Teas from my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop; about meetups

 

meeting the Jip Eu owner, Kittichai, with those friends today

Later today, at time of first writing a draft, I plan to visit my favorite Chinatown tea shop for the second week in a row, Jip Eu, meeting friends there.  Last week I met Huyen and Seth there, and it was just great, as always.  The owners feel like family, and we always drink lots of teas and talk about their background.  

Kittichai, the owner, has half a century of experience in vending and producing tea, since the family shop is something like 80 years old, and he's from a tea producing family in China.  That last time Seth could even talk to him in Mandarin, which seemed to work a little better than English, which also works.  We tried a black tea I brought then, Thai tea in a Dian Hong style, and from them Lapsang Souchong (a great, high quality unsmoked version), and an Anxi black tea, and maybe one more I'm forgetting.  We usually try a sheng pu'er, or some oolong, and probably did then.

Of course I'm not saying that everyone would typically have the same kind of experience there.  They wouldn't.  They're not set up to sit and try sample after sample of tea with visitors, as shops more oriented towards tourist visitors might be, like Sen Xing Fa.  Value is better for what they sell though; that staff support level and extra expense gets built back into pricing.  Everything always gets built back into pricing; if a vendor offers free shipping that's not exactly free, and if you see a lot of marketing for a vendor, or if packaging is elaborate, you're the one paying for that, in the end.  

In Jip Eu they would be happy to discuss teas and offer options, just not typically tasting tea after tea, instead whatever they have open.  Sen Xing Fa sells some of their teas from large jar storage, which is not really ideal, but it does help with keeping sample portions available.

Jip Eu specializes in low-medium quality Wuyi Yancha sales, Shui Xian blends, what people tend to call Da Hong Pao in other places.  Then they also carry really nice Wuyi Yancha, and lots of other range.  I bought pretty good jasmine pearl white tea the last time, a gift for monks I know.  I'd drink that too, but I'm more a sheng pu'er drinker, so I'd get to it slowly.  I have a tin of jasmine green tea at home that I'll finish within the next few years, at this rate.

I bought decent Dan Cong today, again for monks I know.  They can't buy tea for themselves, and no one else knows about the theme to include it with offerings, so I'll periodically give them some tea.  One monk just helped us organize a memorial service for a cousin who passed on a few months ago, and another taught Keoni and Kalani meditation last summer when they were here; they play an active role in our lives.

The sheng range in Jip Eu is limited but it's a great place to pick up a Xiaguan tuo, or even a well-aged Xiaguan cake.  I try different teas every time I'm in there so it's hard to keep track of all that they sell, maybe even for them.  These teas I'm reviewing aren't necessarily indicative of that range, beyond the likelihood that quality level and character is a bit random.  Some of what they sell is quite good, and a good value, but since it all varies it helps to be careful and selective there.  I've tried their 100 gram folded paper packs of Shui Xian that were great before, well above average, and bought lots for gifts just then, but the last versions I bought were back in the range one would expect, pretty decent, but not unusually good.

I'll include a review of two of their teas, samples, and then add a section about the outings there at the end, framed around photos.  The owner mentioned that they sell online through Shoppee now, of course with product range much more limited on that online shop.  Something like the Dan Cong version I bought would be on there (the one in the hexagonal shaped box).  I've bought a couple of tins of their Dan Cong before, when I was doing more with oolong, so I'm confident that it's quite good as tea sold in that way goes.

Review:

Jin Guan Yin rock tea:  interesting!  We just tried a well-roasted, fall harvest, Taiwanese rolled oolong at a gathering with friends a few days ago, and this is pretty similar.  Roast level comes across first, but that's a much different experience than with Wuyi Yancha, where well-roasted tea tastes a bit charred.  This integrates.  It has vegetal undertones too; this isn't highly oxidized oolong, still at a moderate level.  

The final effect is pleasant; it balances.  There's a nutty sort of range, which I'll probably describe differently as rounds pass.  It could also be interpreted as bread-like, towards fresh sourdough or homemade bread.

Tie Guan Yin (I'm pretty sure it was that):  it's interesting how that general style theme, low-medium oxidation and high-medium roast, come together for a similar style but different result.  There's more floral range in this, but it's possible that the oxidation level is slightly higher, since part of the tone is warmer.  

The other version must express some floral range, it's just not evolving clearly early on.  In this it really comes across.  Thickness and fullness is also nice, especially for this being a fast early round.  This should have pretty good intensity and balance, I'd expect.

JGY #2:  even more intense roasted oriented aspects emerge.  Then it's a little odd how that contrasts with a "greener" base of flavors, but this is one typical style of roasted oolong that comes up.  I might like versions that balance higher oxidation input better, but that's preference oriented, not objectively better.  Maybe that would be a common preference.  

Some spice range seems to emerge, it's just hard to identify.  I think underlying floral tone is a part of this too, and mineral base.  There's a good bit going on.  Balance is fine, it could just integrate slightly better, related to that opposition between oxidation and roast level I mentioned, only an opposition if someone sees it that way.  That Taiwanese oolong example was pretty similar (the one we had tried at a recent tasting); again this is one conventional style.

TGY:  richer, creamier, fuller, more balanced, and more floral.  I'd imagine a lot of people would like this more, and I do.  It's interesting how creamy this is; that tends to be associated with Jin Xuan (a cultivar and oolong type).  It's both a flavor and feel input.  It includes some of the same warm roast range as the other version, but it balances better with the rest.  Tones are slightly warmer, even though that's not clear from the aspect labels I've mentioned (floral, versus spice range / towards fresh bread).  

JGY #3:  I'm going to cut this short, since I'm running late for an appointment to meet friends.  They are part of that new set of friends from a meetup with Seth and Huyen.  I brewed this round much stronger, distracted by a phone call, but that can help with identifying some parts of the character.

It's still pleasant brewed on the strong side.  Roast input really hits, and the rest picks up a lot of thickness, a much fuller feel.  Mineral is quite intense but not unpleasant.  There are no flaws that make this objectionable.  People may not like this character form, the way these aspects balance, but that's not the same thing.  An inky flavor emerges from the strong roast, towards mineral, also towards the char that can come up in Wuyi Yancha.  But it stops short of tasting like char; this is an upper-medium level roast, for sure, but not really high level.  

It's pretty good tea; the quality level and expressed character is fine.  It's just that people would divide over how they take this style.  That's true of every tea type, but maybe all the more so for this.

TGY:  this is also pleasant brewed strong.  It's nice how oolongs give you that leeway, that you can brew them quite light or quite strong, and it's down to your preference which is better, but they don't become harsh.  Shou pu'er is like that.  Sheng pu'er isn't; if you brewed any remotely young version this strong you'd have to dilute it.  I tend to do that by brewing a flash infusion and mixing them, not adding water, but it's not so different.

The balance is nice in this.  That roast input connects better with other warmer tone range, and the floral input, and mineral depth.  Greater thickness of feel shifts the overall experience, it's just not related to flavor balance.  Somehow the inky sort of flavor, between mineral and char, doesn't apply to this, even though the roast level is similar.  I think that's from how light vegetal flavor is offset by incrementally higher roast level in the other (both are upper-medium, but that level is a little higher).

JGY, #4:  brewed lighter, to see how that changes things, in the middle of a transition curve.  It comes across as much sweeter; it's better.  It's still intense and full, so it just balances better.  That slightly aggressive roast level is tapering off, letting the rest fall into a more natural balance.  It wasn't completely out of balance before, but this is better.  This matches what Tea Mania had sought out as a relatively good version of Taiwanese roasted oolong (the one I tried with friends); it's pretty good, as quality level goes.  Some of my reservations about style are resolved as well, as this transitions to be better balanced.

TGY:  also sweeter and lighter, but that roast edge still comes across clearly.  Overall effect is quite pleasant.  The aspects I keep describing work well together.  This is a little better than Thai versions of rolled oolongs ever tend to be, although surely some are this good now.  It's clean, well balanced, rich in feel, with good sweetness, and a positive flavor balance.  Warm floral range stands out most, then mineral base, and warm tones, towards spice, but not like Rou Gui or Oriental Beauty expressing oolong.  It's more an incense spice, like sandalwood.  It's nice.

These are far from finished but I'm off to meet people in Chinatown now, in this shop.

Recent meetups:

So many!  I'll skip the two I've already covered in posts, meeting Huyen and Seth at their tea tasting, and at a local Central World mall tea sales pop-up market, and touch on the rest, by commenting on photos.  The point will be the experience, aspects that make them interesting, in ways others could also explore, but of course the personal connections were the best part.  

I mentioned visiting that shop today, but I didn't mention what we tried:  an old Mengku sheng pu'er, a younger Xigui version (which I had reviewed here), Rou Gui (rock oolong / Wuyi Yancha), a medium roast level Anxi Tie Guan Yin oolong, and Thai and Vietnamese sheng versions I brought for comparison.  I was a little underwhelmed by the Thai and Vietnamese teas; the Thai version had a green tea edge, and the Vietnamese one was ok, more like sheng, but not as catchy as it might be in relation to expressing positive flavor aspects.  It was good, but not great, and not overly interesting.

I had mentioned this shop visit before, with Huyen and Seth

tea meetup at home

I might add a little about what we tried at home, in that more medium sized gathering.  We started with two of my favorite teas from Aphiwat, a Thai producer, a Thai version of sheng and Dian Hong style tea.  That was about sharing my favorites, and it matched a staggered start time, letting people running earlier try those.  We later also tried a Hong Tai Chang sheng from 2005 or so, that Thai producer that related to Chinese producers making tea here (but that back-story might include some mythology at this point).  And a Taiwanese more-roasted but lightly oxidized oolong, the one I compared these teas to.  We also tried a benchmark version of Xiaguan cake, maybe from 2006, and finally a Lao Ban Zhang sheng pu'er version, something I don't re-try very often.

It's never enough, until it's too much, and we didn't quite there in the time we had.  It can be nice trying teas in a mapped-out way that makes sense, working from lighter to heavier, exploring styles in a planned way, maybe moving from more basic to more refined range, but just trying what people find interesting in no particular order can be nice too.

There isn't much for "lessons learned" related to having friends over, or visiting that Chinatown shop.  It's asking a lot of shop owners to just host a tasting, basically, but if you know them they're often pretty flexible about that.  Of course it's only reasonable to buy some tea at the end.  Beyond giving tea to monks I can always stock up on an extra Xiaguan tuo, or the like.

It was interesting brewing tea for 8 people, all those versions, in the one gathering.  I used a larger sized gaiwan, 200 ml, maybe, and combined or "stacked" multiple infusions to pour decent sized cups.  It's nice having small, comfortable cups for that purpose, like these:

I'll probably take it easy with the tea meetups for a week or two; it's been hectic.  The current air pollution problem in Bangkok has caused our cat to lose her voice, so I've added a trip to the vet to these tea meetups, and a memorial service outing.  That was visually interesting too:

another temple area; there is so much to see there, in Wat Pho

a nice teaware display in that temple

Xinyang Maojian and Himjian; exceptional quality green teas

Maojian left, in all photos

I'm trying two green teas sent for review by a somewhat local online vendor, a Thai business owner living in China now. 

It can be odd trying green teas since they're my least favorite category. I can appreciate good Longjing, and sometimes buy fishhook style Vietnamese Thai Nguyen green tea if I see it.  I can tell if Japanese green teas are good from trying enough but the general style doesn't match my preference, so I would never buy sencha or gyokuro. 

To spoil the outcome these were surprisingly good, among the best quality green teas that I've ever tried. One might suspect that most of the best versions in styles beyond the few we know of in "the West" are only known of and drank in China, and when less known types make it out the quality is moderate.  I had a related experience with Qimen (black tea) not so long ago, trying a range one would typically never encounter. 

These citations of Instagram listings work as one reference, and local Thai online sales on Shoppee (like Amazon) are here and here. 

Xinyang Wild Tea, floral fragrance, high mountain, organic, premium, ancient tea tree

490 baht for 50 grams, a bit under $15

Gaoshanxin Yang Maojian Tea (Grade 1, top 2 leaves)

Also 490 baht for 50 grams.

Both those prices are presented as discounted rates, from an original higher price.  Under $15 for 50 grams of either does seem like a steal, given the review findings.

Review:

Xinyang Maojian:  it was clear that these were high quality teas long before brewing them.  The appearance is novel and promising, and dry tea scent rich, complex, and sweet.  Both have tea dust inside the bag, from trichomes, fine hairs on the buds of fresh, high quality tea.  I suppose it's conceivable that a tea could look beautiful, smell great, and contain tea fuzz and not be well above average quality tea but it would seem unlikely. 

This reminds me of running across a grass blade looking green tea version in a Beijing market a decade back, sold only as high mountain tea, which I never identified further.  It surely wasn't close to this good, but I wouldn't have known then either way. 

Taste is rich.  Umami comes across first, then vegetal range beyond that, along with freshness and sweetness.  This is really in between aspects I would associate with other green tea styles, which means nothing, since I haven't tried much of the entire range of Chinese green teas.  

Umami isn't as pronounced as in many Japanese green teas, but it's still pronounced.  Richer warm tones include a toasted rice sort of aspect I'd associate with Longjing.  Floral tone and vegetal range I can't really match to other green tea, but that would vary across many types.  Vegetal range is close to sugar snap pea, very fresh and clean.

Xinyang Himajian:  this includes richer, warmer tones.  There is some umami present too, but the whole general range is shifted.  It includes light, sweet, floral range too, but also warmer tones, not exactly matching the toasted rice in the other, but not completely different.  It tastes a bit like barley tea, that one flavor aspect.  Tisanes in general and barley tea in particular generally express a limited flavor range though, only so much complexity.  This is far more complex, going further than pretty good green tea versions often do.  

I'll have to look up how much these sell for to set up a baseline for reference after tasting, but these are clearly among the best quality green teas I've ever tried.  I wasn't really expecting that.

This includes vegetal range too, more like a fresh version of green bean instead of sugar snap pea (so heavier).  That may sound negative, as if cooked vegetables isn't a promising range for tea.  I mean that these seem to express the flavor of a lightly steamed vegetable, retaining that freshness and sweetness, not the they resemble well-cooked vegetables of any kind.

There is plenty of floral range too, just occurring in warmer tones, I guess more towards lavender, but then isolating and describing floral tones isn't really one of my strengths.  Feel is rich and full for both of these teas, with aftertaste experience carry-over.  They're clearly exceptional quality teas.

As of the first round I like the lighter tone character of the other version better, but the way these aspects in this come together in this version, and the way refined complexity and intensity is expressed, make it slightly better overall.

Quality one can determine by a range of typical markers, which vary by tea type.  It's an entirely different thing than match to preference.  The description list for these teas indicates what great quality is for green tea:  good balance, flavor intensity, positive flavor aspects, refinement, presence of umami (when matching the style), clean flavor range / lack of flaws, full feel (less of a determining input for green tea), and pronounced aftertaste experience.  In general--which varies by specific tea type--flavor aspect range varies by type as much as quality, and heavier vegetal flavors indicate a lower quality version, with sweetness and lighter floral range standing out more in many better green teas.

Maojian #2:  vegetal range shifts; this is much more complex.  Brewing this in different ways would draw out far different results.  Using cooler water would lighten flavors (this is well off boiling point but not cool, not 70 or 75 C); many people would prefer that.  Brewing this using an approach closer to Western brewing might be more conventional, longer infusion times at a lower proportion, again shifting temperature to cooler water. It's easier, and it trades out experience of transitions for even more complexity. 

Vegetal range is now dominant, with umami secondary.  Flavor is centered more on green beans, versus sugar snap peas in a first infusion.  Sweetness is great; overall complexity and intensity is perfect.  I've tried some exceptional green teas before but nothing in this style, and not much at this quality level.

Himajian:  warm tones pick up in this in an unexpected way.  It adds a lot of mineral range, and umami approaching seaweed levels and flavor.  It's still floral with some vegetal range, but it almost comes across as spice, for this being so novel and intense.  I don't love a lot of seaweed flavor range but again this really works.  It's just so clean; there is no negative fishy or sea-oriented flavor related to that, just dominant vegetal range, that is hard to place.  

I had a fantastic version of well-roasted river weed in Laos once, an experience I never will forget; this isn't completely dis-similar to that.  Maybe it would help to say that one part of the experience seems close enough to toasted sesame seeds, that flavor warmth and depth.

Maojian #3:  this shifts again; I guess it will continue like that for both.  A unique vegetal aspect enters in, like flower stem.  Floral range still supports that, and sweetness is good, so it balances well.  It could still be interpreted as tasting mainly like sugar snap pea; this shifting interpretation tends to focus on what changes, as reviews often do.  

It's hard to describe how this balances, how complexity, refinement, intensity, and additional feel and aftertaste aspects support this.

Himjian:  yet another pronounced shift in flavor range, but again it's hard to describe.  Warm tones ramp way up, and they were already pronounced before.  It might taste a bit like roasted almonds.  It's not completely nutty in the sense of peanuts or cashews but still in that general range.  

Maojian #4:  I'll give this one more slightly longer soak and end the notes here.  These will keep going.

A toasted rice / cashew sort of note picks up.  Again brewing just a little of either of these for a shorter time at a lower proportion would be different; that would also be pleasant and interesting.  Aftertaste expression may even pick up in this.  Mineral tones and other supporting range also really supports complexity.

Himjian:  this really is shifting towards a spice tone, in a way that's hard to isolate.  It does taste a little like that roasted river weed, but there's no way that helps for most readers.  The warmer spice range that picks up is a bit like aromatic incense spice, along the line of sandalwood.  A higher level of structure picks up in the feel, of course nothing like the far more intense sheng pu'er range, but it is interesting that it changes.  Aftertaste lends the experience greater complexity.

Both these teas are just fantastic.  I had no idea that they would be like this.  It made for an interesting surprise, trying versions that are more novel and higher in quality than I could've expected. 

People who think that they don't like green tea might be surprised by these.  Some people who already do like green tea might be even more surprised, that the range extends beyond what they have experienced. 

tea event in a Bangkok mall this week