Tea fossils (cha hua shi) compared to cha gao (instant tea / resin)

 

cha gao left, tea fossils right

Some months back a friend passed on some tea samples, which included tea fossils, lumps of what looked a bit similar to cha gao, instant tea / tea resin, but not really the same.  I never tried them; somehow as I worked through the most interesting samples I never got to those.  I really thought it was a version of cha gao, which I've not had great results with in the past, but then I've not tried much of it.  

It turns out it's something else altogether, a variation of cha tou, or tea heads, the clumps that form when fermenting shou pu'er.  Or that's the claim in a Reddit discussion comment, here:

Cha Hua Shi (茶化石) literally means tea fossil. It, along with another similar product Sui Yi Zi (碎银子, lit: silver loose change) are members of this family of product known as Lao Cha Tou (老茶头, lit: old tea head). Supposedly these are produced during the wodui process to make ripe puer, where some tea dusts, gum (pectin?) coalesces into hard lumps that can't be disentangled. So it's basically ripe puer lumps.

However, the market is also full of fake ones that are produced from cheap ripe puer dust and artificially added gum to bind them into this form. I've heard a few opinions from Chinese tea circles to avoid these products due to the difficulty of differentiating real and fake ones. Nevertheless, I personally don't think it's any concern, it's more like a novelty product, and has lower value for money than legit ripe puer if you end up liking the taste.

Interesting!  I've had good experiences with the more standard, larger clumps that are presented as cha tou, tea heads, clumps formed in shou pu'er.  I've reviewed a few versions here; they tend to be similar to shou pu'er material, because they are that.  They might be a bit sweeter, maybe fruitier, in an odd malty sort of range, with an interesting flavor.  I would expect many readers here to be familiar with that, but here's a category description as part of a Yunnan Sourcing cha tou sampler listing:

Cha Tou is a kind of tea nugget that forms naturally from the pressures of compression and heat that occurs during the fermentation process. Typically during fermentation process to make ripe pu-erh there is a pile of tea about 1 meter high. It is kept wet to allow the fermentation process and the pile is turned every few days to allow for an even degree of fermentation, moving the tea from the bottom of the pile (where it is hotter and wetter) to the top of the pile where it is cooler and drier. The "cha tou" are the leaves that ball up and get stuck together. The best cha tou are ones that have not been over-fermented and are smaller in size.

Here is a product listing that basically repeats those two accounts (just for completeness, since I've only offered a Reddit comment to support that these even exist so far).

The next thing would be to try the tea fossils example I have on hand, and to communicate how that goes.  

I'm comparing these to cha gao; I had a version to try passed on by Peter, the Tea Mania owner, in a visit here awhile back.  It would've been nice to reference a listing for the Tea Mania cha gao, instant tea, especially since it was labeled as being Jing Mai origin gushu material, from 2015.  Made into cha gao?  Strange.

It will work just to describe how it is (both, but I mean the cha gao, which I'm using for comparison).  They don't sell anything like it now, so there's no other background from their site to reference.

Review:

both black as ink; the tea fossil infusion looked lighter in the pan

cha gao (instant tea from Tea Mania):  way, way too strong.  I expected it to be too strong, just not to this level.  I can adjust that; I'll dilute it by a little more than half now.  

It's ok, but maybe keeping on diluting it would make sense.  I had used a cup of water for two good-sized chunks, which I kind of expected might be single-serving amounts, but didn't know.  It reduced some while simmering and stirring it to make it dissolve, so it's down to 3/4 cup now, with half expanded back up to a full cup by the end of the second dilution (8 ounces, 250 ml).  That's about right.

I can't say that I like it.  There are redeeming characteristics, but it's rough, harsh.  Of course very heavy mineral dominates it; one might expect that.  It tastes like drinking rainwater condensed down to a brown liquid after sitting out in a plant pot, reducing there.  A pine note isn't bad though, and it lacks a lot of the disagreeable character of cheap shou.  It's not a lot like peat, it doesn't include off earthy flavors, or fishiness, and so on.

I diluted it again, and it's slightly better, but it's still going to taste like that, so heavy on mineral tones.  It's not so close to the flavor range of shou pu'er, but of course it is closest to that.  I overbrewed some Fu brick tea recently and this also reminds me of that.

tea fossils:  it's better, but only in comparison with the other tea.  I wouldn't drink this.  I will drink these cups; I tend to not waste tea, but I mean there's no way I would purchase this, or repeat this trial to check if other versions are better.  Related to the experience being novel it is quite interesting though.

It has a tapioca sort of flavor, not far off that one flavor aspect that comes out in bubble tea.  Beyond that it may share a little ground with barley tea.  It's actually not that bad.  Warm mineral is there, but in very moderate proportion compared to in the other tea.  It also doesn't taste all that much like shou.  A little, but not much.  

Shou is a broader category than just a little sampling might indicate, so I should qualify that by saying that if we consider the atypical edges of shou experience these may be similar to different ranges of those.  What I see as good shou is a narrower range, or versions that are type-typical.

second impressions, drinking back and forth between the two:  the usual round-by-round, divided format doesn't work for this, where I'm drinking one version of each.  I'll add thoughts and impressions related to drinking these for awhile, while trying more.

The cha gao has an intensity and dominant warm mineral flavor range that some people might like more than I do.  It's not "off," to the extent that it could easily be.  Probably drinking this quite light would make sense.  I've diluted it a lot, related to the original starting point, but I can keep going.  

It is better diluted more, for a third time.  It's interesting how that warm mineral and then earthiness, not completely unlike a heavy French roast coffee, all come together, with a lot of other typical tea / shou range just missing.  Sweetness isn't bad; that helps.  This might be ok sweetened, with milk added, turning it into something really unusual, an instant tea latte.  

That heavy mineral really coats your mouth and tongue, relating to a strong aftertaste experience.  Often that's a sign of quality in tea, a marker for it, but in this case it just seems to be how this instant tea experience works out.  It's not negative, the aftertaste experience, but it's not positive either.  It's a little like when you can taste a metal spoon (not how that's supposed to work), just without clear placement of that being good or bad.

The tea fossils are in a somewhat opposite place, related to them being light in this brewed form, probably with a capacity to take on a much different character brewed strongly.  I simmered them for nearly 10 minutes (probably 7 or 8), but there isn't a clear limit on timing for that, and higher proportion changes intensity too.

I can't really guess if this is how tea fossils are supposed to be.  Per input from a Reddit thread comment they are a lot like cha tou, really a version of those, "tea heads," clumps of shou pu'er that form naturally during wet-pile fermentation.  Or they could be made to look like that from other material, shou dust clumped together using some sort of starch, like tapioca.  

Why would someone do that?  If they could sell cheap shou for a lot more by putting it in a coffee grinder and then mixing it with starch why wouldn't they?  You could buy a cake of very cheap shou for $10, and make half a kilogram of these lumps.

This version being as clean as it seems would lead me to guess that it's "real."  Cha tou, the normal version, the larger lumps that you see more often, have a distinctive sweet, towards fruity, almost berry-like, malty kind of flavor, and this isn't far from that.  Cheap shou just tastes like cheap shou; earthy and rough.  

It sounds pleasant, when I describe it that way, and I do like cha tou, the versions that I've tried.  I'd rather just drink cha tou though; if this is a very typical experience then it's a little thin on some of the other shou character that makes cha tou pleasant, mixing lighter, sweeter, maltier character with the earthiness and depth of shou range.  I suppose to close out all those ideas these tea fossils taste a bit like dark rye bread.  That's not bad; in a slightly different presentation it could be really nice.

The cha gao also isn't bad, in one sense, but it's also not really pleasant.  Someone accustomed to drinking strong black coffee might actually like it, relating to the heavy mineral range differently than I do.  Pleasantness is a subjective determination.

I did try it mixed with milk and sugar, prepared like tea-bag tea or coffee; that is interesting.  It's actually good.  It's hard to describe.  The earthiness drops out, and stronger mineral tone scales way back.  That touch of pine you can still make out.  There's almost a fruity character to it, which is odd, because there's nothing like that in the unaltered version, that I can notice.  I don't know if I would drink that regularly or not but it's better than instant coffee.  There may be potential in this for people trying to switch off coffee.

I brewed the tea fossils again, simmering them for another 10 minutes or so.  Results were similar; not bad.  Maybe really better than that for being novel and interesting, but only so-so as the experience itself went.

Moychay 2005 Lincang cha tou shu pu'er

This should be a really nice tea.  I've expressed that I see shu as a tea type that varies a lot less than many others in the past, the "shu is shu" idea, which I always clarify by adding that some is better or worse, or more interesting.  Examples of cha tou, or tea heads, clumps of shu that form naturally during production, have been an interesting and pleasant exception in the past.  There's a particular range of experience that seems to differ in those, one that I've lost track of for it being so long for trying a version.  Of course it could be that I just happened to try a really good version one time, and extrapolated from that incorrectly, but this is a commonly expressed opinion, that versions can be interesting and nice.

This version is from Lincang county (the Shuangjiliang District of that, which doesn't mean anything to me), which doesn't change my specific expectations, but that sounds ok.  The age is interesting; for a heavily fermented shu it will just smooth out in transition over time, and not change that much (per my impression; of course plenty of others would disagree), but less fully fermented shu can transition more over time, and 17 years is awhile.  The experience is the thing, more than back-story themes, even when those are interesting, so I'll move onto that.

Since this label includes a description I'll break normal form and add that here before tasting and editing, the opposite of more typically tasting without seeing any input (also on their site listing):

The brewed tea has matured, refined nutty balsamic bouquet with hints of chocolate, dried berries, herbs, and autumn leaves.  The aroma is deep, viscous, nutty balsamic.  The taste is rich, complex, sliding, a bit sweetish and spicy, with a slight bitterness and sourness.  The aftertaste is juicy, lingering, velvety.

Part of citing that is looking for one distinct typical character range in cha tou.  I could look up what I've written before, but it's not as if I've reviewed versions so many times a pattern would emerge, maybe only once or twice.  There was something really catchy that I'm not remembering well, maybe along the lines of fresh baked bread, but towards a darker grain range.  Or maybe that's way off, and there is no consistent aspect pattern in shu clumps versus the rest.  I just looked up three other vendor references for versions, one of which I reviewed here, and they were just described as extra sweet, creamy, and in some cases tending to have a berry like aspect.

I might also mention that some other cha tou versions have seemed a bit more clumped than this, not that it means a lot to me as an input.

Review:

First infusion:  I only used a fast rinse, all I ever go with.  Some others mention a 10 or 20 second soak, but I just rinse shu, aged shengs, and hei cha versions quickly.  This first round will be a bit light then, because it won't start infusing well quickly.  

It's promising.  Cocoa does stand out, and I can kind of get the berry range beyond that.  There is no dominant or heavy earthiness, quite different from some shu range, and the overall effect is quite clean.  For standard versions, regardless of form, origin, or fermentation level, it's often said that rougher edge fermentation product aspects will fade over 2 to 3 years, the heavy peat and petroleum and such, and 17 years is a long time for that transition to finish.  This tea could've even finished fermenting naturally, if it was at a light level initially.

Spice is a nice input already, towards a warm and aromatic incense spice, but I would expect flavor aspects and feel will be easier to evaluate over the next two rounds.

Second infusion:  I brewed that about 15 seconds, longer than would really be necessary for a high proportion, but that will move it along to a higher intensity and towards the character range it's getting to.  For being brewed at twice the infusion strength of the last round the earthiness ramped up.  It's along the line of slate, like a wet chalk board smell.  It still seems relatively clean, with a lot of other range filling in along with that, the cocoa, berry, and spice.  Aromatic wood would be a decent interpretation for another main aspect at this stage.  I would expect this to "clean up" a lot over the next two rounds and for that heavier range to give way to a more refined character.  It's not musty though, and barely contains any of the heavier and odder fermentation related flavors, so I don't mean in the same sense as for some shu becoming more approachable.

It's nice; it seems appropriate to pass on an impression of liking it, even if it is early for that.  It's a little light as shu goes, with even the fullness of feel a bit light compared to how very heavy flavored and intense shu can come across.  The trade-off for losing some of that weight or creamy fullness is this positive flavor range, complexity, and refinement.

Third infusion:  there is a dark bread like quality to this, which emerges more across the rounds.  Of course it would be possible to just eat a dark bread to get a very intense experience of that, but this is different, combined with a novel mineral undertone range, and other cocoa, warm spice, and light fruit complexity.  Feel and aftertaste are nice, but it's easy to expect a lot of thickness of feel related to how heavier shu comes across, or some sheng, especially related to lengthy aftertaste experience.  To me those fill in positive depth to the overall experience, with the refinement and flavor range and complexity more exceptional.

At the same time that this rejects the generality that all shu is similar it also partly supports that.  This version is more complex, refined, and interesting than most shu, by a broad margin, but it's also an easy to drink, relatively simple to experience tea.

A discussion with a friend about cha qi warrants filling in, yet again, that I'm not overly sensitive to that factor.  I can't say how this tea makes me feel any different than drinking Indian black tea with breakfast yesterday.  When sheng effect is very strong I notice that, but I seem to lack a consistent baseline for inner experience that makes it easier to notice variations.  My energy level varies for a lot for other reasons, even though my mood is a lot more stable than for most.  I think the noise of living with kids throws off that degree and type of inner self-awareness; I'm most calm when the background noise dies down, and have the most energy when the demands taper off.

I'm also completely not into drug-like effects of any kind, so changes or inputs can seem interesting to me but I wouldn't necessarily value them.  I don't drink alcohol or consume any other kinds of drugs; I've already done my time with all that.  I've nothing against alcohol, and would drink some at a wedding, it just doesn't come up.  I exercise at an intense level when running, and that gives you a bit of a buzz after, but I can't relate to people valuing that either.  It's a minor adjustment of form of life experience, nothing too significant, and it passes quickly enough, and carries no meaning while it happens.  Communing with nature during a hike, walking on a beach, or during a tea session outdoors, is something else, that's a longer term experience of a connection outside yourself, a real change of experience form.  

I'm not rejecting that some people experience and value "cha qi" as the main desirable effect that is related to tea experience; surely they're really getting that.

some variation in leaf color is interesting

Fourth infusion:  oddly the finish / feel of this tea seemed to transition the most; it is more velvety.  Tone seems just a little richer, darkening a little, but this is absolutely smooth and clean at this stage.

Fifth infusion:  I don't get the impression that this is going to evolve or transition quickly, or perhaps so much at all over a half dozen more infusions.  Which is fine; it's really nice as it is.  It has a nice depth to it; it's not just that the flavor range spans some scope, but it comes across as layered for having that plus the feel richness.  Aftertaste intensity is a bit limited, but that's normal enough for shu in general, compared to potential for sheng.  If someone really valued that they could brew this twice as strong, but as I experience it intensity is fine at a moderate level.  

One concern that occurs with aged teas in general is value, cost.  For sheng versions that weren't expensive at all that could still be moderate, but just as likely any aged sheng cake at all (from this time-frame) would be in the $150 and up range, at least 50 cents a gram, and how much someone values that experience has to factor in related the more significant expense.  This really is novel compared to other shu experience, but only to a certain degree.  Then again how people see spending 50 or 75 cents per gram versus 20 or 25 depends as much on their budget as tea preference, or variation in what they could experience.  If this does cost in the lower aged sheng range, which I would expect, it's worth it in the sense of being novel, but at the same time not so different.  Shu is shu, even relatively unique shu.

Editing note:  it's listed for $37 per 100 grams, which seems quite fair to me given what this is.  "Clumpier" cha tou might provide a bit of aesthetic edge but the character of this is nice.

I think the appeal of this tea would be relatively universal; there is that.  It's novel enough that someone who drinks shu could recognize the uniqueness and approachable enough that for a relative beginner at least it would seem pleasant.  I was trying to explain how that works from the other direction in talking in a group oriented for early exploration about someone trying a shu mini-tuo.  Typically at best those aren't so bad, but shu can still be nice to experience in moderate quality versions, it just doesn't warrant as much attention.

Sixth infusion:  what I interpret as root spice range is picking up, and creamy feel ramps up further; this is still transitioning.  I should give it a slightly longer soak to check on what one more round and that brewing difference changes and leave off taking notes.

Seventh infusion:  it's nice the way that cocoa stays present, even though the minor berry or fruit range kind of faded, giving way to more spice range.  An earthiness in this is catchy, the way that driftwood smells, something unique.  

Conclusions:

This reminds me of talking to a tea friend and mentioning that to some extent people see in teas what they want to experience.  The opposite can happen, or other surprises, but quite often people expect a tea to be unique and exceptional and find it to be so, partly related to bias.  This tea someone could judge as one of the most amazing shu versions they've ever tried, as novel, well balanced, and distinctive, or as kind of not so different than other good shu.  I guess I expected to see both in it, and do, so that still kind of works.  I can't imagine someone not liking this tea but seeing it as not so different than other shu versions would be easier to justify, I just don't see it that way.

The range of aspect variation isn't narrower for shu than for green, black, or oolong tea versions, so it's probably really just the crazy complexity and diversity of sheng that makes this type seem simpler in comparison.  Or at least that's how I see it.

Keo's idea of posing, looking away while moving

meanwhile glamour shots of her turn up in my phone gallery

Small batch shu processing

 

First published in two parts in TChing, here and here.

Oddly the tea that reminded me to write about this may or may not have actually been post-fermented as a small sized lot.  I just reviewed the first Russian-origin shu "pu'er-like tea" version that I've tried, which was pretty good.  Since it was a test batch it probably was fermented as smaller amount, but I'm not sure of that production quantity.  It wasn't exactly the same character as the most standard Yunnan shu, but since those vary it could still overlap.  It was lighter, with an odd mineral / stone taste that probably would fade over another year of rest-time, probably from processing transition (wòduī processing effect).  But it was sweet and complex, reasonably well-balanced, with a good bit of dark rye bread and cocoa flavor.

that Moychay experimental version

That's a good lead-in for talking about non-standard shu types, since that essentially had to be a variety Sinensis based shu, with a completely different terroir background than Yunnan.  But I want to cover more on specific processing approach differences instead.

A Thai producer, Tea Side, first brought this subject to my attention awhile back:

As they say, Chinese technology doesn’t assume producing ripe pu-erh out of less than 3 tons of material. Allegedly, a smaller amount of material will not heat up to the desired temperature and, in general, the fermentation process will go wrong...

That time, I thought the vertical pressure of the big mass is important. But then on photos, I saw the tea spread out over a large area in an only one-meter thick layer. To make a one-meter high heap, 3 tons are not required. Moreover, as you know, Liu Bao cha has been done for hundreds of years and its taste is very close to ripe pu-erh. To make it Chinese use just 20-30 kilos of raw materials, but fermentation takes at least one and a half years.

That is how the idea to make ripe pu-erh tea in a basket was born...

photo credit the Tea Side blog article

I've heard of two other independent sources making basket-approach shu, Moychay (that first reference), and one discussed by So Han Fan, of the Tea House Ghost Youtube channel and Guan Yin Austin-based shop fame (which was replaced with a West China Teahouse business).  At a guess this practice didn't evolve within the last decade.  I'm not disputing that the Tea Side vendor didn't sort out processing independently, only clarifying that the idea was not a unique discovery, since at least one of those other sources pre-dated it.  His results are good (reviewed here), and that article is worth a read.

In looking for a reference to So Han's process and outcome I just noticed that the Steep Stories blog reviewed a few versions only a few months ago; interesting.  So Han posts in TChing, with an overview of sheng and shu background here, but I wanted to cite that basket fermentation theme instead.

I'll keep this general, as a summary of hearsay input, because long and detailed citations don't work in short posts.  Per my recollection they were selling very small batch processed shu, created in such a way that it wasn't even turned (mixed), allowed to ferment with varying degrees of air contact across small piles.  This allowed different parts of the mix to have different characters.  The marketing spin took an unusual turn in that case, with different parts of the piles named separately (the part I didn't find a reference to).

The Moychay owner, Sergey Shevelev, has described an experimentation process essentially identical to that covered in that Tea Side blog, about making batches of shu in baskets.  The "secret" is trial and error; keep making different batches until it works, then adjust for further improvement.  It would be almost impossible to do that without exploring the original larger scale processing first, to work without those details as a starting point (as referenced in this video).  Just trying a broad range of unique versions could be helpful, as are sold on that Moychay site.  It wouldn't help that shu often tends to need a year or so of rest to really be at its best, with some versions clearing up a bit in character over the next year or two.

Since so many variables can be open to exploration (using different tea plant type inputs, adjusting fermentation level, and time, temperature based on controlling the process, amount of water used, etc.) a very broad range of potential outcomes would be emerge.  Matching the standard-types and producers results would be hard enough, and surpassing it very problematic, but to some extent "different" results could be seen as better, across a broad range.

Cha Tou, or clumps of tea that form during shu processing, which are also referred to as "tea heads," are a different but related theme.  Here's an interesting description of that, part of a Chawang Shop product description:

Classify sun-dried leaves by grades, put into pile by wet treatment to made it complete the late fermenting course quickly, the leaves producing a great deal of dissoluble sugar and pectin during the fermentation process, therefore, some tender leaves stick together and form small nuggets at the bottom of the fermentation pile. These nuggets are called "Cha Tou."

small batch loose shu and a cha tou / tea nugget from Tea Side

The idea here is that even within conventional, large-batch processing there can be some variation in results and effect (with Sergey showing that outcome in the Moychay video I also mentioned).

All this never does justice to how unique and varied small-batch produced shu (ripe) pu'er can be.  But then that's a main point here, that you can't really capture that well in a limited set of examples.  If you try a number of good versions you can get a feel for the effect and variation range, but there would be no way to fully explore the full potential.  Different material could keep being explored from different places, with different specific steps working best with that starting point.  In one discussion the subject of shu / ripe processed Tie Guan Yin material came up, something that I haven't tried.  Maybe that's just amazing, or maybe it's a bad idea; no small set of results samples would be clear indicator (of the second case; any given sample could definitely pin down one particular positive outcome).

getting off subject, fermentation level seems to vary in loose versions (from the Moychay site)

One twist is that lower fermentation level may support potential for positive long-term aging results.  Sampling what was made over the last few years couldn't tell that story.  This Teas We Like product description hints at how that could work:

90s Kunming 7581 Brick

...In fact, the original wodui process for the 7581, which continued until 1999 and includes the cake sold here, only involves about half the level of fermentation of typical modern ripe puerh. The fermented tea would be moderately heated for drying, pressed into bricks... and then sent for traditional wet storage for a number of years. After this, the tea would be rested in dry storage, often for several years, and finally sold.

As usual storage is another main input, further complicating assessing results.  There's no need to overthink it all though; trying novel teas can be quite pleasant, without zeroing in on the best possible long-term results, or sorting out all of what might be out there.