Teaberry and partridgeberry tisanes (natural wintergreen herb tea)

 

teaberry!  aka wintergreen.

partridgeberry; smaller, rounder leaves.

I've long since been intrigued by the possibility of making an herb tea / tisane from teaberry leaves, or at least a plant type I grew up knowing as teaberry.  In reviewing background for this post it turns out that two different local plants--that are common where I'm from, Western Pennsylvania, where I visit now--are both probably referred to as teaberry, when one is a variation of partidgeberry.  Or so a couple of online sources indicate; it's hard to drill down to the absolute fact of the matter in online references.  

Let's start with what I understood, beyond picking and eating what I took to be teaberries.  I've read different accounts about using teaberry as a tisane, including a claim that it oxidizes well, as "real tea" does.  Here is more background, from the book "Secrets of Native American Herbal Remedies:"

Wintergreen (Gaultheria Procumbens) is an aromatic evergreen shrub native to North America.  Also called Canada tea and deerberry, wintergreen is often used to relieve pain and inflammation.  The leaves of wintergreen contain methyl salicylate, which is closely related to aspirin.  Several tribes, including the Delaware and Mohican, have used a tea made from the leaves to treat kidney disorders.  The Great Lakes and Eastern Woodland tribes have used poultices from wintergreen, applying them topically to treat arthritic aches and pains.

That hadn't really the basis for my interest, but it was interesting.  Wikipedia adds this, about teaberries:

The fruits of G. procumbens, considered its actual "teaberries", are edible, with a taste of mildly sweet wintergreen similar to the flavors of the Mentha varieties M. piperita (peppermint) and M. spicata (spearmint) even though G. procumbens is not a true mint. The leaves and branches make a fine herbal tea, through normal drying and infusion process. For the leaves to yield significant amounts of their essential oil, they need to be fermented for at least three days.

teaberry leaves with moderate bruising, not nearly enough to enable oxidation

teaberry leaves bruised and chopped

It was partly this oxidation potential that made it interesting.  This Youtube video clarifies the difference between partridgeberries and teaberries, confirming that both are edible, as fruits (berries) or leaves.  That correct identification helps explain why the partridgeberry fruit is a little bit minty but the leaves aren't overly so.  This Youtube video passes on guidance for finding and identifying "real" teaberry.

This plant source covers more background, about that second plant type:

Mitchella repens, Partridgeberry, Partridge Berry, Native Bare Root Perennial

A trailing, evergreen herb with white, fragrant, tubular flowers in pairs. Partridgeberry is a creeping, perennial herb, no taller than 2 in. high. All parts are dainty, including its pairs of small, rounded, evergreen leaves; tiny, trumpet-shaped, pinkish-white flowers; and scarlet berries.

A most attractive woodland creeper with highly ornamental foliage, it can be used as a groundcover under acid-loving shrubs and in terraria in the winter. The common name implies that the scarlet fruits are relished by partridges, and they are consumed by a variety of birds and mammals. Indian women drank a tea made from the leaves as an aid in childbirth.

No one brews an herb tea / tisane from either of these plants where I'm from, typically; the teaberry name isn't necessarily taken as an indication that drying and brewing the leaves would be a great idea.

I've tracked down both, growing right beside my parents' and brother's homes, and have made a tisane out of both (attempting some rolling of the leaves, then drying them).  At time of writing an early draft I've only brewed the teaberry leaves, but I will write this related to trying the other.

Teaberry tastes minty, as this one passage suggests; the leaf flavor really is "wintergreen."  The teaberries don't taste that much like the leaves, but there is some overlap.  I'll skip adding more on partidgeberry character in this intro section, but related to tasting fresh leaves they just taste a bit vegetal, without much flavor coming through at all.

Preparation and review:

I tried out bruising / rolling the leaves to support oxidation, but it didn't seem to have much effect.  I'm not sure that the compounds in these leaves are right for this transition (either of them, really), or if I just didn't bruise them enough.  I suspect using a mortar and pestle and really grinding the leaves a bit would help, where I just tried rolling the partridgeberry with a rolling pin, and pounding the teaberries with a mallet for tenderizing meat, then slicing those into thin strips, to support more air contact to internal leaf compounds.  Onto review notes then.

teaberry / wintergreen brewed on the lighter side

Teaberry:  it tastes like wintergreen.  For some people that's all I would need to say, if that mint flavor range is familiar.  It's less peppery than peppermint or spearmint, but closer to spearmint for being milder.  It's quite sweet and pleasant.  I didn't use enough to really dial up infusion strength, maybe 3 grams for two rounds of Western style brewing, but it was enough to see how it would work out.

It seems odd breaking that down further.  It was minty, along that particular line for flavor, wintergreen.  There's not much to add.  There was no astringency, or vegetal range character.  I suspect that variation and depth could be had by properly oxidizing the leaves, but I'm out of time to experiment with that here, and I'm not carrying fresh plant leaves back to Thailand.  I could rapidly dry some, skipping an oxidation step, but I've already tried that prepared herb version.

I brewed the leaves twice and mixed the mostly spent leaves with partly brewed out black tea, from breakfast, and the resulting mix tasted strongly of that one mint note, in a pleasant way.  Apparently they had more to give.  Simmering the leaves might be promising, really forcing flavor extraction.  Or there's a masala chai trick of simmering tea and herbs, letting it sit, re-simmering it, and letting it sit again, resulting in brewing at or near boiling point temperature for an extended time.

Partridgeberry:  there is a trace of mint, but not much, and beyond that the vegetal range flavor is a bit subtle.  It doesn't taste like much.  It's nice that it can be used as a tisane, and I suppose it could be helpful if it really does have medicinal qualities, but related to the experience of drinking it there just isn't that much going on.  Teaberry leaves as a tisane are interesting and pleasant, but partridgeberry leaf isn't.

One might wonder why I'm going on and on about plants that produce berries in relation to brewing the leaves, and leaving the berries out of it, not brewing those.  They're not berries in the sense of strawberries or raspberries; they're subtle in character.  Teaberries are pleasant, sweet and minty, but partridgeberries don't taste like much at all.  Teaberries aren't really flavorful enough to be promising as a tisane, brewed alone, although maybe I'm wrong, and that might work.

There's one mystery left in all this, related to ligonberries, which are described as the same thing as partridgeberries in some references.  How is this possible?  Ligonberries are relatively similar to cranberry; they should be quite flavorful and tart, but these are almost entirely flavorless.  Two possibilities come to mind, but there may be others:  these aren't really a variation of ligonberries (or just that, called a different name), or they are related but it's a plant type variation, that isn't identical.  I don't know, really.  Intensity could vary by season, related to time of the year, but surely not as much as this, to cause a strong-flavored berry to be flavorless some of the time.

At any rate the one plant people refer to as teaberries locally really is that, and its berries are sweeter and more flavorful, with the leaves "wintergreen" in flavor.  The other doesn't taste like much, as berries or dried and brewed leaves.

Family visit photos, back to Western Pennsylvania

As I'd mentioned I've been in Western PA, visiting my family.  These notes, and most of the text, is from that visit, and I finish the editing while traveling back to Bangkok again.  I won't add much more about that, but I will share some photos from there.

view from a balcony at my parents' house

the colors change fast; this was two weeks later

a hunting lodge sort of theme

again earlier in the stay, a creek beside their house

not much later, showing more color

my kids and two cousins

meeting those kids was a main highlight (and one other); it was hard leaving them

Gopaldhara Red Thunder ruby and black autumn Darjeeling

Red Thunder Ruby left, black right

About winter / fall teas from Gopaldhara, not versions I've kept around for as long as some other recent "lost sample" posts, but definitely running one season behind since it's onto spring already, maybe just not time for Darjeeling first flush releases yet.  This is one of my overall favorite teas from Gopaldhara, and to me one of the best Darjeeling versions I've tried.  The review description sheds light on why, it just isn't really filled with subjective take input like that, more about aspects, so it really wouldn't come across. 

I think the other version is a black tea variation that may be experimental, or something they made for limited batch sales.  I didn't see it on their website.  Either one, since their original India version has been joined by one set up for foreign sales, listing Red Thunder here (assuming there is one main version that this is, which the "Ruby" designation potentially may not relate to):

Gopaldhara Red Thunder Oolong – Winter Frosted 2021

Gopaldhara Red Thunder is a limited edition Darjeeling Autumn Flush made from frosted leaves. This fine tea is made from clonal bushes and appears blackish red with abundant tips. The tea is made during the last week of October where the temperature starts approaching zero degrees at night, leading to the leaves getting frosted. Extreme cold weather conditions at high elevation induce a special and complex flavor into the tea. It is well oxidized while still retaining a prominent fruity flavor.

I'm usually a bit skeptical of teas being marketed as Indian oolong, since the versions never remind me of the rest of the range of teas presented that way, from lots of other countries, but this has a distinctive and different character.  Or I suppose autumn flush might tend to be like this, since I've not tried so many of those?  Anyway, it's really good and novel in type, and oxidized to a medium level, so oolong it is.

That tea lists for $10 for 100 grams; that seems really low to me.  I just mentioned a couple of teas from Nepal selling for $15 for 50 grams last post (the second used to benchmark value for the first), and for teas as good as Jun Chiyabari usually makes that seems fair.  I can't imagine those could be better than this though, just different in style, and it's listing for one third that rate.  Direct sales has the potential to relate to much better value than teas sold by a middleman or two in between, but often all kinds of vendors will build up demand and customer base by starting out with a low markup, and correct that later on.  I'm not necessarily saying that I expect this price to double over the next few years but that wouldn't be unusual. 

Review:

Red Thunder Ruby:  fantastic, of course, but the point here is to pin down in what sense.  Even for being slightly light due to being a quick first infusion this is great, complex, well-balanced, and pleasant.  Warm tones complement nice warm fruit range, complex enough that it's not just one thing.  Interpretations of dried black cherry and tamarind might make sense.  There's a bit of citrus edge but not so much, at least not yet.  The warm tones aren't as clearly defined and distinct, but it's pretty much in lighter black tea range, even though I think this gets described as an oolong.  

More oxidized oolong range always overlaps with less oxidized black tea range anyway, often accompanied by percentage amounts, like 80% oxidized, but it's hard to be sure that specific designation is meaningful.  A tea being just off fully oxidized does mean something specific, just maybe not narrowing that down to a percentage.

Black Red Thunder:  an early sourness throws off this coming across as positively, but it seems like the kind of flavor input that will "burn off" over the first round or two.  Warmth and sweetness matches the other for this, and there's probably some fruit range to it too, but for being light mostly that sour note comes across.  It seems a little like sour cherry for combining those ranges, maybe just pulled a little towards cocoa, as the other also was.  In going back and trying the other that warm range could be lots of different things, spice, or aromatic wood, but it's not as clearly centered on cocoa.  It will be interesting to see how both shift once they're really along the main infusion cycle next round.

Ruby Red Thunder, second infusion:  a little tartness picks up in this, giving it more of a berry character.  It's not sour cherry, but not so far off that.  It's nice how complex this is, how it packs in a lot of fruit range, with warmth complementing that.  I'm not sure the tartness is really an improvement, and trying to brew this on the lighter side may lighten the balance of that.  I was using about a 10-15 second infusion time, more towards 15, which doesn't sound like long but as usual I've maxed out the proportion.  

The warm tone is moving in an interesting direction, now heavier into spice, between cinnamon and warm tree bark range.  Cinnamon kind of is bark; I mean like a typical thick barked hardwood, but related to cured bark, a version that's been stored somewhat humid for awhile, perhaps laying in the woods.

Black:  the sourness did mostly drop out in this, with an unusual mineral range filling in.  It tastes a little like salt; it's odd that doesn't come up more.  It gives it an interesting sweet versus savory divide, like sweet and sour pork, or crispy pork (kind of Chinese / general Asian thing).  A rich fruit range develops, more like cherry than anything else.  It's cool that these have expressed so much range around the cherry theme so far, with the other venturing into other berry just now.  

The feel of this has a dry edge to it.  That's not really good or bad, a positive supporting input or something that detracts, just how it is.  If it was stronger it would be negative, and I suppose rich and full without dryness might be slightly better, but it's fine, it's nice.  

Red Thunder Ruby, third infusion:  a little extra light, but it's nice "seeing it" from different infusion strength perspectives to get a feel for how the experienced aspects range can vary.  That one catchy set of fruit and warm tones still stands out, with feel relatively positive, with some richness and fullness but no real edge of any kind.  There is no sourness or tartness in it prepared this way.  Complexity stands out most, how there's a lot going on.  The fruit and warm tone ranges aren't just one thing, as I've described, both really coming across as a set of flavors.  That spice / bark tone starts to transition more to aromatic, warm wood tone, or that could just be an effect from shifting infusion strength.

Red Thunder Black:  the best this has been, even though this is a little light (how it's prepared).  That unusual mineral range is cool.  It doesn't come across as much as salt this round, but it's definitely a main part of the experience.  It leans a little towards that inky mineral effect that can be present in roasted Wuyi Yancha versions, which really does taste a bit like ink smells.  A more conventional interpretation would discuss wood tones or fruit more, since those are easier to notice, but the mineral range stands out (to me) for being novel, and contributing a lot to the overall effect.  Fruit range never did dial up quite as much as in the other version.

I'll be traveling today so I'll probably do one more round with note taking and then drop this, probably not getting back to adding more about the later rounds.  Both will keep shifting and developing, and both are pretty far from finished, as I've prepared them.  Drinking two teas worth of 8 or 9 rounds in a hurry is too much; made this way it's too much for someone to drink straight through.  

I never really factor in context like that when starting, in part due to not being all that clear-minded in the morning to factor in anything.  It's 9:30 AM now and already hot out, and I started this back more towards 9, a more proper time for getting out of bed on a Saturday.  A single Tim Horton's maple cream filled donut is offsetting the impact of all this tannin in my stomach; so far so good, but it's at its limit.

Ruby Red Thunder:  really nice, very well balanced, but I don't have much to add about changes.  If anything it all just evened out nicely, with fruit and warm tones, and rich feel, all coming together in their proper places.  I would accept this as a nice black tea version, the feel is just a bit softer, rich instead of having any astringency edge at all.  It can be considered an oolong then, it's just not like any form of Chinese oolong, as close as any to a Taiwanese rolled ball form "red oolong," kind of an unusual sub-category.  

The richness in this is a bit like that warm tone in a cinnamon roll, not just the cinnamon part, which is present, but also that nice cooked sugar range, and warm pastry effect.  Don Mei would go crazy listing flavors for this; it would contain 20.  It comes across as complex but integrated, and in a unique sense as simple.  It's good.

Red Thunder Black:  a lot of that general commentary applies to this too; it's integrating nicely.  The warm tones definitely include a bit of a cured wood effect now, which works with the rest.  Mineral has backed off a little, letting that part and fruit show through.  Either of these could be interpreted as more into citrus range than I've described, maybe with a hint of sweet red grapefruit in this overall effect.  Both are complex enough that a lot of different interpretations could make sense.  These reviews are more about describing an overall effect built up through describing how details add up, but not as one objectively correct interpretation.  Seeing these flavors as being something else would be natural, and not necessarily less accurate.  

All in all this is pretty good too.  I liked the other better, for really nailing a unique balance, more the version I expect from past experiences (not that I can memorize a tea so well from one year to the next, or across two).  I thought this would contain more edge for being identified as a black but it really didn't include much more for astringency / structure than the other, with that early dryness dropping out a round ago.  The oxidation level difference is almost clearer in the wet leaf color than the character, since they're just different, not necessarily with this just like conventional black tea and the other not.

Conclusions:

Not much to add really; both were nice, but to me the Ruby version really stood out.  Expectation could've factored in, it being more what I thought I would experience, or what I had learned to appreciate in the past.

I often find myself saying that I like teas or that they're good in posts, since I wouldn't usually review a tea that I don't like, which is a less interesting story to tell.  It's hard to put that on a scale.  Gopaldhara tea range is really novel, up there with the absolute best I've tried from India, and this version is one of my favorites from them.  It's on the exceptional side of "good."  

I like their lighter intense fruit and floral range teas too, when versions really click, but this one also has consistency on its side, that it's always this good, and seemingly always in a similar character range.  That impressive, given that they need to work around how much the weather cooperates in making teas.

back from that travel I mentioned, which included snorkeling in the Gulf of Thailand

there were no other people or boats anywhere near us that day, kind of crazy

Trying Gopaldhara autumn harvest Darjeeling oolongs

 

Rishi of Gopaldhara sent some really interesting looking teas to try, a batch of some autumn harvest teas, I think these are.  Seasons don't match temperate climates perfectly at other latitudes but maybe Darjeeling does experience more autumn and winter than here in Bangkok, related to being at a much higher altitude.  We can tell that the days get a little longer and shorter here but that's about it, except for one week typically being cooler than the rest of the year here in December.  This year that ran early, and lasted for two weeks, so it was a nice cold season for us, down into the teens C at night (60s F), not cold, but nice and cool.

I don't know anything about these, beyond the names, but per usual process I'll go back and add more after making the notes.  Let's skip the part about how close Indian oolongs really are to Chinese style oolongs.  Not that close, but medium oxidation level and some comparable degree of processing steps needs to have some category name.

After checking, the background related to a website change includes more to consider than just the description; this is posted in the Gopaldhara India site, but there's an additional international site now too.  With pricing listed in US dollars, so maybe it's a US site instead?  I'll check on that and add more about it in a later review post.  When vendors list multiple site versions, as Yunnan Sourcing does, it's often about basing stock and shipping out of somewhere else, which drops cost and speeds up delivery time anywhere, and can relate to avoiding customs issues in places like the EU.

This listing information:

Rohini Winter Frosted Rare Creamy Oolong – Master Series 2021

This rare Darjeeling yellow oolong tea has very exceptional characteristics than any other oolong teas in the Darjeeling Hills. It is produced from P157 clones at the picturesque valley of the Rohini Tea Estate in the winter season. In this season the growth of Darjeeling tea is very slow and the workers could only bring in a very small quantity of leaves that are very special. The workers carefully pluck the tea leaves while making sure that only the best shoots with eminent buds are plucked.

The teas are very mildly oxidized and delicately processed to induce minimal damage to the whole leaves. As a result, the dry leaves become greenish with abundant silvery tips that give us an amazingly clean cup with very high notes of aroma. The texture is very creamy and we get the mixed flavour of Green Apple, Ceylon olive or Indian olive, Indian gooseberry, pear, and vanilla.

Sounds good.  Per my understanding both of these are somewhat experimental, representing ongoing evolution of processing, where the related autumn "Red Thunder" version is pretty far along that path, something they've been tweaking for years.  

This "Christmas honey oolong" Rishi said was sold as a batch but not listed on either site.  It's interesting how that part works out, how producers try to re-create standard branded versions, like the Red Thunder, accounting for variations in annual results by blending inputs from different lots to get to a more standard outcome.  To the extent any part of what I'm claiming or implying is wrong I'll also amend that in another post; it's not as I'm passing on these few comments directly from input from Gopaldhara.

Review:

Christmas honey oolong:  that is really interesting.  I gave it a nice long soak so I wouldn't be saying "we'll know more next round," and infusion strength might be just a touch over optimum.  The flavor is complex and positive, and character really isn't even completely familiar.  After trying so many experimental Gopaldhara teas that's nice, that they can keep breaking new ground.  

I want to say that there is a novel aspect in this, but it's not that, it's a set of them.  The varying oxidation levels apparent in leaf color would indicate that might happen.  One part is bright, floral and including vegetal range, that green wood that I take to be one main characteristic of Darjeeling.  Another is warm, rich, and sweet in a different way.  There's a risk in such circumstances that it might not integrate, but it really does.  I think astringency expressing so much range makes this interesting in one way and a little confusing in another.  Not in the sense of it being unpleasant, but related to fully taking it in.  As to flavor list someone could brainstorm and just keep going on, about honey, floral range, warm spice, trailing towards cocoa, or an aromatic part relating to cedar or other wood tone.  It'll be interesting to see what stands out as this evolves, and how the proportion shifts.

Creamy oolong:  a similar experience of not really being able to place this tea occurred again.  Again it's quite pleasant, so not in the sense of it seeming off, although the warmer range mostly dropping out in relation to the other seemed a little jarring at first.  I think a crazy range of floral tone is making these hard to interpret; their characters are crowded around expressing a lot of that.  This is creamy but not buttery; the smooth and rich tone also connects with a bit of vegetal edge.  It tastes like butter in relation to how a butter cookie tastes, at the intersection of that butter flavor and shortbread.  The more vegetal part I'm not really identifying yet.  It's not so far off flower petal or stem but it's not that.  

I think it also complicates things that these teas are expressing mostly floral range but also rich fruit.  I wouldn't be surprised if that seems more dominant and noticeable as infusions evolve.

Christmas oolong, second infusion:  much better a little lighter, and opened up. Intensity is good, and overall balance. Astringency edge is moderate related to typical Darjeeling range but substantial as the much lower whole-leaf Gopaldhara versions go.  At this level it gives the tea a nice balance. It would be just as good with less, but it's not negative.  Honey sweetness stands out more than in the first round.  Floral range seems to evolve more into dried fruit, it's just hard to pin it down to one version.  Maybe not far off dried apricot.

Creamy oolong:  it's interesting how this tea would be completely different without this degree of astringency edge and green wood flavor.  It's nice as it is, but with half that input the overall effect would shift.  Put another way this stands between Chinese oolong character range and first flush Darjeeling.

Maybe my kids' review input will help clarify.  My daughter tried both and said that both are nice, and that she liked this creamy version more, but didn't really explain why.  My son tried both and said that both are bitter.  Maybe a little, but it's really astringency that he's picking up.  My daughter, who is 8, seems to tolerate it better, and see both as more positive, which really makes no sense given that her only food preference is for eating candy.  He could live on bacon, and neither prefer to ever eat vegetables, or even fruit.  Ok, maybe all that is not helpful.

The richness and creaminess in this tea make it very pleasant, and the positive floral and fruit tone complexity.  It's not so citrusy but it leans a little towards lemon citrus.  For being a sheng drinker the slight astringency edge and touch of what really could be fairly interpreted as bitterness is very moderate, and as positive as it is a weakness, for adding complexity.

Christmas oolong, third infusion:  I would just be repeating the earlier comments to add more, but I'm not really bringing across how this is.  It's novel.  Intentional or not they've managed to oxidize these leaves to a lot of different levels and it really adds a unique depth to the experience, a broad range.  It's not unlike how rolled oolongs might be browned at the edges and greener at the center, it just varied more within different leaves.  This goes an extra step, because parts seem to be contributing true fully oxidized character to this, and other leaves relatively green inputs.  It almost seems that in theory it shouldn't integrate as well as it seems to.  Again without that final green edge and feel this would be a relatively different tea, and I suppose it might even work better, but it also works like this.

Sweetness, floral and fruit, and overall intensity are so pronounced that it leaves you with a perfume-like aftertaste.  That one dry edge really defines the feel; probably that would improve somewhat if it balanced more with the rest, if it didn't stand out.  But this tea experience is like drinking perfume, in a good sense, so it's not appropriate to focus on part of that seeming like a flaw, since how it all works together probably depends on the parts in a way I can't unpack.

Creamy oolong:  this is warming in tone; interesting.  A lot of all the rest of that about the Christmas version applies to this too, just in a different sense.  This is a little lighter and brighter in character, with that other tea's warm dried apricot range swapped out for fruit towards citrus.  Floral range is probably brighter flowers; it's not my personal strength to add flower names to that.  Plumeria and what I think is an Indian cork / peep tree grow in one yard now and it's along those lines.

Christmas oolong, fourth infusion:  this round I brewed really fast, just trying out variations, and it works quite well this way.  One nice outcome is that it would brew very many infusions made that way, cup after cup, without losing intensity.  Transition could also relate to a pattern of character changing across rounds; that happens.  With astringency dialed back as an outcome this is just the straight experience of warm and complex flowers, with a bit of warm dried fruit underlying that.  It's still intense enough to carry over as a pleasant floral aftertaste.

Creamy oolong:  again the aromatic floral range is off the scale for this version, just in brighter range, with a different touch of feel grounding it.  These teas are nice.  I'll probably give both one longer infusion (still 10-15 seconds, not long) to see how that compares with transition cycle input and then stop taking notes.  These will easily brew another half dozen infusions; it's more about me running out of patience for the review process.

Christmas oolong, fifth infusion:  interesting how feel shifts along with infusion strength, and a warmer toned input.  This might have evolved to include more citrus along the way, more a warm orange citrus, versus the other being brighter and towards lemon, or at least Mandarin orange.  It wouldn't be surprising if transitions included a little more flavor range shift, beyond balance just changing over the next half dozen rounds.  The feel to this includes an edge but there is a cool syrupy quality to it as well, which matches together with that perfume-like floral blast nicely.  Aftertaste and feel effect both trail off slowly for teas of this typical type range.  Or maybe these aren't part of any typical type range.

Creamy oolong:  this is quite pleasant, but I think sheng pu'er conditioning for high levels of astringency and bitterness help with that interpretation.  Someone drinking a lot of typical edgy, slightly harsh first flush Darjeeling might end up in a similar place, and see this as soft and approachable as a result.  The level of floral range intensity in both is hard to really describe.  Both contribute a real open handed slap of floral flavor.

Conclusions:

Both very nice!  I suppose I liked the Christmas version better related to appreciating warmer toned range in similar teas.  The usual first versus second flush character divide is pretty much about the same thing, with the "creamy" version closer to typical first flush range.  Both were nice though, novel, complex, and pleasant.  Both definitely included plenty of floral and fruit range.

About the oolong theme, I get it why producers in  other places (than China and Taiwan) try to produce and communicate a general range for medium level oxidized teas.  The character is just never going to be a close match, because of other starting points varying, tea types, growing conditions, and so on.  I'm open to styles borrowing from other places, and name uses being flexible.  Some people see the words "Thai Oriental Beauty" together and see that as a misnomer, but to me it's not a problem.  What they mean is clear, and until a designation is origin area protected there's no need to avoid using it, as I see it.

It's really about how people see language use in general, more so than views on tea.  If someone is open to seeing "literally" mean "figuratively," or they / them as a singular gender neutral pronoun, then it's easy to embrace the concept of Indian oolong.  If not what can you do; people vary in how they prefer language is used, especially related to changes.  Calling these oolong, in addition to autumn flush Darjeeling, just communicates that the oxidation level is medium.  For some that's clear, appropriate communication and positive branding, and for others they probably shouldn't be saying that.  It's up to Gopaldhara to decide it, since I see this as more of a branding issue than a category use issue.

They are not a distant away from dialing in a narrower range of oxidation level, it seems to me, and these would seem a lot closer to Chinese and Taiwanese oolongs in style.  Tie Guan Yin often have a darker leaf edge and "greener" center, so it's down to getting that less oxidized part to transition just a little more.  Or what do I know, really; I'm just a tea blogger.  I can express how I interpret flavors and my own match to preference, and beyond that I really am just guessing.  Related to those factors these teas were nice.

Smoky Muscatel Gopaldhara Autumn Flush Darjeeling

In picking which tea to review I looked through what my friend Ralph liked best in his Instagram based reviews, and noticed one of these teas from Gopaldhara is smoked.  That should be different.  Of course Lapsang Souchong is the main smoked tea, the traditional Chinese version, and I've tried a version from Japan before that was nice, one smoked using the wood from whiskey barrels to give it even more complexity.

I tend to never read any description of teas before reviewing them, to approach them with a clean slate, since hearing a description will influence what you pick up, but it seems like a reasonable time to make an exception.  I'll read and copy Ralph's description here, from his Instagram post:

thedailytealegraph

2021 Smoky Muscatel Lapsang Black FTGFOP1 Autumn Flush from Gopaldhara, Darjeeling, @gopaldharateas

The tea variety is an AV2 bush grown in high elevation at an average of 6000ft (1830m), the tea gets heated over pinewood for the smoked flavor.

1st infusion: great! A rounded, sweet, fruity and smoked Lapsang aroma, where the smoke is nowhere bitter or too intense, just obvious enough to blend in very balanced and add to the flavor. Minerality is nice as well and gives an oily viscosity.

2nd infusion: it's a bit lighter, but still very sweet and fruity, the pine smoke shows some slightly fresh sour notes now with a very tiny bit of bitterness in the background which is just typical as these notes are naturally in the pine needles and the smoke itself...

Daily facts: a great version of a Lapsang Souchong and as a Darjeeling tea it's even more fruity and sweet than the usual Chinese Lapsang souchong. It might be not as thick and powerful in the mouth as other versions, but totally makes up for that with sweetness, fruitiness and quality.

Daily rating: 4.8/5

Sounds good.  Maybe I can even keep the description short to adjust for including two reviews here.

One thing that stood out was calling this "Lapsang," since that seems to reference that Chinese tea type, Lapsang Souchong, which this isn't (I don't think).  In looking up their website description, cited at the end, it doesn't include "Lapsang."  That's probably better, since everyone would already know what smoked black tea means.  Of course comparing the character / aspects to the main smoked black tea type, Lapsang Souchong, makes a lot of sense.

It occurred to me just as I was pouring the first infusion of water into the gaiwan that Western brewing might work better, since the smoke flavor might extract faster than the rest using multiple infusions / Gongfu style.  I guess I'll know better soon enough, but trying it brewed both ways would tell the full story.

Review:  

first infusion:  it is smoky, and smoke flavor is extracting faster than that of tea.  It could still fall into a normal range balance next round, since surely one fast infusion didn't rinse off the smoke, and tea flavors should be ramped up a lot even by a second round.  The smoke effect is nice.  It's hard to get the level to balance, which I can judge better next round, but a pronounced but still clean effect is also important, which is easy enough to assess this round, since smoke dominates.  It tastes like pine smoke.  Dryness is at a good level, adding an edge to the feel and aftertaste, but that could easily be rough, and it's not.  Too strong and a pine smoke aftertaste would seem a bit cloying, but this is still just pronounced.

second infusion:  it's a cool effect the way that both tea flavor and smoke ramped way up, even for using a fairly fast infusion time, under 10 seconds.  This would brew good intensity tea Western style at a moderate proportion.  Smoke is still a little strong in proportion, but for Lapsang Souchong that can be normal.  I've tried much stronger.  The smoke isn't balanced with sweetness and tea flavors but it still works, and that should even out next round.  

The effect is clean; a heavy mineral base and higher end smoke make this tea intense, but it's not rough, overly earthy, or sour.  A touch of sourness is present, or maybe even a medium level, but it works in relation to the sweetness, other flavors, and smoke taste.  It's going to be hard to judge if these infusions wouldn't be better combined.  I could've "stacked" the last half of the first three rounds, but I just thought of that too.  My mind is running behind in planning out this tasting session. 

third infusion:  tea sweetness and flavor ramped up, with smoke dropping back in proportion.  I don't think it's fading just yet, but this was a really fast infusion, drawing out less of that.  The way it balances makes for a pleasant effect.  A dry feel to the tea, a good bit of edge, but not astringency roughness, works well along with the strong flavors.  That feel reminds me more of good Assam than Darjeeling, which tend to either be smooth or have a sharper bite, but not so much the dryness, which seems to pair with the malt flavor in Assam.  

Sweetness is a little towards molasses, but it stops short of that, landing more where a sweet version of cured leather smells.  Or it's like the sweet scent in pipe tobacco, which may or may not translate over to the taste of that smoke; I've never smoked one of those old style pipes to find out.  With the smoke in this it might remind someone a lot of a pipe tobacco effect.  There is other range, beyond the heavy mineral base, it's just hard to break out as a list, beyond the smoke and the rest I've described.  It's complex.  

fourth infusion:  that "other range" is really emerging this round.  I can see how someone might like this better combined together as two more complex infusions, or how some others would rather experience it layer by layer like this.  Smoke, heavy mineral base, and dryness are still present, but the leather / tobacco sweetness is developing quite a bit.  A bit of citrus seems to develop, along the line of orange peel, or maybe red grapefruit instead.  The leather tone is slightly woodier, but sweet and rich, along the line of cured (aged) sawdust.  That's a favorite scent from my childhood, from lots of playing on a huge old pile of sawdust that was part of a long forgotten sawmill operation on my parent's property.  No one had any memory of that sawmill, or the trees, but judging from old pictures the land had been clear-cut decades before.

I grew up in the upper-middle left of this photo, near an old drive-in movie theater

a mall replaced that drive-in movie theater, and some forests regrew

fifth infusion:  spice tones ramp way up in this; it's cool that it changes round to round.  Citrus is still there, with mineral and smoke dropped way back.  If I had brewed this using a conventional two round Western approach I'd expect this infusion range to be a part of the second infusion.  The form of that spice is catchy, but hard to pin down.  Towards cardamom, just including a touch of fennel seed?  It might even lean a little towards clove, or that aromatic aspect could tie back to the grapefruit citrus.  It's probably the best that it's been, even with the smoke mostly faded.  The dry astringency is dropping out too, giving it a rich and full feel.

sixth infusion:  all of the rest fades a little to give way to a more conventional wood tone. This is probably finally on the decline.  There is still plenty of positive complexity, but I would imagine it will just get woodier, and although the intensity isn't easing up quickly stretching infusion time to keep that up will draw out less positive flavor range.  Citrus might seem more like dried orange peel now, a bit warmer.  

I checked the next round and it's just as positive; this might be fading but it's not fading fast.

Conclusion:

Quite positive!  The level and type of smoke input was nicely balanced, which makes a lot of difference. The tea input seemed well suited for that, heavy in flavor but sweet and balanced.  The form of astringency seemed a little unusual in relation to what I expected, dryness versus light edge, but it worked with the rest of this tea character.

The comparison tasting against Ralph's impression didn't work so well for using two completely different brewing approaches, but it did match well enough. That fruit he mentioned seemed to take the form of fresh orange, then red grapefruit, then dried orange peel.  Of course smoke was a primary flavor in the first few rounds, with some sourness joining that, and a lot of mineral range.  The rest was harder to interpret, but I saw it as contributing a lot, especially in the 4th and 5th infusions.  It was cool how earthiness similar to pipe tobacco transitioned to spice range.  Even up to the 7th round this is nicely balanced and complex, and not finished.

I can't really place this in relation to higher quality smoked Lapsang Souchong; I've just not been drinking any versions of that for years.  The last I tried was clearly artificially smoke flavored and I guess that put me off.

I've tried a lot more unsmoked Lapsang Souchong over the past 5 years or so, and I suppose this could be a little similar to those.  I always did like smoked versions, but it's hard to find versions where the smoke balances well, or where that input isn't a bit off in taste, too sour or contributing a harsh aftertaste, or where using low quality tea doesn't limit complexity detract from overall effect.  This doesn't seem to suffer from any of those flaws.  The strengths and positive aspects that do shine through are quite pleasant.  

Gopaldhara Darjeeling Smoky Muscatel – Clonal Black Tea

This Darjeeling smoky muscatel tea is designed for those who are fond of good quality clonal black tea with smoked preparations. This Darjeeling black tea is made from AV2 bushes which is one of the most flavorful cultivars of Darjeeling; heated over burning pinewood shavings, which contributes to the sweet fruity and smoky flavor with a honey finish. As we are using pinewood for smoke, it also imparts a little pine resin aroma and muscatel flavor taste...

The Gopaldhara smoky muscatel tea is made with hand-picked leaves collected from Darjeeling at 5500 to 7000 FT elevation during the Autumn Flush season. After a little rolling, the tea leaves are passed through the pine smoke chamber several times to get the smoked flavor... 

I've been discussing what "muscatel" means a little lately, and it's strange that there isn't a clearer meaning.  Let's consider two meanings, from the source of all mostly correct but incomplete knowledge, Wikipedia:

Muscatel (/ˌmʌskəˈtɛl/ MUSK-ə-TEL) is a type of wine made from muscat grapes. The term is now normally used in the United States to refer to a fortified wine made from these grapes rather than just any wine made from these grapes. This fortified muscatel became popular in the United States when, at the end of prohibition, in order to meet the large demand for wine, some poor strains of muscat grapes (used normally for table grapes or raisins) mixed with sugar and cheap brandy were used to produce what has since become infamous as a wino wine. This kind of fortified wine has, in the United States, damaged the reputation of all muscat-based wines and the term muscatel tends no longer to be used for these "better" wines in the United States.[1] In other markets the term Muscatel, or Moscatel, refers to a wide range of sweet wines based on these grapes.

So I always thought it referred to a strong version of wine, towards grape, raisin, and brandy in flavor, also leaning towards heavy citrus.  In my mind I was working backwards from what is present in tea, but then who knows, maybe I was always way off, or completely inconsistent.  The tea version description:

Muscatel refers to a distinctive flavor found in some Darjeeling teas, especially the second-flush teas. It has been described as a "distinct sweet flavour" that is not present in other flushes or tea from other localities,[1] a "musky spiciness," [2] "a unique muscat-like fruitiness in aroma and flavour,"[3] or "dried raisins with a hay like finish."[4] Though difficult to describe,[4] it is prized by tea aficionados.[5]

The flavor develops in part through the action of sap-sucking insects, jassids and thrips, which partly damage the young tea leaves. The tea plant then produces terpene as an insect repellent. This higher concentration of terpene produces the muscatel flavor.

Right, so sort of related to Oriental Beauty oolong.  This tasted like citrus to me, a little, maybe just not so much like grape or wine.

King Tea Mall 2018 Autumn Na Ka and Ye Fang (wild tea)

Na Ka left, Ye Fang right (in all photos)

More interesting looking samples from King Tea Mall (provided by John for review, to be clear; many thanks for that).  I'll ramble some first, more or less off the subject.  I've been on the theme of middle-aged teas, trying out those in the in-between years, but of course that doesn't apply to these.

It seems like the normal approach for exploring sheng would be to figure out regional character for broad areas first.  Then one would try to narrow that to more local areas within regions, and to find out how limited the generalities that seemed to apply early on really are.  Exploring sub-themes like autumn versus spring versions would come up, and blends versus single location types, more naturally grown conditions versions versus plantation teas, gushu (varying plant age sources), huang pian (yellow leaf variations), of course related to aging and storage locations, etc.  I've just more or less skipped the part about being systematic about all that, which makes it very difficult to keep track of any of it.

I've tried autumn tea versions, plenty of them, and wild-grown teas (or those presented as such), and teas from Na Ka, and lots of areas.  It's not really gelling into a matrix of consistent patterns in my mind.  Sheng drinkers often mention having a few favorite limited tea areas, and that does make complete sense in relation to what I've experienced.

I'd mentioned James Schergen of Tea DB doing one-month focused tasting across a limited area before (in the past, an earlier practice), mentioning that related to Yiwu last, and I think Bulang at one point, and other places; that's a good way to solidify impressions better.  I just can't imagine buying or collecting up 25 or so tea samples to drink in one month to cross-compare.  Doing 8 reviews a month is pushing it, and that other approach adds lots more demand on the sourcing side too.  If I were just a little better connected instead of these samples coming in randomly I could amass them from an area at will, with more help from vendors and friends.

At any rate I don't know to expect from these teas.  There's a loose impression in my mind of how truly wild grown sourced teas taste or feel, in general, but that varies a lot, by factors that wouldn't necessarily be clear to me, not necessarily tied back to points on a map.  I could look back through every Na Ka version review (not that there would be many), and extend that to seeing what is near there on a map, and check those too, I just won't.  It's interesting appreciating that others really have explored to such an extent they are more familiar with a matrix of factors and inputs, and at the same time being skeptical of claims about that sort of thing in general.  Not necessarily that the generalities exist, because they would, just that isolating those may or may not support discussion points made in different cases.

Why do I tell you this?  It's a given that the people who have invested the decade + and considerable funding to get a lot further than I have probably aren't reading this, so I'm sharing how my path goes with the rest of you, about limitations that relate to having moderate levels of experience.  Even someone who has only tried a dozen or so versions of sheng could make some real headway on the themes I just described. 

Vendor product summary:

I'll check into what King Tea Mall (John) says about these versions as background. 

The Na Ka:

Made from tea leaves of Gushu (old trees ) in NA KA village, Meng Song town, north of Meng Hai county as below (red word).  This is not blend recipe, but a pure tea for recording the taste of this harvest in this season.

Strong Cha Qi and well balanced tea flavor. Honey like fragrance from cold cup is very obvious.  Hui Gan (sweetness from aftertaste) comes soon and strongly.  Tea flavor lasts long in mouth and deep into throat.


That is not very specific, and related to pasting this after doing the tasting not necessarily identical to my impression.  It's quite pleasant, just maybe not including that notable an aftertaste effect. 

This tea lists for $30 for 100 gram cake; not bad for what it is, about right (which of course is a judgement call).  John lists the map to show where Na Ka is, which I've mentioned here before:

upper left, not far from a lot of other familiar places

King Tea Mall photo of tea growing and village

On the Ye She:

YE FANG CHA (” wild leaf tea ” or directly “wild tea”).
Bulang tea region in Menghai county.
Wild tea trees have average height of 3 meter.
Similar size (including diameter) tea tree is always called Arbor tree.

The taste has some similarities to tea from there like high level bitterness and astringency, strong tea flavor. But the bitterness is still some different from general tea trees even old trees. It has more sharpness on bitter feeling. The bitter feeling retreats fast. Hui Gan (sweetness from aftertaste) comes soon and feels like sugar cane with some coldness. 


Again this didn't seem all that bitter to me, or with an overly pronounced aftertaste, but that is in comparison with expectations for young Spring teas.  Both versions had some bitterness, and a reasonable mouthfeel and aftertaste effect, with both approachable and pleasant.  They weren't as subtle as the rounded-off in intensity semi-aged teas I've been trying, but definitely not overly bitter.

This sells for $13 for a 100 gram cake; again a great value for what it is.  That's something like $47 for a standard size 357 gram cake, but this is in a middle range for quality level and character type, and priced at the low end of that range instead.  At a guess just as specific local area demand bumped that other tea's price up in this case the more limited area-name appeal dropped this cost.  There's reasonable grounding to that; if people have favorites for aspects and character range that do tie to a local area, which would happen, then all that wouldn't only relate to image or buzz.

no pictures of trees so I'll share theirs of this cake (credit)

Review:

barely getting started (Na Ka left)

2018 Autumn Na Ka gushu:  promising!  It's probably as well to not do a flavors and aspects list until next round since this is going through the initial saturation process just yet, but it's nice.  Bitterness is limited, but that does tend to ramp up fast as shengs become saturated.  The tone is soft and warm, but with decent brightness, and very clean.  There's a warm mineral aspect base that gives it great complexity, with plenty of other range supporting that I'll get to.


Ye She:  interesting!  This is promising as well, to be fair, and pleasantly unique in effect.  It's warm in tone too but much less focused on mineral range as a base.  How the aspects balance is critical but as main flavors go this might be about pleasant vegetal range, aromatic wood so far towards spice that it's not the typical "tastes like cured hardwood" review theme.  There's a depth and complexity to it already, and it's barely getting started.

My understanding of autumn teas is that they trade out the normal intensity in Spring teas for being more subtle, and also somewhat different in character.  I should be clearer on in what ways, but maybe that varies.  As I was trying to express earlier inputs mix in why individual teas are as they are, and I've not extracted out individual factors very clearly just yet.

As for brewing process I'm using a lower proportion than is typical and longer times.  That makes this trickier, since the most familiar process is easiest, but I'm on a time limitation here so doing a shorter set of rounds faster would be best, even if the results are slightly less dialed in.

Second infusion:

rich flavors match the nice color, very approachable as young shengs go

Na Ka:  this is more like it; intensity ramped up quite a bit.  Warm mineral is more of a context for this tea than the forward aspect but it definitely sets the tone.  Bitterness joined in but not much at all for a tea within a year of being produced.  Flavor range is great; lots of subtle, complimentary layers of aspects aligning with each other.  This tea is "woody" as well but it's more of an aromatic cedar effect than a neutral tone that doesn't work as well, with the warm mineral extension helping that come across positively.  In considering what else is there maybe some floral tone does support that, adding to the impression that a lot is going on.  It's quite clean, with reasonably thick feel and decent level of aftertaste, and good overall balance.

This is identified as a gushu version, which again (to me) seems to often relate to mineral being more pronounced, overall intensity increased (although that would be offset by this being an autumn version), with aftertaste often more pronounced as well.  I guess those somewhat opposing inputs land together in a place that makes sense.  To be clear pleasant spring versions of sheng definitely don't need to be harsh, or overly bitter, with that particular aspect varying by origin location and other factors.

A tea with the exact same description as I've just mentioned might not be nearly as pleasant; how it all balances, and just how positive aspects like "mineral" really are makes all the difference.  All the same reviews are about aspect lists, so I'll keep sticking with that.


Ye Fang:  interesting complexity.  There's warm mineral in this too, and wood tone, so these overlap, but this is slightly more complex in flavor and more unusual.  That's not necessarily clearly a good or bad thing.  Aftertaste is much more limited, and mouth-feel a little thinner; I suppose those are as close to objectively "not as good" as tea aspects ever get.  At the same time for me I like the overall effect different aspects add up to provide as a unified experience, and the formula isn't necessarily that simple.  I like the flavor, but it's different.  Beyond those parts I mentioned there's a vegetal aspect that's not vegetal in any normal sense, a bit towards warm spice and damp forest floor, or even moss.  It's positive, that last part just probably doesn't sound it.

More natural grown or wild teas I've tried in the past varied too much to really extract simple descriptions of a narrow profile, but being generally being flavorful in unique ways and approachable in character stand out.  It's interesting to consider why those two vague trends would occur (effect of other nearby plants growing around them, shading, other factors?), but it's not meaningful to guess.

Third infusion:

Na Ka:  the aromatic cedar range extends just a little further towards bark spice (not cinnamon, some incense theme version), a nice effect.  This isn't intense in the sense of bitterness and strong flavor hitting you but it's not nearly as subtle as those semi-aged 6 to 11 year old sheng versions I was reviewing a week ago.  For being a young tea it's drinkable, on the soft side, with bitterness that balances the rest but that doesn't stand forward as much as that in most year old sheng tends to.  But the flavors are bright and clear, with the effect balanced out by some thickness of feel and aftertaste effect (a moderate level for both, but notable, and in a form that works very well).  It's quite pleasant.


Ye Fang:  this shifted quite a bit, but it's hard to say how.  Feel thickened a lot, and aftertaste ramped up; odd.  Flavor changed considerably too.  This is hard to pin down; the flavor range is complex, there are layers to it, but at the same time it's lighter than average, of moderate intensity.  Even if I did specify a list of 5 or 6 things that cover exactly what this experience relates to I don't think that would bring across what experiencing that part is like, since it integrates as a subtle but complex set in a novel way. 

It's still on aromatic wood tone (not as far towards cedar as the other had been the round before this one), with the vegetal range moving from moss / forest floor (a clean version of those) to tree bark.  It's very clean in overall effect though, and those make it sound as if it's not.  Probably a trace of subdued floral is filling it in, making it harder to split apart, giving it the effect of complexity, because it is a complex set.

Fourth infusion:

I'll have to let this go after this round, off to meet someone.  These are positive enough and transitioning enough that doing at least two more rounds would make more sense; maybe I can rush a second after, since it's part of Thai culture to run late [but it didn't work out that way].

Na Ka:  at least this version isn't transitioning so much.  One part is even catchier now, developing in a positive way.  I've described it as closest to an aromatic spice, maybe moving from a bark spice towards a root spice.  This is really close to a cool flavor range effect from a tea I wrote notes for yesterday, a Da Xue Shan.  A description break-down doesn't do it justice.  The thick feel is a bit creamier now; that's nice.  Sweetness is pleasant, and bitterness is at a low level and in a positive form that works really well.  Altogether this is quite pleasant.


Ye Fang:  this is still transitioning; nice to experience that.  Still hard to describe too.  I think layers now relate to a floral tone background, mild and aromatic wood, a very light warm mineral base, and at least one part I'm missing.  Sweetness ramped up; it's almost leaning a little towards something like fresh pineapple.  Right, that's odd.  It is odd how complex this is, and how well a broad range of flavors balance and shift from round to round.  Odd in a pleasant way, since it really works.

Conclusions:

I didn't get back to writing more about those during the notes phase.  The teas seemed nice, pleasant the way they combined young tea character with slightly decreased intensity and also reduced aspects that might be seen as negative, light on bitterness and astringency.  The Ye Fang wasn't disappointing for being slightly unconventional in flavor profile, just not so far out there it would be hard to relate to.  Eventually I will have to circle back to these narrow-area origin descriptions and try to piece together if I'm seeing patterns in aspects that I'm not necessarily always flagging as origin-specific.

I met a tea producer that day, Anna of Kinnari Teas, so I'll have more to talk about related to trying some Laos teas that are quite hard to come by.  That and a discussion about South-East Asian teas had me thinking about how much range of that I've covered, and I'll do a post on sources and some generalities for sheng and shu produced outside of China.  Doing so many review posts, two most weeks, has me a little burned out on that theme, and probably potential audience too, so I'll branch away from that a little.  I finally wrote about tea culture in Russia, tied to visiting there awhile back, and also triggered by meeting two people visiting here from Russia this year.  A sourcing options discussion about transparency has been interesting; I'm working on some thoughts related to that.

So I'll be all over the map, just less focused on reviews.