This is the sheng pu'er version I talked about, I think, that I tried with William and cited in the last post about meeting him, a Spring 2024 Na Lang from Laos.
Since I've already introduced this tea I'm going to strip down these tasting notes to what it seemed like to me, removing a lot of the speculation or tangents. I'll add a little back in with the conclusions, but this will work well kept shorter, without the usual rambling on. This is William's site description (part of it):
Spring 2024, medium-big trees from forested gardens (listing for $140 per 357 gram cake)
Na Lang village, Nyot Ou District, Laos
A powerful Yiwu-style tea with great endurance
This is typically the kind of tea you would find in Gua Feng Zhai for twice the price. The point of this tea is not the fragrance, but the good thickness in the soup and the deep Huigan.
Considering the renown of Yiwu tea, and the high prices its tea fetch, it is not surprising that many tea traders cross the border to Laos and source tea from Nyot Ou district. As a result, most of the tea made in Nyot Ou is bought by tea producers from Yiwu.
Tea grows in the forests of Nyot Ou district along two valleys. The Southern valley is connected to Gua Feng Zhai village through a small road. The environment in which tea grows is similar in Eastern Yiwu and in the two tea producing valleys of Nyot Ou District. Ancient tea trees grow along more recently established gardens in the forests.
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from the Farmerleaf site product page |
That's a common, well-known theme, that lots of tea from lots of places goes back to China to become pu'er. I skipped the "pu'er-like tea" limitation earlier, the admission that the type is a regionally limited designation, only applying to teas from Yunnan. That's a bit absurd, isn't it, given that context, that any tea from Laos, Vietnam, or Myanmar (and less from Thailand) that crosses the border, and is mis-represented in terms of origin, sort of is and also isn't pu'er? And a very considerable volume of tea undergoes this transition, far more than is ever sold as Laos tea.
It's the best of both worlds for Chinese producers and vendors; they can dismiss those origin area teas as separate and inferior, and then buy them and resell those same teas as the upgraded local version, simply by blending and then mis-labeling them. Let's move on to how this tea is.
I never do address whether this is like Yiwu or not, a claim made in this description. I've experienced relatively consistent character in trying a reasonable amount of Yiwu, but it's my impression that I've not experienced a lot more than I've tried, especially related to distinctive versions and higher quality levels. So I'll just describe what I am experiencing.
I think it makes sense for vendors to never mention much about flavor range. It would vary over time, and even more so in relation to varying interpretations. In this review I mention it seeming to taste different when trying this same tea two different times, and I speculate about why that is, real factors that could've changed what I experienced, not just the interpretation.
William's description doesn't even include a general flavor reference, like "floral," and again I see that as reasonable. To some it would seem floral, and to others fruity, and different factors could change the compound inputs that these are based on. It's fine as long as a description can pass on enough range description to draw interest, or inform in some other way.
Review:
First infusion: a little light, but that's a good way to start, brewing the first round fast to get an initial sense, and letting the second be more typical of the rest. Flavor is good; quite catchy. There's a pine-like aspect that others could interpret related to other vegetal range, but only a little. A fruity tone is something else, on towards juicyfruit gum, or back in the range of natural flavors not really tied to just one, but not so far off tangerine. Feel is nice; it has some structure, already, but that doesn't seem to track towards being unapproachable.
I've already tried this tea, so this isn't the blind tasting approach I typically use. I know where this is going, and this tea version is pretty exceptional. I'll fill in more of an aspects list next round.
It's completely whole leaf material, not too compressed, so it would be easy to drink it unbroken, but I used some from the parts that had already split off in this tasting, more broken material. Maybe that's not ideal, but I suppose it's a normal real-life experience form. I hadn't thought it through getting it ready; depending on how focused in I am I might use the broken material also in the wrapper or carefully separate off some relatively whole leaves.
Second infusion: that catchy fruit related tone really pops in a stronger round. Bitterness and astringency really ramp up too; those would be more moderate if someone was more careful about not breaking the leaves.
The bit of pine, or however that vegetal edge is interpreted, integrates wonderfully with the sweetness, bitterness, fruit tone, and background floral range.
Intensity is good; I supposed based on what I said in the post about talking with William I should comment on that. It's not by way of harsh aspects being dominant either; in better quality cakes strong sweetness, bitterness, feel, and positive flavors really stand out. This is really clean in overall effect; it's not as if young sheng tends to be murky, or to taste like a cinderblock, as comes up more with Liu Bao, but there can be an emergent sort of impression of clarity and cleanness, or lack of that.
This doesn't seem completely identical to when I first tried it with William. It was exceptional then, and it is now, but minor inputs can vary, shifting the outcome. I'm using water from a hot water dispenser and filtration system, so it's not at full boiling point; that changes things. It's a different version of water. This leaf is little more broken, as I've mentioned. We drank this tea in the middle of trying a half dozen versions; that can affect impression and memory. It seemed to include more bright floral range in that tasting, leaning towards bright citrus, and it probably did, based on those differences.
Third infusion: the tone seems to be warming. It had warmth and depth before, but it's evolving to include a lot of that. The leaf color is mixed, including some darker range, making me wonder if somehow oxidation level didn't vary a little in this initially. How? I'll add more about one thing William said in the conclusions, that might have entered in.
I personally love that effect, when sweetness, flavor complexity, and slight warmth gives a young sheng a much more approachable character. I suppose people could be mixed on how they relate to that input and effect.
I'm not doing justice to what I take to be a fruit tone. It's not so far off dried mango, which surely isn't all one thing, since there are lots of kinds of mangos. That one flavor input is positive, but it's how it integrates with the rest that works well. It's intense and refined enough, which can be hard to place within the entire sheng range, or in relation to higher quality versions, or typical Yiwu styles.
I didn't mention that the intensity carries over to aftertaste experience. That almost goes without saying, but not completely.
Fourth infusion: now that warm, sweet aspect tastes more like dried apricot to me, so much so that I'm questioning my earlier interpretations. It's a lot like apricot, a pretty direct match. It's quite delicious. There is plenty of astringency and bitterness to balance it, but it's a quite approachable tea, at the same time. Someone being more careful than I was to not break the leaves would moderate those parts just a little.
Intensity is so good, and flavors so fresh and bright, that it seems this will go on forever. It won't; based on trying an earlier cycle this will make a lot of infusions, using the high proportion that's my default, but eventually flavors will thin and bitterness will play a different role. It's great while it lasts though, which is for awhile. The bitterness and sweetness stays in your mouth after you drink it, along with that fruit flavor, adding some extra exposure to appreciate.
Fifth infusion: it's not transitioning all that much, which is as well, because I'm running out of patience for making these notes anyway. Feel might become richer; that's an interesting shift, for this stage. It has had pretty good feel structure for this whole cycle, but it gains just a little richness, towards a pleasant sappy feel. To me that one interesting and positive fruit note integrating with the rest well is the main story, with other range playing a supporting role.
Conclusions:
It's good, very intense, refined, pleasant, interesting, well-balanced, and so on. I can't place it in relation to Yiwu range, but this probably is the best Laos sheng I've ever tried, and it might be about the 15th version I've tried. The warm fruit range was interesting. Floral tones are often dominant, across a lot of sheng range. Versions can transition quite a bit, aging over even 9 months or so, but this was quite warm and fruity, and a year of aging input wouldn't cause that.
Back to that oxidation input issue: William had said that if a producer backs off the kill-green completeness even a little (if I'm remembering this part right) that the stems can not be as fully fixed (compounds inactivated). Then these can turn redder, more oxidized, as the tea dries, shifting the final character. Maybe that happened in this? It would explain the darker colors in some of the material, and also those heavier tones, the fruit range versus the floral, and warmth.
That's all just speculation. The tea is really nice, the main thing.
Is it worth $140 a cake? Sure, if someone is open to paying that for it. It's novel, so there isn't any one established market supply and demand based pricing level. It could be $500 or 1000, if people are open to paying that.
There's a general expectation that quality level and range of related experiences out there are the competing factors; there are ways to buy a lot of Yiwu versions, and some other Laos teas, just none that I've tried like this. If somewhat equivalent versions really do tend to cost $280 instead then maybe this is a great value. I'm not buying any teas that cost over $100 per cake, so I'm just not part of the whole community, in one sense. That's about budget limitation, not idealism. If my tea budget was much different I'd buy this, for sure, but I certainly don't experience that as a regret. My life balance is something to be thankful for, not to focus on regrets over.
Beyond those concerns the tea character is really interesting and positive. I've really appreciated the opportunity to try this, and to have some to drink, since William shared a fair amount, not just a sample. Many thanks to him!
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