I'm reviewing a Fu style hei cha from Oriental Leaf (sent by them for review; many thanks!).
Baicha Fuzhuan (Fu Xi & Fu Bao) ($45 for 190 gram brick)
Baicha Fuzhuan is a unique style of Fu brick tea made using white tea leaves as the base material. This tea is naturally fermented to develop “Jin Hua” (金花, golden flowers) — a type of beneficial fungus (Eurotium cristatum) traditionally prized in Chinese dark teas.
What makes this tea stand out is its smooth and sweet profile, with the light floral notes of white tea combined with the earthy, mellow depth from fermentation. The result is a gentle, aromatic tea with both clarity and richness — offering a fresh take on classic Fu tea.
Crafted by On Taorism几于道, this tea proudly represented Orientaleaf at the 2025 World Tea Championship, where it won the Superior Award for both Best Leaf Profile and Best Cup Character...
The side of the box clearly states: “Source of Fu Tea: Jingyang (茯茶宗源地),” honoring the tea’s origin. Jingyang is historically known as the birthplace of Fu brick tea.
I've left out that it's sold in either red or yellow wrapping, with the tea the same.
So it's white tea processed as Fu style hei cha, similar to one other version I've tried from them (here). It is a bit mellow and fragrant; results seem generally positive. The notes cover that.
Review:
first infusion: interesting! It's not really subtle, but it's on the mellow and balanced side, with lighter tones showing up a lot more than I expected. Fu zhuan is never heavy, earthy, and peat-oriented, as shou pu'er can be, but this is a little light in tone as others go. A distinct sweetness that I see as connecting to the fungus (golden flowers) input stands out. Often that will couple with a yeasty sort of note, and that's subdued in this, not overpowering, not even overly pronounced. So it is earthy, a bit like a light rye bread, combined with light floral tone, but it's rich and creamy as well.
I expected more intensity, but for this being clean, complex, and balanced by positive feel, and including a limited but also diverse flavor range, the overall balance is nice. I'll be brewing this for 20+ seconds to keep the intensity up.
second infusion: heavier flavors enter in, and intensity picks up; it will be easier to add more of a flavors list. The bright, yeasty, towards rye bread and floral range (chrysanthemum) tones are still present, but a whole other range adds to that. Warm, clean, balanced mineral range joins it. I suppose it seems in the general spice range, or tied to that, so that warm mineral and moderately warm-toned spice seem to link. The spice range is complex; one part is light, like ginseng, and another leans towards bark spice, just not cinnamon.
Sweetness is nice; that helps the rest balance. The effect being so clean also works well. There is no off earthy or mineral related input, no mustiness, no challenging astringency edge, and so on. Feel is somewhat full, kind of moderate, not as thick as the creamiest and thickest teas but with plenty of good feel to give it balance. It's nice, altogether.
There are distinctive flavors that people could identify in different ways in this. What I'm describing as yeasty rye bread, ginseng, or warm mineral people could interpret completely differently. Seeing a part of it as relating to some type of dried fruit would work. I see the chrysanthemum oriented warm and smooth floral range as secondary, a supporting element, but someone else might see it as at the core of the experience. Describing some of those parts as light wood tones would work, along the line of driftwood, maybe, something smooth and rich but not astringent.
third infusion: it transitions a little, but it's hard to say how. A light dried citrus peel note seemed to enter in. The former light, brighter range rye bread (dominant range) is transitioning, so that warmer, heavier flavors pick up more intensity. Aftertaste is longer, the finish, and warmer mineral range picks up, joined by a slightly more structured feel. I suspect that I could drink this during a fast; there is so little that's challenging in the mouthfeel that it might also feel fine for your stomach when conditions are problematic.
It's almost as if the golden flowers add a different kind of character in this. There's a brighter, yeasty, towards beeswax range that often is included, and that's not completely missing here, but the tones are warm, soft, and balanced. It's more towards that warm floral range.
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it brewed darker later rounds; I must have infused that quickly |
fourth infusion: not so different than last round; it seems like this might lose intensity over a few more rounds and that will be it. Compared to some of what I've reviewed it might sound like this had a shorter story to tell, and I guess in a sense that works. It's also nice drinking a more mellow, basic, somewhat complex but not challenging tea.
As a sheng pu'er drinker I tend more often crave that bright, bitter, flavor intensive, and astringent intensity. This connects closer to my black tea preference, for which I like more of the opposite, teas that are comforting and basic, with depth but not so much complexity and intensity. Sometimes it's nice to not be challenged by your tea, even in the sense of appreciating a lot of complexity and refinement. It's distinctive and complex enough; I mean that it's approachable and agreeable.
I just reviewed a black tea that was almost too good, that works as an example. You just wouldn't have such a tea with breakfast, and it would waste the experience to not focus mainly on that for at least 45 minutes or so, or a half an hour if you were rushing it a little. You would need to be in a somewhat clear mental space to really relate fully to it, especially related to changes across infusions. This hei cha you could just drink, with a breakfast, while doing other things, or just relaxing in the afternoon, without paying too much attention to it. Or it is unique and pleasant; you could focus on it if you wanted to.
It's nice how today is our first day of the cool season. It's still in the upper 80s out here, just now, 32 C (so about 89), but the much drier air feels completely different. The rainy season in Thailand is quite hot.
Further conclusions:
That's already most of what I thought of it. Related to it really being a white tea, as a starting base for further processing, that explains why it was so mellow and yet also fragrant, including nice floral range and lighter spice or wood tones. It's good. Good enough to win an award at a tea expo or contest? Sure, I suppose. It did, and it was pleasant, complex, balanced, and unique.
This makes me consider value; one of the benefits of appreciating Fu style hei cha is that it's often cheap, although if you need to seek out better versions and try lots that aren't as positive to get to an exceptional one that adds cost, effort, and delay, and what you waste on shipping also factors in. Often a slight rough edge or off flavor can adjoin otherwise interesting and pleasant range, or other limitations. Then drinking older versions can mellow a tea out to make some of those limitations drop out, and let depth increase, but then it's back to adding significant cost.
This was $45 for 190 gram brick. For sheng pu'er that's a typical range; that would be something like $85 for a 357 gram cake. For standard Fu zhuan range it's a little high. But then this isn't standard Fu hei cha, it's a variation, and a higher quality example. That other white tea based Fu processed version was sold as 10 3-gram mini tablets for $15.50, so for around 50 cents a gram; significantly more. But then the sample theme works out like that too; you don't buy a 10 gram pu'er sample for the same unit price as a 357 gram cake.
In that post I think that I concluded that there's not an industry standard price range for teas this unique. I suppose existing demand would also be limited.
I reviewed two 190 gram Fu cake versions from them last year, not identified as based on white tea, or some other atypical variant, and those were priced at $38.50 for 190 gram cake (two variations of it). Compared to what market outlets like Yunnan Sourcing or King Tea Mall sell that may sound like a lot, but trying low or average quality Fu zhuan hei cha might identify that this budget-oriented approach is problematic, for the reasons I mentioned, because lots of it isn't that good. If the idea is to buy the cheapest possible tea that could be great, but how enjoyable the tea is factors in a lot, for most. Those were really good tea, surely in the high end of the range as Fu zhuan hei cha experience goes.
This version is even more unique, and whether someone sees it as better or not might come down to personal preference. I think it would appeal to a broad range of people, more so than average quality Fu zhuan or other hei cha.
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