Ceylon tea tasting with SNSS (a Bangkok wholesale vendor)

from left:  two black teas, silver tips, and gold tips

Last year I attended a Bangkok coffee and tea expo and tried out some nice Ceylon there, from the SNSS wholesale tea distribution company (with a post about that event here).  To be honest I don't have a lot of depth of experience with teas from Sri Lanka (better versions; ordinary commercial lower-quality tea is a different thing).  I tried a couple of Malou versions at Luka cafe in Sathorn (with posts on that here and here).  Their Ceylon Peony / Bai Mu Dan style tea really did grow on me after buying some and drinking it for awhile.  The taste range was much different than for Chinese teas, or other South East Asian or Indian tea versions, mild but with interesting subtle earth and mineral tones.

I'd meant to get around to trying SNSS's gold tips, which they were out of at the time of that expo.  The idea is that it's white tea similar to silver tips, just different (which is similar to silver needle teas, just different, probably related to processing differences in addition terroir influenced variation).  I did buy a really nice version of a black tea from them then that I seem to have not reviewed in this blog.

So after the better part of a year of infrequent contact we finally set up a time to meet again, the owners and I.  I didn't know what to expect, and didn't realize one of their owners was from Sri Lanka (Poorna Perera).  Not that their nationality changes things, but the closer ties to original sourcing does, which I'll just touch on a little here.  The meeting was set up as an informal private tasting; nice enough.  But a little back-story on them first.  This never does get far as a biographical account, covering who they are, and relations to other existing business and interests, but there is more story there I didn't cover.

They are an importer, with connections within Sri Lanka as a tea buyer there, so not just a reseller based here.  Their focus is providing local shops and businesses with true single-origin Ceylon teas, not large-lot teas blended from different production batches to offset flaws in those.  All familiar ground, right?  They also emphasize freshness as a selling point.  There is no way to know how fresh or old more typical by-the-container-load Ceylon teas sold here are, but SNSS is controlling their own tea sourcing, from the auction purchase step through bringing it here, so they know.

I might have smiled

We talked a good bit about how tea buying and sales go in Sri Lanka, and how importing tea goes here.  It turns out they could also function as an exporter to other countries, given that their range of operation spans the initial sourcing chain.  And it turns out that buying process is very complicated in Sri Lanka, nothing like in Thailand.  It's my understanding that here if you turn up at a plantation you can buy a kilogram of tea or as much as you want, with next to no regulations about the purchase process or resale process, beyond taxes applying.

Import taxes in Thailand are kind of on the high side for lots of things in Thailand, not something it's easy to miss noticing, and that's true of tea as well.  We just visited the States (US), where I'm from, and we stock up on all sorts of things there, some because selection is different, and some because the same products imported to the US and to Thailand cost different amounts due to taxation.  Some examples:  shoes are less expensive there, and toys, bikes, tools, vitamins, lots of things.

Of course Trump is about to try and screw that up, through the US levying additional taxes on the import side, with the resulting trade wars not likely to stop there.  But it's probably as well to stay off the subject of politics.

One other subject we talked a lot about was demand for teas here.  Thais drink a lot of bottled tea and bubble / milk tea, and beyond that lemon tea and "Thai tea" (a spice-flavored variation of milk tea, or some versions are just black tea and condensed milk).  Thailand produces black tea and decent oolong but most Thais don't drink much of the latter, or foreign-imported versions.  One might run across exceptions to that rule in Chinatown, or of course in the Japanese community, but specialty shops selling a normal range of blends and plain teas are slow to ramp up here.  There are some exceptions, which of course I've written about.  As for Ceylon, container loads are surely being brought in and used for those milk-tea versions but few people have ever heard of gold tips or that Ceylon version of Peony / Bai Mu Dan.

On to the tasting part then, how that went.

a bit off subject, but I took a ferry to meet them, like a bus but on the river

Tasting

It was interesting experiencing the format of the tasting, closer to standard plantation tasting practices than I'm used to (with a post related to that here, more formal processes of preparing and judging teas).  We first tried those gold tips and their silver tips, another general type (white tea) that works well brewed using a Western approach.  I prepare tea in different ways, often using a Western style modified as closer to Gongfu brewing, varying how I make each tea based on past experience and preference, or immediate inclination.  In lots of cases I switch that to a more conventional Gongfu approach for reviews to keep it more standard, to observe the range of flavor aspects better.  I more often use Western brewing in the case of black tea, or a variation of it, but I'm not consistent about that.

Gongfu-style brewing Yunnan black tea recently; why not

The gold tips were interesting.  I didn't make notes, and didn't retain enough--or probably pick up enough--to do them justice with a flavor-by-flavor review here, but the general character was along the lines of that Peony.  The tea is subtle, so that at first one might not pick up much at all, and it could seem a little thin, but after even a very short acclimation and expectations shift a range of earthy and mineral tones was evident.  I've had a similar experience with white teas in general, just over a longer period of time and acclimation.  That tea was nice, sort of what one would expect, in between a Chinese white tea and a mineral-intensive black tea, just not astringent.  I think tweaking preparation style to move off a more straight Western brewing approach would work better for me too.  Lets say a little more about that, brewing.

at that Expo last year; they carry a lot of different teas

Per my understanding formal tasting often uses a very rigid and consistent approach to allow for teas to be tasted under the exact same brewing process conditions (see that other post for more details).  The point isn't to adjust brewing to optimize a tea to preference, it's to use a very standard approach to take variables out of the equation.


I've ran across the idea that it's accepted that some standard approach versions "overbrew" tea related to a typical end-consumer optimum, in part tied to the idea of process standardization, and also to allow for stronger infusion to highlight character and flaws in the tea.  One implied premise seems to be that someone could "taste around" that approach and guess out where a different and more optimum preparation might lead, and with enough experience it seems reasonable that could work.


To an end consumer it would be more intuitive to adjust brewing to optimize the tea instead, but that line of thinking would run into problems for consistent evaluation if someone thought they should brew different teas in different ways.  Really a tea buyer could take whatever approach they wanted, within the scope of that working with providers' support.  A reputable source in Indian tea production once mentioned some buyers prefer to do tastings of tea with some milk and sugar added, the opposite approach related to everything I've just said.

Per normal practice that type of tasting is done with a spoon, emphasizing slurping to increase exposure of air-born flavor components within the nasal passages.  All that is familiar ground, something I did more of related to tasting wine a lifetime ago, and some with tea too, but it's a practice I'm out of the habit of.  I could've switched over and embraced it, but instead they poured a bit into cups for me to try as I'm accustomed to.  I had more going on to adapt to as things stood, trying unfamiliar teas brewed using approaches different than I normally would use.

I didn't like the silver tips as much as the gold tips, and the other black teas were interesting.  This led to another deviation from my normal tea-drinking practices:  they didn't have a version of whole leaf tea to try at this meeting (OP, or orange pekoe, versus more Broken Orange Pekoe, with more on those letter codes in this general reference, or a longer version here).  We tried three grades of black tea, here used in the sense of tea wholeness, not the standard English meaning of "quality," but instead of leaf presentation, how whole.  Two looked like well-chopped leaves to me, and the other looked as it was named:  dust.

that Malou Ceylon Peony (really a different subject)

It was interesting that the color and taste varied by a lot more than just due to astringency ramping up the more the leaves were broken, although that did happen too.  I've been drinking some soft and sweet Taiwanese black tea lately, and just reviewed a really good Yunnan black tea, and of course these were nothing like those, ranging from only slightly brisk to downright edgy.  Other mineral and earth tones were part of the other variation.  One tea was quite nice, distinctive and pleasant, another interesting but not as close a match to my own preference, and that dust was a bit rough.

It's hard to steer all of this to some simple conclusion.  I'll meet them again sometime and pick up more of a couple kinds and mess around with them, and do a more detailed review then.  There is surely a lot more range of experience I haven't crossed into related to Ceylon, but then I knew that.  I'm not sure how I see all of this relating to Thai tea drinking practices.  They can sell the less expensive versions to vendors making milk tea, in high demand here, but there is an awareness gap to jump before anyone in Bangkok starts drinking more of those interesting teas.

Malou teas--the Luka cafe supplier--has been chipping away at that, but I'm not sure how much ground they've covered yet.  Ordinarily it would seem odd mentioning a competitor in a blog post, as I've been doing here, but it seems these two vendors really are working on different ranges within one country-origin tea type.  Malou is trying to sell relatively high end teas through established connections, even branching into ready to drink, and SNSS is trying to ramp up business as a general wholesale seller.  Of course there could be some overlap but the core focuses are different.

It remains to be seen if SNSS can push further into having cafes and other resellers join them in supporting consumer awareness and selling better Ceylon, or if they'll stick to being an upstream supplier for milk teas.  I'm a big fan of Chinese teas (and Taiwanese, Indian, Nepalese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, etc., and Thai teas can be ok) but based on trying a limited number of nicer Ceylon those really do deserve more attention.

Kanchanjangha Estate Nepalese teas, review of Gold Tips and Green teas

Review of Nepal Gold Tips

This post is a follow-up to an earlier review of teas from samples sent by the Nepal Tea company.

This Gold Tips version is not exactly what I was expecting;  I was thinking it would be more along the lines of a Ceylon gold tips or Dian Hong (which aren't that similar), but it reminds me of  Chinese style black teas more.  I can't say for sure what cultivar it's made from, or place it relating to comparing it to another specific tea type.


I'll start with mentioning what the Nepal Tea vendor says about the tea:

Kumari Gold is a special black tea produced by Kanchanjangha Tea Estate, which is processed from the young tea bushes grown and carefully nurtured in the foothills of Mt. Kanchanjangha.... A medium to full bodied tea with caramel, and baked fruit flavors, and a long lasting finish. Bright golden liquor.

The smell is malty, a little sweet.  The initial taste has plenty of malt, and an earthy complexity  along with a bit of dryness.  The tea is nice, just a bit earthier in range than some of my favorite black teas.  I really like soft black teas with a lot of sweetness (and this one is soft, not astringent), with aspects  into fruit ranges the best, which is why I really loved a unique lapsang souchong I just reviewed that was heavy on orange citrus.


The flavors are relatively clean, with good complexity, a nice feel;  it's good tea.  Malt is joined by a bit of cocoa, but in a dry / earthy range, so edging a little towards peat.  That's not a bad thing, but it probably sounds better to compare it to something closer to a food, maybe tobacco.


A few infusions in (preparing the tea Gongfu style) the flavors soften and sweeten, become richer, but there never really was an astringency to dissipate.  The earthier flavors do transition to more of a fruit range but it's not pronounced enough to separate into a list of fruits, and it blends together with the diminished earthier aspects.  It's a good version of a tea in this aspect range, unique and positive.

Review of Nepal Premium Green Tea

I think this was the Ganesha Green from Kanchanjangha estate, listed here on the Nepal Tea website.  My description of the flavor aspects isn't a perfect match for that website listing--vegetal, but not as kelp and seaweed mentioned there--but the rest fits.  Variations in identifying aspects is normal, and changes in brewing parameters or water or other inputs does cause real flavors changes.

They mention using lower temperatures for brewing, which is quite standard for green teas, on the site advocating "temperature 65 to 71℃ (150 to 160℉)."  That's a little lower than some recommend for green teas, but then there are usually two sets of green tea temperature recommendations, one for Chinese-style pan-fried green teas and a lower range for Japanese-style steamed green teas.  As with everything it comes down to preference as well.  In general cooler than for other tea types is going to work better; as for specific temperature people can sort that out based on experimenting a little.  The Kanchanjangha estate website recommends "The finest green tea is brewed with water at the temperature of 80 to 90 degree Celsius."  I'd think around 75 might be more of a standard range (170 F), even lower than that for steamed green teas.

The scent of the dry tea is not what I expected,  a bit vegetal, quite complex, with a cocoa aspect, and fruit beyond that.

The brewed tea is complex too.  It reminds me of a Vietnamese green tea, without so much mineral, and some aspects range that doesn't match.  There's just a touch of smoke, not pronounced, but it stands out for being unusual.  The tea is vegetal, starting out as green beans, but that effect is subtle,  the background context.

I'm not picking up a lot of cocoa or fruit,  those aspects hinted at in the day scent, but the complexity that is there may relate, and could develop more in the next infusions.  I'm preparing this tea Western style this time, for what that's worth, and I'd expect it wouldn't differ that much brewed Gongfu style, but checking by trying would be the only way to know for sure.  Part of that difference is to experience the transition of tea aspects better, and this tea does vary as it brews; it's not at all one-dimensional.  There's not much astringency; the feel is nice, not as full as oolongs can be but not thin, with no bite to it.

The smoke actually picks up the next infusion; odd since  I was expecting it to drop out.  The vegetal nature tones down a little and mineral picks up so it's even more like a Vietnamese green tea.  For people not familiar with those, that's a good thing, to me.  They have a nice flavor profile and feel, typically clean and a bit structured, even for moderate quality versions.  Vietnamese people tend to use boiling point water and ruin them because they like astringency, but you can't blame the teas for that.  My judgment that very astringent green teas brewed using boiling point water and long steep times have been ruined is just a preference, perhaps relatively standard among Western tea enthusiasts, but still not necessarily more correct.

This tea has good complexity.  It's hard to pick out aspects beyond those pronounced mineral and vegetal ranges (a little into kale instead of beans on the second infusion), because those are so pronounced.  There might well be a bit of cocoa; there's definitely a nice sweetness, and the flavors presentation is quite clean.  In the last infusions both the vegetal and mineral aspects ease up and it moves towards a neutral but full, rich flavor, in the range of dried hay, the kind of range that could be interpreted different ways (like mild wood-tone, or a sweeter version of fresh mushroom).  There's enough complexity and depth more probably is really going on than I've described but judgement about what that is would likely vary, and brewing variations could help draw other aspects out.

I don't always love green tea but this one is nice.  That might partly relate to not drinking many green teas this year, making it easier to appreciate them.  Or maybe after the last pu'er I'm liking that the tea is straightforward, with good complexity, but not a mix of different levels of aspects that takes sorting out.  Of course it comes across as fresh too, which is nice; it's green tea.

Rambling on section

These are good teas.  It's interesting how "good" is so relative, and how good a tea seems to someone relates to preference as much as some abstract, objective quality level.  For more standard types trueness to type is also an issue, a tea tasting just like that particular type should, or in the normal range is more how that goes.  Related to teas from Nepal the producers seem to have freedom to develop styles as they like, not so constrained by a past history of standard versions.

Related to my own preference, although I typically like black tea more than green tea of these two examples somehow the green version clicked a little more.  I didn't get the impression that related to flaws in the black tea, more to me preferring certain styles within the scope of black tea more than this tea's style.  I might have even liked their more standard black better, which seemed more like a Darjeeling, just not exactly like one.  This black tea was still a good tea, and I'd be happy to drink more of it, but in general I like softer, fruitier, sweeter black teas, and this one was definitely on the softer side but with more malt and earthier in nature from there.  Others could easily have the opposite experience, based on having different preferences.

Comparing the green tea to a Vietnamese green tea could be read as a quality-level assessment by some, but I don't see it that way.  It does seem true to me that even many ordinary examples of Vietnamese green teas can provide good results, if brewed properly, but I didn't intend that as an implication in the other direction, that this compares to more commercial versions of teas from Vietnam.  The character was different anyway; it only had some aspects in common, for example a mineral and vegetal nature, but even these aspects weren't exactly the same.  In my experience--which of course is still limited--Vietnamese green teas tend to tip the balance of aspects towards more mineral with vegetal characteristics second to those.  Here's an earlier review of one, but my reviews were a bit thin two years ago, maybe a better balance would be in the middle, shorter than this one.  Longjing is my favorite green tea, for what that's worth, but how that maps out related to these isn't so clear.

Obviously enough I'm trying to balance just describing aspects in these teas, providing a narrow objective assessment, with including some of my own opinion about them, even related to my own preferences.  I appreciate your patience as I try to learn to communicate clearly if not simply.