Comparing exceptional Vietnamese and Taiwanese white teas

 

Vietnamese tea left, Taiwanese right, in all photos

I'm comparison reviewing Vietnamese and Taiwanese white teas, a Lai Chau Deep Forest White, from 2024, from Viet Sun, and a Lishan Taiwanese White, from 2022, from Tea Mania.

After getting a bit bogged down in describing how medium level aging concerns work out for sheng pu'er in a last post I want to keep this simple.  It will be about what I think of the experienced aspects, not about aging, trueness to type, regional background differences, or anything else beyond what is in the cups.  One of these is two years old, and one is from this year, and I won't really speculate on whatever difference that might have made.

There's some risk I'll like one more than the other, then maybe I'll complicate this talking about varying preferences for aspects, but I don't want to take that sort of theme very far either.  Writing a simple review would be nice.  As usual vendor page citations say what they are:

Lai Châu Deep Forest White Spring 2024  ($29 per 100 grams)

A beautiful and unique tea from ancient non-Sinensis varietal tea trees growing wild at altitudes of 2200-2500m in Phong Thổ, Lai Châu. The people living and making tea in this area are of the Dao ethnicity.

The raw leaves used to make this tea take on shades of red, purple and green with a glossy look and every tree produces leaves with a different appearance. You can also find leaves that look different on individual trees. Picking the leaves to make this tea requires a long walk into the forest and climbing up very tall tea trees. This is only possible on days with good weather.

This tea brews up into a clear golden soup. The fragrance and flavor is stone fruit fruity and floral with cane sugar, orchid and mountain forest notes. This tea has a lingering “purple effect” common in many wild varietal white teas like this and a strong but relaxing qi. No bitterness or astringency.

I like to brew this one at 90C for the first few steeps and then gradually increase to 100C during later steeps.

Interesting, that this isn't from Camelia Sinensis.  It definitely tastes unique.  For once my flavor description of it is pretty close to Steve's.  Very similar descriptions can relate to slightly different interpretations of the same flavors, but this matches better than usual.  

I don't know about the relaxing qi; I tried it along with another tea.  I suppose it was nice not getting blasted as I do when comparing sheng versions, but that experience is nice in a different sense too.

Lishan White (25 CHF / $29.44 for 50 grams)

This white tea is also an absolute rarity and we were only able to get hold of a few grams. The tea leaves come from Qingxin bushes which grow on the Lishan. The tea has an abundance of pleasant aromas with a floral and full-bodied character. The high altitude results in a much more intense and complex aroma which is normally not found in a white tea.

Harvest: Summer 2022

Taste: Full-bodied and complex

Terroir: Lishan, Taiwan

Preparation: Per serving approx. 2g, temperature approx. 75°C,  time 1 – 2 minutes

There are a few things to unpack there.  I'd brew it hotter; why not?  It really is one of the most unique white teas I've tried, maybe even more novel than this Vietnamese version, although both were absolutely different than any versions I remember trying before.  

60 cents a gram is a bit much, but then this tea probably is a type that barely even exists.  And it's unusually high in quality level, pleasant to experience, and from a high demand production area, where above average oolongs would command a decent price.  That price seems reasonable.

Review:

Lai Chau Deep Forest White:  the dry leaf scent is very deep, rich, sweet, and fruity.  Brewed it doesn't match that dry scent intensity; I may need to go a little longer on the next round.  I did brew these for 20-some seconds, so a bit, but I can push them for 30 to 40, given proportion is a little lower than I usually use.

Sweetness and fruit is evident in this.  It's complex; it tastes a bit like peach or apricot, but there's a lot more going on than that.  It might include grape as well, but not the modern grocery store grape range, more like the older Concord type used to make juice in the past.  Or I think that was a broad type range; I'm not completely caught up on types of grapes.  Mineral range includes a touch of savory quality, and significant sweetness makes it all balance well.

Lishan White:  I was concerned this might just be too subtle to hold its own but the opposite occurred instead; there's a strong spice range in this that's more intense than all of the character of the other.  It includes cinnamon, but it may extend beyond cinnamon.  Sweetness is pleasant; that works.  Beyond that there is other range but it's hard to identify at this stage, maybe a few minor supporting themes.  I'll push both a little harder and try to add more breakdown.

Lai Chai #2:  that picks up a lot of warmth and depth.  Flavors are so complex that it's hard to get it to separate out as a list of impressions.  There's a lot of fruit, all mixing together as one theme.  Again one part is in between peach and apricot, and grape doesn't stand out as much, but a hint of citrus does.  Warm tones are along the line of dry autumn leaf.  Sweetness is good, and feel is rich enough that it adds to the experience of overall complexity.  It would be a shame to swap out those brighter tones by aging this but it has enough depth already that it might work well to; that might increase further.

It's strange how when I try a little later, after tasting the other, when it's quite cool, the grape flavor comes back.  It tastes like grape bubblegum, more than actual grapes, like the old Hubba-Bubba version, or something such.

Lishan:  it's crazy tasting this much spice in a white tea.  This could actually include some cinnamon (it doesn't; I mean the impression is that clear and strong).  Feel might be even a little richer and fuller than for the other version, kind of velvety.  Sweetness level is comparable for the two, high enough to add to overall complexity, and a good level to support the balance.

It's strange how complex this comes across, even though the set of flavors is kind of bundled within a limited range.  There might be a general floral range beyond the spice, and a touch of fruit.  Warm tones are a main part of the overall balance, that spice range, and some mineral, with floral and fruit brighter.  Then as a secondary supporting input the floral and fruit range is less distinct, but it still plays a pronounced role in the overall impression.  Spice seems to include a hint of fennel seed, other warmer, towards-savory range.  These are some pretty interesting teas.

Lai Chau, #3:  there's a depth to this that's hard to describe.  I probably mean different things by that when I say it about different teas; that probably doesn't help.  There's a good bit of fruit, shifting now to warmer tones, but other deeper warm range really picks up, from the earlier mineral base and autumn leaf aspects.  It gives up some higher end, sweeter and more forward notes related to that shift, but it's pleasant.

Lishan:  this stays more consistent, evolving less.  I suppose there may be a shift to slightly warmer tones, brought on by round transition, and probably going slightly longer on the infusion time, but it's not so different than earlier.  It's interesting how flavor complexity and fullness of feel work together to make this seem complex.  That's true of the other tea version too, but in a different way, and a different sense.  

This includes fullness of feel more like oolong range can express.  There's a bright, sweet floral and mineral oriented note--a flavor set, I guess--that seems to tie it together with local origin oolong flavor range.  The other tea might be more complex, in terms of covering more flavor scope, and other aspect range, but this has a good bit more depth.  Some warmer range fills in complexity, and it comes across as quite refined.

They both brewed a few more pleasant rounds, but I left off taking notes here.

Conclusions:

These are both unusually good.  I kind of didn't expect that, since I didn't read the descriptions before trying them.  The Vietnamese version shows that interesting character in dry leaf scent, so much fruit, but the Lishan version doesn't as much.  It's interesting considering how they seem in light of those descriptions.  

The Vietnamese version does seem novel enough that it makes sense that's it's different plant type, but it doesn't include any of the sourness edge that can come up in those, even purple leaf versions, which I think are just a variant of Assamica.  Purple tea can taste a little like grapes, sometimes.

The Lishan version was really unique, complex, and refined.  White teas can lack flavor complexity and intensity, but these didn't.  Feel structure is often quite limited, but the Lishan version even covered that.  Both expressed so much depth that I didn't necessarily miss the intensity and edge that I usually experience drinking sheng more often.  

Someone could have drank a lot of more standard form Chinese white teas in the past, and like them, and feel that either of these really opened a door on new experience range for them.