2015 aged Peony white tea mini cake

I'm reviewing one of the last samples from a set by Oriental Leaf, sent for review (many thanks).  This is described as Peony, also known as Bai Mu Dan.  Often Fujian (Fuding area) pressed white teas are Shou Mei instead, made mainly from older leaves, with Bai Mu Dan a mix of buds and finer leaves.  Typical processed style seems similar, between the two, but overall effect, the aspects, can vary a good bit in relation to the different material type used.

I'll keep this simple, citing their description after making notes, and writing what I think of it in those.  9 years old is a suitable amount of aging input; often 7 years is cited as a somewhat full transition level time period.  It would depend on storage conditions, and the tea would keep changing later, but 7 years is long enough for a lot of the basic changes to occur, picking up depth, warming in tone, etc.

2015 Aged Second-grade White Peony White Tea Mini Cake  ($6 for two 5-gram samples)

White peony tea  (Bai Mu Dan), a type of white tea characterized by its large, open leaves, is typically picked in the spring when the young leaves and tea buds are most tender. Peony tea has a light, delicate flavor often described as floral or fruity and is lower than silver needle.

This tea is made with second-grade tea leaves, which are slightly lower quality than first-grade tea leaves, but at a more reasonable price. The tea has a more complex flavor and a more prolonged aftertaste.

The tea has been aged since 2015, further developing its flavor. The tea has a rich, mellow taste with notes of honey, flowers, and nuts. The aftertaste is long-lasting and refreshing.

This tea is perfect for experienced tea drinkers who appreciate the complexity and depth of flavor that comes with aging. It is also a good choice for those who enjoy the mellow taste of white tea. The caffeine content in white tea is relatively low. Different types of white tea may require different water temperatures for brewing. White peony tea can be like loose-leaf tea or compressed sheets. The quality of white tea depends on factors such as the source of the tea plants and the processing methods. 

So far so good.  I think that's more a myth than actual reality that white teas are lower in caffeine level, but it's not that much of a red flag that the vendor shares that.  Some people still think that.

The description works, matching the tea experience.  The cost seems ok, $6 for 10 grams, or 60 cents a gram, even though that's on the high side in relation to buying in higher volume.  You can brew two rounds for those two tablets worth of tea, at $3 each, and it wouldn't change that much if it cost $2 instead.  It's on the high side for Shou Mei, but it's not Shou Mei.  Samples tend to cost a bit more per gram; it's just how that often goes.  They do sell these same samples for less when you buy more of them, so you can scale up purchase amount and reduce cost, if that's of interest.  It's as well to just try teas first though, to see what you make of them, before committing to buying much.  

Different vendors bundling more mainstream, common types and grades into sets that are quite moderate in cost doesn't contradict all that.  Here we would probably be looking for uniqueness, for an aging input making this tea more interesting than a standard white tea offering, and I'll return to whether or not that shows through in the conclusions.

Review:

#1:  I gave this a nice long soak to get infusion started, about a minute.  It will still probably be a bit light, since tablet or disc shapes take time to open up.

Yep, it's light.  Flavor that does show through is positive, quite promising (a hint of floral tone, and a hint of cinnamon spice).  Often this range of white tea forms can be too subtle, so that I tend to never buy pressed Shou Mei versions.  Maybe for this being Bai Mu Dan it will include more sweetness and floral range; we'll see.  

The tone for those should have warmed over 9 years, but if this was stored completely sealed in that multi-layer material sample package it might have been relatively preserved, unchanged no matter how long it spent in there.  I think the transition process is different for white teas than sheng, not involving the same degree of bacteria and fungus input, actual fermentation, but I'm not sure if it can change with essentially no external air contact input.

I'll give it another minute, to make sure this gets going.

#2:  thickness, sweetness, and intensity all pick up, but it's still not there yet.  One more long soak may only get the tea fully wetted, so the fourth infusion may tell more of the story.

One interesting type of background enters in that people can sell aged white tea that's not really aged.  How?  It's easy enough for producers to let white teas oxidize more during processing, to give them a long wither (let them sit), then the color will change, and flavors will deepen, in a vaguely comparable way to what 7 to 9 years of aging would cause.  Could I identify the difference?  Maybe, maybe not.  It would help if I'd been drinking a good bit of aged white teas over the last half dozen years, instead of very little of it.  I can still describe character, and if it's quite positive, even though "artificially" achieved, then it's still quite positive.  

"Real" aged white tea can still lack intensity and complexity, it seems to me.  I suppose that more dried fruit range should evolve, versus a partially oxidized white tea version just increasing warm tones a little.  Real aged versions should probably be a little sweeter, but when teas are subtle to begin with making that determination can be problematic.

People say that you should "use trusted sources," but then they never seem to move on to what kind of vendor profile or backstory is likely to indicate that they are trustworthy.  A vendor can be very convincing and still ingenuine, or provide very limited background information and story and still be telling the truth.  You need to be able to judge the tea itself, and that requires a lot of experience.

#3:  in a sense this is really nice, but in another sense intensity is so low that there isn't much to experience.  That's normal for a lot of white tea.  If I were to say that it tastes like warm floral tones, cinnamon spice, and rich autumn leaf scent, with a mild toffee-like sweetness, that wouldn't be wrong, but it's all just so light.  Some vendors would add another 3 or 4 flavor aspect descriptions, varying them over rounds, all but guaranteeing to you that flavor complexity and intensity are positive.  Then the tea might still be subtle like this, expressing a hint of this or that.

Bear in mind that I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, and oolongs tend to come across as limited in intensity to me; my expectations are dialed up a bit.  Acclimation can lead to that.

I'll let this brew just over a minute again, and it might show more intensity, since it's finally in the range of being fully wetted.  Four minutes of total brewing time is a good bit, but while half of the tea isn't soaked through yet that part hasn't been releasing much flavor.

#4:  the cinnamon evolves a bit more than the rest.  This is pleasant, just still on the subtle side.  You could have a comparable but more intense experience buying decent Oriental Beauty (relatively more oxidized Taiwanese oolong, that comes across as fruity, with some spice).

Since preference is always a main yardstick I can't necessarily clearly identify limited intensity as a flaw, but to me it's like that, a limitation.  Of course it's possible to push the tea, to use full boiling point water, higher proportion, and a longer infusion time, and intensity will pick up.  I'm brewing something like 5 or 6 grams in 100 ml gaiwan, it looks like, so using a minute for infusion time isn't as much when you consider this is using less material than I typically do (more often 8 to 10 grams, with proportion maxed out, even using much more intense types of teas).

I'll give this a two minute soak and then leave off the notes.  It's fine; it's ok.  People on this page for tea character would enjoy it.  People getting rocked by sheng pu'er intensity most days would probably see it as a miss, more often.  Even a black tea or oolong drinker could see the limited intensity as a problem, but that would just depend.  It's normal for white teas though; this is in a normal range.  I would have a standard Shou Mei version from 7 or so years ago stashed somewhere; I could keep going with comparison.  There wouldn't be much point though; there would always be the question of just how good that version really was, if it expressed the best of the range or if it was below average.

#5:  Since I hadn't ripped the pressed sheets apart even after infusing for nearly 6 minutes now the innermost layers aren't completely soaked through yet.  Getting the most out of this version probably relates to messing with it, to doing that.  I did just break it all apart and re-added the water, giving it two infusions with the same liquid, but brewing temperature must have dropped way off, since this has been soaking for well over two minutes.

It's slightly more intense, richer in feel, with deeper, warmer flavors showing through.  It's nice.

Just how nice, though?  Does it seem definitely "real," tea that actually has been around for 9 years?  Is the flavor distinctive, complex, and compelling?  To me it's just pleasant, none of all that.  But then I don't love aged white tea that much.  It always promises to deliver on deep, rich, complex, varied, sweet tones, and then when you try it it's fine, and those things are there, if you look for them, but intensity is limited, and complexity occurs across a relatively narrow range.  It always seems like maybe there's a different, better example out there, that you just aren't sourcing right to find it yet.

I can go a little further with that.  In 2017 I did a combined white tea tasting that didn't necessarily make sense, this one:

Comparing compressed white teas, shou mei, gong mei, and one freestyle

Those teas ranged from 2008 to 2015, so the oldest then was supposedly 9 years old, as with this one.  One is Gong Mei, the style of white tea that contains even more bud content than Bai Mu Dan, if I've got that right.  Probably it's not quite that simple, and there is more to typical background themes and typical style, but it works to say that both are represented as not being made from mostly older leaf material.

I've drank most of all those teas since, just not all of them.  I think a chunk of the Gong Mei is at the bottom of a storage box somewhere.  I use aged white tea to drink while fasting, to get a break from shu pu'er, since those two types work best on an absolutely empty stomach.  I'm not sure any changed all that much in relation to aging another 7 years since, which would make the one 16 years old now, but I think it's already gone.

That older version had been kind of so-so in quality level, so the aging status is less meaningful.  Maybe they were "faking" aged shou mei versions even back then, 7 years ago, and it was just more oxidized white tea, not a version that old.  Who knows.

I didn't frame that as a selling point but aged white tea can be great to drink when you are sick.  It has a depth to it, and sweetness, and it's quite mild and approachable, and all that fits perfectly well when you are too sick to appreciate stronger versions of teas.  I would've been happy to drink this when I had the flu last week.  

Or day to day preference varies; maybe just for a change sometime.  I wouldn't be open to spending much on having this kind of experience; white teas like this tend to not cost all that much, and to me there isn't enough distinctive about the experience to justify that.  Then again if someone had never tried decent aged white tea and wanted to that would increase the draw quite a bit, and this probably wouldn't turn up for 20 or 30 cents a gram either.  It'll be interesting to see a listed price.

Conclusions:

So it's 60 cents a gram; a bit more, probably related to this being a sample, and tied to the distinctive aged version and Bai Mu Dan parts.  It's fine as an experience, and fine for trying this kind of tea, but I think someone would come away from it questioning if they had the best range of this kind of experience.  

What about the "second grade" part; couldn't it be better as the highest grade?  Would the aging input be clearer to identify and stronger if it hadn't been quite as completely sealed from all air contact?  White tea doesn't necessarily ferment, like sheng pu'er, but limited air exposure might help it transition, being stored in a cake in a wrapper that's not well-sealed.

As with trying lots of other samples lately I think this is fine for an entry into this kind of experience, but for people already further along the path this would be similar to what they've already explored, and they'd probably be interested in seeking out even more exceptional ground.  Or at least an inexpensive aged Shou Mei from a Chinatown market shop, sitting all but forgotten in a basement section, would be so inexpensive that it would be worth buying 357 or so grams to have an easy to drink white tea around.  

If this had "popped" just a little more, extending into dried fruit range, for example, then it might justify being a next level experience better.  As it is it's fine, pleasant for this kind of thing, just a bit unremarkable.

Gopaldhara Spring White Teas

Not exactly timely, reviewing spring versions of white teas in January, but I wanted to keep on with trying spare samples, and passing on thoughts on those.  I never did get around to this range trying Gopaldhara versions from a set sent by them to try last year.  They'll be really good, of course, but maybe in some interesting way.  Or maybe I'll just keep writing about them being sweet, complex, fruity, refined, etc., just what I expect.

One is described as a Bai Mu Dan; that might be different.  It's a reference to a Chinese white tea style, of course.  The other referenced something about being an early harvest version, which only became clear later after talking to Rishi about what it was, since that didn't match up with a website marketing name version.  It was something they didn't sell by direct retail, a batch they only sold wholesale.

This review gets a little strange because that earlier guess, from the review notes, that their white teas just repeat in style was completely wrong.  The Bai Mu Dan was really unusual for being processed in a different way than was typical for them, which I've just heard about, but which I'm not really going to try to summarize here.  Processing details tend to go in one ear and out the other, so I wouldn't do that justice.  It was pretty much just left to dry, so it's a standard white tea, but there was a little more to it than that.

The other white tea version was relatively broken.  In these review notes--written while I tried the teas--I guessed that it probably wasn't like that as they sold it, that I probably got the last of a large bag for the sample, broken material that had settled out, and Rishi guessed that's probably what it was too.  To me that makes for an interesting test case, because I've wondered how similar their teas would be to more conventional and more broken leaf Darjeeling, and this will test that.  Of course I could just split a sample that's relatively whole leaf and crush half, and then brew both parts separately, but I never get around to that.  Intuitively astringency level would be higher, and flavors might change just a little, and that's kind of how it worked out.

I'm not changing the contents of these notes based on learning those extra details, but not that much changed in relation to the Bai Mu Dan version anyway.  I think Rishi said that it's from AV2 material, but that's already in the web page description anyway:

As is typical they keep a flavor description limited, which is probably for the best since different people would always interpret flavor aspects differently:

Instead of rolling and oxidizing, this tea is sun-dried in a controlled method that preserves its unforgettable smooth, creamy and fruity texture. The picturesque dry leaves are greenish-grey in appearance with lots of silvery tips which brew into a pale yellow-green coloured liquor. A hint of honey and notes of wildflowers can also be felt in this tea.

Review:

Gopaldhara Early Harvest White (2021):  I might've went with the more typical fast infusion time to adjust for this being more broken than usual, but instead I let it go longer to avoid writing about how I would know better next round.  This is too astringent to really evaluate.  In a sense that works to help identify flaws in the tea, what the rest of the character is really like, but it won't work to evaluate it against preference.  Except that nothing really stands out except the astringency.

This is oxidized more than I expected.  White teas vary a lot related to that; it just depends on how much air contact occurred during processing.  And using broken material would really ramp it up too. This is going to seem more like a black tea than their first flush versions typically do.  I'll try a fast infusion next round and can talk about how it is then.

from their website; I spaced taking dry leaf pictures, which never happens

Bai Mu Dan:  infusion time was just about perfect for this version (towards 20 seconds, quite long for a typical Gongfu first infusion).  This is really unique.  At first it seems like that novel flavor includes a lot of melon, but I might adjust that after considering it.  Yep, melon.  Probably like honeydew or something such; I kind of hate melon so those could be more familiar.  Oddly that really doesn't carry over to disliking teas that taste like melon, so this is nice.  

Beyond that it's hard to describe.  There's a warmth to it that's hard to place, and a depth of fullness to the feel.  Warmth might be a bit like really fresh croissant, with a warm and mild floral tone mixed in, like chrysanthemum.  It's really unlike anything else that comes to mind.  And this range isn't too far from how Bai Mu Dan can be too, which is odd.  I suppose for being this novel it would be atypical but still that's right somehow.

oxidation level difference is easy to see in the brewed liquid

Early Harvest, second infusion:  for normal Darjeeling this would be good; it has plenty of astringency edge, and lots of floral flavor, and it's clean, with good sweetness.  It's hard to even place that in relation to the other Gopaldhara teas I've been trying, for awhile.  It's that astringency bite, which brings with it green wood flavor, or at least seems connected to that to me.  At half this proportion it would be brewing better, even at the same flash infusion I just used.  

It's just not what I expected, the intense, fruity and floral, approachable, very sweet range.  I can't say that a tea that seems like a typical Darjeeling is a complete miss to me; that doesn't seem fair.  It just seems harsh in comparison to their other range.  Most likely if I try another white from what they sent (I think there might be two more in that set) those will be what I expected, and this just isn't.  

It can happen that you get a sample from towards the end of a larger package, that it being this broken isn't really typical of what it's sold as.  Tea reviewers, or customers in general, can end up feeling put out by that, but it is what it is, and results aren't always really negative in relation to that.  Last year a vendor sent me what had to be the end of a batch of Thai Oriental Beauty (an interpretation of that style, really) and that really worked, with the extra astringency and edge supporting the mild style of that tea nicely.  That was a tea I bought a normal amount of, not a sample, but since I liked the tea there was nothing to complain about related to that form.  Looking back at that post the tea in that bag near the top wasn't as broken, with the bottom half just fragments.  Either way, it was nice.

Bai Mu Dan:  warm tones pick up a bit, so that melon doesn't stand out as much.  It's still a bit bright and sweet, but offset from just that in tone.  The way some faint aspects come together is catchy, the general effect.  It wouldn't be completely off to interpret this as including mild citrus, it's just not exactly how I see it.  It's mainly floral tones, but a range of those.  That warm part I mentioned is similar to fresh baked bread of some type, or interpreted differently leaning a bit towards balsa wood.  It all works though.

Early Harvest, third infusion:  getting a lot more pleasant.  That floral range is really intense, and the astringency is really easing up.  Probably next round it will be in an even nicer balance.  "Intense floral" can mean a lot of things but most of those wouldn't be this intense.  A different reviewer might question whether or not this is a flavored tea, but it's absolutely not, since they wouldn't send that, and the difference in effect is clear enough.  

It's odd how this comes across as more oxidized than standard first flush Darjeeling.  Brewed color alone clearly indicates that, and of course warm toned flavor range and astringency.  The next round should indicate what this really is.

Bai Mu Dan:  it's strange how richness picked up a lot, even though the other general aspect range didn't change that much.  It's a little "cleaner," not that it was musty or murky in some sense before, but the flavor range is brighter and clearer now.  No set of words would capture that one "catchy" effect that I mentioned.  It's an emergent property of how the other aspects come across, not one thing, or even clearly tied to a set of a few aspects.  That said I think there might be one main thing causing it that I've not done justice to describing.  Maybe it's how that fruit tone, now harder to identify, mixes with the floral tone and warmer range, what I've described as like fresh baked bread.

Early harvest, fourth infusion:  it's interesting how this reminds me of most Darjeeling first flush versions I experienced in the past.  Heavy floral tone is offset by an astringency edge, which has moderated to a level that's pleasant.  That floral range is so intense that it carries over as a more pronounced aftertaste than most tea types provide.  

This would've been better made using half as much tea; I wasn't thinking that broken leaf effect through.  It's just not the page I'm typically on, and I've been preparing teas more or less on autopilot for awhile now.  Using the same proportion and modifying timing works really well for a broad range of teas, just not necessarily this example.  Or for broken leaf versions in general, really.  This would've been a more positive sounding review if I had dropped dry leaf amount to half this, even though I'm trying to describe how the input changes things.  Or Western brewing probably would've went better.

Bai Mu Dan:  this is going to come across much differently not just for being whole leaf, and a different character of tea, but also because I used less dry tea to make it.  It took up about one and a half times the gaiwan space as the other dry but double would've been more suitable (best achieved by cutting back the first, as described).  Of course I'm adjusting timing to longer for this version than the other to offset that, but I'm still drinking these at two completely different brewed intensity levels.

All that said the description from last round still works.  I'll probably not add any more notes on later rounds, even though these will shift some, because the basic story is already covered.  Some degree of brewing error is part of it in relation to the first, but it's also just broken leaf first flush Darjeeling, which is pleasant enough brewed as fast as I'm making it, just not the type I expected.

Conclusions:

That Bai Mu Dan version was interesting, and novel.  I'm not sure that I like it more than their typical first flush white tea versions, but it's in a similar range for positive aspect character, and sometimes just being different is better.

The other version was interesting for that broken leaf form experiment.  Tried as a whole leaf tea it would've brewed a lot slower, with much lower astringency, and less of a green wood / plant stem sort of flavor input.  Not that all that is so terrible; someone could actually prefer both those inputs, especially if they were acclimated to expect them.  To a limited extent we like what we expect to like.  Only to a limited extent though; people are generally also open to new experiences being positive.

It's drifting way off the subject but let's consider an example from my life; what kinds of things did I experience moving to Thailand that were novel at first, that I liked a lot right away or else needed time to adjust to?  Sticking to foods will keep it simple.  One of my favorite deserts, that I'm reminded that I could eat and enjoy every single day when I have it, is something I didn't like at first, a mix of  Chinese beans, dried fruits, ice, and longan juice.  That's a little different, about a set of flavors and overall food experience being novel.  

Food texture differences stand out a lot more here; lots of things are mushy.  Some mushy foods I absolutely love now, like congee (boiled rice soup), and others I'm still so-so on, like those gelatinous desert cubes they make from rice starch.  I think I loved mango and sticky rice the first time I tried it here, but to me it would seem odd for someone not to.   Those could hardly pair any better, with the sticky rice flavor and texture adjusted by adding coconut, and with an extra coconut sauce.  All of this isn't really supposed to tie back to how Darjeeling style expectations would work out, it's just a tangent.

Tea Mania 2008 Bai Mu Dan (white tea)

I'm reviewing an aged white tea included as a sample in Tea Mania teas I bought earlier in the year.  I guess this had an extra half a year to age, set aside as a sample.  I was really looking for something else to try to review but ran across it, and it looked interesting.

There's not much to say about aged white teas or that vendor for intro.  I've went on about how it's one of the best sources I'm aware of for quality and value of a range of different teas.  Very strange, for being based in Switzerland.  No need to go too far into what aged white tea is all about either; the vendor intro and this description will cover that.  

At first look that fuzziness had me concerned, that maybe it was something growing on the tea, but it's almost certainly just trichomes in a white tea leaf version known for having those.

 

It's my opinion that it's just trichomes, but it is strange thinking that a tea is probably ok to drink.  When you look at that lower piece on the left it's the other leaf type, but that would have been compressed against the other leaf type (this was prepared as a cake), and they've probably become stuck to it from that.  It's odd giving the issue that much space here, given that conclusion, but I'd expect that others would run through a similar line of thought as a concern.

fresh Bai Mu Dan, with trichomes (credit Teapedia)

Aged Bai Mu Dan cake, 2008

Bai Mudan, better known as White Peony tea is made like Baihao Yinzhen of the Da Bai cultivar. Bai Mudan, sometimes also spelled Pai Mu Tan, is popular due to the refreshing and light flavor. Other variants are Gong Mei and Shou Mei which is harvested later. However, they are sometimes despite the late harvest also sold as Bai Mudan.

This Ba Mu Dan was pressed 2008 into cakes and stored in Zhenghe for 10 years. Through storage, the fresh and grassy aroma has changed to a hong cha like aroma. A very interesting tea especially for Pu-erh tea lovers.

Harvest: Spring 2008

Taste: Light, sweet and refreshing aroma

Origin: Zhenghe, Fujian Province in China

Preparation: Per serving approx. 2g, temperature approx. 75°C, time: 1-2 minutes

Tip: Compare this Bai Mudan to a fresh harvested Bai Mudan.

Interesting seeing that hong cha reference (black tea), since I just wrote the review notes.  The flavor definitely shifts from being bright, floral, and probably a little fruity to warmer, deeper, and more into oxidized range, so that's partly what happened.  There's no edge as in black teas, but then I love Dian Hong (Yunnan black) in part because they are heavy in flavor and complex, with a rich feel, but also not challenging at all related to having any astringency edge to work around.

Review:

First infusion:  a good bit of cinnamon.  Still subtle, with other dried fruit still more or less developing.  This should "open up" more and be more intense next round.  Of course it's soft and rich, with no astringency to speak of, with just a touch of body as feel.

Second infusion:  it's interesting how depth is a big part of what is going on with this, but sort of a "front end" intensity is really diminished.  That's kind of what one would expect, but experiencing it is something else.  There are no forward, bright notes.  Rich dried fruit stands out, and cinnamon, but the whole range is kind of how underlying tones usually come across.  Warm mineral plays a role too.  It comes across as several "layers," but it's all in the range that one deeper layer would usually be for other tea types.  It's interesting.  Flavors are relatively clean.  A touch of tree bark and something like tree fungus, those semi-circles, add a bit of less clean range but it's still clean, if that makes sense.

I think I'll let the next round go out towards 20 seconds to see how this is brewed stronger.  It definitely doesn't need it, since there is plenty to experience at a normal, lighter infusion strength, but it will change how the aspects present come across.

Third infusion:  interesting; the warm mineral depth picks up, but the rest doesn't really change.  It just shifts proportion of that coming across, with dried fruit and cinnamon playing a smaller role.  A version of dark tree bark is still prominent, maybe something like aged or cured wood, but the bark part instead.  It's odd that this comes across as clean as it does with those ranges being primary.  

I never really clarified what the dried fruit part was; to me it's closest to Chinese date, jujube, or maybe between that and the other Middle-Eastern date version, or including both.  There's a way that the mineral comes across in Middle-Eastern dates that present, and a bright, light dried fruit tone in Chinese dried dates that also is.  It's not that far off prune, if that's familiar and Chinese date isn't, but it really is Chinese date.  I eat that all the time in iced mixed bean deserts that I'm addicted to here (which I take to be of Chinese origin, but who knows); I should see if I can find a picture of that.  The general flavor tone of this matches that, how beans, Chinese date, candied lotus, and longan juice combine.

not the clearest image of Chinese dates, with two in the bottom center here

Fourth infusion:  slightly darker tones pick up.  It works to peg that as cinnamon and that tree-bark range, but really it's heavy on an unusual mineral tone too.  It's like an artesian well, but deeper and heavier in tone.  The scent of a spring flowing out of an enclosed area in the Pennsylvania forest is like that, layers of mineral tones, with depth from fermenting leaves.  Put that way it's also all like forest floor, but a different version of it than I usually associate with the description.  It's wet forest itself, not the floor.

This also helps explain how this tea manages to come across as complex, even though it's expressing a limited range.  That wet natural spring / forest floor type area I'm comparing this to isn't smelling like a broad range of scents, but it is incredibly complex.  Maybe this part gets strange but I have a specific location in mind, near my parents house, which is deep in the PA woods.  Most of that area smells much drier than this, warm and sweet, brighter, even though a stream runs through it.  But the natural spring zones are something else, where water flows out of the hillside.  The feel is different there too, as if there's an energy to places like that, a noticeable one.  Maybe just my imagination, combining with the unusual scent range.

Fifth infusion:  this is fading a bit.  Pushing it the tea will make a few more positive infusions but the interesting themes won't continue to evolve, it seems.  It seems like it dropped out early, in relation to drinking so much sheng lately (for a few years), but it's my take that oxidizing tea or roasting it trades out duration in terms of infusion count for the change in aspect range, and maybe something similar happened here.  I could go on about whether I think aging white tea is oxidation or if it also overlaps with sheng fermentation but what do I know.  I think it is a form of oxidation, so the question reduces to whether it ties to both, and I don't really know.  If it does the form, biological activity (microfauna input), and compound transition isn't the same.

Conclusions:

I liked it.  The tea seemed a lot like the other aged white versions that I've tried.  It made me consider exactly how it stacked up, if it was better or worse, more complex and intense or the same.  Since I've not been reviewing aged white teas for a few years it's hard to say, but it definitely at least looks like a higher grade version.

Descriptions of such teas always make them sound a lot more complex and intense than I've found examples to be.  It's quite possible that someone could try version after version that is average in quality level or interesting style, so that trying any number wouldn't guarantee sampling the best of the range.  Being a bit of a skeptic I don't necessarily accept that vendors selling versions described differently necessarily are different.  

Take this version as an example:  it tasted like cinnamon at first, then dried fruit, especially Chinese date along with the other more common date, the Middle-Eastern version, evolving to tree bark and damp forest floor.  So far so good.  If we add a few more flavor descriptions, maybe dried elderberry, marshmallow, and vanilla, it sounds like a much more unique experience.  I didn't taste those, but with a little more imagination maybe I "could have?"  I'm trying to leave Mei Leaf out of discussions or comments, to stick with positive range, but let's go there, to cite an example:

Midsummer Lightshow, 2010 Fuding Shou Mei

NOSE - DRY LEAF:  Date syrup, vanilla tobacco, dark baked cherry crumble.

NOSE - WET LEAF:  Steamed plum pudding and dried oregano.

...MOUTH - TASTE:  Thyme, cinnamon and prune polenta cake, cellar wood and tuica plum alcohol.

NOSE - EMPTY CUP:  Raspberry jam and dark toasted sourdough.

Aged white tea is interesting for what it is, deep and complex across a narrow flavor scope, and not challenging at all.  Whether or not I've not yet tried the best of the range yet this tea was positive, pleasant, and interesting.

back to outdoor tasting with two visitors

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.

Luka cafe in Sathorn, Bangkok, revisited

I visited Luka cafe in Bangkok and reviewed a tea there not long ago (in March, a Bai Mu Dan / Peony, here), and just made it back for another lunch recently.  I tried a second tea, so I'll say a little more about that, and I bought loose tea there this time, so I can pass on how that works there.

Review of a conventional Ceylon black tea

meatball sub and good Ceylon black tea; nice enough

I tried a standard, better Ceylon black tea (UVA from Malou tea, with another FB contact here), from the pricing sold as a medium grade tea.  The description was limited, mentioning fruitiness.  There was actually  a noticeable mint aspect, not so much in the range of fruit, but a little, and of course an underlying earthy-range context.  The astringency wasn't so intense, just adding some body and dryness, and the flavors were clean.  The overall effect was well balanced, so it seemed nice enough.  "Nice enough" may not be clear enough; good versions of any tea can't be taken for granted.  One could go years here without running across comparable versions of this type, standard as it may be according to some reckoning, so I did appreciate it.

Natural mint flavor in a tea is a bit unusual.  The other type I've tried with a related pronounced aspect is Ruby black tea from Taiwan.  Too much might really throw off the general effect of the tea, and I could imagine people either loving or hating it.  I'm in the middle; such a tea wouldn't be a favorite, and could come across as positive, but I'd just as soon pronounced fruit or floral aspects stood out, of course matching the tea type.  Different can be good, though, and no one would mistake this tea for a Taiwanese Ruby, so the novelty was nice.

The do-it-yourself aspect of this tea presentation could be a hurdle for some.  They provide a tea brewing in a device similar to a very small pitcher using an infuser basket element, and it's up to the customer to decide when to pour it out, and to manage not over-brewing the tea when only a third of it is going to fit in the cup they serve it with.  The idea seemed to be to taste it until it seemed ideal then set the basket aside, which really would work.  I let it keep brewing to try the tea over a range of strengths, because I'm inquisitive like that.  Although the basket barely makes contact with the water once two thirds of the tea has been drank (after two small cups) the last cup was still a bit "brisk."

The tea wasn't naturally overly astringent so it stood up well to being drank as light, medium, and strong-brewed versions.  Someone really into optimizing tea brewing might be a little freaked out by that (most tea enthusiasts), more into drinking the tea one best way.  Not all tea types work so well across a range, but this one did.  But then one could just use tasting as opposed to timing (proportion always varies, and the clock started on infusion back in the kitchen), and pull out that basket.  As during the last visit it seemed odd not re-brewing the leaves, essentially leaving behind half the potential of the tea.  That would be more upsetting for a better version of a tea, for the peony / bai mu dan style I tried that first time, for example.  This Ceylon black was nice but after the three small cups I was ok with stopping, even if the leaves weren't really done.

Per discussion with the tea-partner manager the tea-service approach is to keep it simple for customers, which I can completely relate to.  Once you bring out the clay pots and timers you might make someone already into all that happier but you can make a very nice pot of tea without such gear.  There is some allowance for teas of different styles working out differently, but it seems likely they've thought all this through, and aren't selling teas that would be likely to be particular.  An example might be a Dan Cong I tried recently, a tea version and general type that really needs gongfu style brewing--short infusions and a higher proportion of tea to water, more or less--to exhibit the better aspects.

Dry / loose tea sales

I bought the peony / bai mu dan tea I had tried during the earlier visit to take away, 50 grams of it.  The price was pretty fair, 375 baht for that much, just over $10.  The conventional black tea version would have been less, and for people into such teas maybe also a great value.  I really do like softer, fruitier, var. Sinensis versions of black teas better, or at least a different form of Assamica black tea style (see countless related posts, even though I'm more hung up on oolongs).  I should mention that this Ceylon peony is not something you see here in Bangkok; I don't think I ever have, in spite of putting time in at shops and cafes over some years.  There was a vendor importing only Ceylon teas at a recent tea Expo and although they had a nice selection of products it didn't include one.


Based on tea aspects alone I might just go with an upper-middle range Chinese version instead but factoring in the novelty I'm really looking forward to trying this tea a few more times.  It seemed the kind of tea that could change character based on adjusting brewing, but at the same time the kind of tea one couldn't easily ruin, so a nice tea to experiment with.

not the page I'm on, but they sell bottled tea blends

They were selling a broad range of plain teas and blends, so I might say a little more about that.  Typical plain tea examples include a Ceylon silver needle-style tea, a Thai oolong (lightly oxidized, of course), Longjing / Dragonwell (my favorite green tea, in general), and a few other conventional forms of Ceylon black tea, different grades / preparations.  For plain herbs I remember seeing chamomile, a lavendar / rose (plain in the sense of mixing two flower types), some variation of a blooming flower tea, and rooibus.  Blends included a rose black tea and mint tea blend (based on green tea, I think) that smelled exactly like toothpaste.


Is it coming across that this is me being positive about that selection?  Good versions of plain, single type and source tea are what people should be drinking, per my preference, and it's nice that the quality is there for the relatively standard price level.  It's also nice that other types of offerings related to different preferences are represented, the blends and such.


To help place this tea in relation to alternatives, I just gave 50 grams of a nice peony / Bai Mu Dan style tea (a Chinese version) to a monk for a gift, a Tea Village version I'd bought for some other reason, that had cost just over $10 (the same).  I've had that tea before, and it was probably a little sweeter and more floral versus this version.  The Ceylon fell in an earthier range, as I recall, but was still a pleasant, subtle tea, quite unique and interesting.  I hope that karma / merit process does work as directly as Thais tend to believe, and I'll be doing well on both ends, set up for karma and still drinking nice tea.

About the cafe

I've already touched on the cafe aspects in the last post but I'll say a little.  The food was also nice; I had a sloppy meatball sandwich--intentionally made that way; I'm not criticizing the sandwich for being messy--that would have been a good version of the same back in the US.  Salads my companions ordered looked good, and the deserts, and one other had a nice looking updated version of a burrito, quite common in some places but that doesn't come up much here.  Here in Bangkok "good Western food" is not so simple a range to pin down.  It's easy to pay a lot for food that one could make a much better version of at home, and I don't want to even get started on what some places do to Italian food.  Suffice it to say that it wouldn't be easy to make food this good, and it would be a tall order to make better; they're on it.

and they sell trendy furniture

The decor is interesting, sort of modern-industrial, with a sub-theme of being a furniture display and sales outlet.  The pricing is higher mid-range for Bangkok (500 baht lunch range; under $20, so normal for other countries, or even low, but here that seems like more).



All in all I'd recommend a visit, and ordering and carrying out some tea as well, although personal preferences factor into that.  They aren't carrying or selling the highest range Chinese teas but there is plenty of selection to choose from, and if you know what you are looking for some would stand out.  You didn't hear it from me but I've even heard the coffee is ok.

Toba Wangi White Beauty, a unique Indonesian white tea

Following earlier reviews of great black and oolong Indonesian teas, and a vendor profile related to where those were made (Toba Wangi plantation), I'm reviewing the most interesting looking tea of the set, the White Beauty.  It's white tea from buds and leaves, so in the Bai Mu Dan / Peony range, but it's not really like other white teas I've tried, definitely unique.

Review

The appearance and dry scent of this tea is amazing.  It really is sort of black and white as in the picture, or more silver really.  The smell is very sweet, and complex.  Fruit in the range of peach stands out, although maybe shifted a little towards what a dried peach might be like, not that I clearly remember trying dried peach. There is some floral aspect to it too, and a rich, sweet, complex smell close to sundried tomato.

from the vendor, looking even more black and silver

The brewed tea is a dark gold, shifted just a touch towards the range of more oxidized teas.  The taste / flavor profile includes peach, but it's complex, so it's not clear at first if that's even the dominant flavor.   It's quite floral too, a sweet floral tone towards lavender.  One aspect ties back to the sundried tomato scent but it's very subtle.  The tea has a nice natural sweetness, and a pleasant feel, but a really strong and long finish stands out.


For all that description I feel like I'm only scratching the surface in "getting" this tea.  I brewed one infusion a little stronger and the profile shifted a lot.  Some of the subtlety dissipated but the body and feel changed completely, with more mineral related tones picking up.  As the infusions progressed it seemed to me that the fruit element faded back and the floral picked up even more.  The peach range shifted a little into blueberry.  The dry leaf smell had initially implied that the tea had potential to express a rich and sweet vegetal range, the sundried tomato, but it never really did develop as much as the fruit and floral.


Later yet--the tea kept brewing lots of infusions--both fruit and floral faded to let a more earthy fresh hay element, not far from a lighter wood.  Hay is still sort of in the vegetal range, of course, moving towards light earthiness, but the underlying character moved from sweet to rich.



I was just discussing with an online friend how silver needle style white teas aren't really a favorite and this tea helps highlight what I meant by that.  I tried the Toba Wangi silver needle style tea not long ago,  and it was nice, with some overlap in aspects, rich with a lot of floral.  But this bud and leaf tea has that extra complexity that comes from really being two types of plant elements, with lots of flavor aspects and good complexity.  That extended range comes at the cost of some of the subtlety, and emphasis on some distinctive light elements that is possible in buds-only white teas.


Related to that, I recently retried that silver needle style tea and it had lots of character, great flavors, mostly floral, and nice sweetness, with good depth and a nice rich base of underlying flavors.  This is probably a good place to mention that there's always more to the story of how a traditional tea type is made in a certain narrowly defined way, or even in cases when it's not tied to a region by definition should be related to one informally, so even restricting that to description "silver needle type" would likely be partly inaccurate, even though that's common in vendor naming for a range of styles of white, bud-only teas.  Maybe a general name works out better in Mandarin, except that I don't speak it.


But then I'm really not planning for this to drift into a second review.  I'm just saying that maybe my preference for Bai Mu Dan or tea and bud style white teas will shift based on drinking more white teas, or maybe that's already underway.  I'm kind of buried under bud-only white tea these days, with five types at the house now, from three different countries.  These include a second from Indonesia (from West Java), after finishing a third from there recently, with one from Thailand, and another from Sri Lanka, some of which I plan to mention again later in a comparison review.

A guest review

Ok, so not really a guest review, but an online friend described this tea in an interesting way, which I'll pass on here (from Rodino, if that means anything):

It reminded me alot in smell and taste of the Moonlight White from China Life, though it had a much younger and livelier taste. Like a cheap riesling, then it got interesting in the aftertaste. Tasted like Peach Gummy Rings! Remember that stuff you can buy at any gas station?


Maybe it was like that; there is definitely a very unusual, very sweet taste element and "finish" to the tea.  When I tasted it again and thought of those candies it did seem a close match, although even better for being a natural version of a similar flavor.  I'm also sure Rodino meant the "cheap Riesling" comparison in a good way.


Sweet and fruity teas can sometimes remind me of how artificial banana flavor can come across, as in the banana malt milkshakes I loved as a teenager, but I usually don't mention that in reviews.  The effect is usually more positive than it sounds, similar in effect to an artificial candy element but not exactly the same.  I guess if it were a breakfast cereal, like Fruit Loops, somehow that would be easier to relate to.  To me those taste a lot like pandan but that wouldn't be a familiar flavor in temperate climate countries.


Rodino and I talked more about the tea after I made notes for this and he also mentioned melon as a component, and I must have added at least one more potential trace element.  It's the kind of tea that's not so simple to narrow down to a list of flavors, and that really wouldn't do justice to the overall effect anyway.  It seemed like one could experience a lot of range of different aspects based on small shifts in brewing parameters, or maybe even just from noticing more going on, with sort of a layered effect happening (maybe relating to the mix of buds and leaves?).  White teas can be like that, also possibly related to an unusual oxidation level input, not fresh and grassy or vegetal as green teas can be, not earthy or heavy on tannins as black teas can be, but in an unusual place in the middle.  At best they are flavorful but still subtle, sweet, rich and complex, like this one.

Indonesian grower profile with Galung Atri; on Indonesian teas

I've been reviewing some great teas from Indonesia recently, a black tea and an oolong from Toba Wangi plantation, and these are really only the beginning (maybe with even more updates on their Facebook page).  Since the uniqueness of regional teas and the status of their industry and tea demand are of interest to me I've been discussing this with the owner, Galung Atri, and I've extended this into a grower profile interview, following.

If you aren't familiar with Indonesian teas, these teas I'm trying really aren't typical, although I can't say there aren't other equally interesting and great teas out there, since I'm just getting started on this origin myself.  I visited Indonesia in December (two words--active volcanoes!) and didn't find anything like these on two different islands (the Eastern part of Java and Bali), in spite of visiting a tea plantation on that trip, so I doubt Indonesian teas on this level would be easy to turn up anywhere.

1.  Could you share a little background about yourself, what led you to be interested in tea, is the plantation from an older family business growing tea?


My tea business was started by my father.  We`ve been in this business since 1972 (Local Indonesian Green Tea).  There are three major roles in the tea business:

1. Tea Plantation / Tea Farmers as a tea producers.
2. Trader as a collector from tea farmers and act as a first layer quality control. 
3. Retailer as a packer.

Our company started as a trader and we are still doing this business.  My father and I planned to build a tea plantation since 2009 to produce a special tea (planning about use of clones / tea plants, place, etc.), and started planting in 2010, 40 hectares for Sinensis Si Ji Cun (around 26 hectares planted), and 70 hectares for Assamica Gambung (around 40 hectares planted).


Editorial aside:  Si Ji Chun is a common plant type in Taiwan, also referred to as Four Seasons.  Here is a recent blog post about the type, and an earlier post with more cultivar types background, a subject that keeps coming up in this blog.  Note that table shown in the second post lists cultivar / plant types by region and final tea product type in Taiwan.


This division is fully handled by me, with my father of course still acting as a mentor.  So for  the time being, I've continued studying in China for three years, and in Japan for one year, learning about tea as much as possible.

After four years, my plantation started producing tea leaves, importing a machine from China for processing.  I asked my master from China to teach me how to produce Chinese teas, then I began producing tea on my own.

I loved to drink tea since I was a child, but my interest on this business began after my graduation.  And for now at 27 years old I’m the youngest tea master in Indonesia (tea master as a tea maker, which they call a tea master).

2.  To what extent has the specialty or higher quality tea industry in Indonesia changed in the last decade, according to your understanding (on the side of what is produced)?


The specialty tea industry in Indonesia is still like a baby, with just a few companies making these types of teas, and it`s mainly for the export market, not for local consumption.  It just started around ten years ago or so, so I can say it's just beginning as an emerging market.


3.  In what way has awareness and demand for higher quality Indonesian teas changed in the last decade?


It has changed over the past six to eight years, but not much, as most people aren't really aware of better teas, or how to get those teas.  I am a part of the Indonesia Tea Lovers Community, a group that educates peoples about tea.  It helps to market our tea as well, since we need to sell tea to continue what we do.




4.  Related to discussing tea plants, different types in use, ages of some plants, can you say a little about what types of tea plants you grow (var. Assamica versus Sinensis, Taiwanese hybrids, local plant types).  What are the oldest plants that you grow on your plantation, and the youngest?  What changes do you plan in the future related to use of new tea plant types?



We have two plantations as I mentioned before, both growing a single clone tea plant type, sijicun for sinensis, and gambung 7 for Assamica (best for white tea).  The oldest tree just around 5.5 years old, and the youngest one just one years old.  We are expanding the tea planting every year, until its full planted.  And we have created our own nursery, so its 100%  pure single origin clone.

5.  Can you describe more specifics about tea processing techniques you carry over from China?  Where did you train to process tea, and what types of existing processing techniques do you use or have revised?

their Wu Mei oolong

I have more background with the Wuyi style techniques for tea processing, and I learned in study with my master that I prefer the Wuyi styles the most.  I tend to modify processing a bit for my technique.  I learned the basics, and improvised myself from there, because producing this Chinese style tea is more like an art.  It depends on climate, weather, plucking time, condition etc., and China and Indonesia are really different in terms of growing conditions.  It cannot always have the same result, but the basic characteristics can’t be changed.



6.  Is there a tradition of local Indonesian tea processing and related techniques, and tea products, that you draw on that make some teas more regionally unique, beyond just influences from being grown in Indonesia?


My Green Tea processing combines Chinese and Indonesia styles.  I do an outdoor withering which I take it from Chinese green tea style processing technique, so it has a unique characteristic that cannot be found in any other green tea.


7.  Related to one particular processing technique, why are your teas more tightly twisted than one typically experiences from other tea types?  Does this help give them their unique character?


Tightly twisted tea is just a shape, part of my tea processing style.  I mean it's more like my tea identity, so peoples know my tea from its shape.  The black tea is a bit of a different case because the shape plays a role in the oxidation process for that type.

it really is sort of black and white in real life

8.  Can you say a little about the unique white tea type you produce (White Beauty), what style it falls closest to, or what input lead to that development?



My White Beauty is like an Oriental Beauty  or bai mu dan style, with a similar processing technique. But the clone is different, as I mentioned, based on the Gambung 7 clone, which is really good for White Tea.  The first leaves are still silver in color.  I showed it to couple of tea specialists in China and they were amazed.




9.  Is there any particular limitation to growing tea in a tropical environment?  Is heat an issue, or the lack of a cool season, or the lack of a change in sunlight trigger that informs the plants of changes in seasonal times?

that White Beauty again, closer up

The main limitation of tropical environment relates to a tendency towards astringency in the tea.  No matter how I try to limit or get rid of the predominant astringency it is still there.  That is from the typical tropical climate and soil.  I have discussed this topic with fellow tea masters and they have  similar understanding.  On the other hand, we can produce tea throughout the year.  The Dry and Rainy seasons are really good for plantations though.

Another aside:  based on having tried a black tea, oolong, and now that White Beauty (with that post only in notes stage) none of his teas are particularly astringent, all smooth bodied, balanced teas.  Per Galung this is a result of processing choices that offset natural tendency for less balanced astringency.


10.  Is there a particular issue related to Indonesian people's tea awareness you would like to mention?  In Thailand an example people just aren't aware of loose tea brewing in general, so that even relatively common types of Thai oolong are not widely consumed, and awareness of more rare and higher quality teas is very limited.


In this case, Thailand has the same problem as Indonesia, people just drink tea when they are thirsty instead of appreciating the uniqueness of it.  In Indonesia, along with related economic growth, now people start looking for better teas, and start to spend more money for specialty food products.  Thus I could say the market is emerging.  I don't have any quantity left for export, as all we produce is consumed by the domestic market, but then my product quantity is still limited too.


11.  People in other places are using flavored teas and herb and fruit blends to bridge the gap between current tea preferences (RTD tea, flavored tea, bubble tea) and more traditional tea drinking.  Do you plan to take such steps, or to instead just create better awareness of more traditional teas?


I am not a fan of blending teas.  I love straight tea; I love to explore the tea character and tastes.  I do what I love, and as for now I wouldn’t start on blending teas.  I just learn some about that subject in order to sharpen my palate.  I do some blending just for Jasmine tea, since Jasmine tea is a traditional Indonesian tea, so this works well related to demand here. 

In conclusion

Amazing input, really not so much to add to that.  I love it that so much work has went into drawing on different resources and inputs and in the end it results in such a unique product range.  

Not long ago I talked with a tea cafe owner here (Bangkok) about emerging trends in tea preferences, maybe more a discussion of getting people into tea than about developed appreciation, and the perspective emerged that some people can see old-style tea preparation and learning as too formal, or too involved, or even boring.  It's great that the Toba Wangi teas are originating directly from those older traditions, without a narrow focus on creating what people already know about and demand, and more emphasis on producing the best teas that they can.  It shows in the teas.

As unique and exceptional as the black tea and oolong I already reviewed were that White Beauty really is a bit unusual; more to follow on that tea.