Taking up yoga (2); good basics videos

Kapil, my instructor there

I'm posting this mostly to include the references in the second part of the title, sharing some good, short instructional yoga videos my local studio made (Yog Aria), for the pandemic period practice, when they were closed.   All of Thailand was closed.

That pandemic is essentially over here in Thailand, but in other places people really should keep social contact limited.  Here we just had two new corona virus cases from two people visiting from overseas, potentially relating to unknown cases that have yet to turn up.  I suppose it's good that maintaining the isolation of the country is a major problem, with serious side-effects, but corona virus exposure risk really isn't, at this point.


In this post I mentioned how odd it was taking up a sport that I'm bad at.  I did a little stretching over the three month quarantine break here, mostly a modified version of the sun salutation cycle, but I'm right back to experiencing that gap in proficiency again, for the last three weekends in a row.  That rest time involved recovering from a knee injury, which is mostly better now but seemingly essentially permanent.

Kalani is helping by instructing me a little on the side, once based on a "yoga for kids" video and once on her own.  It's crazy how flexible she is, and how good her balance is.  She did classes in ballet and hip-hop dance, so it's no surprise.

a recent image of my little guru, doing a serious model pose

yoga on the go, as part of posing for pictures

About yoga practice styles and Yog Aria

I'm not the best person to have developed opinion on how practice and instruction varies, but I want to share my impression anyway.  I did yoga on my own as preparation for snowboarding a very long time ago.  That was really before yoga became as common as it now is, back in the early 90s (right, I'm getting old).  That's definitely not intended as any sort of baseline, because I had no idea what I was doing, using a basic guide to do a limited number of basic poses.  I would hold those for an indefinite time, until my body relaxed into that position.  The classes I now take involve a relatively opposite approach.

It's more like a work-out, a fast paced run-through of linked sequences of poses.  Kapil described that as a modern interpretation of traditional yoga, incorporating some degree of conditioning with other balance and flexibility aspects.  It works; I come out of those one hour sessions kind of beaten up.

I think my own current physical gap is flexibility related, not conditioning, but it works for both, forcing me to stretch in ways I barely can, or sometimes can't.  I suppose there could be more emphasis on the balance aspect in what I've experienced, but that's not really one of my own main concerns.  My balance is ok, strength and cardio conditioning are pretty good, but flexibility is horrible.  That's office work for you, the result of sitting at a desk for a dozen years, gradually changing my posture to resemble a question mark.

Related to my practice, it would go better if I put more time in between once-a-week Saturday or Sunday sessions, but my days are pretty full.  Sparing a second weekend hour is also problematic; lots of things come up with the kids, and it's appropriate to make those a priority.  Even tea reviewing keeps getting bumped.

I was just trying to figure out which to go to on the weekend; three of those look good

Of course they do have different classes, with different levels of difficulty, emphasis on stretching versus work-out, or following traditional themes versus other developed scope.  The last class I did was "twisting;" that was rough.  At least I'm more comfortable being able to do some but not all of the positions now.  It's a stretch to say I've made much progress but at least the activity is more familiar, and I'm probably slightly more flexible.

It seems a little unfair that all those 100 pound Thai women have almost no muscle mass to stretch.  In thinking that context through muscle mass serves no purpose beyond aesthetics, until you want to pick up something heavy, or I guess to run, in the case of lower-body.

they don't have yoga for kids but they did do a promotional session once, and do private classes

Others would know how all of this maps onto other forms of practice better.  To some extent I'm not really shopping around for the best fit or a certain style.  That studio is near our house, the expense is reasonable, and I like the instructor, Kapil.  He seems competent and genuine, and the practice seems fine to me.  It would be nice if I had a more normal picture of him, not doing a crazy pose with an inspirational saying, but I never snap any shots while there.

Kapil (credit their FB page)

The subject of his title might come to mind; is he a yoga instructor (how I frame that, as a teacher), or instead a guru or master?  It relates to a divide in use of such terms related to tea, discussed in this post.  I can see why people might like those romantic images, and feel an attraction towards defining a role that extends beyond that of teacher.  I just don't.


Someone who doesn't do yoga might wonder, just how strange is the subculture, and how much does that aspect play a role?  I've attended a seminar session at a local health and wellness group that was more about that kind of thing, where it looked like you should get a tattoo and wear some Indian clothes to fit in, and should eat some turmeric afterwards.  No one seems to be a member of that sub-culture in this studio, just normal, upper-middle-class local people.  Mind you I have nothing against New Age inspired modern culture; I was into more of that myself awhile back, and Buddhism is a personal interest, along with tea.

tea group themes definitely go there; it's a decent fit

Yoga is partly about keeping up with wearing trendy yoga clothes, but even that they don't overdo in this place.  I suppose it's because I live in an older, traditional part of Bangkok, near a moderate size university, in Dusit. 

It could potentially be difficult to access for local foreigners, since Ari is the closest foreigner oriented neighborhood, but that's 15 minutes drive away, or longer if traffic is bad.  It's not so far from a river ferry pier, Thewet, but lots of people don't use those.  They should; it's by far the coolest way to get around the city, and it costs about 50 cents.  It's just that most of newer housing options are near sky-train and subway stations, and not the river.

the pier at Chinatown

it's like a bus, but you can stand towards the back if you would rather

Reference videos:

I had intended to use these for more practice during the pandemic, but my knee needed rest, and I worked from home instead of taking a break from working, so I kept busy.  There are others linked to on their Facebook page, but these get the point across:


Sun salutation

Core strength

20 minutes basic practice

Yoga for better sleep

Vital Vinyasa (part 1 of 2)

Blind tasting Huang Tan, an oolong sample from the Jip Eu shop

unusual to see mixed colors

that's what it is, right there

In a variation on blind tasting I'm trying a tea sample Jip Eu passed on that I don't remember the type of.  I asked them based on sending a picture of the Chinese characters, so I will know within an hour or two, most likely in the middle of this tasting.

It looks vaguely like a Wuyi Yancha, but not that close though, since this leaf presentation isn't familiar, not really twisted (that style), or rolled or flattened for that matter.  Since that's the type they sell most of I'm automatically inclined towards guessing that range, so I'm thinking maybe it's a Shui Xian, even though it shouldn't be that green, or mixed in color.  It wouldn't be that hard to check that; I could just look up what those characters are.  Or it is possible to use a text character reader online based on using the image.  But both would cancel out the intrigue of a blind tasting.

Trying it initially you mostly just taste roast; more indication it might be Wuyi Yancha.  The tea character under that doesn't stand out much compared to the roast effect at this point.

The tea isn't bad, it's just not exceptional (much as I can judge it at all; it'll take another couple of infusions to).  It's not in the fruity style I like, as Cindy's teas tend to be, and I'm not noticing pronounced cinnamon either (that earthy version of it from Rou Gui).  It doesn't express the subtle, perfume or liquor like aspect that relates to a number of different Wuyi Yancha types.  I suppose people might say those teas exhibit aroma more than flavor, but I don't tend to rely on or even refer to that divide much in reviewing, unless it comes up in a tea comparison contrast.

That leaves this tasting a bit woody.  There is a bit to the aroma part, a hint towards that cognac / liqueur effect.  The flavor is ok, and the body and the rest of the balance is fine.  The roast level doesn't overwhelm the tea, in one sense, but in this initial infusion it's not balanced, a bit too strong.  It has a vegetal edge to it that implies the oxidation level is low.  It's far from green range but seemingly not in the standard level for oolongs, especially Wuyi Yancha / Fujian rock oolong.  The optimum is "balanced" of course, so that you don't even notice the parts of how the final effect occurred.

still opening up; still different colors

I wouldn't be surprised if this was more than one tea, blended versus being a single type.  Beyond the different colors making sense that would account for a couple types of character ranges seeming to come across, the more pronounced roast, the lower oxidation level "green wood" effect, and the liqueur like flavor / aroma range.  All that integrates better than it might sound it does but it makes for a broad set.

Second infusion:  it pulls together a little more.  That earlier speculation was too much to extract for interpretation from one light infusion; we'll see what I change my mind on.

The leaves are different colors, easier to sort out when a bit wet; it looks more like a blend now, or it could just be that they used different types of leaves, including the older yellow / huang pian ones.  The flavor gains complexity in this round, and the roast integrates better.  The roast effect is picking up, in one sense, and dropping out in another.  It changes and deepens but other flavor range increases.  I think this is better tea than I judged it to be in the first round.  An old-furniture effect kicks in, not my favorite range for roasted oolongs but it can be nice in the right balance and combination.  The wood aspect comes across as fresher, picking up even more vegetal character, that's still overwhelmed a bit by all the rest.  One aspect trailing into a liqueur effect gives it an extra dimension.  All this could be horrible if it didn't balance, but it does.

those Ong Yong Choon shop owners were really nice

Since it's moving away from typical Wuyi Yancha character as it develops--much as it ever expressed that--I really don't know what it is.  It's too green and too vegetal to be that, at least in forms I'm familiar with.  I've had Tie Kuan Yin that wasn't so far off this before (from the local Ong Yong Choon shop, reviewed here, the one beside Wat Pho and the flower market).  TKY can be vegetal, and they're often floral, often roasted to different levels (just more often not roasted much at all), but they're not typically like this.  They tend to be smooth and sweet, and this vegetal green wood edge isn't standard.


The "blind" part of this tasting just went by the wayside; the owners of the Jip Eu shop told me what it is by message:

it's one kind of oolong tea , some thing like tie-kwan-yin>>>Huang Tan

That explains some things, why I'm having trouble making sense of those aspects.  That green wood tone leans a little towards vegetal not so far from corn, it's just not that.  The roast level makes sense with the one other style of Tie Kuan Yin, not the bright green version, the roasted kind.  That often gets prepared as tea burned to a cinder but really it doesn't have to be like that.  This was lightly oxidized (I got that part right), with a medium level roast.  I guess that could be seen as upper-medium or lower-medium, depending on an interpretation bias in expecting really charred tea or not thinking that's normal.  I think the teas one runs across that are blackened probably don't represent any traditional style; they're just overcooked (over-roasted), maybe by accident or maybe to cover something else wrong with the tea.

If this tea had been rolled I would've been interpreting it quite differently.  Maybe not the aspects, so much, but how to make sense of them.

That's the last piece to this puzzle, that different quality levels of tea express aspects differently and come across differently.  Inexpensive Shui Xian isn't the same thing as much better versions of Shui Xian.  That's true too of Tie Kuan Yin, a bit closer to this version, but in a different sense.  Inexpensive Shui Xian are often a blend of different versions, and a higher level of roast can be used to mask limitations in the tea, or to bring an old version back to life.

This tea would be very good for an inexpensive tea, and quite limited for an expensive version.  It's in the middle.  It doesn't have enough flaws or limitations to come across as "cheap tea," and it has too much going for it.  It's not standard; that preparation style and mix of colors seems a bit unusual, as does the set of aspects.  It also doesn't express the strong positive aspect range, unified character type, and really nice overall balance of a more expensive, higher quality tea.  To associate local pricing with that, based on this Jip Eu shop, they sell really nice Wuyi Yancha for 1000 baht for 100 grams, or $15 per 50 grams, and the Shui Xian types extend across a range that runs really low in price at the lower end, maybe a quarter of that or less.


I asked and they sell this tea for 250 baht per 120 grams ($8 or so), priced on that low side.  For that it's quite good tea, I think, and maybe they should charge a little more than that.  It is unconventional though; that might make it harder to sell.  They added a little more detail in discussion:


Its not wuyi yancha, It's from unsi-fujian.  I think this tea that you just taste it , now is old one, may be about 2 years, so the taste and flavor are change much more.  It's better when new one, have flavor of flower, tea leaves look more green colour.  This kind of tea not good for keep.


Usually I edit English use to clean it up but I'll pass on how they expressed that since it's very clear.  So all that is the last of the puzzle; aging muted flavors that worked better when fresh, for this particular version.  A re-roast might have even brought the taste back to life (might have occurred, I mean, accounting for the roast level / initial char effect).  It's not ideal for the type due to aging, according to that input, but it probably started out as a pretty good tea, just maybe not great.

On the next infusion it doesn't transition much.  Those flavors are integrating better as infusions go on.  The roast level and the old-furniture effect are dropping back, with plenty of green wood towards other vegetal character remaining, taking over the balance.  It's interesting; different.  It's hard to imagine this being someone's favorite type of tea but it's well worth experiencing.  I said that about that recent Moychay Guangdong oolong too, a Bao Ing Huan Zhi, and probably about that Ong Yong Choon version too.  I think this is a little sweeter than that Moychay oolong, which does help those aspects come together.


It's not as if I'm just being nice, or biased, in describing an unusual tea that doesn't match my standard preferences so positively.  Trying different styles of tea is interesting.  It's also more pleasant when the aspects really click with you, and I can appreciate this version and range but I've loved almost all that I've tried from Jip Eu more.  I'm not so into TKY (or teas like that), and types along that line I do like best are softer, "rounder," sweeter, more floral versions, or the creamy Jin Xuan versions, or intense mineral and floral high mountain Taiwanese types.  Medium roasted lightly oxidized teas seem a bit odd, to me.  Add more initial oxidation level, more like a Dong Ding style, or other teas described as "red oolong," and that's back to working better per my preference, a step closer to a black tea.

The next infusion--4 or 5 maybe--is even better.  It's much more aromatic, picking up cleaner, brighter flavor range, with a bit more perfume-like character coming across.  The flavor extends slightly from the earlier liqueur range towards floral, it just doesn't really come across as mostly that.  Even sweetness picks up just a little.

I might share some of this at the tasting I have planned for this weekend (for tomorrow, now), although it's not a natural fit for that.  It's not a standard type, not necessarily beginner range for aspects, but it is interesting.

I might also mention that I tried this the next day as a cold-brewed version, setting it aside in a tea bottle in lukewarm water in the refrigerator, at around where these notes end in the brewing cycle session.  It is possible to just let the leaves sit and brew more later in the day too, or even the next day, but the hot, humid weather in Bangkok isn't as ideal for storing tea leaves for a day.  Cold brewing draws out more sweetness and moderates astringency in teas, if there is any.  This was really nice made that way.  It didn't have any astringency to work around but the intensity and sweetness dialed way up, which worked well with that floral range.  The roast "char" and old furniture flavor dropped out, maybe due to the difference in brewing approach, or as likely they were naturally only going to come out more in earlier infusions, just part of that brewing transition.

not long after that session, at the local zoo (where I'll hold that tasting)

A short tangent about other Chinese oolongs

It may or may not be familiar but if you walk around cities like Beijing and Shanghai there are two types of teas you see most often:  light rolled oolongs, either inexpensive TKY or teas made like that, and Longjing style green teas, probably various interpretations of the original region based version as often as actually being that.  I can relate to why.  Teas just a bit off those in style, like this one, can be quite nice, but there's something really catchy and easy to relate to in those two other forms, even in inexpensive versions.  Jip Eu does sell a range of different Tie Kuan Yin, but the real Anxi origin versions, since that owner has family in both the Wuyishan area and there.  I just don't say much about them since I've always been more into Wuyi Yancha (for a number of years now, anyway), so when I visit there I try those and end up buying mostly that.

at the Forbidden City; it's not easy to look more like tourists than this

It's not clear that the same impression wouldn't come across in Bangkok, about a limited set of standard, lower quality teas being much more common.  I may just be referring to what you see when you don't dig a little deeper, into varying range and better quality teas.  I'll add some photos of a last visit to the Bangkok Chinatown that I don't think I mentioned at the end to show what I mean by that.


Two versions of mid-range Dan Cong I've tried from Jip Eu point out another alternative I'd tend to go with from there (since this has bridged over into talking about different oolong types, rather than just being that review).  "Good mid-range commercial Dan Cong" really could be seen as a mix of terms that don't go together, an oxymoron, but if you go there and try some--assuming they have some open--you could experience it yourself.  Those versions I tried were fresh, lightly oxidized, lightly roasted, very fruity oolong, just not quite as subtle and intense as the higher quality level versions.

I bought a standard glass teapot here for use in tastings

I've been meaning to get around to trying some of the inexpensive, large-jar stored teas from the Chinatown Yaowarat Soi 6 shops as an experiment.  They wouldn't cost much, and I'd see what different moderate quality tea versions are like.

I bought some small cups at this shop a couple weeks ago too

these!  3 for 100 baht, or $1 each, not bad.

Wat Traimitr Withayaram Worawihan (on the other side)

Moychay Bao Ing Huan Zhi Guangdong area oolong

I'm reviewing a Moychay Bao Ing Huan Zhi Guangdong area oolong, a tea I didn't know too much about going in.  It's usually as well not to read the vendor description when doing a tea review, although sometimes I will, and I didn't for this one.

I don't typically mention the vendor description first in review write-ups either, but this it:


«The Aroma of Huang Zhi Flower» is made of autumn tea shoots (harvest 2017, moderated fermentation, medium heat).

In appearance: large flagella of twisted, dark green and brown leaves. The aroma is restrained, spicy with a note of baked chestnuts. The infusion is transparent with yellow pear shade.

The bouquet of brewed tea is bright, spicy-floral with herbaceous, woody, coniferous and berry notes. The aroma calm, spicy-floral. The taste is juicy, sweetish, a bit tart, with cool spicy nuances, transforming into lingering finish.


Interpretations of aspects tend to vary among different reviewers but the tea will be a bit like that; they seem to never be that far off.

Review

The initial infusion is interesting; complex, a little tart, with some indication that richer flavors and brighter tones will emerge.  There's a bit of green wood to the taste; this astringency character seems to not be familiar, although an oolong I just tried wasn't too far off in that regard.  It seems like fruit range might pick up but that's faint at this round.  A little old furniture taste joins in; it's quite a mix.



It all makes more sense together the second round, but I think it will fall together even more.  It's odd to taste tartness outside the fruit heavy Dan Cong oolong range or related black teas I would most often associate that with.  It's not bad tea but if it doesn't improve I probably will never publish this; it doesn't match my preference enough or represent something interesting enough to communicate, at least so far.


The character shifts towards floral tone in this second infusion, which is why it's working better. Mineral that's relatively metallic joins in.  The old furniture aspect dropping back to a lower level improves it, all but gone now, maybe with a little that adds some balance.  That hinted-at fruit mostly came through as the floral range, so far, but there is a touch of peach.  It sounds good, doesn't it?  It's really just ok; the balance needs to even out, the way those aspects blend together.


Fruit picking up in the third infusion helps; it improves further.  It's still a little odd the way that pairs with tartness, green wood, metallic mineral, and floral tone.  I think the overall balance is really fine and a main problem I have with the tea relates to that style being so unfamiliar.  Or it might be that the lingering taste of old furniture and more pronounced green wood don't balance tartness nearly as well as intense fruit and higher sweetness level in Dan Cong, to me.  This is right in between some Tie Kuan Yin (or a closely related oolong type I've just tried) and Dan Cong.

I do like better Tie Kuan Yin but some moderate quality versions can seem a bit off to me, if the vegetal character stands out more than the sweetness and floral aspects.  They're usually not like that, but sometimes.  I love Dan Cong, even medium quality Dan Cong, but of course any tea type can end up being flawed in different ways in some versions.  Harsh astringency is the main issue for lower quality versions of those.  This isn't like those quality-level limited teas I'm describing; it doesn't seem to be great tea but it's decent for a middle range.  It would click with me more if it were a bit warmer, smoother, more complex, and fruitier.  But that's about personal preference for style and aspects, a different thing than flaws or quality level.


It's odd there seems to be relatively little roast level to this, but I'm not sure it would help.  It seems like a low oxidation level gave it that character, of course along with the leaf potential (with both listed as medium per the vendor description--this other read was my take in tasting it).  But I can't say that more oxidation would have worked better.  Roasting an oolong to a medium level if the oxidation level is low isn't unheard of but that tends to come across as odd to me, when I do experience it.  I just bring all this up as discussion points about different styles, not as critique of this version.

[Fourth infusion]:  The tea finally hit it's stride for the aspects balance making a lot of sense.  Fruit is nudging through, peach as much as any, evenly matched with floral tones.  The tartness has dropped way off, and green wood flavor moderated.  A faint trace of old furniture, now as close to a hint of nail polish, really does work with the rest. The balance works; it integrates.

The vendor description, added here in the notes editing, mentioned the fruit coming across as berry instead--normal for interpretations to vary on what aspects are--with a lot of the rest matching up.  It is woody and tart, with some vegetal character; all that we agree on.  I didn't really notice any trace of roasted chestnut, and it seemed unusual to me that a standard mineral base in this case came across as much like metal as rock.  That's not as bad as it sounds; at the risk of repeating myself all the aspects were fine, they just didn't mesh well early on in infusion rounds.

That's odd to experience a tea not balancing at first but then later coming together. It's much more common for an aspect that isn't positive to drop out, but these same ones in much different proportion weren't very pleasant and now are.

It shifted less in this next round (5) but might have improved further, marginally.  It's not very tart at this point.  The fruit is nice, a little harder to separate as distinct fruits for being layered into all the rest.  Peach probably trails a bit into plum, but at this level as much a warm, sweet version of plum instead of a more tart or sour aspect.  Combined with  the trace of tartness that is still present (less, but still some) interpretation as some tart or sour berry instead might work, something like cranberry.

It would be easy for someone to focus on those liqueur / nail polish / lighter green wood /  mineral range aspects and lose track of those other parts, the floral and fruit range.  Oddly all that balances well in these later infusions.  I'm used to saying that sweetness makes a combination work but that's moderate in this.  It has some sweetness but it's not overly sweet as oolongs go.

Feel isn't particularly full but not thin.  The mineral, liqueur, and trace of green wood trail over to an aftertaste that's not overly positive or negative, but it does provide an impression of greater complexity.

I'm drinking this along with a cold brewed last round of a Huang Tan oolong from Jip Eu.  I tried that tea a day before this one, but I may post the reviews out of order, since I tried that as a blind tasting (guessing what it is) and two posts like that in a row seem like a bit much, with the last one here about blind tasting Yiwu sheng.

It's funny how these two oolongs overlap in character but are quite different. That tea was even closer to Tie Kuan Yin, but with more floral tone, old furniture flavor, and roast input.  It's much brighter and sweeter for being cold brewed (today's version, sort of left-overs), even as what's left after a half-dozen rounds of standard brewing.  This other Bao Ing Huan Zhi oolong might work even better brewed cold, although I might drink a couple rounds hot to get leaves to open and move through the stronger tartness and woodiness.

It seems that the tea will fade a bit from here, picking up more of a typical wood tone, as oolongs tend to after a half dozen rounds.

Conclusion

It's a nice tea, especially for checking the price it's listed at ($8 per 100 grams).  To some extent that price doesn't matter; you either like a tea on it's own merit or you don't, but in a different sense it defines the ballpark for quality level the vendor is selling a tea as.  If you double or triple that cost even if the character and style is similar you'd expect more from the tea.

I have no problems with the quality, or even the actual aspects present, but this isn't really a close match for styles of tea I like most.  I like warm, "round," sweet oolongs in the lighter range, eg. for Tie Kuan Yin versions.  At the higher end of the quality scale those pick up a lot of intensity, sweetness, very clean and intense flavors, and the taste range shifts from vegetal--often sweet corn, although that varies--to bright sweet floral instead.    

I really like Dan Cong better; the other tea type this shares a bit of common ground with.  But this isn't nearly as floral, and the fruit is in a completely different range.  Dan Cong tend to be astringent in a way that runs a bit towards bitterness, just not exactly that, at least at the lower quality level.  Medium range versions tend to get away from that, and better versions take on a complexity, subtlety, and floral or fruit range intensity that's amazing.  Above average versions of Dan Cong tend to cost quite a bit too; some vendors sell all they carry priced around $1 a gram.  Better Dan Cong can absolutely be worth that, but you can find quite good versions that make the right trade-offs and show off really exceptional character that cost half that, especially if you can buy it slightly more directly, with less intermediate resale steps bumping up the cost.  Moychay may serve as an example of that (although I have yet to try their better Dan Cong): they're not buying teas from a wholesale vendor who bought it from someone else, and so on.

Finding out what you like involves a good bit of experimentation; without trying a lot of different teas it's not easy to map the particular aspect preferences you are aware of across how you'll relate to other teas you've not tried yet.  

It's hard to say that someone who likes a certain more familiar tea type would love this tea.  It's a lot like the Huang Tan I just tried (that other oolong), but that type wasn't familiar to me.  It's not as close to Dan Cong in character as the aspects list description might sound; those are pretty much never woody and vegetal.  I guess it works to say that if a bit of tartness works well in other tea versions that could indicate a reasonable match, or if Tie Kuan Yin that aren't necessarily sweet and floral are appealing, versions that are a bit more vegetal or even woody instead, then this might seem nice.    At that cost (value) it represents a good opportunity to try something in a different aspect range.  Even if it's not a great match for most-preferred versions it could still make for an interesting experience.

A different subject; about a tea tasting

I'll hold a second open tea tasting this coming weekend, this time at the Dusit Zoo (in Bangkok), from 10 to 12 AM, at the food court area there.  

It would make sense to base tasting events on a clear, structured theme, maybe something like focusing on one type (maybe as broad as oolong, or even as narrow as one version, eg. Tie Kuan Yin), transitioning through examples  in a pattern that makes sense.  I think we'll stick with the theme of trying different things, a broad range.  This particular tea isn't a great example of a "beginner's tea," or typical of a main style, but maybe we'll give it a try anyway.  I'd like to try a more interesting version of a compressed white, since we tried a decent aged shou mei last time but I have better.  Any sheng is pushing it for people new to tea, no matter if young or aged, approachable in style or very good, but we'll probably get to one of those anyway.  One of my favorite approachable sheng versions I've ever tried is also from Moychay, this Nan Nuo version; I just wouldn't want to part with too much of it.

This is where personal preference and what works as a "starter tea" can get a little strange.  I can say I liked that sheng pu'er better for being fruitier, approachable, but still intense, than I did this oolong.  Oolongs are much more likely to be fruity, sweet, and easy to drink; young shengs tend to be on the bitter, astringent, and unapproachable side.  I don't think it's that the sheng version is that much better than this oolong; it just clicks with me a lot better.  If I do get around to having some other people try both I could see if that pattern holds for them too.

I'll mention a link to an event notice, and a Google Maps link, and close this with a few pictures of a more recent visit to that zoo.  Anyone planning to visit that tasting shouldn't run late that day (which is a part of Thai culture; familiar to me since I moved here from Hawaii), because the zoo might get crowded due to it closing soon.  That food court will be crowded at noon, it's just a matter of whether we can get a nice tasting session in before the noise level makes that awkward or not.

probably along the back wall facing the birds enclosure

it was crowded in that space a bit past noon last weekend, for Mother's Day

it's easy to miss the world's largest rodent; I can explain where that is

I didn't take much for animal photos that visit, more of these two

you don't see this too often

Myanmar Shan Misty Mountain 2018 sheng

This is another tea sample from Noppadol Ariyakrua, the Lamphang Tea vendor who helped me with that tea tasting a couple weeks back.  The Northern Thai local sheng version he passed on for review was really nice, and the Thai Moonlight White was especially pleasant and interesting to me, so I was really looking forward to this one.

at that tasting, a picture I hadn't shared, with Noppadol (center)

Noppadol lists other teas in different ranges on this separate Exotic Teas Thailand page, so far only posted in Thai language. 


For my preference that Thai sheng was very nice, but then a Myanmar based version adds that location theme as interesting context, even beyond different teas expressing different aspects.


I've only had a little sheng from Myanmar and what I did try was really nice.  Individual styles of sheng vary a lot though, even within narrow locations, based on leaf sources and processing differences.  For this being a Spring 2018 sample storage and aging differences kind of drop out; this barely had time to rest a little from being made.

funny how different the exact same leaves look in a different layout format

Review

The taste is bright, fresh, and intense.  There's a good bit of mineral, and some astringency and bitterness, but very pleasant floral tones also stand out.  It would almost be a shame to let this tea age, to trade off some of that intensity for a softer character.  Of course I'd have been saying the opposite a year or two ago, that this tea really could use a couple of years to soften up and swap out some bitterness for other range.  It's not that I was more right either time, preference can just vary with acclimation.

having breakfast outside to avoid the kids making noise

I went slightly longer on the second infusion for snapping a couple pictures and the tea is still in a good range--brewed for not much over 10 seconds--but even lighter is better.  Mineral ramps up for being brewed stronger, coming across as a hint of smoke. I usually don't like smoky sheng but at this level it works.



For more taste description I'd need to fill in which flowers are in the floral part, or which rocks for minerals.  But I'm drawing a blank, so I'll move on to feel and aftertaste.  The fullness feel of the tea is nice but not overly pronounced related to where in your mouth that occurs.  It's general, also relating to a hint of dryness.


Bitterness picked up along with astringency for being that bit stronger, and both trail nicely into a sweetness aftertaste.  The mineral really hangs in there, an aspect that reminds me of tastes from drinking from an artesian well.

probably not the faster brewed infusion

A faster 5 second infusion the next round is perfect: plenty intense and well balanced.  There is substantial bitterness but per my expectations and preference the sweetness, floral flavor, and mineral tones balances that.  The next infusion is about the same; I'll leave off related to describing transitions.


I could compare this from memory with that Thai version, or reach further back in recollection to lots of profiles for Yunnan area shengs, or similar teas from Vietnam.  The overall balance of aspects that tend to come up often shifts a little more than anything else, or intensity is different.  Mineral tone is pronounced in this, and that hint of what seems to be a natural smoke aspect is novel; usually sheng I've tried seem to be decently smoky or not at all.  It all works.  With another year or two of aging it would work well in a slightly different way, I'd expect.

Later conclusions, and about another local tea tasting

Kind of brief, all that, but probably better to not add any more to it.  I really liked the tea.  I'd expect it has plenty of bitterness and astringency to transition nicely into pronounced warmer and softer flavors over a few years, or to hold up to a lot of transition over a longer time.  The Thai sheng version from Noppadol might have been a little more "easy drinking," sweeter and slightly more approachable in those regards, but both were still nice, to me.  I wouldn't consider either to be in the most oolong-preference-friendly style some shengs follow, but maybe the Thai version falls a little closer to that.


Since I did actually keep this short I might mention I'm thinking of holding another public tea tasting, this time in the local Dusit Zoo.  The tentative time is from 10 to noon on Saturday, August 18th.

That zoo is closing at the end of this month, after being there for 80 years.  It's especially impressive for being a former Royal nature preserve before that, so a lot of the trees in that place probably are hundreds of years old.  I don't know of anywhere remotely like that in Bangkok, and I'll be sad to not have a chance to visit it anymore after the next three weeks.  Animals being kept in captivity is sort of a different related theme, not all positive, but to me that was never the main draw for visiting there.

The food court seating area there is just perfect for such a thing, very comfortable, with a great look and feel, and easy access to power for heating water and lots of seating.  You'd think that zoo might be busy due to the closing but I'm guessing it won't be, not even for lunch, since the news of the closure only reached me due to being a regular visitor (although it was in a local newspaper).  To the rest of Bangkok they'll probably just notice later that their local zoo isn't there anymore.

an elevated walkway there is nice, a different view of things

that food court area, beside the elephants and acrobatics show areas

feeding goats.  we had fed one elephant, every month, when Keo was young.

That last video indirectly captures why I'll miss that place so much, for the same reason my wife will.  I saw my kids grow up there.  That video is from December of 2012, when he had just turned 4.  We will keep making nice memories in different places but you can't replace that sort of connection, our favorite place for him to visit when he was young, where Kalani grew up too.  My wife always lived close to that zoo so she remembers going there with her father, probably some of her fondest memories of him since he died when she was a child.

There's still time to stock up a few more memories from there, but only three weeks.