A few weeks ago I mentioned meeting a local new contact and friend, Alex Phanganovich, and having tea at the swim lesson my kids go to. We first met at a Monsoon hosted talk about tea, ecological preservation, and biodiversity, presented by Alexey Reshchikov.
 |
not the best shot of him, looking away |
I'll keep this simple today. I'm a little burned out from doing a two-day trip to Kanchanburi, way too fast to get out there and check out that "Death Railway" WW 2 prisoner theme.
It will help that I'm not trying to market these teas, or make firm claims about what they even are. Alex said that both are from Thailand. He isn't exactly a tea vendor but if anyone is interested in unusual Thai teas, or just discussion, he's up in the Chiang Rai growing area now.
Tea Side is a good standard vendor for sourcing the normal range out of Thailand, or even beyond that; that seems relevant. For just branching into South-East Asian tea range, and trying novel teas at a great value, Hatvala is worth looking into. Enough on the commercial themes.
One tea was described as a white tea version of Oriental Beauty (which is odd), and the other as Honey Black tea. As I recall that is usually used in relation to being a certain cultivar source and processed black tea type in Taiwan. White tea Oriental Beauty from Thailand contains at least two different type convention contradictions, the category and origin, and probably a third related to plant type used. It may not even be white tea; I'll focus more on an impression than trying to pin down any inputs or putting it in any boxes.
I doubt Alex has enough of these still around to share more, but you never know. Again, at least on my side this isn't marketing, which to me takes the pressure off related to confirming or passing on details.
I don't recommend combined tasting black and white teas, side by side, but if you want to why not. It takes some practice to not get thrown off by the contrast in style, and to some extent I still would too. Reviews with contrasting teas focus more on flavor aspects, and tasting just one to two very similar types would go into feel and aftertaste range more, and probably get further with finer level flavor description.
Review:
OB White: It's quite pleasant. A nice hint of cinnamon joins other lighter, brighter, and sweeter range. Maybe more than a hint; it's about half cinnamon, at this stage. It's cool the way the rest is a bit warm but also light and bright. I suppose it's mostly floral, with part seeming like fruit, but no dominant citrus tones stand out, as can occur with OB versions. It will be interesting to see how it evolves, how it's different in another two rounds.
Honey black: first impression: strange. It shares some common ground with that Taiwanese "honey black" theme, to the extent that is just one thing, and I remember it. Sure that tastes like honey, but beyond that there's a way that a somewhat standard black tea range comes across that defines that, not malty like Assam, not mineral intensive like Ceylon, not fruity, floral, citrusy, and sophisticated like good Darjeeling. Novel mineral is one layer to it, but it's about the warm earthy range tone, in a range 10 different people would describe in 10 different ways (like leather, root or bark spice, some variation of wood, roasted chestnut towards dried fruit, and so on).
Often coming across as generally very positive, but also slightly limited in range, is part of the theme for those Taiwanese black teas, at the moderate quality level of versions I tended to try. Versions being more consistently positive across complex character range, and quite refined, only happens with the best examples. It's the same with all teas; buy a standard Da Hong Pao or Rou Gui and it would be nothing like the Wuyi Origin versions I keep reviewing. This tea being this broken would limit results; that always bumps up astringency and makes results less positive. It's not astringent at all though, due to the starting point, that not being a main part of the character.
The "strange" part is something else. It has a funkiness to it, not exactly musty, but maybe closest to that range. There's a decent chance that whatever that was about will be "burned off" in this first infusion. I don't think it was a storage-input flaw, probably just an odd part of the character of this tea, tied to how it happened to change through oxidation. But what do I know.
It might include a trace of cinnamon too. Along with the mustiness there's a hint of sourness. To some this would be a huge flaw in the tea that really puts them off; to others just a normal part of experience very novel tea types, well-balanced by the other positive aspect range. To me this tea will only really fully show its character on the second infusion, so I'll leave off further description until that. The other tea will develop but it was obvious what it is like in the first go, to help place what I meant by that.
Second infusion:
OB: more of the same, just becoming a little richer and deeper. Cinnamon still really stands out. There is complexity beyond that cinnamon range but the rest is really subtle. Pushing this tea a bit more would help with that; I'm brewing both on the fast side, and the black tea version will extract faster for being black tea, and for being broken leaf. It's pleasant brewed light still. Probably intensity across a broad range just isn't a strength of this tea anyway, but a check on that brewed for closer to 20 seconds next round will help clarify that. It's quite pleasant, maybe a bit simple, but pleasant across the range that is there, with some feel depth making the experience broader.
Honey black: the unusual strengths and weaknesses of this tea make it an interesting experience. At least it's not boring. There's that honey sweetness and standard "honey black" flavor range, all quite positive. Character related to astringency isn't bad; it's not edgy or negative. Then there is a funkiness to it that's hard to describe, probably mostly or at least partly related to drinking this as such a broken-leaf version. Some of that would probably seem more familiar if it wasn't that teas like this aren't typically prepared that way. There's a good chance that this one wasn't either, that I'm trying the bottom of the bag for a very large batch, and the top, or the rest, looked more like I would've expected.
I think just as a more whole leaf version this would come across as much cleaner in character. It's not musty, or as sour as initially, and even a trace of off mineral or mushroom would drop out a lot of the positive overall character, if there had been any present, but there's not.
I wouldn't buy a tea like this one, but to some extent that depends on personal preference for type. Five years ago I think I would've (and a search by name turns up reviews of two versions in this blog), and I've shifted into loving Dian Hong range more (Yunnan black), and am more open to good Darjeeling and Nepal black than this. I never really "got" Ruby / Red Jade as another standard Taiwanese type (the cultivar name; it can be processed in different ways), that mintiness or eucalyptus flavor. It's just preference.
That makes me wonder what tea plant type the "honey black" version from Taiwan is made from. One vendor's description:
Very precious since only the tea bitten by Jacobiasca formosana can be made into Honey Black Tea.
Honey-like taste with slight sweet.
No pesticide in the tea plantation having Jacobiasca formosana, natural organic team.
Only being harvested once a year in summer in Taiwan.
The tea stored for more than one year give better taste.
Other vendor posts are essentially identical. A blog-type review (through Tea Masters, written by Kevin Craig, who had reviewed teas as Tea Journeyman) mentions a cultivar type (which may or may not be universal):
This tea is generally made from the harvested leaves of TTES # 13 cultivar bushes (Tsuiyu), and are grown at around 500 meters altitude (1,600 feet) in Nantou County, Taiwan. The leaves are allowed to oxidize over 50%, then given a heavy roast. The Mixiang Hongcha is another of Taiwan’s bug bitten style of teas, so I expect to smell and taste honey in the tea.
Third infusion:
OB: creamy, with notable cinnamon, and pleasant other depth, so not different. If this really is a white tea one might wonder, why? It's possible to draw out even more flavor complexity and intensity by making a similar oolong version, so why not do that? Then again maybe one of the inputs is different, leading to this white tea version being more positive than an oolong would be, made from this material. That seems unlikely, but the point is that me guessing would only get so far.
I do like it. The heavy cinnamon range and other non-distinct complexity make it pleasant. Prepared as an above average quality oolong it would seem that it would be even better.
Honey: I like this tea too, but it's another story of limitations cutting short achieving the true potential. All the positive aspects of a honey black tea are there, the unique flavor complexity, approachable nature, interesting balance, overall novelty.
There's a longer flavor-list of aspects I could be saying more about, probably offset and made harder to identify by the broken leaf adding more mild astringency and dry earthiness. The slate-mineral undertone is actually positive, mixing well with the honey, cinnamon, and mild dried fruit range (to try to put a name to it), but there's a bit more countering that, more towards the smell of a galvanized pipe. It's not a flaw, a limitation that's bad, but not positive either, and not something that makes the final effect better.
Conclusions:
It seems that there are two ways to interpret what I've said here. One is that both are novel takes on established types, positive in the same ways, interesting and pleasant, good for covering most of that standard range and for being a bit different. I've literally said all of that. Or someone could focus on what I've said about limitations, and could only want to try the "best of the best," or highest forms of standard types, and all of this could sound like condemnation, accusing the teas of not quite getting there. I think others' tasting experience would probably also head in those two different directions, based on their pre-conceptions and biases. These could seem like really positive, interesting teas or else like complete misses.
I think it's important to stay open to experiencing a broad range in teas, but that's just me. Doing the opposite definitely works too, narrowing what you like to very few types. Or even a single type range, and only ever experiencing very good versions of those, higher and higher quality levels. On both sides that could be interpreted in different ways. On the broad-themed approach someone could explore geographical origins, or even stay open to blends and flavored teas, jasmine or lotus flavored versions, masala chai, and so on. On the narrower end someone might only drink a limited sub-set of Dan Cong, or Taiwanese oolongs, or sheng pu'er from a few villages within a narrow age range.
It would make sense to write about trying the next three rounds of these but I won't. On the next round warm richness comes out all the more for the OB, but distinct fruit and other range is still limited. That same honey and fruit / spice complexity is present in the Honey version, with a hint of dryness and mineral that doesn't match the standard throwing it off just a little. Both are good. Both are off the general standard type a bit. For being from Thailand the match is actually pretty good, especially if you factor in one being a different tea type (category) and the other a bit broken.
I never did develop how this OB is different related to being "white." That would just add more guesses and discussion, not explanation. It's probably a bit more subtle, developing light brighter flavors versus warmer tones.
 |
meeting up at a local shop, Jip Eu |
 |
light and sound show at the Kanchanaburi bridge; too much sound, really |
 |
in memory of a lot of people who gave everything to protect everyone else |
No comments:
Post a Comment