Kaley Tea's Ceylon based Christmas blend

 

A vendor who had sent me Ceylon tea to try in the past, Kaley Tea, recently sent a Christmas tea blend version to try.  So nice!  Earlier in this blog history I would experiment with making Christmas blends every year; it seemed a good time to make an exception from only drinking plain teas, and to experiment.  

This says that it contains tea, cardamom, and cloves, so it's a simplified variation of masala chai.  Masala chai is a good start for a Christmas blend; from there people could add fruit, like orange peel, or cacao, or pine needles, but keeping it quite limited could work well too.  It might allow the tea to play more of a role, where if you mix enough things in it wouldn't matter what the tea is.

drying fruit and peels for use in a Christmas blend (covered here)

It's nice to feel like I'm observing Christmas too.  It's a little early for that, since it's around Halloween time, but holiday experiences never match up here anyway.  It might not be so hot in another two months but otherwise the weather in Bangkok is generally consistent year-round, beyond when it rains more.

I'm brewing this using their recommendations, sort of.  They suggest using a teaspoon to make a cup, brewing that for 3 minutes, with an option to brew it a second time.  I brewed more than that, I think, and for longer, so maybe this will be a little strong.  Ordinarily I'm opposed to diluting tea, adding water, no matter what happens, but I could always make an exception if I've screwed this up.

it's definitely less monochromatic in person; I think shading inside the infuser caused that

Review:

Infusion strength isn't bad, maybe just a touch strong.  It wouldn't be unusual for people to add milk and sugar to this, not to cut overwhelming astringency, since this is mild enough, but just to play up the dessert experience feel, or how masala chai is usually made and enjoyed.  I could drink some and then adjust it, to review it both ways.

The spice balance is good.  Cardamom and clove alone really work, and it seems like this is pretty good tea matching with those.  The flavor input of all three is reasonably balanced; it would be easy for spices to overtake the tea range, but they all show through.  It's pleasant like this, but the extra infusion strength pushes it a little far, off of being sweet, light, complex, and approachable, as the softest and sweetest black teas are.  The tea input seems pretty good but I'll stop short of adding a flavor list here.  Malt doesn't show through, so it's not like an Assam, and maybe some of the mineral base that is distinctive in Ceylon is giving this good balance.

The general effect is very clean; there is no negative contribution of any aspect.  Not very poetic a description, right, compared to bringing up some childhood image of people around a fireplace, drinking tea and eating gingerbread Christmas cookies, or whatever else?  This would go really well with cookies; that's what is missing in the overall balance, a reason for drinking a clean and positive black tea with spice inputs.  

I like the tea but it's not what I'm accustomed to, and this really would make a lot more sense in some sort of late fall or winter context.  It probably would make a nice iced tea, but it's odd mentally switching channels like that, considering a radically different context.  For drinking it plain maybe it would be better with food or those cookies.  I'll try it with a little milk and honey and see how that works.

It's good with those added, probably better.  I used skim milk, what I'm drinking right now; surely that's not optimum, but it's still nice.  As with plain black tea all the flavors fall into a completely different balance when you add milk and sugar (or honey, also what I had most handy).  Going even heavier on infusion strength and using more full cream milk than I added would probably be more optimum, to get the full effect of both inputs.  I tried a second infusion brewed for longer (with the same leaves), this time using whole milk (my wife couldn't sleep at night knowing there are two cartons open at once), but of course the effect is better from the first round, the intensity.

One nice part about drinking it this way--adjusted--could be that people who don't drink tea might be more likely to like it.  These particular spice flavors might appeal most to people with more developed food flavor background (in Thailand or in the West), but to me it's quite approachable and pleasant.  For people familiar with this spicing range there would be no need to mess around with this recipe form, and aspects balance, but for others continuing on to add cacao and a fruit input might be good.  Using an apple peeler to remove some outer rind off an orange might be a nice addition too, giving a touch of extra fruit edge.  I don't see this as working well for coupling with some sort of alcohol input (which can come up as another Christmas theme), but people on that page may take that differently.  A little cognac or brandy would definitely completely change this.

It works for evoking a Christmas feel, I think.  It needs those cookies though, not just any one kind, whatever theme people tend to connect with their own expectations.  My Mom would make a lot of kinds; we had large trays of many types around in the holiday season.  This would be perfect with a kind we didn't make then, which we called whoopie pies, two soft chocolate cookies sandwiching a cream filling center.  Maybe even better with gingerbread men; that would round out the typical set expectation of ginger being the other main input in a traditional masala chai (as I see it; for others black pepper or other things could be added).

This might be a good year for messing around with your own Christmas blend experience; either go out and buy one, or keep an eye out for spice inputs, like spearmint, cacao, or whatever else.  There's still time to work out how adding pine needles to tea works for people in the US, which tree type needle inputs definitely won't poison you, and how drying or chopping the material changes infusion results.  Making adjusted masala chai versions takes practice; you might need a couple of trial rounds to prepare something you can serve to others (all of which I've covered in this blog).

Many thanks to Kaley for sharing this, and an early happy holidays for all readers!  

Is the designation "Ceylon" problematic?

Originally published in TChing here.

Is Ceylon a problematic colony-themed origin description?  Maybe, maybe not.  In general the political correctness movement seems to have not been taken up so quickly related to tea, since "Oriental Beauty" is still around.  All the same someone asked in a discussion something related to this split, between teas from Sri Lanka being called Sri Lankan versus Ceylon (awhile back now, but I'd meant to write about it).

Of course Ceylon is the established tea origin and type brand name; that's a given.  I've personally never given it much thought if that's problematic, in relation to it being a former British colony name.  So I asked around in a couple of groups to see what the consensus perspective is, or if there is more relevant input to turn up.

This input in a Sri Lanka themed Facebook group was interesting:

Sri Lanka is the current name of the island. But the world is known Ceylon tea, Ceylon Cinnamon, Ceylon rubber, Ceylon gems etc. Either the authorities should go for entire re branding or use the popular brand names.

white and black Ceylon versions

That's true; I've seen such reference to other products.  Let's check one of the standard media stories on the rebranding to see if they add anything on that, this one from the BBC:

The government wants the country's modern name to be used instead. The decision comes 39 years after the country was renamed Sri Lanka.

The change will be made as early as possible in 2011...

But the name Ceylon has persisted in many institutions, including the Bank of Ceylon and the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation...

The Ceylon Tea label, however, is unlikely to change, as the industry believes it's a brand of quality for the country's most famous export.

Not much for detail, besides adding that perspective and a timeline, the supposed shift happening 10 years back now.  I just saw an online post about Ceylon cinnamon today, as chance has it.

A Reddit Sri Lanka sub passed on lots of great feedback.  To be clear those are expressions of personal opinion, not necessarily the input of historians or cultural experts (although who knows, maybe those "Redditors" are that).  I'm not implying that the consistent opinion expressed there is uniform across Sri Lanka, or objectively correct; maybe the demographic that would be on Reddit tends to naturally share one opinion.

Officially tea originating from Sri Lanka is designated as 'Ceylon Tea' . There are several govt/public entities that still use Ceylon in their name eg Bank of Ceylon, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

Ceilão, the name given to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese (16th century), was transliterated into English as Ceylon. The Sinhala name for Ceylon was Lanka.

So the 2011 re-naming venture didn't take, even at the government level, and "Ceylon" wasn't a British name for Sri Lanka, beyond being an earlier name they adopted.  More on that:

The earliest mention of Sri Lanka in roman letters is as Sielen Diva, Sielen meaning Seredipity and diva meaning island or land. Later known by Arabs as Serendib. It's likely that the Europeans changed this to Ceylon during the colonial days.

Todays word, Sri Lanka, literally means (respected) land.

Sounds like a good place to end, except someone else disagreed with that derivation:

Actually, "sielen" is a corruption of "sivu helayan", which means "four tribes" (raksha, yaksha, naga, deva).

Serendib and serendipity came from "suran deep", " golden (beach) land"

One thing they all are agreeing on is that the British didn't invent that term, Ceylon, and it pre-dated their colonial period by a good bit.  No one thought that Ceylon should be ended as a product category-brand designation, or that anyone sees negative connotation in it now.

Kayley green Ceylon

 

This follows reviewing nice black and white versions of Ceylon from a small producer, Kaley, sent for review.  It looks pretty good for green tea; long, twisted whole leaves, moderately dark coloring, rich smell.

Green tea isn't a personal favorite, but I've reviewed dozens of versions here, and I can relate to it.  I wrote about how that preference yardstick isn't critical in tea evaluation not so long ago.  It's helpful for a type to be a personal favorite but something towards the other extreme you can still evaluate.  

Some green teas are exceptions, in that I really do enjoy them.  The character of Longjing works out for me, that nutty / toasted rice flavor, versus some others being heavy on grass, seaweed, or cooked vegetables.  I really liked a steamed green tea from Thailand (from Tea Side), even though ordinarily that wouldn't be the best starting point.  Good sencha and gyokuro transcends that issue too; almost anyone could appreciate the pronounced umami, clean flavor range, freshness, complexity, and pleasant intensity.  We'll see where this stands.

I usually keep the reviews a bit "blind," not reading a vendor description of a tea before trying it, but I'll do it the other way this time, citing their description:

Black twisty tea leaves, unusual for a green tea, turn into a luscious leafy green with at infusion, revealing a light golden liquor. The cup is metered by addictively mild notes of seaweed that float in sync with a fishy vibe. Trifling sweet notes rise up to provide a striking counterpoint. A light vegetal fragrance is gently unleashed, enveloped by an air of bee’s honey. This Green tea is extremely delicate on the palate.

This tea is made from two leaves & a bud, is slow withered, pan-roasted, twisted to perfection, dried & packed within a day of plucking. The crowning glory of this tea is the high level of antioxidants & immune boosting natural goodness.

Alright then; let's see.

Review:

First infusion:  since I'm making this Western style I probably will only review two infusions of it.  It's quite pleasant.  In one sense it strikes me as brewed a bit lightly but if it were stronger it would be too much.  I'll try to sort out what that means, feeling internally conflicted about a likely optimum infusion strength.

For flavor it is vegetal, but in a sense that works.  It's not straight-grass or seaweed, but some aspects of both build into a complex flavor profile.  It has some umami range, for sure, in a form that works with the rest.  I suppose some of the more vague sweetness is floral, although saying that sometimes seems like a shortcut to avoid really identifying anything.  Most teas could reasonably be interpreted as floral.

A flavor-list approach to review might do this tea more justice than works out for some others, because you do get a sense of complex flavor range, of a lot combining and integrating.  There's nothing negative to bring up; that helps.  It's not too vegetal in any one way, there's no odd mineral or mustiness, no gaps in feel, aftertaste, or intensity.  On to that list then:  grass (but most of the range isn't that), seaweed, bell pepper (minor; that would be easy to miss), floral range, roasted sunflower seed, warm underlying mineral.

Looking at the vendor's list that includes fish and honey.  Odd they would describe their own tea as fishy, even if they thought so.  There's a fine line for any seaweed aspect to seem fishy, since the umami range is also present in seafood protein, and a vague sea-like theme runs through both, the smell of the ocean and such.  I could see interpreting some of the richness as comparable to a roasted scallop, the part that overlaps a bit with roasted sunflower seed, and the mineral.  Once you think "roasted scallop" it tastes a lot more like that, but in 100 years I wouldn't make that connection without a prompt or reminder.  

Oddly I like that part, and the overall tea.  It's crazy to say it tastes a lot like roasted scallops and then say that but it's an interpretation of a supporting aspect that integrates with the rest.  It's more vegetal, and mineral is as much an input as that warm, rich flavor element.  If you are "looking for" floral that stands out too, maybe along the lines of lotus flower, sweet, rich, and warm.  It helps a lot that it's all clean and balanced; shift the range so that a few of these notes dominate and it wouldn't work as well.  Stronger grass, seaweed, and green pepper wouldn't be pleasant for me, but mixed in this set I like it.  

Mineral is playing a much bigger role than I've done justice to explaining.  It's almost like tasting a penny, like copper.

I don't love it; I wouldn't want to drink a kilogram of this.  But then if I had a kilogram and used it for a daily drinker that might well change; I'm just not acclimated to green tea preference now.

I drank straight through 50 or 100 grams of jasmine green tea I picked up at my favorite local shop (Jip Eu) about two months ago.  It was odd "changing gears" to that extent, but I tried it there meeting someone and I liked it.  It was nearly free; somewhere around $1 for the amount I bought (which I think might have only been 50 grams, but I lose track).  Probably drinking more of this would go like that, that it would be nice to be on a different page.

after one infusion; not quite completely unfurled

Second infusion:  this is transitioning; that's cool.  I won't write notes for a third infusion because this will be enough to express though.  Richness picked up, mineral dropped back just a little, and a sweet floral aspect picked up.  Grass and seaweed are quite diminished.  I like it even better like this.  I would drink this regularly, even without acclimating.

The thing that works for me about Longjing (Dragonwell) that doesn't as much with other Chinese teas is the lack of that straight-grass, seaweed, and vegetable range.  There's a little of that but not much.

It's interesting noting the comparable input mineral contributes in this tea, related to their other black Ceylon version, or Ceylon in general.  It's pronounced.  To me that works really well, it's quite positive, but of course that take could vary.  I've been on sheng pu'er for a good while so I would see it that way.

The third infusion was similar but a bit narrower in range, picking up a touch more wood-tone, so not as positive.  It was still pleasant, not transitioning as some teas do so that you end up throwing out half or most of the extra round at the end.

All in all quite positive.  Some of that judgement does relate to personal preference, to this matching what I like best about some green teas.  Beyond that it seems "objectively" positive, well-balanced, clean in character, complex and intense.

Kaley black and white Ceylon (Sri Lankan teas)

 

white left, black right

nice labels and packaging, simple branding; all good

I've tried and reviewed some Ceylon here before but it's probably the main growing area that I get to least.  I've tried lots more versions from places like Laos and Indonesia that aren't producers on that scale, without that same history.  Indonesia does have a long colonial history of producing tea, so that's different, but Sri Lanka had always been one of the main top-5 producer nations.  

Here's a list placing that better; those are always nice:

All of this is leading up to saying that I won't really be placing these teas, in relation to the general area they come from there, or against the higher quality level versions, typical types, or to plant-type input.  The general theme that seems to apply is that lower elevation teas are less well-regarded (there and in general), with higher elevation zones and versions seen as better in quality, and selling for more.  Ordinarily there would be an old post here going through a lot more background research detail on that but for Sri Lanka there's not.  So I'll just review how they are, and add some sort of vendor link and description in editing.

It's a little odd comparing black and white teas in a tasting but why not.  Prior to trying out tasting contrasting types that wouldn't be helpful at all, or as practical, but having been through it lots of times it should be fine.

The teas look and smell great.  There's always the concern that I might not want to use the review notes for a post, if I don't like the tea, but these seem to be at the opposite extreme.  I won't change a post to make it more positive but not putting one up because it doesn't tell an interesting story seems fair, and it's not typical that bad teas are interesting.  A tea can be bad in a novel way, for example related to a storage input, but usually positive aspects just fall short.  

The white tea appearance is unfamiliar, thinner needles than I remember seeing for that length, and dark green on one side and silver on the other.  The smell is really rich and deep; it shouldn't be too subtle, or flavorless.  The black tea is fine twisted leaves, with a rich, savory smell that includes sun-dried tomato range.

Kaley Tea background

I won't go very far with this, with more about them in a Facebook page and website.  Their intro there:

Kaley Teas come from a single garden in a rural village in the southern lowlands of Ceylon. Bright warm sunshine & tropical monsoons typical of the lowlands, cool mist that roll across sloping hills akin to the highlands, gusty winds a feature of the eastern slopes of the central mountains, protected virgin soil & crystal-clear water from streams & springs nourish our terroir. Multitudes of forests surround our garden & meander their way to Ceylon’s largest rainforest: the Sinharaja. 

Not an ideal set-up mentioning that low elevation = bad earlier, but of course it's not that simple.  Microclimate depends on a lot more than just that one factor.

I'm not really seeing a clear background description of these teas (about plant types and the rest), so I'll move on to review part.  Both the website and the Facebook page are worth a look; some images there definitely back up those idyllic location claims, like this one (photo credit their FB page):

A look at the tea as it grows might also be of interest:

Review:

white left, black right, in all photos

White:  that is actually fairly subtle, but then this is just the first round.  I'll probably need to use an offset timing for both, bumping this one a little and keeping the other quite moderate.  Both I brewed for around 15 seconds this round, which may have this one too light and the other about right, just subtle for being the first round.  It's interesting how a creamy fullness to the texture did come out but flavor range is limited.  What I do taste is creamy in flavor, with nice sweetness, and a hint of something along the line of pine.  I suppose the vague sweetness could be flagged as floral, since that's something of a default.  

It'll be interesting to see how this develops.  If intensity never does pick up this would probably need to be brewed on the strong side, to get flavor input to balance better.

Black:  really interesting.  That savory, sun-dried tomato aspect does stand out as primary, supported by a lot of warm mineral tone.  This is really clean and intense in flavor for this not being brewed strong at all on this initial round.  An astringency and dryness pairs with all that, moderate enough to work well, but unfamiliar now since I've been off better Assam and onto drinking Chinese black teas and Darjeelings this year.  It's not really the feel that pairs with distinctive malt in Assam, but it's not that far from that either.  Mineral is present instead of malt (with a touch of malt).

I remember a fellow favorite blogger saying that she didn't like Ceylon because it tasted like blood to her.  I get why; a warm mineral range can be something that might not work for everyone.  To me a pronounced mineral base is most often a sign the tea is of good quality, a marker for that, relating to older plant input or even to some degree of more-natural growth, versus forced rapid production through monoculture farming approach and use of chemicals to push yield.  This doesn't exactly taste like blood to me but beyond the salt level being lower I suppose that partly works.  

It all balances well enough.  It's a bit early for a lot of discussion of that, the conclusions, but even early on the sweetness, flavor tone, feel, cleanness, and overall balance work.  There's a touch of aftertaste that is a pleasant effect, tied to the heavy mineral and moderate dryness.  It will be interesting to see how this evolves too, but for a different reason, to see how the balance shifts.

Second infusion:

I did use a 10 second timing on the black and out towards 20 on the white.  Proportion probably isn't an exact match, higher for the black tea.  It's like magic how I'm usually able to keep that incredibly consistent without weighing teas but eventually it would be off a little.  I'm not accustomed to white buds not expanding much these days.

White:  really rich and creamy.  I tend to overuse that one term a little, mentioning it when any creaminess is present, but this is different.  Then again I bet that aspect stands out more because the flavor is still so subtle.  The flavor that is present is positive, warm in nature, with complexity but very low intensity.  Someone who loves subtle white teas would be delighted by this.  For people who tend to dislike them it probably just wouldn't work.  Pushing it further by extending infusion strength, going up to 30 seconds, would draw out more intensity, but the effect only goes so far.  Mineral tone (along with some added astringency) extracts more when you do that, versus some lighter range more towards vague floral.  The floral is along the line of chrysanthemum; a bit non-distinct.  

I actually like the tea, it's just not a personal favorite style.  That complexity (within a narrow range) and sophisticated layering only comes up in beyond typical quality level versions.  A little more sweetness would shift how the floral range is perceived, but it is what it is, positive in a different way.

Black:  a lot of clove spice joined this flavor profile; that's different.  That may be the most clove I've ever tasted in any non-flavored tea version.  I love it, but then I love clove.  This is brewed a little light, which for me is pretty close to optimum for what it is.  That probably increases the clove flavor effect, with warm mineral and astringency (related dryness) standing out more at a higher infusion strength.  It's such a cool effect that I want to say more about it but there's nothing more to add.  The scaled back warm mineral works well as more of a base context, and clove really stands out.  Sweetness, feel, and overall balance are good.  Onto the next then.

Third infusion:

White:  evolving, but within a narrow range.  The neutral flavors now include more of a milky tone I would associate with young tree bark.  I guess to put that in more familiar terms it's a bit like a mild root spice, like one part of root beer (sassafras).  It's cool how thick and creamy that feel is, with some base context flavor, a mineral range, without much for higher range.  I like it but there was definitely a time that I wouldn't have.  Sheng that ages to fade to a thick, smooth feel that lacks a lot of forward flavor can be like this.  At first the experience seems to be mainly that of a gap but once you can deal with the shifted expectations thick feel with more mild, somewhat floral flavor range can be pleasant.

Black:  plenty of clove, with more bite to the clove this time, not just the aromatic sweet range from those, but also the sharper edge that joins that spice.  Brewing it slightly stronger may have caused some of that.  

I'm not quite as focused in as usual today, so I'd expect variation in brewing approach to come up more.  The first thing I did this morning, after eating a bowl of breakfast cereal, was to go back to bed for another hour.  A run took it out of me yesterday, and it was a sort of busy week at work (although it seems odd saying that for all that I ever get done).  And all the noise of election news and political protest here adds up, with pandemic tracking a constant underlying theme.  We have no pandemic here; I think we've had 3 or 4 cases of in-country transmission in something like 130 days, exceptions coming up that shouldn't, from causes like people crossing borders through uncontrolled locations.  All the same I'm worried for people in the States and elsewhere, so I keep checking on it.

Fourth infusion:

This should work for final thoughts, even though I'd expect these to be about half finished.  There may be some interesting late-round transitions, but this is enough tasting, writing, and tea consumption for right now.

White:  if you strain to make it out some of the black tea character may come across in this, maybe even the clove, but especially that savory range.  That may be why the overall impression is that of being complex even though flavor intensity is so limited.  Whether that's true or not it does seem like the flavor is quite complex, just a bit muted.  And a full, creamy feel makes up for that, adding depth, and then standing out as the primary thing you experience.  It's interesting.

I did let the next infusion--the fifth, which I'll mention here--run a little longer, and the flavor and character seemed closer to a really mild black tea for that.  It was interesting how sweetness increased along with flavor, and a hint of dryness started toward the mild astringency character in the other.

Black:  mineral is really bumped up this round; that probably is tied to a timing shift.  Just a bit lighter would be more pleasant, letting the spice stand out more.  It's still nice though.  It helps that astringency is so moderate in this that it comes across only as a dry edge, shifting the feel, but not as roughness, so there's no need to "brew around" it.  This is about as much mineral tone as any tea usually has.  For someone who feels like they don't get what that description even means they should try this version.

A next round is much better brewed lighter again.  The clove is pulling way back, with some wood-tone filling in along with that and the spice and mineral, in the range of cured hardwood.  It's still pleasant, just moving towards a brewed-out character.  It should have a couple more really nice rounds in it before a transition seems a lot less pleasant.

Conclusions:

I'm not sure if a general quality level assessment came across as implied in all that.  These are really good teas; nothing like this will probably ever turn up in a grocery store aisle, in any country.  I've only checked on that in a dozen countries so far but it's a good sample.  As far as how good this is in relation to how good Ceylon could possibly get, or how close they are to a type-typical near-best Ceylon example I'm not as clear.  Reasonably far up the scale, I think; maybe not crowded towards the top.  That probably means less for white teas, because those would probably be a less-typical category type to begin with.  

The black tea seemed like really good Ceylon to me; there is that.  That mineral range stands out, kind of the equivalent to a heavy malt tone in Assam for Ceylon being distinctive.  From there refined character, lack of negative astringency, pleasant flavors, and overall balance all determine where the teas stand, per my limited understanding.  To some extent it works to jump from evaluating teas as type-typical and just judge quality; to consider where these stand in relation to Chinese or Indian versions (or from Nepal, etc.).  Preference for aspects that leads into preference for typical types complicates that.

This kind of theme came up in discussion with a vendor and blog author related to his claim that it's possible to do exactly that, to judge teas against an abstract quality level by a set of aspect categories:  Structural Tasting And The Quest For Quality Tea, in a Tillerman Tea blog.  I tend to agree with most of what that guy says, content-wise, and to partly disagree with every set of conclusions that he draws from those specific points.  It's funny how that works out.

He says that you can evaluate Balance, Complexity, Mouthfeel, Length, and Persistence (what I tend to call aftertaste), and also Value, and together those peg how good a tea is.  I would add "trueness to type" to that, but otherwise I'd just be quibbling over minor details and use of terms.  In a sense adding that throws off what he's trying to say, because the idea is that you can evaluate any tea in an abstract and objective way, be it something completely novel (a tea you grew in your basement and processed on your own), or a standard type version.  I guess that you could even run a tisane through the process, but he isn't really going there.  

I should add that "Balance" draws on sweetness level quite a bit.  Or maybe it's that there is an individual balance within how the flavor aspects hang together, and another over-all.  He mentions something about that, "the bitterness and the sweetness work together."  In retrospect that approach really does de-emphasize flavor being of primary importance, or even on par with other aspect range.  Maybe it's just that no one really misses noticing how teas taste, and at one stage in form of appreciation flavor really is seen as secondary.

I think that understating a match to personal preference doesn't necessarily work.  He's on a different sort of project there, trying to work out an objective quality level, but for a tea drinker that's kind of the natural end-point.  As a blogger and reviewer it helps to use that as a yardstick, although it has to be clear when it is the form of measurement being applied, since that would vary by person.

Together trueness to type and match to preference define the experience, along with the rest.  Of course sheng pu'er or oolongs are going to express completely different mouthfeel and aftertaste (or length) range than a Ceylon black tea.  Using something closer to a scale of 1 to 10 per category approach drops out that it's not just about expectation, it's about sets of aspects working well together, which is what is informing personal preference.  Preference for mineral effect makes or breaks one's take on this black tea, and openness to a very light flavor input, filled in by heavier mouthfeel, plays a comparable role in how this white tea will come across.

Based on this yardstick, it's natural to consider how I like both, judged against my preference for teas.  I've already said that I liked the white but it's not in a main range, tied to this factor, for being so subtle.  I love fruity and intense white teas best, like the ones Nepal produces, or Moonlight White (from Yunnan, typically).  For black teas I like fruit range the best for flavor character, along with rich feel, limited astringency, and overall complexity.  I'm essentially describing Dian Hong, Yunnan black, my favorite black tea type, but a good bit of that applies to a Lapsang Souchong that I reviewed recently.  Feel for that tea was structured, complex, and refined, but maybe not as rich and heavy.  Nepal and Darjeeling blacks can be sweet with plenty of fruit, and orthodox Assam covers lots of range these days too.  I guess I'm saying that good Ceylon black is enjoyable but not an absolute personal favorite.

In a sense that's not fair, because if I try a really good Ceylon black every two or three years it's not enough to get my preference to "click over" to focus on that.  I've drank a lot more of all of those other tea types.  There's also a strange thing that happens where you can try a version that absolutely works perfectly for you, then the rest of the range makes a lot more sense, and the same tea that you tried only weeks ago can seem much better.  I'm not sure what that's all about; some strange psychological twist.  There's a pretty good chance that if I tried another dozen Ceylon versions on this level one would prompt that shift, and this tea would seem more on par with other past personal favorites, even if it doesn't quite get there.

It's my take that both these versions aren't giving up much for quality to other teas, although of course the continuum for that just keeps going.  Using Tillerman's approach (not really his name, just the blog name) that could relate to another aspect range filling in a little better.  Maybe, but the theory and models for appreciation only go so far, and in the end you just know how much you like a tea.  I think it's helpful to think through some basis for interpretation, which is why I keep referring to those types of aspect categories.

I really did like these, and it seems like this description probably overkills how much, and in what form, or related to what limitations.

Kandy Ceylon black tea (BOP)

Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), the listed type / grade / leaf presentation

A vendor sent a sample of Ceylon tea to review, not such an unusual thing, but it does come up here more frequently related to other countries.  Kandy Tea is actually selling tea out of Sri Lanka in this case, with a FB contact here, and a website here.  It's odd this doesn't comes up more, people taking up resale-vending local teas in producer countries, versus lots of various themed tea businesses in the US and Europe (and Australia and wherever else too; other places than where the teas are from). 

Per discussion with that local Bangkok Ceylon vendor, SNSS, it's not that simple to buy tea directly from Sri Lankan plantations, related to an auction sales process that isn't just convention but also regulation-restricted forms of sales.  I wouldn't know, from my own experience; just passing that on.


This part of Sri Lanka that the company is named after played a role in the early history of tea there, explained in this CNN article citation:

In 1867 Scottish coffee planter James Taylor, the man who would be recognized as the pioneer of Sri Lanka's tea industry, planted 19 acres of tea near Kandy at an altitude of around 500 meters...

Within 10 years, this lethal fungus led to financial ruin for the island's British coffee planters. Roughly 1,700 left for England while the remaining 400 or so switched to growing tea...

By 1890, the year Thomas Lipton arrived to purchase tea estates, 23,000 tons of tea were exported to London's tea auctions. Ceylon had become an island synonymous with tea.



The description of the location of the tea source could be more specific, but that elevation citation reminds me of their website product description claiming it's coming from higher up:


The Broken Orange Pekoe range falls into the category of High grown and medium grown tea, hailing from the centre of the country’s hills, grown at an elevation 6000ft to 2000ft above sea level. 


To me this particular tea ties to the theme of checking out better Ceylon and Assam versions earlier in this year; I'll be forever really getting to what the best examples of these teas offer. On to this specific version for now.

Review, prepared Western style

I tried this tea twice for this review, first prepared Western style, then a second time Gongfu style (both at work; a bit different).  The results weren't so different, with more details covered later.

from the second tasting instead, of course

The dry tea scent is nice, warm, rich, sweet, a bit malty, and complex, maybe a bit heavy in a nice dried fruit range.

Brewed initially (Western style) the tea is like that, positive, complex,  and well-balanced.  As with other better versions mineral structure plays a role that's hard to describe.  I tend to talk about different kinds of rocks or mineral springs to pin that down but I'm not sure that's ever clear.  It reminds me most of other Ceylon teas I've tried.

It includes a bi of malt, just a softer and lighter presentation than in the Assams I reviewed not long ago. Part of the flavor range is a bit like tamarind, not completely off raisin but not that, maybe extending a little into dried fig.  It could be interpreted as woody but to me that's not right either, something along the lines of leather captures that part better.  I tried the tea again later, brewed a different way, to see if I could dig deeper related to flavors assessment and overall judgement.

Brewed Gongfu style

Some types of black tea make more sense to prepare Gongfu style than others.  I can pass on my thoughts and experience related to that but it seems it would vary with preference quite a bit, different per person. 

I recently tried a Taiwanese black tea, a "honey black," prepared Gongfu style, which worked out much better that way than earlier Western style attempts.  I tasted it that time along with a Dan Cong black, (a Chaozhou area black tea; I'm not sure if that "Dan Cong" description is commonly used for black teas or not).  That second type also probably does work better prepared that way, but I've not also brewed that Western style to check on that.  Sometimes Gongfu style seems to work better for Dian Hong too, for Yunnan black teas, but in some cases the outcome is more the same for both approaches.  For some decent orthodox Assams I tried recently it didn't seem to make much difference.  It almost has to do as much with the tea being touchy about parameters as it being so good that it somehow makes more sense, although it's hard to connect causes to working better with more short infusions versus a lower proportion and longer steep time.


The aspects didn't seem all that different for this tea; the main flavors were still along the lines of mineral, fruit in the range of dried tamarind, hinting towards fig, and earthiness not so far off leather.  It seemed possible to shift around parameters and shift the balance of those, to soften and sweeten the tea using slightly cooler water and lower infusion times, or to emphasize the earthiness by going the other way.  That tone would then move into the range of feel more, picking up a resin-like quality that occurs in some versions of Dian Hong. 

As far as taste goes when pushing the tea a little, brewing it slightly stronger, or using hotter water, it reminded me a little of the woody, unique scent of pine cones.  If the smell of those isn't familiar it's hard to think of anything remotely similar; a bit like that smell of almond or brazil nut shells, but stronger, and a little sharper.  Once I think of that this tea reminds me more of the scent of an almond shell, but that could just be imagination.

Conclusions

So in conclusion brewing it Gongfu style the tea wasn't necessarily better, but it was possible to shift the character a bit within a limited range.  Brewed faster and a little cooler it's possible to accentuate the lighter flavors and sweetness of the tea and using hotter temperature and slightly longer times to draw out a balance of more feel-related aspects.


If I'm describing a high mountain oolong from Taiwan, or a Dian Hong, or other familiar Chinese black teas, once I get through a list of aspects, and how those match up with typical expectations (including flavors description, and some mention of feel and aftertaste, etc.), then bit by bit I would have already said how good the version is.  At the end of reviews sometimes I'll clarify that, even if I don't try to put a particular tea on some sort of scale.


I hoped to guess a bit more at just how good this tea really is, even though doing that really is optional, and atypical in most blog reviews.  It doesn't helped that I've only tried a single-digit count of better versions of Ceylon teas (described in a number of separate posts).  Of course it's worlds away from CTC versions (ground-up machine-processed tea), but that's not saying much.  It's like saying that it's better than any orthodox teas one buys in a grocery store; of course it is, but better Ceylon doesn't turn up in grocery stores, per my own experience.  It's on a similar level as those better Assam versions I'd recently been drinking.  It's "good tea," but I suspect still in the middle of a range of what I would consider good teas, with room for improvement related to the best orthodox Ceylon.

How would I know that, since I'm really only claiming that this tea is about as good as the best of the other Ceylon I've tried?  I don't know it, for sure.  I'm extrapolating what I've experienced from Chinese black teas, and others.  At this quality level the flavors and other aspects balance is quite nice, positive and distinct, good on different levels beyond flavor, with no noticeable flaws in the tea.  For even better teas aspects tend to become more refined though; complexity can pick up, and style differences related to exhibiting unique character can improve.  Feel won't improve that much, for black teas, but it can still thicken and venture into different textures. 

It is a bit bizarre for me to say this isn't as good as the best Ceylon has to offer, while at the same time claiming that it's as good as any I've tried, but so reviewing in this blog tends to go.  At times I try to explain what I don't know.  Perhaps that last extrapolation analysis is a case of a "fool rushing in, where angels fear to tread."

one of the two blog mascots, even posing a little

SNSS (Bangkok wholesale vendor) Ceylon review

I'm finally reviewing a Ceylon (Sri Lanka black tea) sample from that Bangkok tea expo awhile back, from the SNSS vendor.  They are really a wholesale seller, with more about all that in this post.

It's a bit odd reviewing a tea as "Ceylon," not considering more about sub-region or plantation, similar to reviewing something as a Chinese black tea or Taiwanese oolong; not so descriptive.  It was labeled as OP 1, per my understanding meaning that the leaves aren't very broken.  The vendor knows where it came from, a plantation source, it just wasn't passed on along with that information.

SNSS isn't really a retail sales vendor, and I sort of picked up a sample in passing at the event.  They weren't set up with lots of retail portions there but in retrospect I probably should have pressed to get a bit more tea, not squeezing them for more samples--full disclosure:  they didn't charge me for this--but just to have more to drink.

The tea is probably going to be what I expected, like decent Ceylon, a bit malty, with some astringency but still moderate related to that, etc., so to mix it up I will try it with and without milk.  I don't remember the last time that I tried adding milk to any plain tea (eg. not masala chai), so that will be different for me.

Review

The tea is nice, malty, with a touch of astringency but not too much, with a bit of mineral below that, as expected.  That mineral is the interesting part, hard to pin down.  Another blogger once said Ceylon tastes like blood to her (Amanda of My Thoughts are Like Butterflies, a cool blog), and that might work for a start, but in a nice sense (not how she was using that description).

I would probably just say "mineral" instead, and not get into rocks or bodily fluids for comparison.

A discussion came up about Chinese black teas seeming astringent recently (and malty too), and this tea isn't overly astringent.  Normally it wouldn't cross my mind to add milk or anything else to it.  The sweetness and balance is nice.

Beyond malt, a trace of astringency,  and some mineral there are mild earthy tones adding complexity,  it's just hard defining them since they really don't stand out.  Maybe it's also a touch woody, like cedar or redwood.  That mineral reminds me a little of a struck match too, maybe more so than any kind of rock.  It's odd that I'm saying that the aspects are nice but these specific descriptions don't sound positive.  As much as a tea tasting like blood, a struck match, and a humidor could taste nice this really does; the balance works well, it's clean in effect, with a good level of sweetness.

Tea with milk

On the next infusion I tasted the tea before adulterating it with milk. The mineral taste was a little stronger but otherwise it was the same.  Then I put milk in it.

It tastes like black tea with milk added; a lot less distinct in character.  Maybe I can tell this isn't Lipton but part of that may relate to already knowing that it's not.  It's hard to pick out anything but "black tea with milk."  It's definitely not astringent, but then it wasn't before.  I might as well add sugar at this point but I won't.  I was thinking that I might still be able to detect some of the character, the flavor, in spite of diluting it, but not so much.  It would probably be better brewed stronger than I drink plain teas, and more astringency in the aspects profile might work better, since this might be a bit too soft with the milk added.


That was pointless.  I could swear that I tried relatively decent black tea with milk some years back and liked it better then, but who knows.  That could relate to preference shift, using a different tea, or just bad memory.  I brewed this tea a third time and the results weren't as good as the first two, a bit woody for stretching the infusion time to maintain the infusion strength (using Western parameters), so all typical enough.

work canteen; the view in my tasting room

Conclusion

I should have more of this tea to keep drinking it.  I liked it better than any green tea I've been trying (my least favorite type), to put it on a scale, but it doesn't match my preferences as well as most Chinese or Taiwanese black teas.  For novelty I'd probably enjoy some more than mid-grade Chinese tea types that match my preference for type better, I just wouldn't want to drink a lot of it.  I could really enjoy 50 grams for trying something different, but 100 would probably stick around awhile, and if I had 200 I'd probably end up giving some away.  I guess it could work well as a breakfast tea, so maybe not.  It's the right aspects range for that time of day, and it's nice having teas that aren't challenging for then, something I don't really feel a need to gongfu brew and focus on for an hour.  Apparently I'm not so into black tea with milk, so maybe I'd stick to drinking it plain instead.


These guys are local but since they're set up for wholesale vending in order to run across more I'll have to arrange to meet them instead of drifting into a shop somewhere.  They import the tea themselves, so there is more information about the sources available.  They bought this directly from a plantation, per my understanding.


I've tried silver tips and gold tips from them too, so they also do carry some more interesting teas, but they do more with supplying local shops with more standard versions.  It works out to be a relatively unique option here since I only know of one other vendor selling better Ceylon in Bangkok, and at a guess they would probably sell a tea that is nearly identical to this one for a lot more.  But then that's how sales from different types of suppliers tends to go.

doing crazy eyes

Ceylon tea tasting with SNSS (a Bangkok wholesale vendor)

from left:  two black teas, silver tips, and gold tips

Last year I attended a Bangkok coffee and tea expo and tried out some nice Ceylon there, from the SNSS wholesale tea distribution company (with a post about that event here).  To be honest I don't have a lot of depth of experience with teas from Sri Lanka (better versions; ordinary commercial lower-quality tea is a different thing).  I tried a couple of Malou versions at Luka cafe in Sathorn (with posts on that here and here).  Their Ceylon Peony / Bai Mu Dan style tea really did grow on me after buying some and drinking it for awhile.  The taste range was much different than for Chinese teas, or other South East Asian or Indian tea versions, mild but with interesting subtle earth and mineral tones.

I'd meant to get around to trying SNSS's gold tips, which they were out of at the time of that expo.  The idea is that it's white tea similar to silver tips, just different (which is similar to silver needle teas, just different, probably related to processing differences in addition terroir influenced variation).  I did buy a really nice version of a black tea from them then that I seem to have not reviewed in this blog.

So after the better part of a year of infrequent contact we finally set up a time to meet again, the owners and I.  I didn't know what to expect, and didn't realize one of their owners was from Sri Lanka (Poorna Perera).  Not that their nationality changes things, but the closer ties to original sourcing does, which I'll just touch on a little here.  The meeting was set up as an informal private tasting; nice enough.  But a little back-story on them first.  This never does get far as a biographical account, covering who they are, and relations to other existing business and interests, but there is more story there I didn't cover.

They are an importer, with connections within Sri Lanka as a tea buyer there, so not just a reseller based here.  Their focus is providing local shops and businesses with true single-origin Ceylon teas, not large-lot teas blended from different production batches to offset flaws in those.  All familiar ground, right?  They also emphasize freshness as a selling point.  There is no way to know how fresh or old more typical by-the-container-load Ceylon teas sold here are, but SNSS is controlling their own tea sourcing, from the auction purchase step through bringing it here, so they know.

I might have smiled

We talked a good bit about how tea buying and sales go in Sri Lanka, and how importing tea goes here.  It turns out they could also function as an exporter to other countries, given that their range of operation spans the initial sourcing chain.  And it turns out that buying process is very complicated in Sri Lanka, nothing like in Thailand.  It's my understanding that here if you turn up at a plantation you can buy a kilogram of tea or as much as you want, with next to no regulations about the purchase process or resale process, beyond taxes applying.

Import taxes in Thailand are kind of on the high side for lots of things in Thailand, not something it's easy to miss noticing, and that's true of tea as well.  We just visited the States (US), where I'm from, and we stock up on all sorts of things there, some because selection is different, and some because the same products imported to the US and to Thailand cost different amounts due to taxation.  Some examples:  shoes are less expensive there, and toys, bikes, tools, vitamins, lots of things.

Of course Trump is about to try and screw that up, through the US levying additional taxes on the import side, with the resulting trade wars not likely to stop there.  But it's probably as well to stay off the subject of politics.

One other subject we talked a lot about was demand for teas here.  Thais drink a lot of bottled tea and bubble / milk tea, and beyond that lemon tea and "Thai tea" (a spice-flavored variation of milk tea, or some versions are just black tea and condensed milk).  Thailand produces black tea and decent oolong but most Thais don't drink much of the latter, or foreign-imported versions.  One might run across exceptions to that rule in Chinatown, or of course in the Japanese community, but specialty shops selling a normal range of blends and plain teas are slow to ramp up here.  There are some exceptions, which of course I've written about.  As for Ceylon, container loads are surely being brought in and used for those milk-tea versions but few people have ever heard of gold tips or that Ceylon version of Peony / Bai Mu Dan.

On to the tasting part then, how that went.

a bit off subject, but I took a ferry to meet them, like a bus but on the river

Tasting

It was interesting experiencing the format of the tasting, closer to standard plantation tasting practices than I'm used to (with a post related to that here, more formal processes of preparing and judging teas).  We first tried those gold tips and their silver tips, another general type (white tea) that works well brewed using a Western approach.  I prepare tea in different ways, often using a Western style modified as closer to Gongfu brewing, varying how I make each tea based on past experience and preference, or immediate inclination.  In lots of cases I switch that to a more conventional Gongfu approach for reviews to keep it more standard, to observe the range of flavor aspects better.  I more often use Western brewing in the case of black tea, or a variation of it, but I'm not consistent about that.

Gongfu-style brewing Yunnan black tea recently; why not

The gold tips were interesting.  I didn't make notes, and didn't retain enough--or probably pick up enough--to do them justice with a flavor-by-flavor review here, but the general character was along the lines of that Peony.  The tea is subtle, so that at first one might not pick up much at all, and it could seem a little thin, but after even a very short acclimation and expectations shift a range of earthy and mineral tones was evident.  I've had a similar experience with white teas in general, just over a longer period of time and acclimation.  That tea was nice, sort of what one would expect, in between a Chinese white tea and a mineral-intensive black tea, just not astringent.  I think tweaking preparation style to move off a more straight Western brewing approach would work better for me too.  Lets say a little more about that, brewing.

at that Expo last year; they carry a lot of different teas

Per my understanding formal tasting often uses a very rigid and consistent approach to allow for teas to be tasted under the exact same brewing process conditions (see that other post for more details).  The point isn't to adjust brewing to optimize a tea to preference, it's to use a very standard approach to take variables out of the equation.


I've ran across the idea that it's accepted that some standard approach versions "overbrew" tea related to a typical end-consumer optimum, in part tied to the idea of process standardization, and also to allow for stronger infusion to highlight character and flaws in the tea.  One implied premise seems to be that someone could "taste around" that approach and guess out where a different and more optimum preparation might lead, and with enough experience it seems reasonable that could work.


To an end consumer it would be more intuitive to adjust brewing to optimize the tea instead, but that line of thinking would run into problems for consistent evaluation if someone thought they should brew different teas in different ways.  Really a tea buyer could take whatever approach they wanted, within the scope of that working with providers' support.  A reputable source in Indian tea production once mentioned some buyers prefer to do tastings of tea with some milk and sugar added, the opposite approach related to everything I've just said.

Per normal practice that type of tasting is done with a spoon, emphasizing slurping to increase exposure of air-born flavor components within the nasal passages.  All that is familiar ground, something I did more of related to tasting wine a lifetime ago, and some with tea too, but it's a practice I'm out of the habit of.  I could've switched over and embraced it, but instead they poured a bit into cups for me to try as I'm accustomed to.  I had more going on to adapt to as things stood, trying unfamiliar teas brewed using approaches different than I normally would use.

I didn't like the silver tips as much as the gold tips, and the other black teas were interesting.  This led to another deviation from my normal tea-drinking practices:  they didn't have a version of whole leaf tea to try at this meeting (OP, or orange pekoe, versus more Broken Orange Pekoe, with more on those letter codes in this general reference, or a longer version here).  We tried three grades of black tea, here used in the sense of tea wholeness, not the standard English meaning of "quality," but instead of leaf presentation, how whole.  Two looked like well-chopped leaves to me, and the other looked as it was named:  dust.

that Malou Ceylon Peony (really a different subject)

It was interesting that the color and taste varied by a lot more than just due to astringency ramping up the more the leaves were broken, although that did happen too.  I've been drinking some soft and sweet Taiwanese black tea lately, and just reviewed a really good Yunnan black tea, and of course these were nothing like those, ranging from only slightly brisk to downright edgy.  Other mineral and earth tones were part of the other variation.  One tea was quite nice, distinctive and pleasant, another interesting but not as close a match to my own preference, and that dust was a bit rough.

It's hard to steer all of this to some simple conclusion.  I'll meet them again sometime and pick up more of a couple kinds and mess around with them, and do a more detailed review then.  There is surely a lot more range of experience I haven't crossed into related to Ceylon, but then I knew that.  I'm not sure how I see all of this relating to Thai tea drinking practices.  They can sell the less expensive versions to vendors making milk tea, in high demand here, but there is an awareness gap to jump before anyone in Bangkok starts drinking more of those interesting teas.

Malou teas--the Luka cafe supplier--has been chipping away at that, but I'm not sure how much ground they've covered yet.  Ordinarily it would seem odd mentioning a competitor in a blog post, as I've been doing here, but it seems these two vendors really are working on different ranges within one country-origin tea type.  Malou is trying to sell relatively high end teas through established connections, even branching into ready to drink, and SNSS is trying to ramp up business as a general wholesale seller.  Of course there could be some overlap but the core focuses are different.

It remains to be seen if SNSS can push further into having cafes and other resellers join them in supporting consumer awareness and selling better Ceylon, or if they'll stick to being an upstream supplier for milk teas.  I'm a big fan of Chinese teas (and Taiwanese, Indian, Nepalese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, etc., and Thai teas can be ok) but based on trying a limited number of nicer Ceylon those really do deserve more attention.

Visiting Tea Village in Pattaya, Thailand, and about a Bai Mu Dan

Last week I visited the Tea Village shop in Pattaya, Thailand, the closest beach resort area to Bangkok, where I live.  Pattaya is famous for adult themed nightlife but we go there mostly for our kids to play in a hotel pool.  I had a nice visit with the owners, who had added a nice tea tasting area to a standard tea shop environment, a bit small but very well designed and comfortable, a great place to drink tea and chat.

a Pattaya show-girl, one of the main attractions there

I mention their Thai version of Bai Hao / Oriental Beauty most often in posts, a really nice tea.  This time I picked up some of a Bai Mu Dan / Peony, a Chinese white tea I missed out on the last time I ordered tea from them since I gave away what I bought earlier this year, to a monk and to a friend that visited.  I've had other versions before, and tried theirs, so I was really looking forward to drinking it again.

Thailand's most interesting tea drinker (nah, just kidding)

I suppose there's lots more I could say about the shop, their selection, tea-ware options there (which I didn't get around to reviewing much for talking too much), but I'll just mention that it's really worth a stop if you visit Pattaya, and they do sell online.


Those two teas I mentioned are in the range of mid-range quality tea pricing, and good value for that given what they are.  Some of the more modest Thai teas they sell are quite inexpensive, a good value for a different reason, and they carry different tisanes (herbs and floral teas), and blends, good for catering to a broad range of tastes.  Some other Thai tea vendors are set up more for sourcing the highest levels of specialty teas but demand is so limited that it also sort of doesn't come up much.

Review of the Bai Mu Dan / Peony style white tea

The general profile is familiar from drinking a Ceylon version of a Peony / Bai Mu Dan lately.  It's subtle, rich, and full, but light in terms of how flavors stand out, altogether a nice balance.  Flavors that do emerge are light hay, along the line of sunflower seed, and some light floral, like the less sweet and aromatic aspects of chrysanthemum range.  Or maybe chamomile is closest, but with a little more going on.



The rest, the general effect, is hard to describe.  It's smooth, full in feel, clean, and subtle, but complex (in a limited sense).  Based on the dry and brewed tea color the oxidation level is relatively low, not far from a green tea, in the light oolong level, but there is no astringency at all, no grassiness, and it's not vegetal.

I could imagine people loving this style of tea or not liking it at all,  even more than for other types.  It's so light in terms of pronounced flavors that it's almost odd that I like it as much as I do, since I generally prefer more oxidized oolongs and black teas.


That Ceylon Bai Mu Dan version (which I had reviewed in this post, a tea originally made by Ebony Springs that I tried from Luka cafe) is interesting for sharing so much common ground and also for being so different.  The richness, complexity,  and subtlety are the same but the flavors profile is different.  It expresses very light mineral tones, extending into a light wood or hay range, where the teas' aspects start to overlap, and there is one more aspect I couldn't place as easily.

that Ceylon, like a Bai Mu Dan, a bit broken for being the end of the bag

Mineral is really a range, of course,  different for high mountain Taiwanese teas, Wuyi Yancha, and Vietnamese green teas.  I can't specify a rock for that Ceylon but it reminds me of the smell of red clay.  There is no mineral component in the Tea Village version, and neither tea is particularly sweet.  There is an effect of brightness and freshness that isn't easy to trace to other individual aspects, in both, maybe more a part of the Chinese version style.

After drinking through nearly 50 grams of the Ceylon Bai Mu Dan I've got it, related to that one element that was hard to place:  forest floor!  You just never get to say that, even though it turns up on those tea flavor wheels, and it sounds like a tea might eventually taste like that.

fall color in Western PA (photo credit)

I'll add a little more about the "forest floor" idea, although I'd expect that would be familiar ground for many.  Different forests smell different, and the same places smell differently at various times of the year.  It could be intended to mean the same thing as peat, or it could be used quite differently.  I'm from Western Pennsylvania, so I really do miss that fresh, fragrant, intense vegetal smell of the spring forest, or the warmer, woodier, more diverse summer smell, dryer and more earthy then, and especially that rich, warm, almost root or bark spice intensive smell of the fall leaves.  Colorado mountain forests were more subtle in general, with the smell of rocks playing a larger role, and with vegetal tones like sage coming across in places.

This tea smells (tastes) more like fall, like the heaps of oak and maple leaves that are beautiful to see before they fall.  As a child I would pile up those leaves and play in them, and stuff clothes with them to make something like a scarecrow; it's a familiar smell.  The forest smell includes the ground too, and that matches with the very subdued mineral tones.

How to summarize?  Bai Mu Dan style teas can be nice, and diverse.  Floral and sweeter elements could've potentially been more pronounced in both but the aspects and profiles they did have worked really well; no need for all lighter teas to be fruity or floral and sweet.