1997 2 kg. sheng pu'er brick (Tibetan style)

in the Tea Village shop tasting area (in October)

When I last visited the Tea Village shop in Pattaya one owner, Vee, let me try a really interesting version of aged pu'er that seemed as much like a hei cha.  That's essentially what this is.  I'll let his website description of it tell more of the details:

And that's what it is; just a bit of a mystery tea.  The "made in the Tibetan style" more or less says "hei cha" to me, and tasting it does too.  It's a fine material, very hard pressed tea, which was very difficult to extract for a brewing sample.  Vee used a hammer and chisel to remove this part, I think it was, and I used a pick for pu'er, a knife, and eventually a bottle opener (it gave good leverage and mechanics for snapping off small chunks).

You read that one part right; they sell this as 2 kilogram bricks, equivalent to nearly a half dozen typical size pu'er cakes (although it lost weight in storage, so it's down to only 5).  It sells for 12,900 baht, now equivalent to $393.  For five tea cakes worth of tea that comes out to around $80 a cake, a pretty good value for 21 year old tea.  Of course it's not pu'er, so it needs to be compared to a hei cha scale instead (in my opinion), and I doubt there is enough equivalent product on the market for this for there to be any clear fair market value.  If you want it you have to find it first, which is essentially all but impossible, and a vendor can charge whatever they want for it that makes it sell.

As for what the tea tastes like I've had it before, in the shop with him, and it seems like a hei cha to me.  It's smooth, rich, warm in effect, and centered on the plum-like range that I've encountered in other hei cha.  "Plum" may or may not be the best description for a primary taste aspect but it gets across the general range.  Onto tasting notes then.

looking bored with the tea theme right away

I think this was that tea, from trying it there

Review

The story of this tea starts with how hard it was to break up.  That initial chunk Vee used a hammer and chisel to break off, I think.  I tried to use sharp spiked tea pick to flake off some pieces but that didn't really work.  Eventually I used that, along with an actual knife (luckily that didn't end in me impaling myself), and finally a bottle opener to crack off some pieces.  It's a well-compressed tea.

I used a standard brief rinse for this tea, which wasn't going to do much for getting the small chunks of tea started brewing.  It was a judgement call as to how to brew it, related to what I broke off including both dust and small chunks.  It's not optimum to brew two completely different types of material together, since that dust will be starting to infuse within a second round (the first after a rinse), and the chunks will take a few rounds to even get soaked enough to start.  When I drank the tea with Vee we had at least 10 rounds of it and that tea may well have continued for that much longer.  The issue I'm referring to is uneven infusion exposure instead of longevity; one part of the tea will be brewed out (changing flavor to where teas that you discard as spent are in the cycle, often turning woody in flavor character) while the other just starts going.

The obvious work-around is to separate out the finer material and not use it, to set it aside for a later round.  I didn't do that though.  Per my best guess this tea won't "brew-out" to be unpleasant, but instead will retain a similar character and just fade over a very long infusion cycle, so it won't make as much difference.  And as usual intuition is my main guide for how to approach brewing teas; somehow my gut said the right thing is to mix it all and use it together.  Of course it's hard to track how frequently that's wrong.

a bit too light

I brewed the tea for around 10 to 15 seconds for a first infusion, which turned out to be more of a second rinse, too thin to get a lot of effect from.  Then for 30 seconds a second cycle, to get the tea chunks started soaking and to get the dust pretty far along, and mixed those two infusions ("stacked" them, to use the catchier formal term).  From here on a more standard approach should work, something like 15 second brewing times.  I just checked Vee's website recommendation and they said to use two rinses; that makes sense.  From there adjusting time as works best for you is the way to go.

This first infusion won't be the best representation of the tea's character but it's nice.  It has that plum effect already.  Mineral is present as a base but it's in a really soft and subdued form compared to the sheng and shou themes I've been on.  It's the other layers of complex flavors that make this nice, which are harder to pull apart.  One part is like incense spices, frankincense or myrrh (I still have to get my incense habit going to tell what that is though).  Another is a very fine trace of menthol.

As a primary flavor aspect I hate menthol (just a personal preference issue), so that #18 Ruby or Red Jade black teas from Taiwan almost always seem awful to me.  As a minor supporting element that integrates will with the rest is a completely different case; that can be great, and this works.  From there I could keep going but it seems as well to add more description related to a second round instead.

Second infusion

This opened up faster than I thought it would.  It seems to be loosened up and brewing nicely already.  I gave it about a 15 second infusion time, about twice as long as it would need to draw out flavor if astringency or other aspect moderation was an issue but this tea will be nicer at a slightly more intense brew intensity.  That's just a matter of preference; it would work well brewed wispy light or twice as strong again.

The same flavor list as last time applies:  plum, mineral, some supporting spice (which is continuous with some dark wood tones), and just a hint of menthol, which might be more faint, so that I wouldn't identify it in this round if I hadn't noticed it in the last.  It's nice the way that complex mix coats your mouth and remains as an aftertaste effect.  There isn't that much structure to the mouth-feel to talk about; the intense flavors give it a complex over-all effect but not a lot of mouth-feel structure supports or contributes to that.  The wood is similar to redwood, that aromatic, almost spicy range of wood tone.

The mineral is more intense in this round; it really covers such a range that it would be possible to write a short review description of just the mineral.  It's warm and complex in nature, towards that artesian well / red sandstone range.  It extends to being almost metallic, which could be a bad thing depending on the metal character, but it works in this.  It's not completely different than rusted iron bar but it seems to extend to metal-range complexity.  For being a flavor-intensive but simple in structure tea experience this covers a lot of ground.

Third infusion

mostly wetted and loosed up already

It's not transitioning; the taste is like before.  I could keep free-associating to come up with different interpretations for the same set of flavors and other aspects.  Probably the balance of what is there has shifted a little too; there's more that could be said about that.  That menthol background element is so faint that it may or may not be there at all at this point, but I'm going to say that it is.

dried persimmons!  I'm not sure what this coated version is covered with.

Plum still works as a fruit aspect description (for a tea that's more in the mineral and earthy flavor ranges anyway; that just stands out for some reason) but it really is closer to a dried persimmon.


Which reminds me, I was just in Chinatown and walked by those, and the looked really nice, but I was in a hurry and didn't buy any.  I love those; that flavor is as close as anything else to fig (so this tea isn't far from that either), but it's just a little lighter (but just as sweet), less rich but more complex in some sense that's hard to place.

Fourth infusion

I'm running out of time, off to get a haircut after completely losing any style due to not making that work.  It's still similar.  I remember that from trying an awful lot of rounds with Vee; it stays fairly consistent.  I like this character so that's a good thing.  I think the mineral and metal levels move around a little, that the relative proportion of those individual aspects is varying, but the overall character and effect aren't.  The aromatic wood component seems a bit stronger this round.

It's my impression that changing infusion strength shifts that balance a good bit for this type of tea.  It narrows things down that astringency and mouthfeel in general isn't a concern; optimum is whatever seems best for taste.  Aftertaste is substantial too, but it still occurs in a lighter brewed version.  Probably shifting temperature would change things a little too but I can't imagine that using anything other than full boiling point water makes any sense (not that I'll check that).

It's a very nice tea experience.  I've had a hei cha before that this reminds me of, a version of Fu brick.  It's a bit simple in effect; you either like that flavor or you don't.  The flavor is complex, and it wouldn't be familiar to everyone, but to me it's likable.  I'm not going on about how clean it is but it helps a lot that there is no trace of mustiness in this tea, or that the metal, fruit, and earthy range balances as well as it does.

This tea is probably far from finished; there might be another 15 infusions to enjoy out of it.  It'll be nice if it works out that I can do another full session in the afternoon with it since I'll squeeze in a couple of more and be off for now.

Fifth infusion

completely loosened up

The balance of those aspects is definitely shifting around.  It's much stronger towards the redwood / aromatic spice range now, although there is plenty of dried persimmon flavor balancing that (and related sweetness), and a nice dryness from some very complex mineral.  That probably works well as an overall description of this tea, even though earlier the aromatic wood was lighter.

Later infusions

I drank a couple more infusions before going out, and left the tea fully drained to try again the next morning (early afternoon; I got a late start on it).  Using extended infusion times to keep the intensity up changed the character in an interesting way, drawing out more earthy leather range flavor, still with good molasses sweetness, and a bit of spice, again supported by mineral tone.  The molasses and leather trailed into a tree-bark edge, but it was still nothing like astringency in other tea types.

Placing that style; potentially related tea versions

This tea is a little different than anything that I've tried, but all the same I'd like to cover a little more about the teas closest to it in style that I've tried.  I mentioned a Yunnan Sourcing Chinese hei cha that was similar, which was their 2007 Xiang Yi "Hei Cha Zhuan" Hunan brick tea, which I reviewed here.

To be fair to this Tea Village version it probably a was a bit more refined and distinctive, beyond just not being the same thing, maybe because the extra decade of aging helped it, or maybe it started out different.  It definitely doesn't look similar, even though the brewed character shows some similarities.  This tea just reviewed is made of fine material, very tightly pressed, with that other hei cha more from larger leaf pieces, along with a good bit of stem.

the initial chunks of that tea, YS Hunan brick

broken up in a gaiwan

loosely compressed compared to this other tea (credit YS site)

Even though they're probably not the same the character was similar, so I wanted to add a bit more about what it was, from that YS vendor description, which I'll explore further with other types descriptions afterwards.  Part of the point is to try to zero in on what that tea was in more general terms; for example, would it have been pre-fermented or not (as it was described by Vee).


Back to that Yunnan Sourcing Hunan brick description:


This is from the Xiang Yi Tea Factory in An Hua county of Hunan Province.  Xiang Yi is the second oldest producer of Hunan Hei Cha after Bai Sha Xi Tea Factory.

Hei Cha Zhuan (lit. Black Tea Brick) is composed of An Hua grown tea that's been picked and processed with frying, rolling, wilting and then sun-dried.  The bricks are tightly compressed which allows for slow but determined post fermentation. These are unique from Fu Bricks in that the golden flower spores are not introduced into the tea and as such don't exist.

This particular brick was stored in An Hua County of Hunan from 2007 until June 2016.  The smell of the dry leaf is that of dried fruit... very sweet and dense fruitiness happening.  The brewed tea is sweet and thick with (not surprisingly) strong fruit sweetness (think dried plums).  Tea can be infused 7 to 10 times if brewed gong fu style.  We recommend loosening the tea using a pick into smallish chunks layer by layer.  We also recommend using a clay pot and the hottest water possible.


One of things that stands out about this tea, besides the unique character, is the unusual level of value; they sell it for $126 for a one kilogram brick.  Supply, demand, and production costs all factor into a final tea price and apparently this end up being inexpensive.  Description in my review summarized flavor aspects as:

"fig, older hay bale, mineral, and molasses as a start but really I think cocoa sort of works, and there's another dried fruit element that's quite pronounced..."


I think that may have been a bit mustier, and also complex but maybe not in exactly the same way.  It's interesting that this tea version isn't post-fermented through any piling step, isn't it?  At least as presented, but the description from original content could be clearer.  I lose track of what typically is or is not though.  I'll cite a reference about this type (the YS version; not this Tea Village tea, since it's not as clear what it even is), from Tony Gebely's Tea: A Users Guide (a really good general reference for a lot of scope):


Hei Mao Cha (黑猫茶, hēi māo chá), Semi-Finished Dark Tea

Nearly all styles of Hunan hei cha begin with the production of Hei Mao Cha or semi-finished dark tea. Hei Mao Cha is made by fixing, rolling, pile-fermenting and drying fresh tea leaves, usually from descendants of Camellia sinensis var. assamica known as Da Ye Zhong (大叶种) or large leaf type. Another way to refer to Hei Mao Cha is pile-fermented Mao Cha.


Note that this says "nearly all styles," and goes onto say this generally refers to a pile-fermented tea.  Of course the Tea Village product description cites that being made based on a Tibetan tea type instead, not Hunan (China), but versions of that aren't listed in this book reference.  The description of it as "sheng" (which means "raw") refers to it as a non-pre-fermented tea, although I'm not sure if that's intended as a conclusive description or not.

That description cited was only about the general category; a further passage from that User's Guide reference relates to this YS tea type I'd mentioned:


Hei Zhuan Cha (黑砖茶, hēi zhuān chá), Dark Brick or Black Brick Tea

Hei Zhuan Cha is a fermented tea made by steaming Hei Mao Cha and pressing it into special rectangular molds. The bricks are then dried in a warm room and wrapped. The finished product is a rectangular brick with a flat surface, usually without markings.


It doesn't fill in much, and that's especially not helpful for not clearly linking back to the tea type I'm reviewing anyway.

Tony's book does list another type from China most typically used to make Tibetan style yak-butter tea (the association to that country that does come to mind), describing that hei cha as follows:

Kang Zhuan is a style of Nan Lu Bian Hei Cha brick from Sichuan province. Kang Zhuan is made up of a mixture of older tea leaves and stems... Leaves and stems destined for Kang Zhuan are fixed, rolled, and pile-fermented...  Kang Zhuan tea is the tea of choice when making Tibetan Yak Butter Tea. Production of this tea has spread from Sichuan to Hunan and Guizhou.


Not onto Tibetan originated tea yet (given there is such a thing; I think there is), but that does mention that final preparation style from there.  That sounds a lot like a tea I tried from Moychay, an odd looking pressed large brick made from a good bit of stem material and leaves, reviewed here, and pictured as follows:

They made no type or style claims in selling that tea, and even made it clear that it wasn't like other standard types of hei cha.  That review actually covers one of my favorite sheng from them, in the first section, a really nice, fruity version from Nan Nuo.  As far as that tea goes it was a bit rustic; as I remember it tasted a bit like barn door.


Yunnan Sourcing does list a version of that last tea type (mentioned in the Tea:  a User's Guide citation), with the description connecting with that reference:

These "Kang" bricks were produced in the small tea factory in Province of Guizhou and then sent to Tibet where they were stored in a family home for more than ten years.  These are packaged in long (1 meter) bamboo baskets, about 20 to each length.  

credit related Yunnan Sourcing page, the link just cited with the text

Given this tea I reviewed seems to contain no stem material at all (unless that was ground too fine to identify), was finely ground leaves, and was well-compressed into a brick shape instead it doesn't seem to be at all related.  Even if I did research for other different Tibetan style compressed tea versions (a reasonable next step) it would be hard placing those in relation to this tea without tasting them, or probably still difficult even with trying them.  It would be easy to note how close aspects land but not possible to separate out different causes for why (eg. tea plant type differences, growing area as an input, processing differences, where the teas spent the last 20+ years).


At any rate this was an interesting and unique tea; it's always nice trying those.  With more research it would probably be possible to come to a better guess about what this is.  Enjoying it for what it is in the cup doesn't require all that; the tea was nice.


Later edit:  I spoke with a reference about what it is, with a person who would be familiar with it.  That person said it's not uncommon for fannings (ground up tea by-product) to be pressed into bricks in Yunnan, and that those products are usually sold for next to nothing.  Here is an example of one; a 6 kilogram brick that's selling on Taobao for around $29, or a 3 kg version selling for about a third of that.

Of course quality level and material used is going to vary, and how any teas taste. 

Related to the "Tibetan" background and age claims according to that reference this probably has nothing to do with Tibet, and the label doesn't look conventional for being 20 years old.  And the tea itself claims to be from from 1962, pressed onto the surface lettering:  一九六二制  literallly means "Made in 1962."  It's not relatively new raw tea material but it's absolutely not 50+ year old tea, and the claim that it's 21 years old also seems dubious based on this latest input.

I tend to not express views or background about products that is negative here, and I respect and personally like this vendor.  But at a guess this tea is just an inexpensive, relatively recent production made to be sold to tourists.  I doubt Vee knew that, and there's a good chance that he still doesn't.  There's even some chance that's wrong, but I'm completely convinced this reference source is as good as any person one could talk to.  I won't cite who that is explicitly, since there is a convention in tea circles to initiate a dramatic cycle of blame related to anyone making any negative claims at all.

It's common knowledge that one buys all teas under a "buyer beware" context.  If you spend $400 on a unique sheng pu'er-oriented product sold by a local Thai tea vendor you take a risk.  The tea is pleasant to drink, and novel (just a bit thin across feel and aftertaste aspect ranges), so at least one gets reasonable tea as part of the deal, but it had been back-story and potential for high value and rarity enabling that level of expense to make sense. 

This same theme repeats over and over related to online tea sources and local Bangkok Chinatown vendors; you really should expect the story and label content for pu'er to potentially be completely false unless you have clear reason to believe it, and not the other way around.  If you can try a tea first and buy it based on experienced aspects versus a story being told or value claim that's even better.

Tea Village Thai dark oolong

their tasting area isn't currently open but we chatted there anyway

I finally made it back to Pattaya for two weekend outings (with a travel-blog themed post about that here) and visited Vee, one of the owners of the Tea Village shop there.  We met twice; catching up was nice.  I bought this more-oxidized oolong and an old tree source Assam black (in a style not unrelated to Dian Hong, it seems) during the first weekend, and some lighter oolong the second.

I've been critical of Thai teas in the past for being lower quality versions of what is produced in other places, and have claimed that Vietnamese teas can be better.  To me those generalities are accurate but there's something to be said for upper medium level quality good-value teas.  Even for an experienced tea enthusiast they can work for a daily drinker, as a tea to have with breakfast when you don't have time to put into brewing or appreciation, and for people still on tea-bag teas they could be a revelation and a gateway.

It all depends on the tea version too.  An average version of an average quality level tea might not be worth drinking, for many, but a much better quality version in the same general range, just on the higher edge instead, could seem very pleasant.  This review will identify where this version stands, per my judgement.  Brewing approach makes a difference, so it will cover a good bit about that as a factor.

Let's start with the vendor description first (from a sales-site web page, paraphrased since text cut and paste is disabled):

A dark (high oxidation level) oolong based on Assamica variety leaves, with flavors that include some tartness and flavors including prune, bark, and dark chocolate, produced similarly to Tie Kuan Yin.


That Assamica part jumps out, doesn't it?  It reads like a likely mistake at first glance.  I can only think of one version of Chinese Assamica-based oolong that I've tried, beyond teas coming out of India, but those aren't even supposed to be close to Chinese oolongs, it doesn't seem.  Tartness in an oolong is atypical but then an oolong made from Assamica would be atypical.

The rest seems right for more oxidized oolong, but the reference to Tie Kuan Yin could do with a little unpacking.  Per my experience--which isn't so extensive that I'm clear on everything, especially related to TKY range and processing--those Chinese versions aren't more-oxidized teas, they're moderately oxidized, maybe even still on the light side, with the roast shifting the profile more than that other processing input.  To be clear I really could've tried only atypical versions, because you tend to mostly only see the light version (bright green ones), and I wouldn't be surprised if producers trying to copy an older style would very often get that part wrong.

The Taiwanese more-oxidized or more-roasted oolongs I've tried spanned more of a range; those do tend to be made with either oxidation or roasting level increased, or both together, it just depends.  I could go on to say that I've not tried much presented as a more roasted or oxidized TKY from there (from that cultivar or plant type, which is also used to mention a characteristic style in some cases), but I wouldn't make too much of that, and here that point was just a description tangent anyway.

They recommend using full boiling point water and a modified Western brewing approach, with a somewhat typical proportion (maybe a little high) but backing off the timing and using 3 to 5 infusions of 45 seconds to 2 minutes.  That is kind of how I tend to adjust Western style brewing; we'll see about the temperature part though.

The tea is very inexpensive; the website lists 50 grams for around $2 (65 baht).  That is a standard price range for grocery store versions of Thai oolong here, or Royal project store versions, but tea quality levels vary a lot for both of those sources.  Among Western vendors tea just isn't sold in that price range, at least not decent oolong.

I've prepared it using an infuser cup, small glass pot, and gaiwan

Review

I first brewed this tea Western style, so that's where this review will start, based on a relatively standard process.  I tend to go a little heavy on proportion and brew three rounds versus two, which seems to work better for me for oolongs (which often turn out better brewed Gongfu style anyway, with more on that in a next section).  I most often use water a little off boiling point.

The tea tastes like cinnamon.  The overall character is closer to black tea than oolong, with the balance in the middle working well in this case.  A typical aspect-list description comes to mind: warm and sweet dried fruit, along the lines of tamarind, maybe even cherry (although that's a stretch), leather or dark wood, a trace of mineral similar to rusted iron.  This range often gets interpreted as similar to pastry, like toasted and buttery Danish, which works.

Really how someone sees aspects depends on interpretation, as much or more in this case as any.  It's a little creamy in effect but that could be stronger with this set of aspects.  It could be seen as tasting like cocoa instead of cinnamon, but per my read it's cinnamon.


Strengths:

-not off in any way, sour, or oddly roasted, overly thin.

-clean flavored with good sweetness and balance.

-cinnamon is nice.  Other aspect range is positive but it could have more depth and complexity.

-this kind of tea works well prepared strong, both a strength and related to weaknesses, since it can't be over-brewed but lacks intensity to pull off lighter infusion strengths.

-inexpensive (kind of a completely different subject, but it is a factor).


Weaknesses:

-a bit thin as oolongs go; nice flavor but thin in feel and after taste.  I'd said in the "strengths" it wasn't overly thin, but I meant two different things.  This lacks the depth and fullness of higher quality oolongs but doesn't come across as so light in body that I'd call it a notable flaw.  I see it as a limitation instead.

-not as subtle, refined, or complex as better Taiwanese versions.  It needs to be brewed strong to compensate for both of these limitations.

Initial conclusions (prior to trying a second brewing approach, Gongfu preparation)

I like this style of tea and this version works. For a good value tea it's pleasant and positive.  Thai producers more often get this slightly wrong, and similar versions often have one more flaw that makes it not work as well (sourness, or some other slightly off character).

I'm curious if light roasting played a role in end effect but I get the impression that oxidation did all the work of aspects transition in this, or at least almost all of it, which works but limits the complexity.

The part about the tea being Assamica is curious; how did that change things (or could that not be accurate?).  Of course it could be Assamica; if you process those leaves in the same way a tea variation of oolong will result, it just won't turn out the same.  The leaves seem smaller than I'd expect, but then Assamica is a broad category and newer leaves are still going to be small for that plant type (just maybe not the first three, but then I'm thin on the botany side of background).  Using that plant type could explain why it didn't achieve the depth and fullness that similar but less oxidized oolongs tend to.

I would have expected the taste profile to skew further off typical Thai oolong range with that as a factor.  I've described this as a mild black tea, for the most part (the descriptions would match that), but that pastry-like character I've never experienced in the same form in any Assamica or Yunnan black.  The cinnamon can be common, and of course a broad range of fruit and mineral, but that other aspect tends to not come up.


It's not typical but I'll compare this from memory with a personal favorite similar style tea from Vietnam, Hatvala's Red Buffalo.  In a sense that's not a fair comparison because that's a favorite, but the styles mostly match, at a rough general level, and there is a general point I'm heading towards.  I haven't tried that tea in about two years but I did buy a lot at one point so it sticks in memory better.

They're so similar that only a side by side tasting would clarify exactly where they stand in relation to each other, and year to year that might vary.  I remember that tea as slightly creamier and fuller, lighter on cinnamon but fuller in complexity.  For a casual tea drinker it's still possible this flavor profile might work better (or more likely not; I really did like that tea), but at a guess that Vietnamese tea version depth in flavor complexity and feel would tip the balance for experienced tea drinkers, for people with more evolved preferences.

To me this is still nice tea as daily drinkers go.  Gongfu brewing might pull out an extra aspect or two (I'll cover that next) but in general western brewing is just as well for this tea type.  It's nice because it would be one of the best teas someone new to tea ever tried, a good gateway tea, even if it is probably too limited for a Taiwanese oolong enthusiast to appreciate it.

that tasting room area is really cool

two minutes in; impatient little people

Gongfu brewing

I really expected the tea to be almost the same but to perform better prepared Gongfu style.  Instead the tartness was a lot more pronounced, taking over the other range of flavor aspects, standing out as dominant.  In the earlier review section here I didn't even mention tartness.  I kept thinking it would fade, and it probably did some, in later rounds, but I noticed more of what seemed like cranberry for flavor than anything else throughout the cycle.  So what happened?

At a guess the teaware I was using to brew the tea Western style absorbed more heat, and allowed more to dissipate during the longer brewing process, resulting in an unintended parameter change.  That is just a guess, but it would account for that degree of aspect change.  Just using a different proportion and timing can change aspects some too but it normally doesn't to that degree.

Using a full gaiwan (once the leaves were wet) also made it harder to moderate infusion strength, although flash brewing would accomplish that.  While I usually go lighter on Gongfu style brewing infusion strength I might have accidentally inverted that, and had been brewing the tea stronger for most rounds instead.  That would be my first guess for causes of the difference (related to the tartness) if I'd only prepared this tea twice, but I've been drinking it brewed Western style a few times and that tartness doesn't come out to that degree, no matter how long I infuse it or at whatever proportion.  It seems likely using fast infusions with a thin porcelain gaiwan caused a significant temperature difference, even for using the same water temperature at the start.


A Steepster discussion of someone brewing what they described as moderate quality Tie Kuan Yin (mediocre, they put it, a little more judgmental but the same idea), and getting better results than they usually do relates to this.  It turned out that per their final conclusion they accidentally dropped brewing temperature and that worked better.  It's a standard idea that better oolongs can perform well (or best, as the typical take) at full boiling point, but that lower quality versions may not.  All that was covered in this blog post about best oolong brewing temperature.

It seems likely that I really do like this tea brewed just a bit off boiling point, brewed cooler, but that thinness and lack of body I mentioned in the first review is the trade-off for limiting that tartness.

It's still decent tea; it was never supposed to be a higher quality version than it is.  If someone didn't mind or even enjoyed tartness in tea (which I sort of don't) the opposite trade-off might be the way to go; brew it hot, and get that extra intensity and depth back, but give up some apparent sweetness and more flavor aspect range towards cinnamon or dried fruit. 

Related to value and appreciating a broad range of style of tea it's interesting to me how this can seem like nice tea and a good value at $2 / 50 grams, and the Hatvala Red Buffalo similar oolong can too while costing nearly three times as much (still not much for nice oolong), and my favorite Chinese oolong in a different style, Wuyi Origin's Rou Gui (reviewed here) can cost more than ten times as much and still be a great value tea.  It would work better for parallel structure to be referencing a better Taiwanese "red oolong" but I don't have a favorite among what I've tried of those.  In my own progression of tea appreciation in the past I was more at one particular place or level, liking the quality level I had learned to appreciate versus all of them, each for what it is.  I'm not convinced that's necessarily a higher form of perspective; it's just where I am now.

I bought some extra of this to share with my daughter's teacher since although it's not great tea it's quite good for the price.  She's British and doesn't have much exposure to teas beyond the breakfast blends and such; it'll be interesting to hear how that goes.  

on his 10th birthday; they grow up so fast

the other, with Yai

one of many cool moments; they help me appreciate the little things

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Review of the Bai Mu Dan / Peony style white tea

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



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

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


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

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

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

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

fall color in Western PA (photo credit)

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

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

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

Taste comparison of three Oriental Beauty teas (Bai Hao)

Tea Village (Thai) left, May Zest (Taiwan) right

Who doesn't like Oriental Beauty teas?  That style of oolongs is approachable, complex, sweet, and distinctive, typically expressing a nice range of fruit and spice flavors.  Here I review three of them, directly tasting a Thai and Taiwanese version against each other, then reviewing a third from Taiwan.

One is a tea I've talked about a good bit in the past, a Thai Oriental Beauty sold by Tea Village, a shop in Pattaya and an online vendor; the other two are from May Zest, the first I'll discuss already reviewed separately.  Having covered that ground already the point here is noting how direct comparison goes, since sometimes that points out subtle differences.

Note that this tea type can vary a lot year to year due to the input of the insects in the process (the bug-bitten idea), which Google search will say more about, or other posts in this blog describes.  Tasting the same teas these vendors sell in another year could go differently, or May Zest might sell other versions for that reason (not lots of OB coming out of Thailand to choose from, although I have reviewed others).

Comparison review of two versions

Per appearance the Thai tea has more tips / buds, a good sign, but otherwise the general shape is not so different.  The Thai leaves are darker, the Taiwanese browner versus nearly black.  We'll see what that means related to oxidation level, but I thought both were around the same, quite oxidized.  The standard for the type is 70% oxidized or more (from sources I've referred to in the past), so relatively far towards black teas as oolongs go, even though measuring that may not be so simple.  The scent is different, both sweet.  The May Zest / Taiwanese version comes across with more cinnamon, and the Tea Village / Thai version showing more varied spice and also some earthy tones that are hard to separate.

May Zest left (darker), Tea Village right

Per the rinse this is going to be closer than I thought.  I thought I'd like the Thai tea more, that it would show better complexity, a larger range of interesting flavors, but both seem nice at this early stage, complex and sweet, with lots going on.

The first infusion was a bit light, good for separating out some trace aspects, but the tea will really get going more on the next.  The Tea Village / Thai OB is just beautiful, light and sweet, complex and balanced, clean flavored.  It has fruit aspects (maybe towards peach; I'll check again next infusion), and a cinnamon / nutmeg component, just not as heavy on the cinnamon as the May Zest / Taiwanese tea.

The May Zest tea has good flavors, pronounced cinnamon and honey sweetness, and good complexity, but it does give up just a little in being as "clean."  Related earthy flavors can easily include a little scope that isn't exactly a notable flaw in the tea, but in this case it doesn't come across quite as well in comparison.  It's hard to describe as a taste element, since it comes across as an aspect of how the flavors are, sort of a mustiness, but just a trace.  More on that next round.  Both teas are quite soft, no astringency to deal with, not exactly with a full, rich feel as some other lighter oolong types tend to go but with a nice feel to them,.  Both have a reasonable degree of fullness and just a hint of "structure" from being relatively more oxidized teas (a term borrowed from wine tasting, referring to how the tannins give a tea a certain type of body).

The next infusion goes a little further; things get clearer.  The Thai tea is still sweet and complex, with that spice coming across somewhere between cinnamon and nutmeg, a nice place to be.  There is fruit too, in the peach / apricot range, again more in the middle than being one of those.  The tastes are positive and well balanced, and clean, but subtle enough they don't jump out as a flavor-aspects list, it all comes across as a fruit and spice blend.  Being stone fruit and spice it does come across a little like a cobbler, there just isn't much in the way of a bread / pastry element (maybe a little though).  It's definitely not yeasty, it doesn't have that bread-dough characteristic some teas have.

The cinnamon really picks up in the May Zest version, taking over the other flavors, along with a lot of honey sweetness in the background.  Sometimes when reviews mention honey it almost seems like they are being generous, trying to add some depth to saying a tea has sweetness, but this tastes a lot like a dark amber honey, not so much like the lighter golden type.  A lot of tea sweetness does resemble honey though, so it just depends, in part on interpretation.  The mustiness clarifies a little, but it seems to have evolved to a light background mushroom aspect.  That sounds worse than it really is; it's not like a cinnamon, honey, and mushroom consume, but it does have a touch of earthiness below those other spice / sweetness aspects.  Someone might interpret some aspect as fruit but to me the cinnamon and dark honey cover most of that related flavors range.

May Zest left (a little darker), Tea Village right

This might be a good place to note that I really do like both teas.  There's something that I'm attaching to related to the Thai tea I can't completely place, maybe the complexity, maybe the balance, or general effect, of subtlety.  It's hard to completely eliminate that I might like the idea of the tea better, that something about past experiences may have led to a bias.


That Thai OB is a pretty good tea; worse things could happen than for someone to feel an attachment to it.  It seems to give up a little intensity to the May Zest tea, in terms of sweetness and that cinnamon aspect being so pronounced, but the cleanness and balance is really something.  Then again, per personal preference differences someone else might like the May Zest tea more, especially if that blast of cinnamon really did connect with them.  I might also mention that a friend tried the May Zest OB and didn't thing cinnamon was all that pronounced, although when I first tried it I checked to see if the tea was just plant leaves or includes any shaved cinnamon bark (it doesn't).


Next infusion:  more of the same.  I kept the infusion strength at a medium to get a good idea of what's going on with the teas, and they're not really fading yet, a few infusions in, just transitioning a little.  For this general type that's often not as pronounced as for some others, changes over infusions.  It can vary a lot by brewing approach, Bai Hao / OB (or this variation also goes by Dong Fang Mei Ren).  The Tea Village version softens a little, maybe fades slightly, just not much, but still in that same range.  Probably a little additional complexity creeps in, in the range of dried hay, but it's subtle and integrated with other tastes, not so easy to identify.  The May Zest tea shifts to straight, strong cinnamon, with that musty trace that had shifted to mushroom now shifted towards a dark wood element, which works better with the tree bark / cinnamon spice aspect.

This  general tea type works well brewed Gongfu style, as I'm doing, using multiple, shorter infusions, and a higher proportion of tea to water, but it does just fine brewed Western style too.  It wasn't transitioning a lot, the main reason to use Gongfu style brewing instead, the main difference, aside from the tea potentially turning out differently brewed using different parameters.  Or if you like messing around Gongfu style is nice, not worse in any way.  That general brewing approach also combines well with other interests, like buying things, or owning things, since endless amounts of gear and teapot collecting pairs well with that approach, and can support some sort of Zen meditation experience.  You could even take a video of yourself doing the brewing, which would look cool to other people, especially if you wear some unusual clothing, some sort of robe.

From there both teas just taper off a bit.  Longer brewing times are required to get the same infusion strength, and some of the more earthy background aspects and that oxidation-effect structure stand out more in each.  The May Zest tea may seem just a little more oxidized, also tied to brewing a little darker, but the difference between in the range of 70% to 80% instead isn't notable except for tied to that sort of minor aspect shift.

Review of a third OB, also from May Zest

It looks like an Oriental Beauty, a Bai Hao oolong.  The smell is sweet but in the range of spice and sun dried tomato; different.  The brewed taste includes a good bit of sun dried tomato, and the spice range is cinnamon.  It's an unusual tea, but it comes across better than it sounds (unless that sounds really good,  then maybe just equivalent).


The type often include spices, so the difference is swapping out muscatel or other fruit for a sweet but different taste, something a bit richer.  On the second infusion the cinnamon picks up and the sundried tomato fades back so it's back in a more conventional OB range.  It has some citrus, expressed as orange zest, altogether a nice set.   The empty cup smells like honey, but that's not so uncommon from different teas.


The feel of the tea is nice, well oxidized but in that upper middle range, as OB goes, with that bit of dryness, nicely mixing with a juicy feel.  Later infusions aren't shifting a lot.  Cinnamon stands out as primary, that feel is next most notable, with decent sweetness and relatively clean flavors.  It's almost a shame that rich, vegetal leaning sundried tomato aspect dispelled a little, although still part of the profile.


I wouldn't brew to minimize that astringency since it has no bite or edge, it just gives it a dry feel, but you could coax this tea to being really soft instead, by dropping temperature and drinking it as very light infusions.  To me I'm preparing it as medium, but that would mean different things to different people.  To some I'd be drinking it way too strong, for others perhaps too light.  I like OB's prepared stronger than Dan Cong, if that helps, typically in a similar range as Wuyi Yancha teas maybe, probably just a touch stronger, with black teas brewed a bit stronger yet, usually.  All that depends on the tea, and on my inclination just then.


I tried cooler water and that sundried tomato taste picked way up, maybe for the dry feel and related mineral aspects dropping back.  Or maybe it's not that simple, and it all just shifted.  The mineral component is quite different, like iron ore might taste, earthy in a different way.  This is nothing like the drier, lighter minerals in pu'er, not like mineral tones in Vietnamese green teas, also nothing like that rock taste in Wuyi Yancha.  It would be interesting to visit these places and smell some rocks and dirt, to see how direct the mapping of mineral aspects to soil impressions is.

I could imagine people loving or hating this tea.  People seem to love OB for the fruit aspects, and for being easy to drink, and this works for both but it's not fruity in the normal range (muscatel / grape / citrus / spice).  It's not like drinking a green tea that transitions across a range of vegetables, where you really have to be on that page to appreciate it at all, but it's a bit dry and leans a little towards a savory effect, something different.  I don't mean it includes umami, like a Japanese green tea, but heavy minerals and that one rich, sweet dried tomato effect.


I'm not sure if I'd like it more or less after drinking a couple hundred grams of it but to me it was nice, not too novel, not challenging, and obviously a high quality tea, clean and well balanced.

Subjective comparison; which is better

I think preference for those characteristics I mentioned would determine which is better, and no one of these three clearly is.  The first May Zest OB didn't come across quite as clean-flavored as the other two, and that's one way to judge how "good" a tea is, but it was such a subtle difference that it wouldn't be so evident without direct comparison.  It was still slightly better than the average of other OB types and versions I've tried.  All three were quite decent OB versions.


Perhaps they aren't on the level of those storied most-sought-after teas that never leave their country of origin, but all are good teas.  The Thai version seems better than it ought to be, in reference to every other Thai oolong I've ever tried.  I'd be happy to drink lots of any of them.

Tea Village Hojicha, roasted Japanese green tea

I've covered what hojicha is before, along with reviewing one, so this is about trying a different version supplied by the Tea Village shop in Pattaya, sent along with two other teas I recently bought.

The tea is relatively familiar, not so different than the others I've tried, but a quite decent version.  Hojicha in general is a roasted green tea distinctive for using the branches / sticks of the tea plant in addition to the leaves, or even mostly instead of leaves.  In other words it's made from bancha, a green tea version that includes more use of tea stick material.  It's only most commonly made from bancha, per a reference from Ricardo Caicedo, who writes a blog on Japanese teas, which I had cited in that first post.


The taste is close to toasted sesame, maybe just a little towards toasted rice, with a good bit of sweetness, in the caramel range, with a smooth richness and a nice clean taste.  There is no trace of astringency, and very little in common with the vegetal / grassy / seaweed effect some green teas can have.  It would make a nice everyday tea, a varied type to rotate in with other basics.


Ricardo and other sources have mentioned that this tea type is lower in caffeine, so it's sometimes used as a transition tea for children to drink in Japan.  I've researched caffeine consumption limits for a separate post I've not published yet and per that background caffeine wouldn't be a problem for most people based only on drinking tea, unless they drink a lot of it, maybe over two liters a day, a limit which would vary a lot by strength and type.  For younger children restricting any caffeine intake is recommended, per some relatively reliable medical sources, so although it's not that uncommon for some people to allow young children to drink limited amounts of normal tea that's worth considering.


As with any type of tea the strength or weakness depends on how someone's individual preferences relate to the type.  This one is definitely approachable, easy to drink, and relatively easy to brew tea, so the limitations might relate to someone not liking the somewhat unconventional taste profile, or the limited complexity of the tea.  A tea having a range of subtle aspects or the right kind or level of astringency can give it an interesting balance, but then I do like to drink different types of different teas depending on what I feel like at the time.


I'm reminded of two separate discussions about a very different type of tea, dan cong, a sweet, typically fruity oolong from China (which varies in taste profile by version), in which others commented that the light astringency in that type really helps to offset the strong fruit flavors.



It occurred to me that this might work well for blends since it does have a pleasant, rich flavor, that might work for mixing with other elements.  I don't drink or prepare much for blends myself, mostly just the odd masala chai, so it's just a thought.  Maybe with the right fruit elements this taste range could stand in place of a cobbler or pie crust, but adding a vanilla ice cream component to that would get tricky.


For readers in Pattaya--and I can't imagine there would be that many, although we visit there sometimes, in spite of the predominant "adult" resort theme not matching family vacationing--the Tea Village shop has opened a tasting room.  This expands their shop a little into the cafe arena, to compliment already selling a range of Thai and imported teas.