Wuyi Origin Wuyishan benefit black tea

Cindy sent me some samples to try, really related to acting out of friendship more than for review, but of course I'll mention my impression of some of them here.  

She was kind enough to meet with my friends and I twice this year in that meetup series, in one of those explaining a lot about issues related to Chinese tea production, tied to changes in perspective or demand there for teas:

Tea processing and demand shifts in China

Cindy is just great.  I wish that everyone who is interested in tea could make a Chinese friend like her at some point, in order to gain more perspective and feel more connected to that culture.  Maybe the tea producer or expert part is a bit much to ask, so here I just mean to know someone from that country to add context and perspective.  Three families of my kids' best friends were Chinese, two temporarily working here from there and one just visiting long term, which also involved that kind of exposure, just not focused on tea.

five years ago, but it seems like longer

I miss this girl every time I see her picture

Permit me one more short aside, and I'll get back to the tea theme.  This year I wrote about foreigners' living in China perspective on China, here:

How evil China is or isn't, according to foreigners living there

Those Youtubers told two different stories, about a culture that's not so different than anywhere else, very positive in general, and also about a government that keeps a close eye on citizens and foreigners, a bit restrictive in terms of who can say or do different things.  One Youtuber told both stories, related to his own experience shifting from very positive to relatively negative.  I've visited China three times, and it just seemed normal to me, so I'll leave that out as discussion input. 

The issue for the one guy seemed to be that once you gain Youtube following and draw views from criticizing aspects of Chinese society, and government controls, while living in China, the clock is ticking on your welcome there.  It's not necessarily the same in the US, but then maybe if someone was on some sort of temporary visitor visa and they were critical of the US on a public forum like that visa renewal may not go as well.  Probably not though; you could probably be in the US as a student or chef or whatever and actively protest the government and still stick around, and they would never even try to make the connection.  China isn't like that; if foreigners protest government actions there they aren't welcome, and for citizens it would just depend on what they were saying, and who and where they were.

Americans do make it a point to discuss political views online, maybe too often, but in other places criticism is generally ok but only across a limited scope.  Here in Thailand no one can criticize the monarchy (which is illegal), and foreigners probably shouldn't express controversial political views in public social media statements.  Oddly Russians can criticize Putin, per my understanding, but people tend to know the limits.  Free speech isn't one of China's things.

Again this means nothing in relation to the vast majority of everyday life.  People aren't living in fear, oppressed, they just can't set up public inquiry and protest over potential minority rights issues, and they certainly can't research such things for publication on Youtube, to draw views to earn income on what is essentially a banned platform.  They wouldn't necessarily be "disappeared" if they did, but people observe societal norms, as much as they are concerned about risks.  Someone just commented roughly the same thing about Vietnam online (someone from there), that it's a norm to seek out societal problems and publicly criticize the government in some places, but not there, it's just not part of their culture.  That part of it seems to get lost in US based discussion.  Ok, back to the tea.

Cindy described it this way on their website:

Benefit tea ($10 / 50 grams)

This is a black tea that I use my rock tea raw material to process. The variety is Chunlan （春兰）which is a high-flavor variety in Wuyishan rock tea. I use this raw material to process oolong tea every year, and then I processed a little  into black tea version in 2020 and sent it to WuYi Origin Tea Club numbers . This year I also processed a little as benefit tea  which is affordable and you can drink it every day. But the quality is definitely higher than the  regular Tea .

I'm a bit surprised to see that listed at $10 for 50 grams, based on trying it.  This is roughly Yunnan Sourcing upper medium quality Dian Hong pricing, and it's clearly a full level beyond that in terms of tea quality, or maybe two levels, depending on how one arranges them.  "Quality is definitely higher than the regular tea" is an understatement.  I'll just edit the notes to make them readable and that will be the rest of this post.

Not so different than a really good unsmoked Lapsang Souchong. The fruitiness is backed off a little, further into other range, but the rest is similar, the balance and style. There's a nice inky mineral tone, pleasant warmth and underlying mineral, and leather or spice tones. It's the refinement that stands out the most. This is the best black tea I've tried since I last had one of theirs.

[editing note]:  I drink more sheng than oolong or black tea at this point, and I'm definitely not spending much on tea these days, just mostly drinking what I already had or samples, so I've bought no moderately expensive black tea in the past year, or even much at any price.  All the same other notes place just how good this tea seemed to me, and it's not just "above average" tea, it's better than that.

An aspect like a refined wood tone picks up, vegetal, but hard to describe in range. There's spice along with that, and it's not far off fruit range, a hint of citrus with other dried fruit depth, like tamarind. In a different style and quality of tea that one edge might seem like a roast effect but in this it's complex and refined, layered.

Aftertaste effect is much cleaner, more pronounced, and longer than I'm accustomed to. Feel is smooth, not edgy, and just a bit full, not as much to talk about.

Warmer yet; this could really pass for a great version of Lapsang Souchong, if it's not that. There's one distinct set of flavors that matches, what I've already tried to describe. 

Rich sweetness fills in more than I could do justice to. It's like a lot of the flavor range of tasting real maple syrup, that sweetness, richness, and wood tone, especially the effect right after you swallow it, the aftertaste range. Although it is towards wood tone it's very refined, pleasant, and catchy, the opposite of the woodiness in trying to get a second infusion out of a Lipton tea bag.

The fruit is on towards closer to dark cherry too. It's quite good.

Conclusion:

That was it, some short notes for being rushed that day, as usual, and fairly burned out on writing 1500 word tea reviews.  I drank other very pleasant rounds but had stopped taking notes.

It was refined, balanced, pleasant, and distinctive.  For that to be selling as an intended moderate cost tea was shocking to me.  That's 20 cents a gram, a bit higher than the standard list of 15 cents a gram mid-range versions, but it's an altogether different thing.  Another vendor could easily turn around and sell this for double or triple that, and even for that higher end pricing people without sourcing as dialed in might be so happy to get it for that.

I consider Cindy a friend, so you should take what I say with a grain of salt.  Maybe I'm hyping it to get people to place an order, or maybe I really think it's fantastic because I want to experience and think that, tied to expectations.  Or maybe they did make and offer crazy good black tea at the completely wrong pricing level to thank her customers.

This is probably better than any tea that I've ever tried from Thailand, of any kind, to put that in perspective (maybe setting aside an aged sheng; it's just too different to compare that range).  It doesn't usually work to extract out an objective quality level judgement like that but in some cases it seems clear enough.

I'd be interested to hear what you think, if you end up trying it, or already have.  It's also possible that I've been drinking so many slightly rustic style teas for so long that moving a bit beyond that, while still retaining part of a related flavor theme, is exactly what I would want to experience.  Again it's the balance, refinement, and depth that makes this so exceptional to me though, not just about a set of flavors, or lacking some other flaws.  

8 year old Kalani

13 year old Keoni