Trying a 1998 Hong Kong stored sheng

This is the last tea sample passed on by Olivier Schneider, that pu'er authority who founded his own reference page (puerh.fr).



If the tea was from anyone else there would be less reference value in one sample that's not really well identified.  It's described as sheng puerh 1998 Hong Kong Storage.  The second description reference reads more like "1948;" that can't be right. 


Any tea, tasted even completely blindly, is fine for experiencing what you get from that, but it wouldn't work to assign any degree of confidence that the version might be good, or typical of a certain style or background in any way.  Based on trying those other samples this will be an interesting tea, and a positive experience, that provides insight about aging transitions within a broad but typical range.



One more qualification about that, which extends into a bit of a tangent here before the actual review:  aged sheng pu'er reviews in general tend to draw on forms of prior exposure and expectations more than other types.  Or few people write reviews of aged sheng, probably a sort of "those who know don't talk; those who talk don't know" running theme (a Tao Te Ching reference). 


To the extent discussion takes place in particular qi effect is described in detail, not just a typical range of how a tea makes you feel, but also specifics about energy patterns experienced within the body.  Also mouthfeel effects come up, learned preferences for certain types of experiences related to tightening and sweetness effects in different parts of the mouth or throat.


It doesn't necessarily diminish the importance or validity of those experiences that such preferences have to be learned, that they wouldn't be experienced as inherently positive by an untrained individual.  Full-bodied French red wines or Scotch drinking aren't less valid because those things would taste awful to someone without a lot of the right prior exposure.  It would be possible for an inexperienced tea drinker to dismiss most of that as subjective preference that's not well grounded but something would seem to be missed in that.  At times limited groups of people do learn to value experiences that aren't necessarily meaningful or positive to everyone else, as in the case of these forms of appreciation, but most typically within the context of those groups there are real, valid, meaningful grounds for those preferences. 

I drank red wine for a few years, and without a lot of specific training in the form of group indoctrination I moved from liking milder, sweeter versions into more subtle, complex styles, and I may well have been headed towards becoming a burly Cabernet drinker eventually, I just stopped before that happened.  As with tea drinkers experiencing oolongs or aged sheng as natural end points people with different inclinations in red wines might well be headed towards appreciating subtle, complex Pinot instead, or fruit-forward Bordeaux style blends, or maybe those rough-edged French reds that taste like a nail was stored in the bottle to a newer wine drinker.

In the case of art it relates to forms of meaning being carried in styles that one really needs to be familiar with to appreciate, to completely human-developed patterns of forms.  Tea styles and aspects appreciation might not be so far from that but even if so that wouldn't make them less valuable for only be valued through learned association.  It also seems possible that unlike in how art forms can match current trends and meaningful patterns, based on earlier trends, an individual would learn to appreciate some of the same aspects in tea without training, just maybe in a different form.  I was never really into art, just to be clear, but a grad-level class in aesthetics philosophy made for a confusing but interesting investigation of what it was all about.

To simplify:  I can appreciate teas having a more complex feel, and can recognize obvious physiological effects from some teas, but I don't value those to the extent many others do.  I haven't been trained to appreciate some versions over others, whether those goals are tied to conventions or to an organic natural preference curve, or both.  Sheng drinkers tend to drink sheng less for flavor than for most other types, but to some extent that's still the main page that I'm on, the main range I appreciate.  That's not to say that a pronounced aspect in another range can't stand out and make for a very interesting experience.  That occurred in trying a Lao Man E huang pian shou recently; that tea was unusually thick in feel, unique in a way not mostly based on flavor.  On to it then.

Review

First infusion:  I did taste the rinse, just to get an idea where this tea is going, and it was heavy on slate with some mustiness and char (probably as well to not even sip a few drops of that; it'll be there next round too).  This tea might not be so positive for the first couple of infusions.  The first infusion is just a little musty but it's nice how fast that is clearing up.  There's lots of depth to this tea, apparent very clearly beyond any more challenging aspects, which seem like they'll largely be faded by the next round and perhaps even more so on the next.

It reminds me a little of Liu Bao, that intense slate-mineral effect.  It's a little different in this expression because there's more depth behind it.  But then I've probably not tried higher level, fully aged Liu Bao yet, so I would be comparing apples and oranges.  The smoothness is nice.  Even for expressing a range that earthy and still being a little musty it's quite smooth.  The depth is nice too; it covers a lot of that old-furniture range of flavor, and the sweet nutty range that gets hard to describe, not so far off roasted chestnut but not exactly that.

the leaves did take awhile to unfurl, even though not compressed so much

The next infusion is what I expected; it picks up a good bit of depth, and cleans up quite a bit.  It might sound like I'm saying that the tea is "off" more than I intend.  That one range of slate-mineral flavor can easily bridge into different levels of mustiness and it's hard to pin that down on a relative scale without any mention making it sound more significant than it is.  The feel is interesting.  The tea comes across as really rich and really smooth, which will spare me talking about which parts of the mouth it impacts.  The overall experience lingers quite a bit but that relates to there being a depth to it, not one particular feel in the mouth or one distinct, limited trailing flavor.  Breaking any of those parts of the experience further would definitely be possible but somehow wouldn't seem more informative.

People tend to ask how aged sheng compares to shou, and I definitely won't have a clear and final answer to that based on trying this one tea, and little to go on based on trying more in the 10-15 year old range.  But it could work as good input; I can see how shou, this aged tea version, and Liu Bao map together better related to trying it.  I probably won't get far with explaining it though. 

In one sense this tea shares some common ground with those cheap, char-intensive droplet / tablet mini-tuo version of shou.  In a couple of others it's relatively not like those at all.  Some flavor range is common but the overall effect of dropping some charcoal into a cup of hot water is closely tied to the mini-tuo experience, and not this.  Slate mineral and subdued charcoal are main flavor aspects though, but there are layers below that.  It seems possible this tea will transition more over the next couple of rounds to move to a balance further away from that, and if it doesn't that'll make it easy to keep these notes short.

even short infusions were a bit dark

It does take another very pleasant step the next round; good.  That slate / mineral / char falls back into a nice balance, and an aspect I think of as "something I'm not familiar with" moves forward and develops.  It's not completely unrelated to "old furniture," but sweeter, better balanced, and cleaner.  This tea has already moved way past whatever any Liu Bao or shou I've ever tried can express, in terms of depth and complexity, just in a sense that's hard to describe.  Thickness escalates quickly.  It's so full in feel that it's a bit oily, in an interesting and nice way.  I get the sense it'll evolve to a place easier to describe in the next infusion, so I'll say more about that in the next round.

Next round:  maybe not; I was wrong about this getting easier to describe.  There's a depth to the experience that I can't put words, or maybe even completely grasp.  Breaking out any description of part of it doesn't cover the rest at all.  Flavors could be like roasted chestnut, or anything else I've already expressed, but the flavors-list approach drops more out than it catches.  It works to say it balances, that subtle, complex range of feel combines with flavor range that has an unusual depth and complexity, but that altogether it amounts to a sum greater than the parts.  I'd be writing poetry to describe it further than that.  You kind of just have to experience it.  I'm not saying this is some sort of heavenly transcendent experience but it is definitely one of the most interesting and positive teas I've yet to try.

It's like shou but nothing like shou, depending on which level one would mean.  In terms of flavor it's not that far off, just more complex.  Some shou I've tried were complex and smooth but not to this degree.  I'm not even sure this tea is completely where it's going to transition to, that it has went through its own version of "opening up" yet.


More of the same on the next round.  It is still transitioning, but I can't describe how.  It keeps getting cleaner and sweeter, with the slate-mineral receded to a mild supporting element very different in form.  That "old furniture" aspect also cleaned up and transitioned, not gone, but different.  A richness like roasted chestnuts remains, but the effect closest to char also smoothed out and fell into a different supporting layer.  There's an effect you get in some better Wuyi Yancha that matches how certain types of liqueur come across, sort of a perfume-like aspect, but nothing like a chemical, the nail polish remover type ranges that would make up a base for those.  All this range is subtle and well integrated.


Flavor isn't the most interesting part of the experience.  The smooth fullness also isn't.  I don't even mean the same thing by "smooth" and "full" as I typically would; kind of an extension of those instead.  The experience after tasting the tea isn't like an aftertaste, although there is some part that corresponds to that.  I don't mean a "buzz" as I've experienced with some teas either, the form I connect with some "qi" effect.  Levels of experience continue on after you swallow the tea, a mix of taste and how it feels.  Back to the poetry, it seems.


I might just leave off there and drink another half dozen infusions without the note taking.  The aspects will change, for sure, but for being so hard to describe it'll be a similar form of rambling on anyway.  I will say this:  two infusions later the balance is even nicer; the tea just keeps improving.  I can see why people might get hooked on this sort of thing.  The depth of the experience is much different than for other tea types that just taste nice, have a nice full feel, and some aftertaste effect.

maybe 15 infusions in, still a bit thick and oily

Around 10 to 12 infusions in the tea suddenly required longer infusions to produce the same intensity, and a couple more rounds later it dropped off that much more.  It was still far from finished though, but longer infusions shifted the range of aspects quite a bit.  The char came back, extracted more from the longer times.  The tea was still positive around the 15th or so infusion (where I'm tasting it now), interesting, pleasant, and oddly still quite complex, but not as nice as that range had been from rounds 5 through 12.  It definitely made for a unique experience.

I won't have much for additional conclusions, so I'll mention some closing thoughts here.  I can't place this tea related to other relatively fully aged versions, related to other teas that had spent 20 years aging under similar conditions.  I'm sure different starting points and slightly different storage conditions would change results.  As with any new range of teas it is possible to try just one "good, typical version" and get some sense of where things are headed, but it almost never works out that the variations are something that you'd expect.

More input, and an event notice (in Europe)

I talked a little to Olivier Schneider about this tea, the person who passed it on.  It doesn't shed that much light on the storage environment but it is interesting hearing him say a little about that:


This tea is a sheng (raw) puerh from 1998, mean that it was raw when he left Yunnan, with a very good Hong-Kong traditional storage, aka. wet storage. HK traditional storage is a traditional way to age puerh, made in Hong Kong and guangzhou area for long time. Because we speak about Hong-Kong "storage" many beginers think it's just a question of storing tea in the humid atmosphere of HK, but in fact it's not. HK traditional storage is like shu cha (shu cha was inspired by HK trad storage), an artificial method to age tea, but when shu cha is an industrial process which take around 6 weeks, HK trad storage is an slow and hand made process which usually take at least 15 years for a high quality product. It's really an art, like whiskey aging or cheese aging, and when it's badly done it's really terrible (with typical moldy taste), but when it's made by good house, like this one, it makese really amazingly great teas!


Surely a few details beyond that about related factors are familiar to many, even those without broad experience, but in the end trying a tea that has been through a positive version of this sort of transition is the thing. 

One thing I didn't mention in that review:  I would've believed that the tea had been stored a lot longer than 20 years.  Versions of sheng not that much younger than it that I'd tried in the past had seemed very young in comparison, not all that affected by age at all, beyond more limited related transitions occurring.  I've had limited exposure to teas being ruined by poor storage.  A Liu Bao was way off due to being stored too wet, really musty, but it sort of came back from that after sitting around for a year.

The slate-mineral and char effects that were stronger in the beginning and end of the cycle seemed to be outcomes related to that transition.  On the more positive side the smoothness and level of depth in those infusions in the middle were new to me.  Even in those earlier and later infusions when those aspects weren't necessarily positive they were still more neutral than they might sound, and the overall effect and complexity was positive in ways that was hard to describe.


To move onto another idea kind of related to this tea, but not directly related, Olivier is doing a series of tea tastings and ceramics displays in Europe over the next month or so.  My Vietnamese tea-friend Huyen might even make it to one in Paris, but I think she's still working out paperwork and travel planning.  Either way, I'll mention that schedule here, by citing a FB post, and the related link:


Before to leave Asia, choosing the teaware I will bring with me for Europe! This year there will-have two special guests I would be happy to show the thesis work during tea events: The great tea ceramics artist Emilio Jose del Pozo from Taiwan, and Xunhuan Wǎngfù , amazing cloth and Chabu designer from Norway!

credit his FB page (probably as well to just link to the contact pages here though)

Happy to see you in Europe in some days:  (full program here)

June 28 in Paris: Blang Vibration, immersive sound and tea experience
June 29 in Paris: Vietnam mountains tasting tea
June 30 in Paris: Free puerh tasting tea
June 30 in Brussels: Workshop on green puerh
July 1 in Paris: Tea and gong fu cha time
July 2-8 in Paris: Complete puerh tea education
July 11 in Waterloo: Free puerh tea tasting
July 12 in Namur: Free puerh tea tasting
June 12 in Namur: Blang Vibration, immersive sound and tea experience
July 13 in Brussels: Free puerh tea tasting
July 13 in Brussels: Puerh tea bar and surprises
July 14-15 in Brussels: Two days puerh tea education
July 21 in London: One day puerh tea education


I'm sure with that many events going on a detail or two could change, so it would be as well to check that page and check in about the planning, of course also related to seeing where an event is, and how to check in about plans to attend.

I've been very grateful to him for sharing these teas.  He's said a little more about them in discussion but not all that much, and it wasn't really framed for making up extra sections in the review posts, which are more about passing on an impression. 

It's nicer to discuss tea in person though, since you can also try some, and I hope that some of you get that chance over the next month or so.  If Huyen does make it to one in Paris that would be a nice added bonus, to get a chance to discuss a tea tradition that doesn't come up much (Vietnam's) with someone from there who has been looking into it.  Even beyond that information her enthusiasm is a bit contagious.  I've not done much with passing on contact information for her--the tea trades were never about marketing anything--but her family's gift business site may be of interest, since it does include some teas.  I think they're more standard types though, not like those local-style sheng I just reviewed, but glancing through to snag a picture I did see tuochas, so it's definitely not just Thai Nguyen green teas.

Huyen at work (credit their site)

Potential separated at birth versions review; 2006 Thai HTC sheng

0802 HTC version I bought left, tea Olivier sent right

Olivier's sample; a cool looking chunk

I'd mentioned that an online contact, Olivier Schneider of puerh.fr, had sent some versions of sheng to try (and a little shou and Dian Hong), and that a 2006 Thai material originated HTC sheng was one of them.  I own what's left of a cake of 2006 Thai HTC sheng I bought from Tea Side awhile back, a tea I first reviewed as a sample in 2015.  Of course I'm assuming here that it's ok to call a Thai version of sheng pu'er sheng, even though officially pu'er is a regional designation; that could as easily be read as "sheng pu'er-like tea."

I first reviewed that cake I bought in 2016, and compared it to another sheng version last year, and the tea seemed to have been improving.  That really could have been that I was developing a preference towards it, in addition to actual changes.

the labeling for that Tea Side 0802 2006 HTC cake

It turns out these cakes were probably not identical, but since I don't know they weren't I'll leave that working title, qualified by "potential," suggesting investigation as opposed to a claim.  I asked Olivier about the HTC name and origins of that tea, and he said this:


HTC basically dont exist anymore, so recent production came from several factories who use this name (more or less legally according to the case)...  Most of them have absolutely no connexion with original HTC, some get some knowledge from old master, workers, etc...

It's mostly impossible when you find a HTC cake on the market to know where it came from, except if you really found it in the factory. More or less like "CNNP" cake in China.




Interesting!  I've been drifting away from researching what's what in this blog and just focusing on tea reviews, which I'll mostly stick to here, but something interesting does turn up.




This sample's description cites some background, including mentioning "dry storage," which should be interesting to consider.

Review

Even in the first initial infusion "my" version (the Tea Side 0802 tea) is sweeter, a bit more aromatic, more like the complex scents in incense, frankincense or something such.  Of course I never will get such descriptions right; I'm not familiar with aromatic woods and spices and it's been a long time since my hippie days.

Olivier's sample is a touch smokier, deeper and richer, "darker" in flavor, even though the tea itself is slightly lighter in color.  I'll break both more into aspects on the second round, which will be a fairer comparison of where the aspects are going through later transitions.

good color, not so different

The Tea Side version opened up a lot in that first round.  It tastes a lot like prune now, moving into that particular dried fruit range.  I could swear it didn't taste nearly this much like dried fruit or prune the last time I tried it, but then I've not been drinking it very frequently, checking it a couple times a year.  Beyond that there is an aromatic dark wood range, that spice I'd noticed in the first infusion.  It's nice enough, different.

The smokiness picked up a good bit in the other version, the one from Olivier.  Some of the underlying dark wood or aromatic spice aspect range does seem common but there isn't nearly as much dried fruit range.  It might come across a bit more like date, where that other was close to matching prune.  This has a slightly different body feel too, a bit dryer, with just a bit more structure.  The other tea wasn't thin but the effect was different, and not pronounced.  It really does remain in your mouth after the infusion, but in a different sense than in younger teas, not as intense and location specific, but significant in a different way.

Both of these teas are complex enough that lots of labels could pin down supporting aspect range, probably related to flavors and also feel and aftertaste.  Sweetness, earthiness, and complexity are expressed in a lot of depth of flavor in both.

I went a little longer on the next infusion, not so much doing that varying times to experiment as I tend to but instead because there's lots going on here that's distracting.  Doing reviews with kids in the house is problematic, but it's the life I'm living.  These teas only infused for between 15 and 20 seconds, versus around 10, but the effect is going to be completely different.

Tea Side version left, Olivier's right (the "long" infusion)

The Tea Side / Bangkok stored tea is much different slightly stronger and more opened up.  That dried fruit flavor shifted, no longer straight prune but more complex, more mixed.  Part a bit more like date develops, and the aromatic spice / hardwood notes increase to match the fruit level in effect.  The depth of the flavor is amazing; it just extends down to lots of "lower" level.  Mineral grounding picks up, a bit along the line of wet sandstone.  All those parts are quite clean though, and they integrate well together.

Tea Side version left, a bit darker; could be the storage difference

The smoke is diffusing in the other version, giving way to other range.  I'm guessing these aren't the same tea; they're just too different.  Some of the aromatic hardwood effect is common but the overlap between the two is limited.  The feel is different too, even though the Bangkok version did pick up structure for being brewed a bit stronger and opening up a bit more.  There is a bit more of a autumn forest floor effect in this version.

For both one might interpret a mild supporting aspect range as tobacco but it's nothing like an aged sheng that actually tastes like tobacco, when that's mostly what the tea tastes like.  It's problematic to put a label on these different earthy ranges, and describing that as "some sort of darker wood, or maybe spice" doesn't work well, especially since that would be two different sets for both.  This second tea does taste just a little more like tobacco though; that's how the greater autumn floor range comes across compared to the other dried fruit and mineral.

The Tea Side version falls into a nice balance on the next infusion, not different than before, but somehow evened out across aspects range.  The sweetness and fruit is balanced by aromatic dark wood and underlying mineral, all clean and positive.  Olivier's sample version is improved too, not different, but balancing well at this level.  The touch of smoke is still present but warm autumn floor range aspect, with a touch of tobacco, round out a nice effect, with a nicely structured feel even brewed a bit light.

More of the same on the next infusion; I'll leave off note-taking for now, and see what chasing around these kids require.

at the zoo with the trouble-makers the next day

Conclusions

Both teas were really nice.  They just don't seem all that similar; it seems unlikely they were closely related versions to begin with.  Storage differences could cause variation but it wouldn't seem like this much, to cause them to seem like completely different teas across most aspect range.

About the smoke aspect, Olivier said that teas can develop that as a natural result of an aging change, and that it's possible to notice a difference from an input due to smoke flavoring the tea during processing.  If you'd owned the tea and noticed it not there, and then later it was, unless there was some chance of real smoke contacting the tea that would have to be what occurred.  I guess I'd tried enough young sheng that seemed smoky that I assumed it was usually either from smoke contact during processing or a natural and original aspect in the tea, not an aging related input.

Both versions were nice.  I liked the one I'd owned better due to liking that dried fruit effect more than the earthiness, smoke, and additional tobacco / dark wood range.  I didn't notice that much difference I could clearly attribute to a storage condition difference, to Olivier's being stored in a relatively drier place (per the description, at least), but given the range of differences that may just relate to not being familiar enough with transitions to guess better about that.  The color was different, with that tea much lighter, and it could be that the transition to those sweeter flavors was the result of a faster, therefore more advanced aging process.

I talked to the owner of Tea Side, and he recommended looking at the description for another 2006 HTC cake he sells that does include smoke as an aspect, their 0803 numbered product.  It's conceivable that's exactly what I'm trying.


Or not; it would seem a stretch to try to guess at the probability of that.  It is interesting to consider his description of that tea:


Dry tea smells with bark, dried fruits, spices. In the taste there are various dried fruits: raisins, dried apricots, plums. Light smoky flavor reminds of some Chinese raw puers and makes dried fruits taste more like prunes. There are some savoury wood tones and spices.



Pretty close; maybe.  That page passes on more of the story about the HTC producer but it sounds like there is still more to be told about it:


Old raw (sheng) pu-erh tea from the Thai factory that produces pu-erhs under the name Hong Tai Chang.  The tea is made by a Chinese master, a native of Yunnan. He has been making Pu-erhs for more than 40 years. Then he’s been retired and passed on all his knowledge and experience in producing and storing pu-erhs to his disciple, whom we’re working now with.

Wild tree Feng Qing hong cha (dian hong, Yunnan black tea)

I've been trying a good bit of sheng lately, for the last 9 months or so, and the one contact who sent some interesting versions to try, Olivier Schneider, also included a Yunnan black tea with the samples.  The picture includes that description:  a 2017 wild tree varietal black tea from the Feng Qing area of Lincang, Yunnan.  Sounds great.

I tried looking up references for this tea in his main pu'er reference page (puerh.fr) and his blog page (blog.puerh.fr) but that didn't work; not surprisingly most of the content is about pu'er.  He's been exploring tea areas in a few other countries outside of Yunnan so anyone with an interest in exploring pu'er further or other regions should take a look around those.

Tea preference:  Chinese black teas versus sheng pu'er

It's been great trying different versions of sheng, from different areas, teas processed differently, from different plant types and growing conditions, of different ages.  I've really enjoyed those teas, and even beyond that level of appreciation it's been fascinating experiencing that range.  It might still work to say that better, more interesting, and more complex Chinese black teas are still more closely matched to my preference in teas. 

At least in the past year I've been trying more Assam than Chinese black tea, and more on Darjeeling before that.  I've never really let Chinese black teas drop (my favorite broadest origin for black tea), the general types just tend to cycle, and what I'm drinking follows broad patterns.  I bought and reviewed three vaguely related Yunnan black teas last year (Dian Hong from Farmerleaf), so I never completely left that page.

In general black teas give up a lot in terms of complexity to sheng, since the feel and aftertaste aspects just don't span the same range, and transitions across different infusions are less varied, and the flavors expressed fall within a narrower scope.  But I really love that set of flavors, complex and balanced teas exhibiting cocoa, roasted yam or sweet potato, sweetness in the range of sugar cane or molasses, and other supporting earthy aspects.  It's not really just about flavor, as much about how it all comes together.  And to be fair it is still a lot about flavor; that's still the main page I'm on related to what I appreciate most in teas.

I've written about different forms of natural preference curve evolution before, about how people tend to move from liking simpler, basic teas (or maybe even tea and tisane blends first) to appreciating different range, including feel and aftertaste aspects.  But I'm not there related to moving on from mostly appreciating how a tea tastes.  It's not my impression that everyone would follow the same path related to natural transitions, although it must be the case that typical patterns emerge. 

It's probably as well to limit the philosophy of tea rambling to that and move onto a review.

Review

I went a little light on the first infusion, adjusting to brewing a black tea much closer to Western style, but using a gaiwan set-up, so really a hybrid approach.  Preparing teas like this isn't at all brand new to me but I've been drinking a lot more sheng lately, and more shou, oolong, and white tea than Yunnan black.

The first infusion is promising; the tea is sweet, rich, and complex.  There's a good bit of molasses sweetness and other dark flavor range depth, a soft, deep type of earthiness.  It's probably as well to break that down further on the second infusion instead.  This kind of tea is all about maximizing preference in brewing approach, but not in the sense of brewing around challenging aspects in the tea.

I think almost anyone would like this kind of tea, although preference for what people like most does vary a lot.  A friend just mentioned trying a unique black tea with a bit of sourness, and he'd recommended a tart black tea to me to buy before.  I did try that second version, this Guangdong province black, or "Dan Cong" black, as those get marketed, reviewed here, with a YS vendor page here.  I can relate to those but don't care for tartness or sourness in black teas, at least not as much as this other type of flavor range. 

At an introduction to tea tasting event I held last year I brewed comparable style Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea) for participants, and after one taste someone commented "now I know that I like some kinds of black tea."  Her world--tea-world, at least--had changed that fast, in a sip, and it was cool being a part of that.

The intensity level of the second infusion is perfect, and the tea is probably brewed about as effectively as it would be, showing around as much potential as it will.  One more infusion will be just as good, perhaps slightly different, transitioning some, but it will probably keep going in similar range from there.

leaves still unfolding

The tea balances really well, that rich, soft, complex feel and aspect range, with just a hint of dryness in the feel range.  I mean something completely different when I usually say that though; this tea is "juicy" feeling, full and thick, and smooth, so I mean that the complexity extends to give it a trace of structure that balances the rest, not that the feel is based on that sort of range. 


I'd go with cocoa as the main taste aspect, which works perfectly for me.  Beyond that a fruit tone is along the line of dried tamarind, but it's not so far off some sort of berry or cherry that I'd reject that sort of interpretation.  Maybe interpreted that way it's closest to dried blueberry, which is nice.  Or it probably works best to say it really is both, a complex range of fruit tones including dried tamarind and dried blueberry.

The earthiness is hard to pin down, but molasses is a good start.  I usually don't mention flavor aspects like wood or leather for teas anything like this but it has complexity that could be described in different ways.  That part is subdued, and well integrated, clean and balanced as a much lighter contribution than the cocoa, fruit, and molasses.  It would be odd to make it through a sheng review not mentioning "mineral" but I'm not sure if much of that as an underling base lends to the tea's complexity or not.  It's not tart or sour, at all.  Of course there is plenty of sweetness, which would be implied by that flavor list, but I hadn't actually said that.


The next infusion isn't transitioning much; it's roughly the same.  I went slightly faster on the infusion time (a bit under a minute; I am using a lower proportion for this tea compared to how I usually prepare sheng or oolong), in order to draw out the process as much as to optimize it.  This tea would work really well brewed twice as strong, and which experience someone would prefer would just be a matter of preference.  Upon reflection that mild molasses taste range seems as much like a caramel.  It's possible that brewed on the strong side it would resemble molasses, adding a slight earthiness edge to the tea, going along with more feel-structure, and brewed lightly it would drift back to caramel, perhaps shifting how flavors are perceived based on intensity.

after a number of infusions

Of course I'm starting to guess in this range of interpretation, or subjective impression might be coming into play.  It's simpler and maybe more accurate to say it's between a medium level cooked caramel and molasses and leave it at that. 


It seems clear to me that using water off boiling point would increase the fruit tones while dropping the earthiness and feel back (what I'm calling "structure," today at least), and going with full boiling point water would maximize those.  Which someone prefers is probably more a matter of preference than anything else.  I suppose a different balance in different teas could lead to one approach being better for one tea but the generality being inconsistent.

later brewed leaf appearance

I did use slightly hotter water on the next infusion and it did draw out a good bit more of that dark caramel aspect, shifting the balance from sweeter and lighter and more fruit oriented to earthier, doing more with the molasses tone, a bit towards a spice-range tree bark (not necessarily cinnamon, but maybe closer to Vietnamese cinnamon). 


It would work to use a range of temperatures, as I just did, and go with cooler water originally (not below 90 C; I'm not talking crazy) and bump it up boiling at the end to get more flavor out of the tea at the expense of giving up some of the earlier aspects balance.  Then again I guess I'm so far invested in the "following subjective-preference is fine" that if someone wanted to brew their black tea at 85 C I'd have to be ok with it.

that same reviewed tea, brewed slightly lighter

Revisiting brewing parameters

Brewing temperature just came up in yet another tea group discussion, so I could go further with that tangent, but I should probably cut that short here given how this has rambled on as it is.

The starting point comment someone made is that teas can be brewed to emphasize sweetness by using cooler water to brew them (that link).  It was within a specific context, so I'll just cite it to avoid summary errors:


If you crave something sweet but don't want to ruin the quality of good tea or intake higher levels of sugar, your best bet is White Peony/Bai Mu Dan, and you can typically get respectable quality at relatively low prices.


If your goal is sweeter tea, that probably means you'll want to use more leaf than directed with cooler water and a longer brewing time. depending on the variety (some are a bit stronger, others are naturally lighter), I use about a 2-4 tablespoons and brew for 2.5 to 5 minutes with relatively cool water (about 60-70C or 140-160F is a good place to start).  If you get it right, you'll have a brew with full flavor, intense sweetness, minimal bitterness and a floral, honeysuckle bouquet.


So he's really mentioning that related to a specific white tea, using Western style brewing, and cooler water than is usually recommended for that type (although white teas are a general type example where recommendations tend to vary).  Perhaps critical to the recommendation is that the idea is to get the best results out of value-oriented medium quality level tea.

The last post I talked about brewing temperature at length in was just about oolong.  In that a general divide occurred between a more common acceptance that using boiling point water is always best, with intensity and aspect character adjusted by varying infusion time and proportion.  On the other side some temperature range variation was also accepted, or using cooler than full boiling point temperatures in general.

I'm not saying the two issues are identical; white teas clearly aren't the same as oolong.  But I will go ahead and claim that I've noticed the same trend in preferences and best-practice claims occurring across a lot of tea types, with one recommendation for using full boiling point water for green teas cited in that post.  In discussing that issue with that FB group post author I ended with this conclusion:


I could see why people claimed using boiling water for oolong was best.  Based on their preference and what they drank it was.  Those are both not a given for everyone else though, and to some extent relate better to assuming use of a Gong Fu brewing approach.  Of course I can see why drinking higher quality tea does seem like an objectively grounded improvement.

I just couldn't get on board for giving up personal preference as a factor. But I do gradually use boiling point water more universally myself, so I can see where that preference comes from.


I didn't mention it there but I don't tend to brew any oolong Western style very often either, mostly only for moderate quality versions at work, when not really getting optimum results doesn't matter.

It would seem too strong a claim to say that across a lot of tea types everyone would naturally move from preference to using cooler water to preference for adjusting final aspects range using other factors (proportion and timing), and brewing with full boiling point water instead.  Some of that might work as a typical general trend though, paired together with how optimizing better teas is different than the experience of brewing around flaws in lower quality teas.

I'm not sure all that makes any other less developed preference less valid, or one that just lands in a different place, but based on what I'm saying there is a limited scope case to be made for that.

Ban Komaen 2017 (Laos) and Nan Mei gushu 2015 tasting

 Ban Komaen (Laos tea) left, Nan Mei right

I'm back to trying pu'er samples generously sent by Olivier Schneider, a pu'er expert and author of the reference page puerh.fr.  That page is in French but automatic translation works well between related languages.  It's a separate subject but I've been noticing that automatic translation from Russian to English goes better than you'd expect.  He's not actually a vendor, in the typical sense, more a researcher who is also involved with pu'er sales in the development and wholesale levels.

This follows on a review of two initial sheng samples here, which lists out details for the two I tried and the rest.  I'll compare these two teas:


Nan Mei gushu 2015 (small production tea)

Ban Komaen 2017 (old tree tea from Phongsally, Laos, so this is "sheng-pu'er-like" tea)


There isn't much reason why I'm pairing the tasting of these two.  The ages are comparable, and they're the next two on the original samples list, arranged more or less by age.  Trying very similar teas together works better but I'm not clear on expectations related to these.  At a guess they won't be similar.

Nan Mei is a village area in Lincang, Yunnan, as described in this puerh.fr article.  Olivier includes a producer profile of a woman tea maker in Laos in another article on sexism in tea  (who may or may not have made this tea; I'm not claiming that connection).  I won't do much for describing those locations or variations in the teas here; the point is just review, conveying an impression, which is already a lot to cover.

In this case comparison tasting is also about getting the tasting and review process moving since I've been off that for the last three weekends related to my son becoming a Buddhist novice monk.  It's the main Songkran weekend here (the traditional Thai New Years), so we're a little busy doing water park outings and errands, but it did work to set aside time for a tasting.  Conditions were not optimal since the two noise-makers were around for it but a long day at a water park the day before had their volume turned down a little.

Tasting notes

First infusion:

Nan Mei:  the tea is nice.  It's complex, well balanced, with good intensity.  The profile includes plenty of mineral depth, well integrated with the other range along the lines of wood tone and leather.  I'd expect some of this taste range matches flavor descriptions that would be familiar to others but I'll need to muddle through breaking them down through other comparison descriptions.  The astringency is limited for as intense and full in feel as this tea is.  It won't really need to transition to soften to be approachable but I expect it will develop over the next several infusions.

Ban Komaen:   this tea is similar in one sense and completely different in another.  It also expresses good intensity, good body, and complexity, based in a lot of mineral range, with very different other primary flavor.  This tasting is going to be tough in terms of description.  With a lot of other teas it's a stretch to pin components and labels on what's going on but this really isn't getting far, and I'm not sure it's going to.  I'll probably keep saying things like "mineral, wood, earthy, tree bark" and it won't convey much.  So goes tea review in general.

I guess the difference might be in some teas tasting more like fruit or vegetables, or at least like somewhat familiar range like hay or fallen leaves.  With these teas so far into mineral range and other flavors that aren't exactly familiar it's not going to be easy.  Some unusual versions of nuts might make for a start, and describe one part, or spice descriptions could tell part of the story.  It might work as a fall-back to describe differences in the two instead of getting to an accurate flavor or aspect list.

Nan Mei 2015 gushu

Ban Komaen 2017 old tree

 Ban Komaen (Laos tea) left, Nan Mei right

Second infusion:

Nan Mei:  The overall effect is really nice; it's probably as well to communicate that before tripping over the details.  The depth and complexity are good, and the flavor range is positive, if hard to describe well, with a nice thickness to the tea and a long aftertaste.  The previous mix of heavy mineral, wood tone, and tree bark (for lack of a better description), are joined by a trace of tobacco.  There's more going on that that; a rich depth that reminds me a little of brazil nut.  The tea is really approachable for being as intense and complex as the flavors are.  It's not especially bitter or astringent but it has a lot of aspect range to give it complexity; it's not soft or thin.

Ban Komaen:  This tea shifted into a sweeter spice range that's a lot closer to lemongrass than I'd have expected possible.  It transitioned a lot in just one infusion.  It's not less approachable than the other tea, in spite of being a year old versus three, not harsh or astringent at all, although maybe a little softer in effect.  Neither are bitter.  There is enough complexity that maybe a little bitterness can be separated out as one part of what's going on but it's definitely not dominant in either tea.  There is a lot of mineral depth and wood range in this tea but that sweetness and lemongrass range really stands out.  It also has a nice feel and again the experience lasts a good while after swallowing the tea.

Some of this range reminds me a little of how Vietnamese snow teas come across, it's just not as bitter as those often are, and not quite as vegetal.  Those don't seem like typical green teas to me but they tend to span a character range in between sheng and green tea.  It's that mineral and earthy flavor aspect range that's common, some parts of which overlap with the other tea, with some parts not.

 Ban Komeun (Laos tea) left, Nan Mei right

Third infusion:

 Ban Komaen (Laos tea) left, Nan Mei right (infused a little longer)

Nan Mei:  a bark spice aspect picks up, a bit like that "darker" version of cinnamon Rou Gui resembles.  A local Chinese vendor said Vietnamese cinnamon tastes like that, but I'm really not familiar with a range of versions of cinnamon.  It could come across more like tobacco (and it did to me more in the last infusion) but it's only a little towards that from the cinnamon.  Or it's just both; usually tea review is presented as an aspects list.

Ban Komaen:  that nice spice range shifted a bit more; it's cool how novel this tea's flavors are.  It still reminds me quite a bit of lemongrass, so I'd say it's mostly that, but of course the mineral depth and earthiness in the wood range isn't common to tisanes.  The wood in both seems like an aged hardwood, if that helps, maybe with a very faint bite of young branch shoot.

The Nan Mei comes across as "drier" in feel when comparing the two; that full feel tightens your whole palate and gives it a dry feel in comparison, which is more noticeable as a contrast with the other tea.  The Laos tea has a good bit of structure and fullness to it (relatively speaking related to teas in general; really moderate as sheng goes) but the finish feels smoother.

Fourth infusion:

On that last infusion I went slightly longer than usual, which I often do to get a better feel for the feel of teas, and to check how the various aspects work out slightly more intense.  In this case it was because my daughter interrupted me, but the effect in tasting isn't so different related to it being planned or not.  I'll try this infusion quite light, which actually can make it easier to notice trace flavor components.

Nan Mei:  this tea is actually nicer brewed very lightly.  There is still plenty of flavor to be enjoyed and the fullness of feel and aftertaste are still pronounced, and the balance works better.  The list of what I'm experiencing hasn't changed, and the gap in describing it.  It's complex; I get the sense there are layers I'm just not getting to assigning a description to.  The woodiness is probably more like leather than wood, which is sweet enough there might be a dried fruit aspect that matches part of it.  Faint prune, maybe?  Possibly something else dried I'm not familiar with, or just not picking up clearly enough to pin down.

Ban Komaen:  the sweetness and lemongrass effect seems to be falling into more of a balance with the earthiness in this tea.  It has mineral range for a base but less than the other tea, and probably in a lighter range.  Neither of these teas express any aspect range that I'd expect would improve by diminishing through aging.  I can't judge aging potential well yet, or how they would change over a few more years, but they're both very nice now, in two different ways.

 Ban Komaen (Laos tea) left, Nan Mei right

Conclusion:

The next infusions will continue to show transitions; these teas are far from finished.  The basic story is already told, and I get bored with review notes that delve into finer and finer details and transition differences.  I expect that few readers want to read further after getting through a full first page of tasting notes anyway.

Both teas were really nice; both somewhat new ground for me.  The Nan Mei was nice for being so complex and pleasant, really solid across the entire range of aspects, and the Ban Komaen for being so novel.  I liked the Laos tea better because that unusual aspects set really worked for me, the unique flavor of the tea, but I guess others with different preferences might feel different ways about it.

It goes without saying but the continuing emphasis on how the teas taste doesn't match the sheng pu'er theme perfectly, for many.  Feel and aftertaste are highly valued aspect ranges for many sheng drinkers, and I'm not even mentioning qi here (drug-like effect, or at least along that line).  Comparison tasting gives up reviewing that as a factor, since tasting two completely different versions together mixes that effect.  I tend to not notice it that much myself anyway, and don't love it even when the effect is so pronounced it can't be missed.  I already put in my time with using recreational drugs and for me tea isn't about that.

There's room for more rambling on about appreciating different aspect ranges in teas, and how to some extent transitioning what one does appreciate could relate to what is experienced.  Exploring that line of thinking works through analogy:  if coffee and beer are acquired tastes, not so delicious or enjoyable when one first tries them, the existence of a lot of coffee and beer drinkers implies that lots of people had to keep trying them after initially not liking them.  Maybe mochas help explain some of the coffee part, or people needing to stay awake late at night.

Maybe I will start discussing how appreciating mouthfeel, aftertaste, and effects of teas are growing on me, or it could go the other way, and I could decide to ease up on exploring sheng because taste alone doesn't make for enough of a draw.  Of course there's no need for a deadline related to that.  It has been interesting getting further with this especially complex and novel tea type.  I doubt I'll part ways with drinking sheng, I just won't drop interest in all other tea types as some do.  I already have one more set of notes on other versions to convert into a post, and more teas to try.

still wearing that novice-monk haircut, which I do like on him

after an 8 hour shift at the water park

two days later, back at that park

2010 Kokang Myanmar shou pu'er-like tea

Dayi left, Kokang Myanmar shou right

I'll take a short break from sheng, leaning into that subject a bit much lately.  But I am continuing with trying samples from Olivier Schneider, just mixing types up.  That exploration started with reviewing this pair of sheng samples earlier.  This should be just as nice, trying what looks to be a very interesting tea from Myanmar. 

There's a little history of that area in the related Wikipedia article.  It sounds like it might be interesting to visit, as long as nothing came up for local conflict.  That article's area description:


It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area is around 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi).[1] The capital is Laukkai. Kokang is mostly populated by Kokang people, a Han Chinese group living in Myanmar.

Kokang had been historically part of China for several centuries, but was largely left alone by successive governments due to its remote location. The region formed a de facto buffer zone between Yunnan province and the Shan States.[2] The Yang clan, originally Ming loyalists from Nanjing, consolidated the area into a single polity. In 1840, the Yunnan governor granted the Yang clan the hereditary rights as a vassal of the Qing dynasty.  [2] After the British conquest of Upper Burma in 1885, Kokang was initially placed in China under the 1894 Sino-British boundary convention. It was ceded to British Burma in a supplementary agreement signed in February 1897.[3]

Vietnam is the right (the Son La tea producing area), and Phongsaly province in Laos in the North

But for some local politics and a line on the map this could be part of Yunnan, and the tea could be go by the name "pu'er."

I've been drinking more sheng lately, but I did last review a shou in January, a Laos Tea version, which actually might be similar to this.  I think both are made from older local trees, although I never really heard the related details for the Laos tea (that I recall, at least).  That shou was from Phongsaly, a province not marked on this map, but the border has a "1A" road marker that runs just North of that border (the lower East-West part of it, before the road turns North to the West side).


Someone recently asked in an online discussion if older sheng can overlap in aspects with shou, and that hasn't matched my experience.  It always just tastes like shou.  But then I've not drank any sheng that's 15 years old or older (maybe with the exception of in a shop somewhere along the way), quite a significant gap when it comes to experience with that type.  I'll get there, surely sooner since the oldest in that set of samples has now aged for 19 years.

I'll comparison taste this along with a 2014 Dayi "Golden Fruit" shou version I bought last year.  I don't expect that comparison to shed much light on either tea, it will just be interesting seeing the difference as a contrast, or noticing if there really is significant overlap in aspects.  Part is that I'm in the habit of comparing things.


The brokenness of leaves stands out between the two, in preparing them.  The Kokang shou seems to have been stored as a maocha, never compressed, and seemingly was made from more whole leaves than the Dayi version.  That factory tea version was compressed, with the leaf material somewhat chopped up, including stem content as well as leaves. 

The notes description along with this tea follows:

Review

The Dayi tea is smooth and rich.  Per online descriptions of lots of other shou it would seem normal for it to be a bit "off" in some way for still being young, only a one year old tea now, but it didn't express negative earthy flavors, or fishiness, or anything like that last year.  It might lack a bit of complexity as a flaw, and I wouldn't really expect that to change a lot over time.  The aspects it does exhibit are nice, sweetness, fullness of flavor in the range it does show, a creaminess, mild earthiness, a bit of character similar to the Guiness Stout range. 

For an inexpensive "daily drinker" shou, something to have with breakfast or an afternoon snack that doesn't demand too much attention, it seems really nice.  I wouldn't be surprised if it transitioned to a better tea for having been slightly more challenging in it's first half year after being produced, but that would just be a guess on my part, but one based on experiencing changes in other shou versions.


The Kokang shou is completely different.  A bit of char stands out in the initial taste of the tea, actual charcoal flavor.  It's not necessarily negative but also not necessarily positive.  Beyond that it's also complex, with a lot of aspect layers to experience.  The flavor range unfolds as you drink it, and continues after you swallow it, all earthy and deeper-tone mineral fullness.  It's complex; earthiness extends into dark wood tones or maybe even tree bark, potentially interpreted as bark spice instead. Not cinnamon, other bark spices, although it's closest to the Vietnamese version of cinnamon that Rou Gui is closest to, as versions of cinnamon go.

Dayi left, Kokang Myanmar shou right

That one layer of charcoal is most pronounced in the initial flavor aspect hit, but it stays integrated with the rest of the flavor range after too.  For some it could ruin the experience, I guess.  I've tried inexpensive shou that were awful for that type of charcoal being most of the effective flavor range, but that's not what's going on in this.  It's also one of the last traces of flavor aftertaste to go, remaining as a whisper of flavor a minute or two after you actually swallow the tea.

This is only the first infusion; that flavor may fade as others ramp up across later infusions.  I just checked and the other tea, the Dayi, doesn't just leave your mouth immediately after you drink it, but its aftertaste is a lot less pronounced.

Second infusion

The Dayi does pick up a bit of richness.  I wouldn't expect it to develop a lot through infusions but it has improved from the first to the second.  It still has pleasant character, flavor fullness, and if very approachable, but it's a little thin related to complexity.  It was sold as supposedly being designed to pick up fruit flavors but I'm not really getting that.  Imagination helps you cover a lot of ground, and if someone really wanted to maybe they could interpret a dried apricot in some of the flavor, but peach is stretching it, or really even that dried apricot.  It has nice sweetness, I'm just not seeing that as relating to fruit.  This is sort of part of the limitation of the tea; it has plenty of flavor, it just doesn't come across as complex.  It's earthy, again like that rich flavor in a stout (beer), but it doesn't lend itself to listing out flavors.

The char did fade in that next infusion of the Kokang tea.  It's still the most pronounced aspect, for flavor, but has fallen more into balance with the rest, as contributing to a whole instead of being half of what you pick up.  Just a little more transition along the same line and this tea really will be exceptional.  The fullness is cool, the way the intensity somehow crosses into different levels, and how after you swallow the tea the experience is still just getting started.  That charcoal is fading into more of a richer (darker?) mineral dryness instead.  If someone doesn't see that as being "off" then there is nothing unpleasant about this tea.  And again if they did it could be hard to drink; it just depends on preference.  I really like it.

Dayi left, Kokang shou right

Third infusion

These two teas are probably leveling off where they're going to stay, with some additional transition coming later.  The Dayi hasn't changed at all, as far as I can tell.  

That char effect did soften further in the Kokang version, and the balance is quite nice as it stands.  The fullness and aftertaste stand out as exceptional more than the actual flavor profile, to me.  It's a lot fuller in range for flavor than the Dayi too but it's not really as complex as it might be.  It's earthy, with warm mineral tone, dark wood, and tree bark or bark spice, but all that makes for a related set of flavors, or complexity within a narrow range.  I'll give it one more slightly longer infusion to check range and then leave off the note-taking.  It does tell the full story to write out transitions through 7 or 8 infusions but it's a story that tends to get repetitive for a lot of teas.

Having invoked the issue of timing I can explain how I've been preparing both:  using medium length infusion times, as I see it, in the 20 to 30 second range.  Sheng often works out well at light infusions, brewed fast at normal proportions, but for me shou works better a little stronger.  It's possible to drink this tea brewed much more lightly, but a slightly medium-ish infusion strength helps place what's going on, and there's nothing objectionable in either tea to brew around.  It's also possible to drink these types of teas brewed as strong as coffee tends to come across.  I don't prefer shou that way but it works much better than for most other tea types.

Fourth infusion

The Dayi is still nice, not changing all that much for being a bit stronger.  It was a little neutral and mellow in both preparations, with enough complexity to be agreeable but not enough to be really interesting either way.  It does "taste like shou" at least; it's got that going for it.

The dryness and mineral tone pick up in the Kokang version, brewed slightly stronger.  A mineral / rock tone mostly like slate picks up.  Again someone might absolutely love that, or not like it at all.  Now that I think of it this tea reminds me quite a bit of Liu Bao.  It could almost be a Liu Bao, it's just not.  It's softer than those tend to be but that char is normal for those, and the earthy mineral range.  Shou is usually different, sweeter, with a different sort of complexity, more towards leather, molasses, or toffee, or the Guiness stout effect in the other version, potentially extending into dried fruit range, but as often earthy instead.

NYC Chinatown shop shou tuocha; not bad

I should qualify that:  I've drank a bit of shou before but haven't explored that much in the way of better, more expensive versions.  That's true of Liu Bao as well, really, even though I reviewed 4 or 5 of them last year.  I've also not tried much for older shou, so I really can't say anything about how 10 to 15 years of aging tends to affect such teas.  I've tried a couple in that age range, but one or two versions doesn't really inform general patterns very well.

These teas will keep going; they're far from finished.  I've been getting in the habit of dropping note taking after the first half of the infusion cycle since the main point is communicating a general impression.  A tea continuing to evolve in positive ways in later rounds is meaningful, or lasting through a lot of infusions, but I don't expect anything unusual to occur with transitions as these continue.  An aspect description or two might change, and the balance of aspects would definitely shift.

Conclusion

This Kokang tea is interesting, one of the better shou I've ever tried.  I really didn't expect it to remind me of Liu Bao as much as it did, to express that char and dry sort of slate-like mineral range.  The overall complexity of aspects was very nice, better than any of the Liu Bao I've tried, a bit fuller and creamier.  Flavor depth could've had just a little more going on but the feel and aftertaste made for a really interesting experience.

The relation to that char effect in the Kokang tea would really make or break someone's impression of it.  Before drinking those Liu Bao last year I'd have been less open to it, but after those it's just one more aspect that can come up, not overly negative, just not positive.  It was a little intense in the early rounds, and would've thrown off the experience of the tea at that level, but it softened it integrated well with the other earthy flavors.

The Dayi version was ok.  It was nice having it for comparison, even though it seems a bit flat and neutral compared to the other tea.  For an inexpensive version it turned out well enough.  It would've been interesting to compare these to that Laos Tea shou the Russians passed on but I finished that sample.  That tea hadn't struck me as an amazing version of shou but it was nice.

she's always cheerful; at the pool in this

same location, the next week's shoot

family photo; two aunts leaving from a visit