Shan Ye Wild Dark Tea; tasting tea during a fast

 

ITea World sent more samples to try.  With tea blogging so far out of fashion I've been trying more teas that people send for review lately, I suppose because there aren't many other established blogs.

It's perfect timing, because I'm on a day 4 of a 5 day fast, and can't really have sheng pu'er or black tea, the two main types that I drink.  Or green, but I drink less of that anyway, even though I've been messing with iced jasmine green tea lately.  Shou pu'er and aged white tea are most gentle on your stomach, and I've only drank water, salt water, and some diet soda in the past 4 days (counting today), so my stomach is a little touchy.  Hunger isn't as bad as you'd expect but when I'm around food it becomes an issue again.  

To clarify that one point to fast you only need to supplement sodium, potassium, and magnesium (electrolytes), and then it's fairly safe to stop eating for up to a week, if you can dial in appropriate amounts of those.  That's not medical advice; definitely try out a day first and see how that goes to assess impact in your own case.  Getting electrolyte input right is actually tricky; online recommendations are rare, and what does turn up tends to be expressed as a range, with the high side seemingly impractically high.  You definitely need to supplement around a gram a day of both sodium and potassium, which is a lot, and then a recommended daily intake is on the order of double that, or more, which is an awful lot.

I'll fill in what this is in more detail after writing notes, the usual process.

Chinese Shan Ye wild dark tea (listing for 936 baht for 40 grams, $25)

Enjoy our Wild Dark Tea and indulge in a pure and enduring pine smoke aroma. A sip reveals a rich, smooth, and sweet flavor with a complex mouthfeel. The sweetness lingers long after drinking, leaving a memorable and enduringly sweet aftertaste.

There's not much there about what this is.  Shan means village, and ye sheng wild tea; there's a good chance this is just presented as rural village hei cha, which doesn't mean much.  

It definitely tastes like pine smoke.  The quality is pretty good, quite decent, and I do mention aftertaste experience in these notes, and some degree of complexity, but all this is still pretty vague.  What is it, what hei cha style?  Maybe an interpretation or modified style; maybe it doesn't match the standard origin-oriented categories.

For value for this selling for 50-some cents a gram it would have to be amazing hei cha for that to make sense; more often that range sells for less than most other types, often in more like a 15 cent per gram range.  I didn't add much value assessment to the conclusions, not having seen that when writing that, but it's seemingly a negative factor.  But for this not comparing to any other standard types it's hard to pin down value; maybe there isn't much other tea out there like it.  If someone loves it then relative value changes.  I do place it in relation to Liu Bao forms, and describe how I think preference issues would work out.  

For good versions of other wild origin tea types the type of outlet you buy it through makes a difference, and of course quality level, and rarity.  If you can connect with local producers those can be kind of inexpensive too, but that's not usually easy to sort out.  Curator vendors selling more rare versions tend to charge at least around 50 cents a gram for everything, and move up towards $1 / gram quickly.

There's some justification for that rare tea, exceptional quality level range in this capture from the wild tea sample set website info.  I'll indirectly cover how I think this stands up to that in the review.

I'd recommend trying it as part of a sampler instead of ordering it individually.  Somehow they're selling it as part of a sample set of 5 teas, 5 grams each, for $5.  How does that work, that this tea is 60 cents a gram at volume and 20 cents a gram as a sample, in a set?  I guess that they're encouraging people to try them, to make additional sales later on.  

That set includes oolong (looks like Wuyi Yancha, with that producer info referencing that range), black, green, and white teas, and the last three are most common for wild origin material tea range.  Wild origin oolong is interesting; that's not how that usually works.

Review:

#1:   I used a rinse, and will use a long first infusion to get this to open up.  I tasted the rinse; this is a smoked tea version.  I tend to like those, I just don't know what it means in relation to this being a pressed hei cha disk.  The first actual infusion still tastes like a rinse; there's no way to describe aspects based on that.  After a 30 second infusion the second round will work, even though the disk is still opening up.

#2:  this is a bit unusual.  Smoke comes across most, along the line of pine smoke, so that part is pleasant.  Beyond that this seems like relatively unfermented hei cha, probably wet-pile or age process transitioned some, but not all that much.  This should be familiar ground for hei cha drinkers, then for everyone else what that means and how character would end up wouldn't be familiar.  I'll try to do justice to describing it, even though it will be fully infused next round.

Warm tones mix with greener tones in an unusual way.  Maybe it's in-between related to fermentation?  I doubt that it's a mix of material types, but I suppose that is possible.  On the green side this tips towards vegetal range, a little like kale, or between that and pine needle.  It includes warm mineral as a base.  Warm flavor range, the part seeming related to some fermentation, takes on an almost malty flavor, but that's not exactly it.  

This contradiction in flavors, or complementary set, depending on interpretation, could be familiar ground for Liu Bao drinkers.  One type of that is pre-fermented, like shou pu'er, and another not, like sheng, and at different stages of aging the latter can take on unusual complex character.  This should make more sense once it's at least fully wetted, which may be the infusion after next.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for my unique stomach condition demands.  I'm depending on a relatively high degree of fermentation for this to have limited stomach impact; "greener" hei cha would be rough.  

If you just eat a bit of food prior to drinking any tea most of that concern drops out, and I always do, even though that offsets ability to feel what people call qi effect in sheng.  I suspect that's because compounds enter your system much slower, the ones causing feel effects, and that without that rush from them the gradual transition is much harder to identify.  Just a guess, of course.  I have no idea how people could tolerate drinking sheng on a relatively empty stomach, even without fasting.  I can't.

#3:  this is brewed plenty strong; I was writing that last paragraph while I let this brew, so it soaked for something like 45 seconds.  Too long, really, far beyond optimum, but at least it will get the tea wetted.  One might wonder what I could do if this did start bothering my stomach, on a fast, since eating a bowl of breakfast cereal or a little chocolate is out of the question.  Not much.  I could try a health care product but those are designed more for other problems.  It's better to avoid the problem.

Heavy smoke is interesting with the rest.  Brewed so strong the smoke takes on a different heavier character, like creosote.  Pine range is a main flavor, now not so vegetal, and more just straight pine.  Warmer tones are interesting, including mineral, and then other range that's harder to isolate, given the heavy smoke, pine, and mineral contributions.  I suspect that brewing this for a more reasonable 15 seconds will help.  I'm brewing it in a 100 ml gaiwan, using water a good bit off boiling point, since it's from a water-purification system heating output, and stored in a thermos, losing a little temp off full boiling at both stages.

#4:  much better, brewed lighter, while fully opened up.  I probably shouldn't be drinking this on an empty stomach; that's not a complete surprise.

It all balances much better brewed lightly, or at a more reasonable infusion level, really.  Smoke didn't drop out but it dropped way back.  Pine is a limited range input now too, integrating with the rest.  This still tastes a bit like Liu Bao, but without the typical harsh edge for versions that haven't been aged much.  I've not mentioned cement block mineral range, or astringency at all, and for younger sheng-style Liu Bao those stand out quite a bit.  It's not that such a style variation of Liu Bao needs a decade or two of age transition, since that's a matter of preference, but for many people it might be the case.  

I suspect that within tea traditions on that page it's all viewed quite differently, than through Western enthusiast expectations.  Many online discussions of tea experience with an older Chinese Malaysian friend covered that, but it all doesn't summarize well.  

From a Western perspective I really should be able to extract at least two more flavor descriptions from this, or else it could be interpreted as lacking complexity, which really isn't the case.  Let's say that it tastes a bit medicinal, like unfamiliar herbs one smells in a Traditional Chinese Medicine shop.  That's not very specific or descriptive but I think it's about right.  Per a lot of Western tea preference this wouldn't be very good, especially if someone was looking for the sort of standard dried fruit flavors some hei cha expresses.  For Liu Bao drinkers this might really click.  I'm in the middle; it's pleasant, and interesting, but I've always been challenged by edgier Liu Bao, even though I can appreciate a lot of tea range.

Related to the wild material origin theme I have no comment; that's familiar ground for sheng, black tea, and white, but not hei cha.  It's probably contributing to flavor complexity, and helps offset a tendency towards astringency (this could be a lot harsher; it's digesting fairly well, under worst-case tasting conditions).  As far as where flavors end up that's something else.

  

I should probably try one more round and stop drinking this.  After a nice tall glass of salt water and a few more hours I could get back to it.  That salt water experience is as off-putting as it sounds, but symptoms from sodium and potassium levels crashing is even worse.  I ice-skated for over two hours yesterday, on day 3, and felt fine, even though earlier in the day final transition to ketosis was a bit harsh.  

If anyone wants to try fasting don't start with a 5 day version, as I tried to more than a year and a half ago; build up to it.  24 hours is brutal at first, but your body has that capacity "designed" into it (it's adapted for it), so that even most hunger will drop out with exposure (not all; it's both physical and psychological).  Main health benefits probably come from internal changes that happen after two days, autophagy, decreased insulin resistance, and so on.

#5:  that medicinal herb input is even more pronounced and pleasant.  I would guess that the most positive range of this tea is starting only now, and that the next 4 or 5 infusions will keep getting better.  I'll try it later and will know, but I may not get back to writing notes.  Sweetness picks up a little; that gives it a more pleasant balance.  Even though this is brewed quite lightly aftertaste experience is more pronounced.  Warm mineral range seems more distinct, even though it's really not stronger.  It tastes like rocks, I guess, or like an artesian well water source, when absorbed minerals are at their heaviest.  Spring water can express an unusual mineral sweetness and complexity, water filtering through a hill or a mountain, but water settled through a rock base can really be more intense.

The main vegetal aspect is still pine.  Medicinal herb is much stronger, then the pine, then mineral base.  It would be possible to interpret other flavors in different ways, to see that warm sweetness as relating to a dried fruit, but to me it's more like dried herb.  I would guess that my Chinese Malaysian friend would be able to place it better; his descriptions of his experiences and older Chinese culture input, at a flavor level, are very colorful and developed.  Probably few younger people in Malaysia, where he lives, can relate to his perspective now, a bit integrated into developed Western culture, as Thais definitely now are.

Conclusions:

This leaves out one type of judgement:  how good is it?  That style would either ring a bell for people or it wouldn't, and I'd expect that tea enthusiasts with relatively little exposure to a lot of hei cha range wouldn't get it.  For someone who already likes that style it's quite pleasant.  I'm not sure it would work as well as a bridge to experiencing it.

This kind of theme comes up a lot in sheng reviews.  It's almost impossible to not just assume that readers are familiar with and ok with bitterness as an input.  I barely mention it in some young / unaged sheng reviews, and that means that the relative level is low, but it's generally still a main experienced aspect.  This isn't bitter, at all, or even all that astringent.  But the medicinal / herbal flavor range tones I can't really place isn't something everyone would be familiar with.  Smoke and pine are; maybe Lapsang Souchong lovers could bridge over to like the rest of the range, even with the sweetness and the typical flavor set from black tea missing.  Or maybe that wouldn't work.

To me this is quite suitable as a testing set inclusion, as a way to be introduced to new tea range, even though it's so novel.  Few people would probably crave owning more than a sample of it, but people into younger Liu Bao experience might often buy a kilogram of such tea to experience it over and over, as a primary preference.  

That Malaysian friend loves Liu Bao, and the edge in some versions is part of the appeal.  He would drink it paired with food; it would make a lot more sense fulfilling that role.  This could be so nice with barbecue pork steamed buns, which Thais call manapau, which must have different Chinese names.  That sweetness and savory flavor depth would be wonderful, paired with this, with the contrast making it so pleasant.  Of course I'd have an even sweeter custard filled steamed bun with those, further stretching the experience into what some would see as desert range, or at least typical breakfast food.

Maybe the conventional Western tea enthusiast emphasis on judging and experiencing tea completely alone misses something.  It's a great way to fully immerse in tea experience, to really explore it in depth, even venturing into feel range, but not all teas work well that way.

How is the cha qi, since I'm finally in a very sensitive state, related to such an input?  A little trippy; colors are especially vivid around me, and I suppose that I feel a little high.  I'd probably be laid out if this was wild origin young sheng, if my stomach could handle it, which it can't.  I feel fine, related to stomach impact from this.  We need to balance all levels of all of the experiences we explore, especially when extreme conditions come up, like fasting.

As far as that relative degree of stomach impact this had, I'd still recommend going with shou pu'er as a main type, and aged white tea as backup.  This was ok, and a lot of Fu brick variations would also be, but it's as well to stick with those, since they seem to work out best.

ice skating with the kids

playing with that changed things a little, even though she can skate well

Wuyi Origin honey Jin Jun Mei, Fujian black tea

Maybe for once this review can stay short and basic since this is a tea I've probably tried versions of for the past two years.  It's the last of a set of Wuyi Origin samples they sent.  I really like their Jin Jun Mei, and it's definitely exceptional, even though per my preferences in aspects and style I like their Lapsang Souchong and Rou Gui more.  Their teas are quite good in general; the two Dan Cong I just tried were also exceptional, a Mi Lan Xiang (honey orchid) version and Xing Ren Xiang (almond aroma).


I'll specify no background here, and looking back I never did do a research style post about this tea type.  I reviewed multiple versions from Wuyi Origin two years ago but that doesn't include more about that.  It's a Fujian black tea closely associated with Lapsang Souchong, a variation of that, but those are really broad strokes.  This is one of those tea types where there's a lot of conflicting input about most of what's sold not being "the real jin jun mei," but I don't have more to say about that.

cool looking, but more intense to smell

Review

The smell is deep and rich, very sweet and complex.  The tea is golden with darker fine buds as well.  But the brewed leaf experience is the thing; onto that.

The taste is sweet and rich as well, again very complex.  Roasted corn comes across stronger than I remember in past versions, maybe including the way that roasted corn smell includes more complexity when you roast a version that still includes some of the silk over a fire.

I brewed this initial infusion for around 5 seconds, using water a bit off boiling point in a less packed-gaiwan proportion than usual for Gongfu preparation.  The tea doesn't need time to open up.  It has decent complexity now but I'll add more about the layers and aspect list on the next couple of infusions since it will probably develop a little more.  Smelling the wet leaves is nice; there is a lot going on for aroma aspect range, it's very sweet and rich.



A lot of what that leaf aroma was getting at develops in this second infusion, and the tea probably isn't in it's main range of aspects yet.  That roasted corn drops way back, now just a complimentary aspect but no longer primary.  What you do experience comes across as a complex range bundled into an integrated set.  Sweetness along the lines of dried tamarind is included, which trails into savory range, towards sun-dried tomato. 

Earthiness picks up, both as an underlying base and a more forward component.  That part is like the sweet smell of some tobacco, which is probably provided by spices like clove in such tobacco as much as the main leaf itself.  This does taste like clove, but it also spills over a little into that tobacco.  I've probably not included enough about the rich sweetness yet; that's probably close to a light version of molasses, which is itself more or less reduced sugar cane (or of course maybe honey, how they've described the tea version).


It's odd how simple and integrated all that comes across.  It's clean, a bit bright in effect, and not hard to relate to at all.  From the sounds of that list it would be all over the map but it's not at all.


The balance of all that shifted in the next infusion but the set itself didn't.  I'll spare dropping down to finer level analysis of proportion of those.  There's an interesting savory part that's novel, tied to that sun-dried tomato range, and to the roasted corn, which is a bit faint but still evident.  That could be strange or unpleasant if it wasn't really well balanced by just the right other aspects but in this it is.

The next infusion shifts but it's hard to say in what way, again it's a proportion shift.  It seems like I'm missing a description that might bring across the flavors better, that there might be one main one.  The honey sweetness does stand out more at this level; it might just be that, all of that narrowing to the rich complexity of a dark version of honey.  Wild tropical versions of honey here vary a lot, and can be really complex; maybe like those.


The next few infusions are just as nice.  I went longer on the next one (near 30 seconds) and it brought out more of the fruit depth, still pleasant and balanced that way.  Then lighter on the next two, and the same general balance worked out, lots of rich dark honey sweetness with a catchy complexity beyond that.  It held up for a few longer infusions after that, a long count for a black tea, which is normal for bud material versions of blacks.  Cinnamon seemed to pick up a little as the general profile thinned.

Conclusions

Another great tea.  Original style or not it's exceptional.  Since I've mentioned their own descriptions in other recent reviews I'll go back to that, which includes some other background:

Location: huang gang shan (黄岗山)
Harvest :2018.4.5th
Cultivar: Fu yun No6  
Fermentation level : full -fermented tea 
Picking standard: using the early spring top buds to be processed this tea. 
Feature: Quite honey aroma, a sweet and smooth soup with good tea essence and body. 


Not much for a flavors list but then I'm skeptical of how much those really convey anyway.  Hopefully someone finds some value in all that but different people would write out different lists, and it's probably easier to enjoy the tea more fully without getting into all that during tasting.

One thing I've mentioned lately (at the risk of repeating myself):  if I were to try this tea brewed different ways, and try it another half dozen times I'd probably describe it differently.  Single tasting tea reviews are about passing on one immediate impression.  This tea would definitely vary based on slight changes in preparation approach, even though it's probably a difficult tea to ruin.  It's a much better tea than almost any other Chinese buds-only black tea version I've tried, but it's also just different in style than other types.

All that said I'll end on a completely unrelated note, sharing more pictures of my kids, this time in school uniforms (or maybe over-sharing, given how often they turn up here).

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

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

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

Tea preference:  Chinese black teas versus sheng pu'er

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

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

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

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

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

Review

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

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

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

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

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

leaves still unfolding

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


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

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


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

after a number of infusions

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


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

later brewed leaf appearance

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


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

that same reviewed tea, brewed slightly lighter

Revisiting brewing parameters

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

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


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


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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

Kandy Ceylon black tea (BOP)

Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), the listed type / grade / leaf presentation

A vendor sent a sample of Ceylon tea to review, not such an unusual thing, but it does come up here more frequently related to other countries.  Kandy Tea is actually selling tea out of Sri Lanka in this case, with a FB contact here, and a website here.  It's odd this doesn't comes up more, people taking up resale-vending local teas in producer countries, versus lots of various themed tea businesses in the US and Europe (and Australia and wherever else too; other places than where the teas are from). 

Per discussion with that local Bangkok Ceylon vendor, SNSS, it's not that simple to buy tea directly from Sri Lankan plantations, related to an auction sales process that isn't just convention but also regulation-restricted forms of sales.  I wouldn't know, from my own experience; just passing that on.


This part of Sri Lanka that the company is named after played a role in the early history of tea there, explained in this CNN article citation:

In 1867 Scottish coffee planter James Taylor, the man who would be recognized as the pioneer of Sri Lanka's tea industry, planted 19 acres of tea near Kandy at an altitude of around 500 meters...

Within 10 years, this lethal fungus led to financial ruin for the island's British coffee planters. Roughly 1,700 left for England while the remaining 400 or so switched to growing tea...

By 1890, the year Thomas Lipton arrived to purchase tea estates, 23,000 tons of tea were exported to London's tea auctions. Ceylon had become an island synonymous with tea.



The description of the location of the tea source could be more specific, but that elevation citation reminds me of their website product description claiming it's coming from higher up:


The Broken Orange Pekoe range falls into the category of High grown and medium grown tea, hailing from the centre of the country’s hills, grown at an elevation 6000ft to 2000ft above sea level. 


To me this particular tea ties to the theme of checking out better Ceylon and Assam versions earlier in this year; I'll be forever really getting to what the best examples of these teas offer. On to this specific version for now.

Review, prepared Western style

I tried this tea twice for this review, first prepared Western style, then a second time Gongfu style (both at work; a bit different).  The results weren't so different, with more details covered later.

from the second tasting instead, of course

The dry tea scent is nice, warm, rich, sweet, a bit malty, and complex, maybe a bit heavy in a nice dried fruit range.

Brewed initially (Western style) the tea is like that, positive, complex,  and well-balanced.  As with other better versions mineral structure plays a role that's hard to describe.  I tend to talk about different kinds of rocks or mineral springs to pin that down but I'm not sure that's ever clear.  It reminds me most of other Ceylon teas I've tried.

It includes a bi of malt, just a softer and lighter presentation than in the Assams I reviewed not long ago. Part of the flavor range is a bit like tamarind, not completely off raisin but not that, maybe extending a little into dried fig.  It could be interpreted as woody but to me that's not right either, something along the lines of leather captures that part better.  I tried the tea again later, brewed a different way, to see if I could dig deeper related to flavors assessment and overall judgement.

Brewed Gongfu style

Some types of black tea make more sense to prepare Gongfu style than others.  I can pass on my thoughts and experience related to that but it seems it would vary with preference quite a bit, different per person. 

I recently tried a Taiwanese black tea, a "honey black," prepared Gongfu style, which worked out much better that way than earlier Western style attempts.  I tasted it that time along with a Dan Cong black, (a Chaozhou area black tea; I'm not sure if that "Dan Cong" description is commonly used for black teas or not).  That second type also probably does work better prepared that way, but I've not also brewed that Western style to check on that.  Sometimes Gongfu style seems to work better for Dian Hong too, for Yunnan black teas, but in some cases the outcome is more the same for both approaches.  For some decent orthodox Assams I tried recently it didn't seem to make much difference.  It almost has to do as much with the tea being touchy about parameters as it being so good that it somehow makes more sense, although it's hard to connect causes to working better with more short infusions versus a lower proportion and longer steep time.


The aspects didn't seem all that different for this tea; the main flavors were still along the lines of mineral, fruit in the range of dried tamarind, hinting towards fig, and earthiness not so far off leather.  It seemed possible to shift around parameters and shift the balance of those, to soften and sweeten the tea using slightly cooler water and lower infusion times, or to emphasize the earthiness by going the other way.  That tone would then move into the range of feel more, picking up a resin-like quality that occurs in some versions of Dian Hong. 

As far as taste goes when pushing the tea a little, brewing it slightly stronger, or using hotter water, it reminded me a little of the woody, unique scent of pine cones.  If the smell of those isn't familiar it's hard to think of anything remotely similar; a bit like that smell of almond or brazil nut shells, but stronger, and a little sharper.  Once I think of that this tea reminds me more of the scent of an almond shell, but that could just be imagination.

Conclusions

So in conclusion brewing it Gongfu style the tea wasn't necessarily better, but it was possible to shift the character a bit within a limited range.  Brewed faster and a little cooler it's possible to accentuate the lighter flavors and sweetness of the tea and using hotter temperature and slightly longer times to draw out a balance of more feel-related aspects.


If I'm describing a high mountain oolong from Taiwan, or a Dian Hong, or other familiar Chinese black teas, once I get through a list of aspects, and how those match up with typical expectations (including flavors description, and some mention of feel and aftertaste, etc.), then bit by bit I would have already said how good the version is.  At the end of reviews sometimes I'll clarify that, even if I don't try to put a particular tea on some sort of scale.


I hoped to guess a bit more at just how good this tea really is, even though doing that really is optional, and atypical in most blog reviews.  It doesn't helped that I've only tried a single-digit count of better versions of Ceylon teas (described in a number of separate posts).  Of course it's worlds away from CTC versions (ground-up machine-processed tea), but that's not saying much.  It's like saying that it's better than any orthodox teas one buys in a grocery store; of course it is, but better Ceylon doesn't turn up in grocery stores, per my own experience.  It's on a similar level as those better Assam versions I'd recently been drinking.  It's "good tea," but I suspect still in the middle of a range of what I would consider good teas, with room for improvement related to the best orthodox Ceylon.

How would I know that, since I'm really only claiming that this tea is about as good as the best of the other Ceylon I've tried?  I don't know it, for sure.  I'm extrapolating what I've experienced from Chinese black teas, and others.  At this quality level the flavors and other aspects balance is quite nice, positive and distinct, good on different levels beyond flavor, with no noticeable flaws in the tea.  For even better teas aspects tend to become more refined though; complexity can pick up, and style differences related to exhibiting unique character can improve.  Feel won't improve that much, for black teas, but it can still thicken and venture into different textures. 

It is a bit bizarre for me to say this isn't as good as the best Ceylon has to offer, while at the same time claiming that it's as good as any I've tried, but so reviewing in this blog tends to go.  At times I try to explain what I don't know.  Perhaps that last extrapolation analysis is a case of a "fool rushing in, where angels fear to tread."

one of the two blog mascots, even posing a little

Wuyi Origin Jin Jun Mei, and a bit of origins background on me

Back to the quest for the unattainable in this blog, a simple review.  I've tried different versions of this tea type from Cindy before (Cindy Chen, oft-mentioned in this blog), comparison tasting three last year, so this will just be passing on how this experience goes, nothing new.

I've ran across a Reddit post of someone cross-reviewing different versions of this tea type not too long ago (possibly including this one, or at least a related tea also from Wuyi Origin).  And also the typical vendor claim that only a very limited range of versions are "real Jin Jun Mei," and everything almost everyone but them is selling is something else instead (or maybe also the other few vendors making similar claims, I guess).  I'd mention an example of a related claim but it would come across as blaming them, and there could be something to it, I'm just not buying it.

I didn't get a full description of the tea from Cindy, but if it's the same version as on their website then it's "2017 Honey Aroma Jin Jun Mei," which to be honest doesn't really mean anything to me.

Review

not the best type of outing during getting over a cold

The dry tea smells rich, sweet, toffee-like, and a little earthy, with layers to what is going on in the scent.  Of course dry scent doesn't always match the brewed tea characteristics.  I'm still getting over a cold, the same one I had a week ago, probably because I went ice-skating last weekend before I was fully recovered.  Hopefully I've got enough sense of taste left to do this tasting justice; it's the usual feeling a bit off, not the full-blown version.


The first infusion is great; kind of what I expected.  The taste is rich and full, a bit sweet, with lots of layers of flavors coming across.  It's not as if one aspect hits you first; the impression is that there is a lot going on.  It's grounded by a very clean earthy range, towards mineral, a bit of the rock common to that region, but nothing like how that comes across in the oolongs.  A dark caramel or toffee fills in the sweetness (or it could seem a little like honey; I wrote that part after looking up the listing), joined by a roasted chestnut-like aspect.  Some of the sweetness traces off towards fresh roasted corn, but the tea doesn't really taste like corn, it's more the way that cooked sugar effect works out.

tea brewing in a gaiwan

As comes up regularly there is more to the experience that's hard to describe, something positive and a little unusual.  I'm reminded of former-blogger Amanda describing some Dian Hong as possessing a resinous quality; there is a richness and a feel to this tea that reminds me of such a thing, a way that it coats your tongue and remains as an aftertaste.  More will come up in the second round; it's often easier to tease apart the flavors based on a slightly stronger infusion (although still moderate, for this tea type, there's no call for brewing it strong), and experiencing the basic range first helps with sorting out finer level of details later.

I know I said I was going to keep this simple but now I'm curious what that one review said about it, so I'll take a look and copy it here before getting into the next round.  Typically I'll taste teas blind, but that just depends.  It's not that long so I'll cite the whole thing:


Wuyi Origin - 2017 Jinjunmei (honey aroma) Grade A

There were actually two teas that I tried from Wuyu Origin - the 2017 Jinjunmei (honey aroma) Grade A and 2017 Jinjunmei (honey aroma). I think they were very similar, with the Grade A being a bit sweeter, and maybe a bit more flavorful overall? The Wuyi Origin Jin Jun Mei is probably my favorite tea in general - I like this more than any others that I've tried (any kind of green, black, puerh, etc.). The dry leaf has notes of sweet bread, wood, and some kind of nuts (maybe almonds). After a rinse, the wet leaf has strong notes of chocolate and raisins. It still retains some of the notes of sweet breads/pastries that you could smell from the dry leaf as well. 

A first infusion has a great flavor - a subtle sweetness. Things like rose water, and sweet pastries come to mind. The taste is clean, and (maybe disappointingly) the tea doesn't exactly "coat" my mouth like some other more oily feeling teas would. Later infusions dull the sweetness, but a constant taste of fresh bread remains. Overall, this tea was relatively cheap compared to some of the other ones I've tried, which makes it easy for me if I want to get some more.

I would highly recommend this tea - even if you weren't looking to try Jin Jun Mei.  10/10


Nice complete reviewing, but without rambling on, a good balance.  Rose water, sweet pastries, and later fresh bread; maybe.  As far as this tea costing relatively little it was almost certainly the only version purchased directly from the producer.  The other teas had been bought and sold, perhaps multiple times, with every additional resale step adding cost but not value.

The next infusion has transitioned a bit, not less complex, but a little brighter and sweeter, a bit less earthy.  That resinous aspect (feel and taste related) did seem to shift a little towards yeast or pastry, with the roasted chestnut range dropping back.  I'm not sure about that gap in feel; it has diminished a little already, and it never did remind me lots of oiliness, more in between that and a typical roughness of astringency, on the novel side.

I think the interpretation-space is the issue here; I was calling something roasted chestnut that was probably alternatively interpreted as sweet pastry and fresh bread (assuming it is the same tea, which isn't a given, since they make more than one version, and he or she reviewed two of them), and I think both could sort of work.  I tried a Bai Ye dan cong black tea not long ago that wasn't far off related to that aspect, with it coming across more as baked sweet potato.  If you drink this tea and think "roasted sweet potato" that's it instead.  It's also not far off cocoa, just not exactly that.

I read through my own post comparing three Wuyi Origin JJM versions last year (a golden version, and one "good in soup," another "good in aroma").  I don't know which this would relate to; maybe the golden one.


This tea is thinning a little on the third infusion.  There is still plenty going on but the intensity and complexity have already leveled off a bit.  I've been using relatively long infusion times for the tea proportion, a good bit over a minute, and brewed very lightly the tea would stretch to produce twice as many.  This will still produce at least a couple more nice infusions, maybe even three of four, but I'd expect the flavor range to keep narrowing and for the taste to go towards woody or pine.


Some teas have an ideal brewed intensity that they work best at; I tend to notice that for Dan Cong or Wuyi Yancha (oolongs).  For others it really just depends on how someone prefers the tea; I guess various white teas work well for an example of that.  This one probably works well across a broad range, just balancing aspects differently.

Even with extending infusion time the tea is fading.  It's not going "off" in any way, maybe picking up a hint of coffee-like aspect versus the pastry / sweet potato range, more than becoming woody.  I'll keep brewing it but there won't be any more to say.


All in all it's another great tea, not so dissimilar to the same versions I tried last year.  I can relate to why that other reviewer rated it so highly, and per my own past experiences it would compare well to any other version of this tea type.  Unless this isn't Jin Jun Mei at all, and then who knows.

An unrelated post-script; about local Pennsylvania scenery and history

not exactly how I remember it

I mentioned being from the small town of Cranberry, PA in a recent post (hardly even a village, really).  That related to describing a tea as a little tart, and that high school mascot being a "super-berry."  A friend just posted some photos of visiting back there and I wanted to share what it looks like.


We would bike along the area in the pictures when I was younger, or even canoe there, getting dropped off in one place and floating along to another, sometimes the next day.  It was a different world then; we even did that without cell phones.  It's an area with a long history, well prior to Europeans visiting there.  The local Iroquois Native American people went by the name Seneca "Indians," which was also the name of the "town" that high school was located in (more or less just where some roads cross each other).


I've ran across a bit of that history in this local reference not long ago (referenced here).  That is related to another place known as Cranberry that's not that far away; funny how that worked out, but obvious enough why it would have, related to the berries growing in both places:


The Indians gathered and ate many kinds of wild plants and roots. They ate walnuts and hickory nuts, wild grapes and blackberries. In marshy areas, or bogs, along Brush Creek they gathered wild cranberries. They mashed the cranberries in dried venison, or deer meat, to make meat patties they called pemmican. They used cranberry juice as a dye...

...Another important Indian village was the Seneca Indian settlement of Venango. It was located at the mouth of the French Creek on the Allegheny River, about 50 miles north of Cranberry Township, where the town of Franklin is today. 

From Venango, the Indians could travel by canoe down the Allegheny River to visit and trade with Indians in downriver communities. One of those downriver villages was a Delaware Indian town called Shannopintown. It was located where Lawrenceville is today, about three miles upriver from downtown Pittsburgh.

Because the Allegheny is a swift, rocky river, the Indians could not easily return by canoe to their home village. Also, the Allegheny is such a winding river that the distance from Shannopintown back to Venango is much longer than a direct overland hike through the forests. So the Indians used a footpath, the Venango trail, to walk back to Venango.

That reference goes on to talk about George Washington visiting Venango during events leading up to the French and Indian war, nothing really so relevant to this tangent, so I'll leave it at sharing the pictures.

the Allegheny river (photo credits Mike Gibson, aka "Gibby")

not there quite yet but the area is beautiful in the fall, very colorful

old rail lines have been converted to bike paths

lots of National Forest and state game land around, just not here

Reviewing Assamica Agro specialty Assam black teas

Assamica Agro Classic Morning Delight

Organic Assam Tea (mixed CTC and orthodox leaves)

Assam is a tea region and type I've never really done justice to, trying a few higher end relatively commercial versions, but never really doing much with better specialty tea versions.  Per my understanding Assamica Agro is moving away from only producing CTC teas, to shift consumer options range and produce higher value orthodox tea products.  We'll see how that worked out based on review.


Upon opening the box I noticed it was half green teas.  I suppose that is a development related to moving away from more uniform black tea range, but those not being a personal favorite--a personal least favorite, really--could be a challenge.  I can still try them and pass on thoughts, and even account for not liking grassy and vegetal range in teas to some degree, to judge them beyond that.


In a sense it makes personal preference less of a valid marker because surely some people tend to drink green tea based on being open to grassy or vegetal elements, so I might rate a tea higher for being atypical, but that may not necessarily relate only to overall quality or to others' judgments.  I'm on black teas for this post anyway.

Kind of different; they sent a few empty tea bags with this set of teas (described on their website here).  I could make tea bag tea out of them.  I won't, or maybe more to the point can't imagine doing it, and already have a pretty good idea where that would lead (the tea turns out about the same), but it seemed cool to me all the same.


I'll hang onto them, and eventually having them around will make sense in some way.  I could use them for adding spices to a stock, for example, if I wanted to take the herbs back out.  I asked them if they would recommend re-using them (they said sure), and that would avoid problems related to composting tea bags.  I would expect them to retain some flavor if re-used but there could be a fix for that.  It's been coming up enough lately it might be common knowledge that even some of the paper versions of tea bags contain some plastic, so it just depends which tea bag materials are used for them to have a chance of ever breaking down in composting.  The obvious fix:  use loose tea.


There is plenty on their website about organic farming practices and fair trade issues, summarized on this page, with a bit on the growers here.  I've got a lot of ground to cover related to this being a comparison review so I won't really get into all that, but it is a subject I've been discussing quite a bit with people in different places, in India and elsewhere.  The welfare of the tea growing and production staff is a real issue, obviously.  It's hard to fully evaluate any set of claims based only on the vendor's input but an expression of commitment in a mission statement is a good start.  I might get back to this subject in a later post.

Review

The "Morning Delight" version looks like reasonably whole leaves (they refer to them as Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP); I would have accepted Broken Pekoe, but I don't keep up with those terms).  The "Organic Assam" version is a mix of more ground tea and broken leaves, described in the packaging as CTC mixed with orthodox tea; different.

They mention this is more or less designed for use in chai (not mentioning "masala chai," the actual name we accept in the West for the spice blend range, but I'd assume that's implied).  I have tended to use a mix of whatever CTC tea I have around (if any) with some orthodox tea for making masala chai, covered in a few other posts here.  I never thought to try drinking that mix of two teas alone, which I'm giving a go now.

As to brewing approach I'm preparing the tea Gongfu style, a version of that allowing for a moderate proportion of tea to water and a bit more infusion time than I use for some other types.  It might have made more sense to just use Western style brewing, since that's how these teas would typically be prepared, but I'm not on that page lately.  I want to compare them to my own impression of other tea types more than to as pass on some sort of standard, objective, complete, reviewer-removed review.  I tried the Morning Delight tea a second time (later) prepared Western style, just to check if there would be any surprises, if it would work out to be quite different.  It was similar enough I won't go into that here, sticking to the original taste comparison notes.

Whether it is even possible or not to achieve an objective review gets to be a bit of a philosophical issue.  Of course to some extent with proper training and background it surely is, but the discussion of how to get there might involve comparing the role, capability, and knowledge set of a hobby tea reviewer like myself versus a professional tea taster.  A person in such a dedicated taster role would typically not be attempting to judge teas from across a lot of tea regions, and varying types they try on a regular basis, and that's exactly what I do, mix it up.

Let's fill that in a little.  I started editing this the next day while drinking a nice Dan Cong (Chinese oolong), and the day before the tasting I tried a version of shou pu'er that arrived with an order of other hei cha and a Chinese black tea.  The day before that I had Wuyi Yancha with breakfast and aged shou mei cake tea in the afternoon, and I've drank Laos green tea and a compressed Yunnan black tea since.  This year I've been on teas from India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Taiwan (in addition to China; always mostly those), with more focus on Nepal and Indonesia in the recent past.  It does come at a cost, drinking teas from lots of places, giving up focus and familiarity related to a more narrow range.  More than anything my pu'er exposure suffers.  But for me the writing, research, and discussion is a function of enjoying drinking different teas, not the other way around.  On to reviewing these then, and I'll try to place them related to teas from lots of other places at the end.

Review

I brewed both teas relatively quickly on the first infusion, using a 30 second or so steep time, thinking that might have prepared them on the lighter side in spite of the higher than average proportion (related to Western parameters).  That ended up resulting in a typical conventional Western brewing intensity, although stronger than a Gongfu approach usually results in for most tea types.  I'm expecting level of astringency to be one of the main factors to review, a main input to the effect of the tea, but we'll see how that goes.

Morning Delight left, Organic Assam right

The "Organic Assam Tea" version (the one with some CTC ground tea content) is strong, but in the normal range, and quite pleasant at first taste.  Astringency is significant, especially given that I'm used to drinking softer Chinese black teas, but it's well balanced as this particular infusion is prepared.  It's not harsh, dry, or overpowering, but balanced.  Beyond that the tea is nice.  Malt, mineral and earthy tones inform the rest of the experience.  I get the sense that in this review I'm going to be explaining the general Assam tea profile as much as describing this particular tea, even though at a guess this is a good version of it (exactly how good I'd have trouble judging; I don't really drink better Assam).

Malt stands out as the main flavor aspect.  From there it's really tempting to say something like "it tastes like Assam."  The astringency is the other main defining element for the experience, coming across as a lot of structure in this tea, but not harsh, so on a decent level.  It's hard to tease out the mineral and earthiness further; mineral is one of those ranges that's not easy to sort in general.  The earthiness is in the range of a dark wood, kind of common for how a more subdued darker tea element goes.  It is a little fruity but not so much that fruits come to mind too.  I suppose if someone pulled some fruits out of thin air, say raisin and peach, they could interpret them in this tea, but citrus and dried persimmon might be just as good a description.  Or there could be a lot of fruit, all four of those aspects, and another four, but all so subtle and integrated that the separation process gets tricky.  Someone less into rambling would say it's only a little fruity.

The "Classical Morning Delight" is a different kind of experience, with less astringency as baseline for that.  In that sense this tea is going to work better for me, just based on not normally experiencing or preferring "bold and brisk" teas, or in other words, a fair amount of astringency.  Mind you that first tea was nothing like ground up commercial Ceylon; it didn't have me thinking I should add milk and sugar to it.  The last time I tried a better Ceylon I actually tried that as an experiment, adding milk and sugar, and didn't end up liking it for those masking the experience of the tea.

The mineral element is different in this tea, and there is a specific range of mineral and fruit that I'm going to have trouble pinning down, which is interesting and positive.  It comes across as lightly brewed, made in exactly the same way as the other tea, while that one could have been slightly lighter, not brewed as strong.  In that Ceylon review I mentioned I also mentioned that another blogger described Ceylon as "tasting like blood," which I took to be a commentary on how the mineral elements combined together.  Or I suppose it could even relate to an effect from a trace of saltiness.  This is not exactly the same, the mineral aspects and combined effect, but it's not so far off.

There is something lighter and brighter going on with this second tea.  It almost starts towards a root-spice effect, off the dark wood / mineral / dark toffee / malt range into a lighter, different taste range.  I suppose that could be interpreted as a bit more citrus instead, in the range of dried orange peel, maybe, or maybe dried tangerine peel.  It's not really light and bright but it's not as close to earthiness as the rest of what is going on in the two teas.  Mind you the teas are pleasant; this is nothing like the experience of drinking a commercial blended tea bag tea (not that there is anything wrong with that; to each their own).

Morning Delight left, Assam Organic right

On the second infusion the "Organic Assam Tea" is nicer, more balanced, with more of a citrus element coming across.  Again I brewed both the same way, for a relatively short 30 second steep, so again this tea will be infused as stronger.  I'll probably need to adjust for that the next time or I'll be reviewing one version that's close to brewed out and another that's in the middle of its cycle.  Lots of pronounced mineral range underlies this flavor experience (not tasting that much like blood, but complex), but more fruit joins in.

One part of that fruit seems like tamarind to me, maybe even across the range of both dried and fresh tamarind; a nice effect given the overall range.  The dark wood element moves a little towards a spice tone, a darker, stronger spice range that isn't completely familiar, sort of like the stronger and less aromatic type of cinnamon effect in some Wuyishan (Fujian Chinese) Rou Gui.  It almost traces into the roast effect that comes in those tea types (roasted oolongs), in the form of the dark toffee sweetness and flavor, but surely this wasn't roasted.  It's nice, especially given there is CTC tea in this.  The astringency is a bit much by soft Chinese black tea standards but moderate and well balanced by Assamica based tea standards (versions I've tried, at least), so it works for me.  It seems conceivable that others could find it overpowering or too soft, depending on varying preferences.

The "Classical Morning Delight" is brewed slightly too weak to evaluate well, using the same parameters, and about the same weight of tea.  It looks like one and a half times more tea in the gaiwan but per weight it's actually not.  The tea is still nice, the aspects are fine, the diluted effect just doesn't present it well.  Instead of the fruit ramping up as in the other tea the woodiness increases just a little.  I think that's probably related to perception difference as a function of infusion strength.  With this brewed twice as strong the mineral and earthy elements would come across more as a baseline structure or context to the tea, even though they would still be pronounced, and fruit and sweeter tones, perhaps spice range, would seem to represent a "higher" range standing separate from the tea.  It will be easy to check that giving it a one minute steep time instead next round, or given how light this is maybe around one minute and twenty seconds.

This tea could be preferable to some based on being much softer; that astringency range just isn't there in the same sense.  If the fruit really does come across stronger in a more strongly infused version then that would help it compare as well or even more favorably as well.  I'll split the preparation styles in the next round, keeping the first version (Organic Assam Tea) on the lighter side, and double brewing time for the Classical Morning Delight, or just over that.

On the next infusion the caramel aspect picks up a little in the first tea (Organic).  This is probably a good time to mention some ideas I just raised in a comment on a group post about brewing green teas, related to someone offering one standard brewing methodology as a suggestion; it's a bit strange but I'll cite that:


It's common to vary temperature for making green tea by green tea type, much lower for some types of Japanese green teas, for example. This one temperature cited, 85 C (or 185 F) is probably a little higher than what is often advised, more typically 80 C instead, 175 F. It just depends on preference though, as also does the infusion proportion (amount of tea to water) and infusion time. Balancing all three in different ways will give different results, and it seems likely that any one person would like different kinds of green teas made according to slightly different parameters best. I didn't mention that re-brewing loose teas is standard, nor did the instructions, but the number of infusions depends on the other parameters as well. Some people really do advocate brewing leaves only one time but they would tend to be in a minority among tea enthusiasts.


The point here is that for some people there would be one standard way to brew Assam teas, with only slight variation required for adjusting for a specific tea turning out better.  But that's not a given.  It would be possible to change any of the factors, and to offset the others to compensate, resulting in a shift in final brewed tea aspects, and in some cases causing some aspects to all but drop out or others to seem to show up.  Using hotter water for black teas will draw out more of a dark caramel aspect, but it will also ramp up astringency too.

For some people all this I'm saying is only common sense, and for others complete nonsense.  For many there is one standard, traditional approach that is how to make tea (of a certain type, or I guess perhaps in general, although that does sound strange to me), but as I see it neither general perspective is necessarily right.  I did brew this orthodox-only version using a relatively standard Western approach that second time, using that lower proportion, with water temperature at 90 C.  Some people would go with full boiling point water instead, and it would just be slightly more "brisk" based on the slightly higher temperature.

Back to the tea.  The "Organic" version is dropping off a little in fruit and citrus, the wood-tone picking up; it's nearing the end of the infusion curve.  It will still brew a couple more good infusions made this way (based on using a high proportion of tea to water and short infusion times) but that aspect transition is standard.  It's still good but probably leveling off in terms of some of the nicer aspects being present.

The "Morning" version is nicer brewed twice as strong.  The astringency never does pick up as in the other tea but it adds a bit of structure and an unusual dryness to the tea that is not really positive or negative, just different, to me at least.  If that's some sort of chemical effect I'm picking up it might not be so negative to experience but there could be a health impact, but I'm guessing it's just the way the astringency in that tea type comes across.  I buy the organic production claims.

There is fruit present in this tea, perhaps not completely disconnected from the citrus / tamarind range in the other version, but definitely not the same.  It's doing something different with a root-spice type of effect, and the dark cinnamon aspect is also faintly present but it doesn't play the primary role that it did in that one "Organic" version infusion.  The brighter fruit tones that were in that other tea are mapping onto more a yam range here, closer in effect to how lots of Dian Hong come across (Yunnan black teas, a type I love, that everyone really should love, per my own preference for aspects).  It tastes nothing like a Dian Hong, to keep that clear, but one aspect seems common.

Kanoka Organic farm photo, borrowed from the Assamica Agro FB page

Conclusion

This went long.  I did try brewing these teas again using a couple of longer infusions to see what would happen and they picked up an unusual taste and feel that reminded me a lot of pine-needle tea.  Usually black teas being stretched to produce extra infusions will seem a bit woodier but these didn't; "piney" instead.  I liked that, and it seemed like it could work well as a contribution to a masala chai, but it would depend on someone's feelings about that taste range.

I meant to evaluate these teas against the range of other black teas out there, even though that's never how reviewing specific teas tends to work.  As with the review process of trying lots of any other tea types I could place them better related to quality, and to fitting into a range of other Assams, after lots more experience with versions of the type, so I'll summarize related to general impression instead.  They're nice.

I still love Chinese black teas the most, but then I've tried a lot of good Chinese black teas and that personal connection to the range of types and typical aspects developed over many years.  As for Indian teas I've drank the most Darjeeling, by far, and of course these don't seem anything like any flush version of those.  It really doesn't work well to say if these teas are "as good" as Chinese black teas, or Dian Hong (Yunnan-originated versions), or even a specific tea.  They're different in character but the quality level is fine, at least in the right general range.

out of tea pictures; here's one of my girl

In the sense of trying something different they worked well.  That CTC / orthodox blend worked much better than I expected, maybe even better than the orthodox only tea, for me.  I thought the flavors complexity and intensity in the orthodox version were ok but not a great match for my own preferences.  Trying it brewed Western style confirmed it; the tea was good, clean flavored and complex, but the overall effect didn't completely speak to me.  As with the last better Ceylon I reviewed these two teas would be nice to drink 100 grams or so of for a breakfast tea but beyond that I'd expect the novelty to wear off.

There's one thing I seem to be missing here; from the perspective of someone who likes conventional black teas prepared as tea bags, would this tea be a higher quality, more interesting, still cost-effective alternative?  Absolutely.  Evaluating them from the perspective of a tea enthusiast based on expectations related to better versions of Chinese black teas might be a little unfair.

Their "Queen of Assam" version is sold as a lower cost alternative but the flavors profiles are described differently, with that tea in a chocolate and molasses range versus this one described as floral and fruity.  It may just be that the aspects combination of this Morning Delight doesn't suit my tastes as well as it could, that those don't work as well combined with the dominant malt range for me.  I'll check back later about that version and the green teas they sent.