and the proportion is ok, but I'd expect conventional preference to brew rounds between 5 and 10 seconds, so fast, but not that fast.
About the flavor description, I probably would have flagged it as being more like white grape if I'd read that first. It seemed more citrusy to me, and then with mixed floral range filling in the rest, and mineral, etc., but fruit definitely works as a general identification, with potential for differing interpretations.
Review:
First infusion: just lovely. There's a creaminess that's present in the feel that seems to extend to the flavor, adding a cream taste. A citrus note stands out as much as anything, with a nice complex floral base beyond that. It's almost disrespectful to a tea this good to bring it up but the citrus (which really does seem to be between lemon and a sweet version of orange) along with the cream resembles a creamsicle a little.
Bitterness and astringency are at a nice level, enough to add those dimensions to the tea, but not enough to overwhelm the rest. I have a reasonable tolerance for bitter newish sheng but this doesn't draw on that; if anything bitterness and feel-structure are present but moderate, approachable. A pronounced base mineral tone is present, which I take to be characteristic of gushu versions. I won't be evaluating this in relation to a standard gushu form though. If I'd been trying more of those lately I might have ran through some prior guesses about standard patterns, but I'll skip that part.
All of that was about the tea just getting started, a fast first infusion; it will show more of how it really is over the next couple of rounds.
Second infusion: base mineral ramped up a bit. I let this go longer than I typically would snapping a picture of it brewing, so this will be about a slightly strong infusion, probably trying it on the light side next time to define the range. It's quite catchy. A bit more bitterness is still at a level that works really well, translating into a very sweet and positive aftertaste. I don't tend to even mention "cha qi," the feel effect that is said to adjoin some sheng versions, because I'm not especially sensitive to that, but it is odd that I'm feeling this before finishing the second round.
Changing the infusion time alone should ramp up the other flavor beyond that bitterness and mineral, at a cost of dialing that down just a little, but this was still developing. It might just stay even for intensity and character / aspect balance brewed faster.
Third infusion: that shift did occur, with the lemony character ramping back up for brewing this fast. There's still plenty of mineral undertone, but the bitterness level scales way back. I'm going to be really feeling this tea; different. It's kind of a heady buzz already, more than a body sensation, if all that rings a bell. Flavor alone is catchy but the extra layers makes this interesting, the way bitterness and mineral balance it, the way a mild dryness adds mouthfeel complexity that doesn't intrude, and a longer aftertaste than I've experienced for some time. The effect of intensity is interesting too; even brewed light this hits on those different levels.
For age a half a year of rest is a nice stage. It's interesting and quite pleasant trying sheng when it's essentially brand new too, but per some limited exposure it kind of comes together with extra rest like this, more than it really gets started on changing character through fermentation. Further storage in Bangkok humidity and even the cool-season weather (it was down to 21 C / 71 F last night, more or less our annual low) will let it change some more over the next month or so, and a more noticeable amount over a few months.
Fourth infusion: it's cool to be three infusions in wondering when I'll have to throw in the towel. I don't value this "cha qi" buzz as much as some develop related preference, but it is novel. This isn't transitioning that much so far so I'll not keep on about that. It's in a nice place. It's interesting how lemony fruit range fills in more than floral tone. It's been awhile but at least one of the supposed LBZ versions I've tried seemed a bit like that, approachable and interesting as flavor went. Maybe just not as clearly lemony.
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unfurled in this brewing example |
Fifth infusion: it all links together in a different way this round; the feel picked up more creaminess, a velvety sort of edge. Some of those more pronounced notes seemed to fall into a nice even balance with each other, with a touch more floral fragrance ramping up (like plumeria, much as I can flag those). Sweetness level is fine, and bitterness is pronounced but moderate; that works. It's really the synchronicity of this that works best, more so than any of the individual inputs. I would imagine that getting stoned on the tea would tend to draw out appreciation for that, more so than that being seen as negative.
Even brewed light there's an intensity to this that's hard to describe. That flavor list hits a lot of tongue range, so much so that you seem to taste it with the sides of your mouth too. There are aromatic components to appreciate, also called fragrance by some, but this hits hard across tongue based taste, mouthfeel, and aftertaste intensity. Then it's odd that there's nothing really edgy about it, no negative range, not even a woody flavor aspect, it's just intense. Underlying mineral being that intense would seem more unusual if that's not on the normal side, just atypical related to what I normally drink.
Sixth infusion: it's not changing a lot but it is interesting that the experience shifts enough that it's not the same. Warmth is picking up. I interpret that as within a floral tone range more than most of the rest, or that lemon part really dropping out, but I think people would interpret it in completely different ways, related to specific flavors. The aftertaste is really smooth, creamy, and fruity now, tied to a different fruit tone; that part seems to be changing.
I get the sense that you can dial up or down the bitterness and mineral base level quite a bit by shifting infusion time just a little; drinking it however you like it. With the overall intensity being high that costs you nothing related to drinking it strong, even brewed relatively fast. It's strong both ways, brewed relatively quickly (10 seconds or so, or even less), or towards double that timing, just "strong" in a different sense, with a different aspects balance.
I did eat some breadsticks to keep my stomach settled and to moderate the effect of the tea, the drug-like effect. I don't suppose this would be that hard on your stomach given astringency seems moderate, but the feel effect is pretty significant.
Seventh infusion: not so different than last round. I'm getting the sense that some of the aspect range might fade from here, with some warmer mineral picking up, replacing slightly dryer mineral range from earlier on. I never did try to fully identify which rock-type the significant mineral reminded me of. It could as easily be extracting from a clay, so a description might better tie to a type of that. It's a bit much guessing that out.
I think this is far from finished but it seems to have started a downward trend related to intensity. At this rate it will take it 2 or 3 more rounds to that be much more noticeable, then it will be on to the later stage range, probably for as long as I'd stick with it, maybe with this at the half-way point. It seems a good place to leave off taking notes, since I really don't want to go through another half dozen rounds quickly. This would be a great tea to take a couple of hours to drink, to not bang through a fast dozen rounds. Or to share with people, so they could get the effect, probably more suitably divided up among a half dozen people if brewed through a full cycle quickly.
I went way too far with a more basic sheng getting grandpa style brewing wrong this weekend, and it's interesting comparing common ground and the difference with that experience. I tend to only use that brewing approach for road trips, as I was then. It's hard to scale back putting half or less what I usually brew in a tea bottle, with one third probably most appropriate (so about 2+ grams, at a guess). Drinking too much caffeine and taking in too much astringency does blast you, on two different levels, but the effect only overlaps so much with drinking a stronger tea. You feel not-right, where this is more a buzz. Sometimes cha-qi can be more a stony body-feel effect, but this went to my head.
All in all a very pleasant experience, on a few different levels. It's nice trying a better version of sheng than I typically drink.
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back to a school routine, in between December vacation outings |
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including the other one |
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