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visiting Jip Eu that day |
A few weeks ago my wife and I were doing a rushed version of Christmas shopping that included a quick pass through Chinatown, so I stopped by my favorite shop there, Jip Eu, mostly to buy tea for gifts. I bought 6 packs of an inexpensive Shui Xian, all but one to give away, and a spare Xiaguan tuocha there, and some Thai oolong and a couple of Dayi tuochas elsewhere, at Sen Xing Fa.
Kittichai (the shop owner) gave me a tea there as a gift, an osmanthus black tea, which I'm reviewing here, along with the Shui Xian. Very kind of him! Those guys do feel like extra family to me, and I would probably visit them even without buying or drinking tea. Maybe it feels slightly less like that for me only seeing them a couple of times last year, but that's how the covid era goes, Bangkok keeps shutting down and opening back up. I don't work out of my office, almost ever, so stopping by Chinatown while on that side of town doesn't combine together. I suppose I could be biased about their teas, liking what I would prefer to like; it's worth considering.
One might wonder what else is in Chinatown as gifts for kids. There is a toy area of the wholesale shops there but my kids are both moving on from Legos and dolls and such. We did buy some of those educational toys, about setting up a demo water filter and a seed sprouting kit. Some extra clothes and such were most of the rest, some hair accessories, and we picked up a half a kilo of chrysanthemum due to almost running out. It wasn't one-stop Christmas shopping; another trip to a department store and going to a sporting goods store later that day rounded it all out. They do have online shopping here but we are slow to move to that (my family, and that also works for Thailand in general).
On to how the teas worked out.
Review, Osmanthus black:
Where to go from the basic flavor list for discussion? The only other flavored black tea I ever tend to drink, besides Earl Grey, is jasmine black tea. That's probably my overall favorite flavored tea form, the way that input can integrate in a good version. Osmanthus is pleasant too, sweet and rich, floral towards fruity, not disagreeable in any way, and well suited for blending with tea.
One might've tried mild osmanthus oolong and edgier, intense jasmine green tea, or strong versions of jasmine white, and think that jasmine has too harsh an edge, but that's most typically coming from the green tea. How it works out for white is a bit strange; that tea has to mild, if it's white, but jasmine input can get to be a bit much. I suppose at some point the balance is determined by the level, and producers making adjustments by mixing actual flowers (versus layering tea and flowers to add flavor), or adding chemical agents to extract flavors is something else. What is the word I'm leaving out here? Along the lines of solvent.
Anyway, this isn't as good as the best jasmine black tea I've ever tried but it is quite good. For someone with more of an osmanthus preference that opinion could easily be reversed. It's probably as well to say more about the tea base after a second infusion, since heavy floral input extracted relatively quickly this round, and dominates the flavor range, which isn't so bad. I tend to brew Western style on the heavy side, using a proportion that works well for three infusions (maybe 4 grams for a 12 ounce cup, but I don't measure either, so I don't really know). In this case, for flavored tea, the first two infusions will be quite positive, but very different, and the third might well be pushing it.
second infusion: maybe a little better, for the black tea input ramping up. The floral and fruit range didn't change much, just fading a good bit, but the tea input did. It has nice toffee range sweetness, and a bit of a savory edge to it. I have no idea what tea this is but it's not like the Dian Hong I drink most of. I suppose it's closer to Wuyishan Fujian black tea I've been having, or it could be something else altogether.
It kind of doesn't matter, exactly what black tea style this "should" be like. It's suitable for a flavored tea base, mild and rich, maybe just a bit non-distinct to stand alone, but it would be easier to determine that trying a plain version. Mineral tone gives it more of a positive base effect, along with the mild towards wood or spice range aspects. If it's fruity or floral at all it's not possible to separate that from the osmanthus input. It's good.
Review, Shui Xian oolong:
first infusion: this won't be the fairest appraisal of this tea because I'm using the end of a bag that I separated out as two separate parts from an original paper wrapper. I've drank this a few times and it's quite pleasant, but that form was more whole leaf than this. Since I took out the top half to put in another bag just thinking it all through better earlier would've resulted in using the most whole material, instead of the most broken, but I'm not that clear minded first thing in the morning. Or even now, at 11; there's a narrow window in the afternoon where I'm more optimum, maybe between 1 and 3. My kids and I sometimes joke about how I'm not a morning person or an evening person, and it's not just a joke.
This has a really nice inky mineral base and strong woody sort of flavor, like tree bark, towards spice. There's a Chinese name for that I'm forgetting; I'm not good with memorizing that list of main tea terms. It makes you sound so much more knowledgeable and authoritative too, like you are speaking for an old tradition.
This includes some cinnamon as well, more than I would expect for Shui Xian. The flavors are really intense and clean, with what I take to be good input from a roast step, and a great level of oxidation (probably mixed, since they blend inputs to get to the most positive outcome in these sorts of teas). It all works better than it should. I've tried Cindy's Qi Lan again since drinking this and the character overlaps a good bit (Wuyi Origin's, really good tea, a version from a different quality level). To say this is more rustic or rougher edged implies more of a difference than I'm really experiencing, since that degree is so limited, but I suppose that's it.
This tea most definitely punches above its weight. If you bought this for $8 for 50 grams it would seem like a good buy, as standard tea versions go, and I paid $3 for what could've been 100 grams (I think it was that). Packaging was entirely in Thai (maybe with some Chinese mixed in), and I didn't have it translated, and was in a rush when I bought it. It's odd how this tea is a great value whether it was 50 or 100 grams; it usually doesn't work out like that. For $6 it still would be (200 baht instead). It goes without saying but twisted style teas like this taking up a lot of space in a package is what makes it hard to determine amount; it was mostly whole leaf, and again this is the end of the "bottom" half.
That's the opposite of how that would almost always go in buying random Wuyi Yancha, to some extent even there at Jip Eu. Very inexpensive teas can be drinkable, positive and interesting, but not this good, with this degree of balance, intensity, pleasant aspect range, and lack of flaws. I suppose it just so happened that they bought Shui Xian versions with limitations that merged to become really good by matching up. An inexpensive version like this should be a "daily drinker," the kind of tea you would have with breakfast but not focus on in a session as the main theme, but it could stretch and cover both.
To put that in perspective Cindy's (Wuyi Origin's) Qi Lan sells for $17 for 50 grams, and to me it's a good value for that. It's better than this, but the character overlaps, and this tea should have notable flaws that it doesn't have. For that tea slightly cleaner and more intense flavors and better feel and aftertaste would all mark it as being different, with general flavor range not as different as would be normal.
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for outdoor tasting level of sunlight can affect images a lot |
Second infusion: so nice, that intensity, and again the cinnamon with inky mineral and an aromatic tree-bark version of being woody, pretty close to spice range. I should get back there and buy a few more of these packs. I did buy 6, but only one was for me. Three others went to monk friends, and two to local shopkeepers, one the family Happy is a part of, that local cat that I love visiting with.
Another aside: our cat, Myra, just changed from being an inside cat to more of an inside-outside cat, spending days outside, then visiting some inside and nights in a pen (cage). She's been adjusting to those other environments for over a month, but just made the switch in the last week. Kalani said that she's so proud of her, that she can do it. She ends up exhausted at afternoon nap time, when she gets a lunch, and in the evenings, after she spends all day exploring. Later I guess she will just head up to the roof spaces to hang out, like the other two cats often do.
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I didn't edit these pictures; my "new" Huawei phone does ok, a new but a dated P20 model |
Not much to add about this round or this tea. A bit of a heavy earth edge is as close as this gets to a flaw, a bit towards a roasted coffee tone. Even that is nice, to me. You can't really spot the quality limitations without being familiar with the intensity, feel, and aftertaste experience of better versions, and I suppose prior to adapting to prefer those they wouldn't be that much of an improvement.
third infusion: flavor deepens; inky mineral picks up and cinnamon fades a bit. This will shift in character, and probably not be as positive as higher quality versions after 8 or 9 rounds, but it's kind of holding its own now. I tried this with an orange cake a couple of weeks ago and the way that heavy mineral and towards-spice tree bark flavor matched up was just fantastic.
From trying it a number of times already I already know it's not going to fade away quickly, as can occur with some modest quality Wuyi Yancha versions. The depth in this indicates it's not like that; lower quality versions can have good flavor if you push them through early rounds, but they can't back it up with the same kind of complexity. A touch of cardboard flavor range often also gives up lower quality versions; this doesn't include that. Roast input is typically heavier in lower quality versions too, used to cover flaws, and to integrate blend inputs together that don't completely match.
Conclusions:
Two really nice teas! I don't know what the osmanthus black sells for, although I suppose they probably do sell that, but it's a lot better than a standard grocery store blend would be. It's a full quality level better than anything Twinings would sell, probably at the top end of the range for high profile French vendor blended teas. You might be able to buy something comparable at local TWG outlets for five times what Jip Eu sells this for.
I mentioned this experience in a post about oolongs in a Quora Space about tea I developed, Specialty Tea, and someone on there commented that it's always nice finding an inexpensive gem of a tea version. It's almost not about the expense, because if I'd spent two or three times as much it wouldn't have changed much. It's that I'm drinking much better tea than I expected to, and the people I bought it as gifts for are. I've got other Wuyi Origin tea around, so I can have some when I feel like good Wuyishan oolong, but I can use a pretty good version as a daily drinker through this, for rushed breakfasts and such, or experimenting with grandpa style brewing. I mostly use mixed tisanes along with sheng for that now, sometimes just with chrysanthemum.
If others reading this want to visit Jip Eu they might wonder what types are best there, beyond inexpensive oolong and floral flavored black (which they almost don't carry any of). They stock good Wuyi Yancha, that other quality range I mentioned, but it helps trying versions with them to match style to preference. Slight variations in oxidation, roast level, plant material input, or general style can vary outcome a lot. I've written about buying a couple versions of aged sheng there, not necessarily rare and high cost versions, but those were sold as CNNP / Zhongcha and old Dayi, so not really random stuff. Half the time I go in there I restock an older Tulin tuocha version, a nice basic aged tea, not so far off Xiaguan range.
If you bring up aged sheng that automatically raises authenticity discussion, and to me the heavier range fermentation effect of teas being stored in Bangkok is another main consideration. They are kind of like Malaysia stored teas, but I at least think I can taste a difference. Again visiting and tasting pins down what you'll get, and match to preference. You just can't buy aged sheng or supposed good Wuyi Yancha without at least having a really good idea of what a vendor sells, and how they tend to describe versions, and what Jip Eu sells isn't supposed to represent a consistent, narrow range. Tasting a tea first is ideal, and they're open to try teas with you. You need to be patient there if you only speak English; that will work, but 100% of discussion content won't come across in both directions.
I've bought pretty good mainstream commercial Dan Cong there a few times; that's an odd thing to come across. Relatively moderate cost Dan Cong is usually so edgy that you end up balancing really fast brewing with not extracting enough positive flavor, but that wasn't like that, or as good as the more typical 50 cents a gram range versions either. I've even bought Thai versions of black tea that were nice, and jasmine green (which I usually don't like, but did), and local, wild origin, very unusual sheng ("pu'er-like tea," in relation to that Thailand origin).
One thing I almost never experience there: trying the same tea twice, even varying year versions. If you walk in and walk right back out with some tea, as I just did, you aren't approaching shopping there correctly, in general. It worked that time though, a perfect time for it to, since the tea was for gifts.
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