Phongsaly Laos Tea sheng "pu'er"

 

Very kind of them, the Phongsaly Laos Tea company sent me some tea to try and review, a Laos version of sheng "pu'er-like" tea.  This is going to be familiar to a lot of people from seeing a social media promotion campaign, and lots of mentions of their products.  I've tried a version before, reviewed here, and it was pretty good.  I'll place it in relation to other "border tea" later on (not what I tend to call that, versions from other places than Yunnan, which I usually just call sheng).

There are old tea trees growing in Laos, with specific plant age kind of hard to determine.  I have heard that the 400 year old claim does have a basis in a good estimate of when tea plants were first grown locally, which must have been backed up by a botanical study along with limited written history, given how things go in Laos and here. I don't think the modern Laos and Thai script even existed then, and related records in other languages probably didn't either. But that doesn't mean these leaves are from plants of any specific age, or even growing conditions.  I personally go with how a tea is anyway, versus the stories.

that's really "world," but not related to this blog

It would make sense to mention the "tea in the ancient world" part, given that it is the name of this blog.  Borrowing that phrase actually makes more sense than it first seems.  That name is a reference to something that my wife used to say, about how all sorts of things in Thailand are "from the ancient world."  That could be clothing styles, old-style markets, or just about anything with ties to older forms of culture.  It was funny how she put it, not clarifying that the practice or style is from the ancient world, not the actual item.  

Translating from a first to a second language works like that; slight bits of meaning get lost or shifted.  Her functional use of English is great, better than my Thai could ever be, but that kind of thing still comes up.  

Anyway, this "ancient world" theme seemingly isn't that common here but it's also not unheard of.  So it seems to me that this producer taking up this reference essentially means "traditional style."  "Tea from the ancient world" might work better; I had intentionally included the odd framing.

Maybe in the strictest sense it's not that, traditional style tea in Laos, because the continuous Yunnan, China tradition of making sheng pu'er has probably evolved over time, and seemingly was re-imported to the Phongsaly area quite recently, within the last decade.  That's splitting hairs though; sheng pu'er has been around, and I don't think anyone knows if it was being made in Laos in a very similar form 50 to 100 years ago, or prior.  If one person there said that it definitely had been, and another said that it hadn't, then you wouldn't really know which account was more accurate.  It's hard enough interpreting online feedback about standard versions today, in tea groups, or placing blog reviews.  

They were definitely making tea to be brewed for a long time, so I'm talking here about the style, to be clear.  Kenneth of Monsoon Tea claims that miang, eating cured tea in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, predates brewing tea, partly a reference to a Tale of Tea text claim.  But who knows; tracing back oral traditions is problematic.

miang, cured tea prepared for consumption as food, not brewing

It's my impression, based on talking to Anna of Kinnari Tea, who is in the North of Laos right now on a tea related visit, that Laos tea traditions evolved as locally oriented, related to what individuals did more than mainstream preferences, at least in modern times.  That makes sense when you consider that there wouldn't have been as significant a national trade economy until recently, with products traveling from various regions to be sold in others.  Prior to relatively recently farmers would've made their own tea and traded agricultural goods with others locally.  Tea in Vietnam is still a lot like that; quite varied in style, tying to local themes.  A nice outcome is that although even general styles can seem hard to pin down, what a tea category is supposed to be, with some versions notably flawed, other versions can be novel, interesting, and very pleasant.

A bit more unrelated tangent:  when we first started traveling in Laos just over 13 years ago, my wife and I, and then her mother and our son with us, they were just then finishing putting in a national electrical distribution infrastructure, which surely still has limits today.  Oddly their cell communication infrastructure had "leapfrogged" ahead of Thailand's at one point, around the time of those early visits, eliminating the need to "wire" the whole country for land-line phone communication. 

Review:

First infusion:  this is a bit light, typical for my approach, using the first fast round as an early indicator.  Flavor is good; kind of what I expected from the sweet, rich, and warm but bright dry leaf scent.  It's slightly fruity, or at least fruity along with bright and complex floral tones.  It's also way too early for a flavor list to make sense, or to get into feel and aftertaste, so I'll just move on.

Second infusion:  mineral stands out as much as anything, ramped up a lot from a faint trace in a light first round.  It's a dry range mineral tone, towards limestone.  That aspect and effect seems to counter sweetness, as bitterness sort of can, but maybe more so, since bitterness and sweetness end up being a pleasant natural pairing.  It's odd noticing mineral as a dominant flavor that blocks out picking up the rest; it tends to not usually work out like that.

The flavor that comes across beyond that is pleasant, but non-distinct. It's not bitter.  I would expect that mineral aspect to loosen up a bit over the next couple of rounds, and other aspects to stand forward more, resulting in a more satisfying flavor list.  Feel is fine for this, a bit dry, but with a reasonable structure.

Third infusion:  it is balancing better.  For some this heavy mineral tone would be a great experience, for others not so much.  It can often stand out in older plant source sheng; maybe this really is that.  Complexity beyond that is fine, it's just that the rest mixes.  I'd put it more at vague floral range than fruit, or maybe mixed-input floral range.  A warm spice-like tone is pleasant.  That's probably complex too, with one component like a mild root (eg. ginseng) and a faint trace a warmer aromatic spice, one of the incense bark versions.  

It seems like good tea, just not what I expected.  It's odd that bitterness is this light; it would be easy to miss even mentioning it, except that I would tend to expect more from young sheng in general.  That mineral and a seemingly connected feel structure, and bit of dryness, imply to me that this has a type of depth that would transition positively, at least initially, not just fading out intense flavors over a few years.  For the long term I'm not sure.  Overall intensity isn't that notable, across any range, and after 5 or 6 years stored in Bangkok this might just be fading.

Fourth infusion:  I'm brewing this a little longer than I've been a lot of sheng lately, out towards 10 seconds versus closer to 5, because flavor intensity is limited, and none of the rest is too much at that medium infusion strength level.  It might be interesting to try a fast infusion and see how that goes.  This has really hit its stride, balancing the best that it has so far.  If some floral tone picked up a bit this would be a lot closer to what I expected; it seems like there's a slightly muted range that's typically well represented in sheng versions.  It has that subdued character that I've experienced in some aged Yiwu versions, how a sweet, initially flavor-intense sheng version might come across after a dozen years of aging, with plenty left to experience but most flavor range dropped out.

The other complexity and warmer tones do work, just in a different sense.  More bitterness wouldn't hurt but this very moderate level works for me, especially with level of sweetness moderate, and typical corresponding flavor range, the floral and fruit.  Aftertaste is not missing, just limited, not noteworthy enough to add much about that.  Feel also has some complexity but that's limited too.  It's not a throat feel that some people value highly, more a general structure, and touch of now light dryness across the center of your mouth.

It's hard placing this against my expectations for "gushu" versions.  I've not been drinking a lot of varied sheng over the last 5 months or so (some but not a lot), and I'm not certain how much of that was gushu, without much even being presented as such.  Pronounced mineral content and moderate overall intensity can match that range, related to what I've noticed in versions, but it's not as if that one input is something I've ever been able to peg to a set of clear outcomes.  Sheng versions vary related to a lot of inputs.

Fifth infusion:  I did brew this a little faster but it doesn't shift results that much.  That didn't resolve having sweetness and some flavor intensity range on the light side; it works better to shift the balance of aspects present, not to ramp up what isn't standing out at all.  Feel is still pleasant; not thin for this being brewed light.  I do like it.  There was a time a version like this would seem a bit unfulfilling or incomplete to me, but drinking aged versions with some parts dropped out developed familiarity with that kind of experience.  For someone who really loves pronounced sweetness or bitterness, or heavy floral or fruit tone, or even a normal intensity level, this may not seem positive.  If one is able to appreciate strong mineral input and complexity more in the range of a more vague root spice it's nice.  

To be clear this has lots more going on than drinking a ginseng tisane; it's that depth and complexity that makes tea a better experience, in general.  That hint of an aromatic spice really makes the rest work.  But then it is a little strange even bringing up that a tea version is more complex than a typical tisane.

Sixth infusion:  this isn't fading, it doesn't seem, so this is probably only at the halfway point, but it's not transitioning that much either.  Earlier in my blogging experience I would've been quicker to describe these flavors as wood tones, I'm just out of the habit of that as much as it doesn't make sense in this case.  It's like that; a relatively fresh hardwood, maybe maple.  That sounds more damning than I intend it.  If you say a tea tastes like cardboard, for example, that's a lot like saying it's just bad, and mushroom can be used in a similar way, depending on preference.  

It would be funny if I'm just now coming down with covid and part of my sense of taste dropped out first.  I shouldn't make a joke of that. Probably it's just more in a different flavor range.  Very old plant source tea being a bit muted across some flavor range doesn't strike me as unbelievable, or perhaps even as atypical.  I just would've expected a lot more bitterness, sweetness, and overall intensity from most sheng, with pronounced floral tone or some fruit kind of typical.  

Maybe I didn't give this enough rest time, or some factor had affected my experience of it, so I tried a second tasting, only some days later, still not really enough to account for most of a standard shipping rest.

Second tasting:

my tasting assistant.  she didn't try this, but did pass on negative feedback about aged Xiaguan.

I had tried this tea within a week of getting it; maybe a shipping related issue came up, a flattening out due to experiencing unusual storage or temperature during transit.  It had seemed unlikely, since it was shipped within Thailand, and wasn't in transit for long (about 3 days), and probably never flew, but it still could be a factor.  It could definitely have shifted temperature, getting hot rather than cold, or might've been stored a bit dry during order processing.  

Or I might have eaten breakfast too soon before trying it, fresh mango, and that might've shifted my palate related to the experience of sweetness.  Oddly that's just the opposite of Josh mentioning that trying strawberries after drinking matcha bumps the sweetness for those in a recent tea and food pairing discussion.  

I'll skip the formal, round-by-round structure and just pass on notes.  The first round seems the same:  heavy mineral.  On the second that spice aspect I had noticed earlier kicks in stronger and earlier this time, maybe into clove range.  By round two I'm not really "getting" that much sweetness, or significant floral or fruit range, but the profile does seem a little more standard for sheng, a bit more complex and intense.  I don't dislike any sheng that's not quite sweet, floral, or fruity but cut back those plus bitterness, intensity, and overall complexity and a version doesn't seem as much like sheng.

Sweetness does seem more pronounced, tasting this for a third round.  It is centered more on root spice and that clove range, along with mild floral background, like chrysanthemum, but it seems more intense.  I'm not sure if that implies that one of those two factors made a difference, or maybe both did, and in another week maybe this will be even better, more settled.  Again it hadn't seemed like flawed or poor quality tea before, just atypical in character, even for a Laos version, as much as it makes any sense to specify that as a consistent generality.

That reminds me of the general question about how "border tea" is in general, for sheng from outside of Yunnan.  I don't think it makes any sense to combine everything not from there into a category, or even from any one of those countries, really (Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar). I've not tried any sheng pu'er-like tea from India, and that would be something else for being a very new development, early experiments, with laphet not completely unrelated but quite different.  There does seem to me to be a characteristic bitterness in some versions from Myanmar but that's about it.  Plant types would vary a lot, and growing conditions, like micro-climate, soil types, processing inputs; basically everything.

Bitterness seems more pronounced in this version than I remember from Saturday.  I really do believe that people vary more in day to day perception than we tend to notice from within; that could be it.  I can sort of predict how a twice-weekly run is going to go based on how I feel but a lot of the time I'm wrong, and I have a great run or else struggle, for no clear reason.  To me single tea tasting reviews aren't necessarily meaningless but it's a limited input take on a tea.

It seems to be settling into warmer wood tones, that same shift.  It's more developed and complex than I remember.  Sweetness is only a bit more pronounced, not radically different, but it balances better.  All this reminded me to go back and check a review trying a version in 2019, and that was actually sweet and citrusy, so kind of completely different.  I'm interpreting the spice as more complex in this tasting than last one, still including some subtle ginseng oriented range, but now more into clove.  

There's still no typical floral range or fruit notes, or they are very limited as background elements, and bitterness, sweetness, and intensity are still moderate, just slightly more pronounced.  There is a chance this tea would be relatively different in another two weeks, given closer to a month of rest, but I doubt it.

This wouldn't register as a personal favorite, but it is good, in a limited sense.  It's hard to extend that to an objective, overall quality level assessment, due to some range not matching preference and some other parts relating to character gaps.  I suppose general quality expectations also tend to relate to price, which I'll not look up.  In some cases teas from outside Yunnan sell for less due to demand being lower, and in others for more due to supply being limited, so a price to quality level mapping tends to not work in such cases anyway.