I'm reviewing two exceptional Fu zhuan (hei cha) versions made from Yunnan Assamica material, from the Lincang and Fengqing areas.
This is an unusual theme, re-trying versions of tea I reviewed over a year ago (sent by Oriental Leaf for review; many thanks!). I think vendors have sent the same samples more than once before; it could be hard for them to keep track, as I have to look up what I've tried in the past. It should be interesting though, because I've been trying more Fu zhuan style hei cha recently, and quite a bit of Liu Bao over the last few months. I should be more dialed in to that range.
Part of the point here is to compare the style to the other Fu hei cha processed versions I've been reviewing, with two of those based on white tea material. This is from Assamica material typically processed into pu'er, from Yunnan. I'll cite the vendor description to fill that part in and get right to it.
On Taoism - Jingyang Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea - 190g Cake ($38.50 for 190 gram cake)
This 190-gram round Golden Flower Fu tea cake is the miniature packaging version of another of our best-selling 350g cakes. Although it is small in size and a bit lighter in weight, the quality of the tea is the same as that of the popular product.
The classic Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea from On Taoism Tea Factory is a signature product of our tea house.
We offer two options:
One is black-wrapped, made from grade one dark tea from Lincang, Yunnan, with a more intense tea aroma.
The other is yellow-wrapped and made from a particular grade one dark tea from Fengqing, Yunnan, with a deeper tea aroma.
Both types of tea undergo post-fermentation and flowering processes in Jingyang. The buds in the red packaging are more tender, while those in the black packaging are more durable for brewing.
These high-quality compressed tea cakes were produced in 2020. They stand out for their ability to be stored long-term and transform, resulting in a more mellow taste.
The most distinctive feature is the high density of golden flowers in the compressed tea cake. These golden flowers, a beneficial microorganism, signify high-quality Fu Brick Tea. To emphasize this feature, workers split the tea cake in half before it left the factory, allowing you to see the dense golden flowers upon receiving the tea. As mentioned in a previous blog, the number of golden flowers is a crucial quality indicator of Fu Brick Tea; the more golden flowers, the better the quality.
This Fu Brick Tea, with its unique round cake shape, supports the traditional and natural growth of the golden flower fungus. Unlike the brick shape of traditional pressed tea, this tea undergoes a unique post-fermentation process using Jingyang water in Jingyang. This process, involving controlled exposure to moisture and air, enhances the tea's flavor and aroma. Thanks to the cotton paper packaging, the rich, high aroma can be appreciated even before brewing.
The Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea offers a unique taste and brewing experience. The tea leaves, known for their durability, can be brewed over 15 times. The taste combines fresh, sweet notes and a returning sweetness with a clear and bright soup base. The On Taoism Tea Factory maintains a clean workshop, ensuring the tea's high quality without washing.
These probably do change a little year to year, but maybe more in the way shou / shu pu'er transitions quite a bit over the first 3 or 4 years, and then changes are gradual and more limited after that.
That pricing is equivalent to a $72 357 gram pu'er cake. For some Fu zhuan versions that would be on the high side, but these are exceptional, so that seems fair to me. It would be hard to find other versions that are as distinctive, high in quality, and pleasant, and especially difficult to find anything better. From there it's down to styles matching preference, which I hope gets described in the notes.
Review:
Lincang material, black label (left in all photos): I didn't use a rinse; that's a judgement call. I'm not sure where conventional wisdom stands for rinsing this particular tea.
Flavor is pleasant, rich and complex. A dark rye sort of bread like aspect stands out. It's not as heavy, not as dark, as it might be. One part is lighter, even leaning towards citrusy. In between complex tones could be judged in different ways. One would have to mention spice to fill in a decent list, but it's complex enough spice that it's not simple to break down, along the line of incense related spice.
Fengqing material, yellow label (cream colored, really): even heavier; this is closer to a dark rye, or on towards pumpernickel. It's clean though; none of the earthy tones seem musty or off, also true of the other version. An unusual mineral range stands out in this. Usually mineral tones are light, like flint or limestone, or else quite warm, onto darker colored rocks range, but this isn't so easy to place. A different spice tone stands out. For sure that fungus, the golden flowers, is contributing a lot of that to both, so for people familiar with it I could just say these taste like two different variations of golden flowers. A bit of beeswax sort of flavor comes through, and beyond that again spice tones are hard to place. Maybe dried fruit plays a role; I'll try to separate a list better next time, but this will probably transition a little already, with a lot of the outer fungus rinsed off in that round.
In retrying both just before going on to the next round the lighter colored first version, in the black label, has a bit more of a distinctive heavy towards actual fungus range, like an old tree bark or log smells in the forest, and the darker colored second version is lighter and brighter. Interesting. I don't remember which of these I liked more the last time I tried them, but it will be interesting to see if that changed.
Lincang, black label #2: even brewed very fast, under 10 seconds, intensity and complexity are great. Mouthfeel is even full, with a bit more structure to it than last round. This is giving off a tree bark sort of tone, in a good sense; it's clean, rich, and complex. Bright tones stand out too, giving it a nice balance. It's mostly in the range of spice, perhaps with a bit of dried citrus peel standing out. This is probably the kind of tea that no two people would describe in the same way, so a text description may be of limited helpfulness.
Sweetness, rich feel (with a hint of dryness), and aftertaste really contribute to the experience.
Fengqing, cream colored label: warmer tones are interesting, especially in contrast with the other being as light as it is. That seems to have switched, that I just said the opposite in the first round. I think that round was about the flavor of the fungus that had been rinsing off, and this one relates as much to brewed tea leaves, which are just getting started. This tastes more like a dark bread, again. There's a hint of the warm, rich earthiness present in shou / shu pu'er, that peat range, but not much. It's light and clean in effect, and integrated with the rest in this. It's more in the dark bread and spice range.
To me, based only on limited past exploration, to be clear, you don't tend to see this much complexity, balance, and depth in hei cha of this type, Fu zhuan. The intensity is unusually pronounced. As I recall, although I didn't re-read an earlier review, these are made from high quality Yunnan material used to make pu'er, not something a bit less (distinctive, or lower in quality?). I mean the material probably had more potential than hei cha material often does. It's not made of sticks either, and probably not based on old leaf material as much. It's just a different thing, across all of those dimensions, related to origin, plant type, and plucking / harvesting standard.
Lincang, #3: I gave this a little longer, 15 seconds, although the intensity was fine before, maybe on the high side. It would probably make more sense to use half as much of this tea, dropping the proportion, and brew it on towards 20 seconds. That's just habit from maxing out proportion most of the time, not an earlier guess about an optimum.
There's a spice oriented range in this that I'm probably never going to describe well. It reminds me of the Dune theme; this probably tastes a lot like their melange spice would. It's full and sort of earthy, but also bright and complex. It hints as lots of spice tone, and also lighter range like dried citrus peel. Mineral is a part of it, but it's so integrated that it's hard to place, as light or dark, tasting like some particular rock. Feel is full and rich, but it has an edge of dryness. It's like how a black tea might include a touch of astringency giving it a little dry feel. I suppose some might connect this feel and the flavor to that experience, and say that it tastes like the malt in Assam. It does, a little. That's probably what I was missing, to the extent it's not just a set of lots of flavors.
Fengqing: a creaminess picks up; that's interesting. It's in the form that creamy feel, sort of tied to tastes, emerges in stout beer, like Guinness. Hints of rich dried fruit also pick up. Where the other is spice-oriented with dryness this is now on to really tying back to the heavy, dark bread range, not unlike stout, with sweetness picking up. Feel is rich and creamy, not dry at all. It's missing that malt edge in the other, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on preference.
From there one might see parallel with warm tones in fallen logs, with tree bark. It's also leaning a little towards cacao, but I don't think many people would make that association, because it's not quite there. It's the way that rich flavor range, soft feel, and complexity come across that implies something like it.
At this point I like the cream colored label version better (later I'll swap in tea plant material origin locations for main descriptions). That complexity, spice, and dryness in the first works, it balances in a positive way, but this second version is really unique.
Lincang, #4: not so different than last round, so I'll mostly skip repeating it all. Maybe a bit of extra sweetness picks up, an extra dried fruit oriented flavor that's hard to place, partly related to dried citrus peel, but there is more to it. As to form of citrus I'd say it's red grapefruit. An Assam drinker might really love this. I mean someone drinking really good orthodox, high quality Assam, not the ground up stuff that requires milk and sugar. It includes some of the same malt and fruit, plus an extra dimension or two. Astringency is very limited, to just a bit of dry edge, but to me that's a good thing.
Fengqing: a different kind of spice range enters in, a root spice effect, along the line of sassafras, just not exactly that. Warm tones stand out all the more, although I guess that was also true in a different sense in the last couple of rounds. It's creamy in a slightly different way, leaning towards root beer, instead of stout (actual dark beer).
This is a really unique tea experience. Both are, but it seems like parts of the other version's character turn up in other places more, in other types. You just don't end up drinking teas that land right in between dark bread and root beer for flavor range, or maybe really spanning both, including them. If that somehow didn't make sense together, if it didn't integrate, this could be really off-putting, but it ties together beautifully. I'd be surprised if I didn't like this tea version more last time.
Of course the teas kept brewing, without changing character that much over the next few rounds, eventually fading later.
Conclusions:
I had reviewed these earlier here; one of the points of this review is to compare notes. I brewed them Western style, which isn't typical for me for most tea types. It's not a bad call, related to this style of tea, but you experience more distinct flavor aspects when you Gong Fu brew them. It also helps with dialing in infusion strength.
It makes it hard to compare impressions, because they were made differently, and expressed character differently as a result. The general impressions match, but this second review adds a lot more detail. This tea is good enough that you probably should Gong Fu brew it; you see an extra dimension or two that way, and it's worth it. Or if you don't feel like going through that some of the time results are fine the other way, unlike brewing a lot of range of sheng pu'er, which typicall just doesn't really work out well.
Drilling down to finer flavor aspects more, and feel character, it was interesting how one part of the Lincang range reminded me of good orthodox Assam experience, the slightly drier feel, and touch of malt. You might only associate the flavor with malt if you could make that connection, since it's natural to be "looking for" other earth, spice, and dried fruit range instead.
The Fengqing expressed more spice range in the Gong Fu brewing based review, like sassafras, coming out more after the first couple of infusions. Brewed Western style those same generalities turned up, but in far less specific form. Someone might have even interpreted it as leaning towards cacao, when I saw it as closer to root beer in the last round. If it sounds like it's closer to shou / shu pu'er I would say that kind of partly works, but it's not related to peat flavor, which is pretty common in shou.
Compared to the other Fu zhuan versions made from white teas these are just different. Those might have been a little lighter in character, possibly slightly sweeter, maybe with different pronounced fruit tones. There was a little fruit range in these too though, and earthiness was present but not in a way that dominated the character, nothing unusual, that necessarily would be regarded as a flaw, or negative input.
I should be able to say which matched my preference most, even though that alone can be tricky comparing over weeks of time, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything to anyone else. Often when you try a tea a few times your impression changes, and you relate to it differently. That last Fu zhuan tea was pretty good; I can't say that I like either of these more. It had a clean, bright, fruit intensive range, with lots of depth, that all balanced well. But there is something really interesting and appealing about the Fengqing version, the way that particular spice range and varied depth come across. The other is good too, and for a tea to have with food it might be better, but in terms of this impression I liked the Fengqing version more than the Lincang.
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