A controversy over adding lemon and salt to tea

Facebook tea groups are wrapping up a phase of discussion about the theme of adding lemon or salt to tea, a recommendation from a recent book on tea.

This relates to Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, by Michelle Francl. Basically salt is supposed to offset astringency and lemon reduces tea scum or cloudiness caused by calcium compounds. Here are the claims, cited in an article reviewing that book content (which I guess could contain some error in summary, to be fair to the original author):

Francl’s pro tips for the perfect brew are:

Adding a pinch of salt – the sodium ion in salt blocks the chemical mechanism that makes tea taste bitter.

Steeping teabags quickly but with plenty of dunking and squeezing – to reduce the sour-tasting tannins created by caffeine dissolving slowly in water.

Decaffeinated tea can be made by steeping a teabag for 30 seconds, removing it and discarding the liquid, then adding fresh water and rebrewing for five minutes.

A small squeeze of lemon juice can remove the “scum” that sometimes appears on the surface of the drink, which is formed from chemical elements in the tea and water….

There are two sets of problems with these ideas: one is that they make no sense, presented in this form, and the other is that what they really probably refer to that could be accurate, after some editing and adjustment, is still problematic.

It’s possible that the first claim is that when you taste salt you also notice less bitterness. It could instead relate to a claim that sodium is going to offset extraction of compounds resulting in astringency, which is a mouthfeel effect that is often confused with bitterness.  Bitterness is a flavor, not a mouthfeel aspect, but people conflate the two. It doesn’t clearly say that; that’s only one possible interpretation of this summary. 

Caffeine really does taste bitter, as some other medications do, like aspirin, but surely salt isn’t going to offset caffeine extraction. Salt doesn’t seem likely to affect tannin extraction either, but I suppose I wouldn’t know if it did. In the following point, related to caffeine, tannins aren’t created by caffeine, and again it seems doubtful that caffeine could affect tannin extraction.  Again the feel effect of tannins is more often misinterpreted as bitterness, not sourness.

A short tangent can help place that first possible interpretation.  I add salt to masala chai (spiced black tea) to increase flavor depth, which happens even without noticeable salty flavor, as can occur with food.  Once out with family to a Mongolian grill place a niece and I added salt to our dishes that ended up way too spicy.  Salt doesn’t decrease the experience of spice, the heat, but it can help spicy food flavors balance better and make more sense.  This may be the claim here, that the salt isn’t blocking any compound extraction, or shifting feel effect, but that the overall flavor balance might seem more positive when shifted a little, potentially even without the tea tasting salty.  Maybe.

That decaffeination hack listed has been debunked over and over; this study’s caffeine extraction rate testing results work as good a summary review as any to show why:

30 seconds: 9% caffeine removal

1 minute: 18% caffeine removal

So no, removing 9% of the caffeine isn’t going to help much, and you're probably removing 9% of the flavor along with it. Beyond these errors some main points work, to a limited degree, which I’ll move on to critiquing.

One problem with these claims goes back to why a tea would be astringent or would have a scum on it in the first place. It’s talking about brewing low quality, ground material, tea-bag black tea, which is very astringent for a few different reasons.

The form of the leaf is a main input; whole leaf tea is less astringent, because compounds extract differently in ground material (tannins, to use the informal designation; let’s get back to what those really are shortly). The more you chop or grind the material the faster it brews, and the more overall flavor is extracted, just not necessarily the most positive flavor or feel related compounds.  This is why tea bags that contain 2 or 2 1/2 grams of tea leaf material are quite chopped or even ground up, to get more out of a little leaf content, which brews faster. So you can use better quality, more whole-leaf tea instead and skip the salt, but it’s more expensive, and you would need to use a bit more leaf.

a Ceylon (Sri Lankan tea) tea bag I cut open awhile back.

It doesn’t add much to what I’ve just expressed but lets consider what tannins even are, in relation to some of the flavor compounds being discussed, from this Tea Epicure source:

There are an estimated 30,000 polyphenolic compounds in tea.There are several known categories within polyphenols…

Within the flavonoid group are flavanols, flavonols, flavones, isoflavones, and anthocyanins. Flavanols (short for flavan-3-ols) are the most prevalent and thus the most studied. Flavanols are often referred to as tannins or catechins. 

The major flavanols in tea are: catechin (C), epicatechin (EC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), gallocatechin (GC), epigallocatechin (EGC), and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is the most active of the catechins, and this flavanol is often the subject of studies regarding tea antioxidants.

Flavanols are converted to theaflavins and thearubigins during oxidation. They are the compounds responsible for the dark color and robust flavors that are present in oxidized teas…

The same kind of theme repeats with adding lemon. If you use water very high in calcium compounds, which is not so unusual for a lot of water sources, a light scum can form on the top of your tea, from polyphenols in the tea interacting with those calcium compounds. Lemon juice can clear that up. Or passing the water through a charcoal filter might help, removing some of the calcium compounds instead, before they combine with brewed tea and form a scum. 

“Tea enthusiasts” often use some special water version, bottled spring water from an ideal mineral profile source, or they’ll treat water to strip all the minerals, reverse osmosis filter it, and re-add an optimum mineral blend. All that might be going a bit far; in most cases using filtered tap water is fine for a decent outcome.  The extra level of concern seems to relate to optimizing outcome from a much better quality range of tea, the opposite extreme.

So in conclusion, no, salt and lemon have no place in tea. 

Or if you really want to use cheap tea bags to make tea, and brew it with relatively unsuitable high calcium content water, then sure, add those things. It’s your tea; it’s up to you.

If the goal is to experience above average quality tea that changes things, but that’s not everyone’s goal. Lipton or Great Value tea bags are really cheap, and easy to prepare, and if you add milk and sugar to that tea it can be ok. Or sugar and lemon, I guess; I don’t think it’s going to work to add both lemon and milk, since drinking curdled milk in tea won’t be pleasant. It’s just nothing like what tea enthusiasts drink.  

Most of the time, at least; I’ll drink Lipton sometimes at our office, because I’m only in there once a week after work from home was instituted.  Dilmah is better but they usually stock Lipton there.  There probably is no standard example of a tea enthusiast, so I couldn't possibly be one, but the generality of not using tea bag tea still holds up.

this meme breakdown makes for a long story

It’s too long a subject to treat as a short tangent here but pleasantness of the tea, flavor character and such, is only one part of range of concerns. Tea enthusiasts tend to take up the idea that more natural grown tea could be healthier, from forest or more natural growing condition sources, versus standard plantation teas, which are potentially grown with more pesticide input. Maybe it works out like that.  My guess is that Lipton is safe enough, but once you switch over to the lowest cost bulk sources from Chinese or Indian markets you are taking some real risk.

The same astringency that is a concern for “bitterness” input can also lead to stomach problems, for some. I wrote about this concern awhile back related to a co-worker needing to quit tea due to stomach impact.

The short version of that writing is that it will probably be necessary to drop out drinking matcha, black tea, green tea, and sheng pu’er entirely once these problems have already developed. Prior to experiencing damage to your stomach eating food before drinking any tea could protect you, at a guess most effectively if that food contains both complex carbohydrates and fat.  Eating just fruit doesn't seem to help, based on my experience. 

There are other types of tea that are milder than these, oolongs or white teas, and routinely alternating the types of tea that you drink could help.  Drinking more whole leaf tea would be better.  Once you already have a problem switching to shu pu’er could help, or going off tea entirely for a long period of time.

Let’s get back to the starting point and think all this through one more step: who is going to be interested enough in tea to buy and read a book about the subject, and then also prepare it from Lipton or Great Value tea bags?

Vietnamese black tea, the last black tea I bought a few months ago

whole leaf tea and CTC tea (from an early blog post, before phone camera quality had improved)

I would assume that this “better quality” tea is a familiar subject to anyone reading my blog posts or Quora answers, but in case it’s not this post covered more on that divide.

Biodiversity research and wild origin teas

First published in TChing here and here

These types of themes usually run in just one direction, tied to a vendor claiming that their tea is “wild sourced” from naturally growing plants in the jungle.  Sometimes it really is.  Monsoon Tea in the North of Thailand specializes in that theme, and has worked with a Russian researcher, Alexey Reshchikov, who is doing research on assessing biodiversity and forest health, based out of China.

I just attended a talk by Alexey at a Monsoon location in Bangkok, with a video of that presentation here.  I won’t get far in covering what he said, and it’s easy enough to watch it, but a bit of summary will make a start.  Just bear in mind that I won’t do the fine points justice, this only comments on some parts.

Alexey does research into the health of ecosystems.  It’s possible to assess this by trapping insects and evaluating which ones are present.  Of course that would mean a lot more to a very specifically trained ecologist, which he is.  The idea is that the health of a forest depends on the balanced diversity of all forms of life present, the plants, the insects, and everything else living there, but the insects can provide a window into how the rest is going.

As an interesting related tangent, one particular kind of lack of health in a forested environment can occur when a new species is introduced into an ecosystem that isn’t already in balance with that insect (or animal or plant).  The US sees this happen from time to time.  There was a type of silk worm (gypsy moth) spread that destroyed a lot of Pennsylvania forests when I was younger, with that not an uncommon event, per this reference:

 

Collectively, oak, elm, ash, hemlock, butternut, dogwood, redbud, and chestnut trees died at a rate several times greater than that of unimpacted tree species. From 1991 to 2013, trees attacked by invasives accounted for about 25% of all tree death, measured by the amount of tree biomass lost…

 

trap system used to collect insects

Alexey mentioned a case in which a novel form of resolution for this had been utilized; researchers introduced an insect that disrupted the invading insect’s lifecyle, stalling the progress of destruction of entire forest areas.  In discussing a similar theme with Kenneth Rimdahl of Monsoon, related to Alexey’s research, he covered how one type of insect is actually a sort of guardian of the tea plants (trees).  It feeds on other insects that would feed on the leaves, protecting the plants, when present in significant numbers.

Truly natural environments find their own balance.  The role pesticides play in monoculture farming, moderating impact of insects, is replaced by naturally established relationships between organisms.  Alexey described how in evaluating the role pesticide plays in monoculture farming it is helpful to understand what that not-as-natural environment is like, what insects can live under such circumstances.  That would mostly be relevant to organic farming, since enough pesticide use strips the environment of most types of insects.  Such study is occurring through the Dali University that Alexey is a part of. 

Alexey and Kenneth discussed a related concern:  when farming using pesticide controls as soon as an insect gains tolerance for the chemicals it has unrestricted access to feed on the plants, requiring different chemical treatment to eliminate it.  It could potentially become a vicious cycle, requiring a series of changes over time, one with health impacts for consumers eating or drinking products made from those materials.

All very fascinating!  The entire talk is worth a watch, to catch the original form, or a related Tea Fauna Facebook page covers more, or the related Instagram version tells the story through photos.

In the end the goal is to promote preservation of truly natural wildlife areas.  Being able to assess the health of a local environment and knowing more about stages in between balanced, natural forests and ecologically stripped, monoculture farming environments could support this.  This early research work isn't necessarily building directly into a way to transition from monoculture farming back to more varied, organic approaches, or to use of truly natural environments as food sources.  It's about developing understanding and tools for analysis.

Beyond leading towards more natural organic approaches, another more extreme idea is that if wild forests can provide economic support, income for local people, that provides more incentive for protecting those environments.  The links and supports between original forest, least environmentally friendly farming (mono-culture approaches), more organic approaches, and re-forestation (the interim steps) make for a longer story.

Related to that one end point goal and sub-theme, Monsoon sells “wild” origin versions of Thai teas, as are produced all across South East Asia.  I'll mention a lot of examples of related teas here, without going into detail about character or background, with more information about them in linked materials.

The "wild" teas can be unusual.  Many of those have an odd sour taste, which is better once you are expecting it, and have a chance to acclimate a bit to the different style.  It’s not unique to their versions; I reviewed a wild Xiaguan sheng pu’er that was similar here (a 2005 version, so with some age), and a locally made sheng version produced by my favorite Bangkok shop owner (from 2012, so not “young” either), which I really liked.  

wild tea search in Laos, covered here, photo credit the Comité de coopération avec le Laos

I just reviewed a Yongde “ye sheng,” or wild origin material Yunnan black tea not long ago, but in that case I was talking about an unusual degree of tartness, not sourness.  It would depend on the mix of genetics in the plant material, and of course processing always affects outcome.  I reviewed a hill-tribe producer sourced Thai black tea last year that wasn't tart or sour, just quite good tea, maybe only a little more "rustic" than some more refined versions.  And I've reviewed a comparable themed version from Vietnam.  Again, differences in plant types and processing would factor in, so resulting character varies.

Those references relate mostly to black teas, since that's the general type I started on discussing, but wild and plantation produced sheng "pu'er-like" types come up across South East Asia too.  As of now the production and market for those probably aren't extensive enough to play a significant role in preventing further de-forestation.  But lots of little steps could add up, and help support retention of natural areas, including appreciation for forest-origin products.

a small tasting gathering after the talk

Pu'er storage background and research summary

First published by TChing in three parts, here , here, and here.

I've relatively recently written a couple of articles on pu'er storage for Moychay, a Russian tea vendor, as part of helping them develop English language based content.  In general tea writing is just a hobby for me, not tied to any compensation, but this has been a limited exception, with the proceeds quickly converted into some extra sheng cakes.

Pu'er storage isn't the same kind of concern for me as for most others based on where I live, since the main concern in temperate climates is maintaining a window of relatively higher humidity in colder times of the year when it's drier indoors.  Bangkok stays quite warm and humid.  It's essentially similar to Malaysia's climate, which is regarded as very suitable for sheng aging.  Malaysian storage, and especially a consistently high level of humidity, can lead to teas picking up a slightly earthier flavor, in addition to transitioning relatively quickly, but with Bangkok experiencing some slightly drier seasons that particular characteristic flavor change may differ.

To keep this post short I'll only summarize the four prior posts I've written about pu'er storage.  The first two in my own blog were entirely research based, as part of initial investigation of the topic.  The third is a summary, posted to the Moychay site, an overview of what is conventionally expressed about storage conditions in online references and discussion.  The fourth cites blog sources covering that research input as citations.  It mentions two unique references, one on creating a home-made version of humidity control salt-packs, and a second about a series of controlled storage temperature experiments, isolating the same teas in two conditions over time to review outcome differences.

I've been drinking a considerable amount of both sheng and shu pu'er over the past two years, following four more or so of dabbling, but really that's a work-in-progress related to personal experience informing this subject.  That recent wave of purchases has included young sheng (not yet significantly aged), middle-aged versions (which would invoke some degree of varying results related to conditions and starting points), and more fully aged sheng versions, but not enough of those to separate out aging conditions and location as an input compared against other variables.

Onto summarizing those articles' scopes:

Pu'er storage and fermentation (posted September 2016):  a general topic review based on research, along with more focused consideration of an air contact / airflow related theme, the idea of sealing individual tea cakes in something like ziplock bags versus more conventionally not doing that.  This touched a little on optimum humidity range and managed conditions versus natural climate in better known storage areas (Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc.), but the next blog post goes further, with the last going more into opinions on setting controls.

Pu'er storage optimums, and relative versus absolute humidity (November 2017 post):  beyond exploring the same general themes a little more, and going further with citing natural climate condition summaries, this explores what relative humidity means, which helps explain why indoor levels are so low in cold seasons in temperate climates.  That part might be a bit academic for some.  Control conditions and charting related to my day-job background (data center operations and process auditing) help explain how the same concerns could apply to pu'er, and how much water the air can hold at different temperatures, defining relative humidity.  It's not difficult to look up climate stats for places like Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Kunming, and this covers that.

Hong Kong annual climate summaries

Pu'er storage environment basics (part 1 of 2 articles written for the Moychay vendor site):  the basics, informed by extensive background review for the second article, also grounded by the previous 2 + years of review and public discussion.  It's a complex subject, with some debate over finer points, but the basics aren't that complicated.  This article covers review of optimum humidity in controlled environments (the main concern), air contact / airflow issues, temperature, isolation from external scents (including separating sheng and shu), likely effect of too-dry storage over the short term, avoiding mold, and typical steps to control humidity.  Rather than accept my own summary of a good indoor storage solution control range it's better to hear what works from a number of people who have done their own long term experimentation, which the next article goes into.


Pu'er Storage Environment Part 2: References, Environment Maintenance:  use of supporting references enables taking the concerns a little further.  I've not ran across research content on pu'er storage in the form of academic material, because it's just not that kind of subject, more an isolated practical concern among a very narrow interest group.  To compensate for that subject specialist blog input was used here.  Sources vary in relation to how much personal experience each author and source drew on, with two cases based on experimental results instead (in duplicating commercial salt-pack control devices, and experimenting on temperature as an input to storage effect).

The subject of optimum level of controlled humidity was reviewed from most if not all sources.  One recurring theme is that it's not possible to look at weather-climate graphs and try to duplicate that in indoor storage environments, for different reasons.  This Yunnan Sourcing vendor take by Scott Wilson covers a range of background issues well about that, a reference I don't think I cite in any of the articles.  One point he made stuck with me, one that doesn't tend to come up in discussion much:  rather than trying to seal and closely control humidity in a very small storage space it might work for some to keep their living-space humidity comfortable for people, which could also work out for sheng fermentation purposes as well.  There would be limits to that approach working out, depending on local factors and specific goals and preferences, but taking on related points of view from informed sources definitely helps.

amazingly that's it, a functional salt pack (Tea Forum source)

It's problematic to summarize those citations and opinions as reaching one uniform consensus related to one limited point, since they really don't.  But as a general rule opinions on humidity control typically cited around 60% RH as a reasonable control level to support faster sheng fermentation over time, with 70% RH and above more prone to risk of mold of off flavors developing, and 50% RH and under reducing speed of fermentation.  The additional points on how air contact and temperature also affect fermentation and mold risk are critical.

The salt-pack humidity control replacement solution is particularly novel.  Combining specific proportions of sugar and salt (ordinary versions) results in a mixture that will both absorb and release humidity at a designed control level, the same function typically achieved through use of commercial products.  The controlled temperature and humidity experiments cited from the Late Steeps blog really represent some amazing work.

It all can't really answer specific questions like "are my natural home environment conditions suitable for sheng storage and aging" but the last two articles could serve as some well-grounded input.  One might naturally be concerned about the value and reliability of the referenced sources, a point addressed in the summary article, which describes those author's prior writing history and my take on their degree of experience.

global relative humidity in real time; not helpful, but cool (site credit)

As in my own case when other bloggers are basing opinions and ideas on very limited personal experience, and also on forwarding the ideas of others, it's helpful to get a feel for the form and extent of that actual experience.  Being widely regarded as a long-term subject specialist, as one writer cited is, makes for a more promising start, but even then multi-sourcing can help compensate for potentially outlying opinions stemming from unique preferences or personal understanding.  A risk comes with that too; hearing ideas that are actually wrong from multiple sources can make them seem very likely to be true, and potentially bad input along with the good can make the rounds in narrow-field pu'er discussions.

I'm still putting it all together myself, and these writings represent an in-progress attempt at topic reference summary.  This approach tries to explicitly identify and draw on other sources, which are grounded in different ways.  Such an approach could be much more mature and developed if based on even more extensive subject-expert referencing, which is possible, but people in such positions typically utilize that knowledge as a commercial resource, and share it sparingly.  In another decade current consensus views (typical takes) will probably evolve further, even without reviewers taking such summary steps.

Caffeine in tea, revisited

originally published as tching.com/2017/06/caffeine-tea-revisited/


I researched the effects of caffeine for a blog post last year (here), which reviewed a research paper studying caffeine withdrawal.   I'm revisiting the subject related to finding an interesting study of caffeine levels in different tea types.

Of course all of the effects of caffeine vary by individual (people react differently), and the overall effects relate to compounds other than caffeine, eg. theanine relaxes you.  I'll summarize some findings in that first post here, with more sources cited there:


-a standard limit for caffeine intake is 400 milligrams per day.  That's equivalent to roughly four cups of coffee a day, or eight to twelve cups of tea.  Levels for both vary, but a rough average for a cup of coffee is 100 mg and 30-50 mg for tea.

-over 500-600 mg. of caffeine per day typically causes negative side effects:  anxiety, elevated heart rate, etc., which become more pronounced if consuming over 1000 mg.

-it is possible to become dependent on caffeine--and suffer withdrawal effects--when consuming as little as 100 mg. per day.  Some studies of the positive effects of caffeine don't factor that in, and actually demonstrate the negative effects of subjects undergoing caffeine withdrawal.  Even ingesting small amounts of caffeine might eliminate withdrawal effects.

-even if insomnia isn't experienced sleep cycle can be affected related to the normal brain-state patterns being altered.  In other words, it's possible to sleep normal amounts but still experience fatigue related to the negative effects of caffeine.

caffeine withdrawal study results (see paper for details)

The rest that follows is on two other unrelated points about caffeine levels in teas, not the effects on people.

Amount of caffeine in tea

One reference stands out on this subject, written by Nigel Melican.  It covers two main issues:  amount of caffeine in different types of teas, and if tea can be decaffeinated by discarding the initial infusion (something of an urban legend).

The short answer to the second question is no.  Test results in that article measure the amount of caffeine removed over varying infusion times (a process that would vary with brewing parameters):

this is it, caffeine

30 seconds: 20% caffeine removal
1 minute: 33% caffeine removal
2 minutes: 64% caffeine removal
3 minutes: 76% caffeine removal
4 minutes: 85% caffeine removal
10 minutes: 99% caffeine removal
15 minutes: 100% caffeine removal




Clear enough?  Roughly speaking the caffeine is removed at the same rate as the flavor.


The other part is not so easy to summarize, about caffeine amounts in different types of tea.  Three generalities are cited directly from the same article (with other factors covered there):


1. Caffeine level varies naturally in types of tea and levels in one type may overlap with another type

2. Black and green tea manufactured from leaf from the same bushes on the same day will have virtually the same caffeine levels (within +/- 0.3%)

3. For a given bush, the finer the plucking standard, the higher the caffeine level


People tend to expect other generalities, for example that green tea has more caffeine than black, or that white contains the most.


A research paper I just read cited test results for lots of different compounds (not just reviewing caffeine levels), including these measured results:

Those measured amounts relate to theobromine (THEO), caffeine (CA), and Epigallocatechin (EGC).  Only caffeine means much to me, but I've ran across health claims related to other compounds (with others measured in that study).  I won't mention any of that scope here.

The most general conclusion I take from this:  caffeine levels vary across different types, related to different factors.  That first article cited a few main ones:  related to plant type, plucking standard (types of leaves used), processing variations, and growing conditions.


A few problems with the results in that table stand out:  the amounts are listed in milligrams per gram of tea, not a familiar presentation (but it still does indicate relative amounts).  And the results of testing these samples seem inconsistent, especially related to brewing time variation test results.

I'm not going to interpret these results, or go back to other finer detail in that first article and see if generalities cited there apply.  One general point from that first article does seem to be indicated:


• when the bush is assamica type rather than sinensis (can be 33% higher caffeine, thus African black tea tends to be higher than China black tea)


But then other factors cause so much variation that might not stand out clearly.

Starbucks product levels, higher than tea (the Caffeine Informer site)

This article wasn't focusing on caffeine measurement, instead related to measuring lots of different compound types.  This is a good place to mention the title, which is well worth a read, as the title suggests:


The Joint Use of Electronic Nose and Electronic Tongue for the Evaluation of the Sensorial Properties of Green and Black Tea Infusions as Related to Their Chemical Composition 


With proper research someone might pin down clearer generalities.  Studies like this one could help if someone wanted to minimize their caffeine intake by choosing types with lower levels.  It might not work to base that on just one research reference, since those might only describe results for the samples tested, not for the tea type in general.

Myanmar old tree sheng pu'er-style tea from Tea Side

There is one more pu'er sample I'd been looking forward to but it had slipped my mind, from Myanmar, sent by the Tea Side vendor with an order awhile back.  The type is clear enough to me; the same as pu'er, but from another country, so nearby a distinction is a bit odd, just across a border.  Sheng may or may not be considered hei cha, since it's really not fermented, but mapping out that term more is a project for another post.  There is a lot of interesting background I could go into related to this tea, obviously, and I will include a bit of background review after the tasting review sections.  I will start with their description though:


Unique tea. Dry leaves aroma has unusual notes of grape wine. Tastes like no other sheng I know. There are notes of wine, berry jam, plum, grapes and cut wildflowers, tartness of fresh tea. The finish has light and beautiful fresh peach.


My review list-of-flavors differs a little but I completely agree that the final impression is very unique and positive.  This is one of those teas where the overall effect is amazing but it's hard to express which set of aspects leads to that.

that is a big tea tree (photo credit)

I'll clear past one other part of their description first as well, that the tea trees are ancient, 1000 years old.  Of course that subject has been a bit beat up lately, to the extent that many vendors would be inclined to just leave it alone.  The trees are massive though; it's clear enough in the pictures that they are very old.


People tend to only live for 80 years or so, give or take, so first-hand accounts couldn't verify that claim, and there wouldn't be pictures or written descriptions from even a century back, given the location.  I'd be inclined to just set that aside, and judge the tea on it's merits, accepting that based only on the images this is definitely "old tree" hei cha, and the actual year-count doesn't matter.  Personally I'd have no trouble accepting that the trees could be much older than 100 years old, and how much older doesn't matter to me, or even that the plants passed the century mark, really.


One last point:  the tea is sold compressed as a cake / bing, but the sample was from the same tea but in loose form.  Maocha, people tend to call that, although it seems odd to me that means either unfinished tea that is still being processed or else finished sheng that didn't get compressed.  At any rate it's a relatively new tea (2016), so aging differences related to that pressed form would seem to not come into play just yet.

Tasting review

On to review then.  I'd tried a loose prepared sheng from Thailand awhile back, also from older tea trees, or so that story went.  It was nice, different, not great.  Now that I think of it that really was awhile back, more than three years ago, before I started this blog, so there's no write-up to mention.



The scent of the tea is not what I expected,  sweet with a raisin - like scent aspect.   I brewed the tea a bit lightly, based on experience with other sheng working out well that way.


The taste is different.  There is sweetness to it, and an unusual character.  Raisin is part of it but not dominant. To be honest it has a flavor profile that's hard to describe.  Mineral is present, but not as pronounced as in some sheng, and it's not bitter or astringent.  The taste is mainly vegetal, but in an unusual sense, like that unusual flavor when you bite into a grape seed, a bit tangy.  Below that it's complex, warm and full, and someone could probably separate out all sorts of flavors, maybe floral aspects, or a subtle but rich fullness as in dried hay.  But separating out any is tricky;  it integrates into a full experience that's hard to break apart.

From the complexity, the taste range, and the feel presentation it seems nice, maybe a good bit better than nice implies.  My personal take leads back to how much I love sheng pu'er, or really don't, and I think I'd like it a lot more if I loved the type more, and I could place how the aspects relate to my own preference better with that as context.  It's nice, per a distant memory quite a bit better tea than the Thai version, more complexity, more interesting subtle aspects, definitely more honey sweetness, nothing like taking an aspirin.


I feel like I didn't really do the tasting justice, that I wasn't able to get my senses around the experience.  There was enough for one more brewing session so I decided to try it again, this time compared to another pu'er (a Yunnan version, so real pu'er, by the regional definition), and see if that helped.

Second tasting; comparison to a Nan Nuo pu'er

I tried the tea again tasting it side-by-side with one of the Golding samples, the Nan Nuo (first reviewed here, a tea produced independently by the Golding shop in Malaysia).  My first thought in tasting both:  the teas are too different for comparison to work well, but at least the contrasts might be telling.  In retrospect I probably should have tried the Jing Mai tea along with it instead (reviewed here), but it may work better than it seems at first.  In general when you comparison taste two teas that are very close in style that helps highlight minor aspects or underlying aspects that are harder to notice drinking one tea alone.

The Myanmar tea is floral, smooth, and light.  There is a richness to the tea and an underlying complexity, but it's subtle.  It's not like I've been brewing it so wispy thin there is not much taste to go on, the tea just comes across as complex and rich without having lots of pronounced flavors; different.  But then it is just getting started.  There is a trace of sourness and bitterness as well that gives the tea a fuller effect.  Those might sound negative but I don't mean it that way.  When you struggle to pick out what's going on that gives the tea that full effect it seems like it is those elements, which are pleasant in that light presentation, even if a list of fruit flavors and such might sound better.

The Nan Nuo tea is not so subtle.  A smokiness stands out, and also complexity, but in a different range.  It's possible for the stronger astringency to stand out, to be out of balance, but easy to temper by brewing lightly.  There's more of a savory effect to the tea, not exactly like the strong umami in a Japanese green but it seems possible the aspect overlaps.  This tea also has a touch of sourness, which comes across differently in the different context range.

The Myanmar tea develops a bit early on.  It's also rich, but sweeter, lighter, with an effect more like a butteriness.  The flavors depth is almost like a touch of salt is present.  It's still not forceful related to flavors-list aspects standing out, maybe mild mineral and floral.  I suppose that salt could really be a different mineral element, not something typical in other teas described as tasting like stones.  The fullness in the flavor context is hard to describe, partly related to that, but with a depth of subtle aspects mixing, something like dried hay, maybe more like a mild version of sassafras root.

The Nan Nuo tea moves to be a bit more vegetal, hard to tease out particular vegetables though, maybe artichoke.  It tastes a little like tree bark can smell though, out of normal foods and spice range but closer to the latter, with mineral and a touch of smoke added to that, and a trace of tartness.  The feel is interesting, and it somehow corresponds well to those flavors, a juiciness with a little dryness.  The bitterness and astringency can move towards that of biting a grape seed, potentially something to work around, or someone might really enjoy that effect.

The Myanmar tea gains depth,  opens up more, but never did need to loosen up in terms of being unapproachable. The fuller taste moves into something like a fresh cork, probably better than that sounds though.  Maybe sassafras root still works better for description, with just a touch of fruit, a hint of raisin.

Both of these teas were much better than those aspects citations sound to me.  Both were complex, refined, unique, and positive.  To keep saying the tea from Myanmar (Tea Side) was subtle it might sound like it didn't have much to offer, but the actual experience was the opposite, it just didn't come across as a clear list of flavors.


I pretty much never get excited about an aftertaste effect, or different feels of teas, although I can sort of see where people are going with all that, there is a lot of range to be experienced.  Only some of what stood out for these two teas was on those levels.  Both teas were interesting within the range of flavor as well, but still subtle and complex within that scope, and quite different from each other.

Background research

I'll try to keep this brief; the post runs long already, but there are a few interesting threads to follow a little.  Past research into tea types based out of Taiwan have identified native plant types of variety Assamica tea coming out of Myanmar and Northern Thailand, as listed and in this research article:

I2	Burma	A	Introduced variety	B	Original from Myanmar
I3	Shan	A	Introduced variety	B	Original from Thailand
I4	Shan-1	A	Introduced variety	B	Original from Thailand
I5	Shan-2	A	Introduced variety	B	Original from Thailand
I6	Shan-3	A	Introduced variety	B	Original from Thailand
I7	Shan-4	A	Introduced variety	B	Original from Thailand

Of course I don't know which plant type this tea is from, and the reference to this study of plants being imported from Thailand doesn't indicate that the original plant versions weren't from Myanmar instead.  The tea plants native to Taiwan are listed as "landraces" instead of "introduced variety," since the study is about teas growing in Taiwan.  But that designation seems to only indicate plants are native in the sense that past origins can't be traced back further.  Another research article summary offers an interesting observation, based on examining genetic characteristics of local plant types:


The cultivated teas in the estates of Southeast Asia region also belonged to C. sinensis. However, the native cultivars in Myanmar and southern China had a genetic similarity to C. taliensis and C. irrawadiensis. 


It would take a lot more review to know what to make of that, but interesting.  It seems quite possible, based on genetic testing results, that this variety Assamica tea should be unique.  The other issue, which is also likely to remain mostly open, is how long tea plants have been growing in this area.  If it's less than 1000 years the age claim couldn't possibly be true, and even if longer there's still the matter of how old the actual tea trees are.  This reference gives some insight to the history:


Any attempt to understand the natural environment in which the tea plant evolved... is hampered by the fact that it is very doubtful whether any truly wild tea still exists. In Yunnan there are patches of tea still to be found which appear to be wild, with the occasional large tree which is several hundred years old. It is difficult to decide whether these plants are truly wild or might better be described as feral, that is the residue of earlier cultivation by native peoples. Charles Bruce explored much of Northeast of Assam in the 1840s and discovered a large number of tracts of apparently wild tea amongst the Singpho people [25]. However, both he and, a century later, Frank Kingdon-Ward [26] noted how the tea plant had been spread by the Shan tribes migrating through Burma and Manipur as far as Assam. An ancient route connecting Yunnan to Assam through Burma is known to have been in use at least as early as the second century BC, and possibly much earlier.


Fascinating stuff!  This is implying tea trees can only reach several hundred years old, but then it is a historical study, not a botanical-oriented work.  The author doesn't really speculate how far back regional tea plant distribution occurred but offers that more than 2200 years ago is possible.


For most of you that's enough with the research, plenty of history and plant type genetics, but for that other minority I'll mention a couple of other studies, related to Chinese (Yunnan) plants instead:


ISSR DIVERSITY AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF ANCIENT TEA (CAMELLIA SINENSIS VAR. ASSAMICA) PLANTATIONS FROM CHINA: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRECIOUS TEA GERMPLASM CONSERVATION

Genetic diversity and differentiation of Camellia sinensis L. (cultivated tea) and its wild relatives in Yunnan province of China, revealed by morphology, biochemistry and allozyme studies


You might wonder, how could any of that possibly be relevant to me, to what I'm drinking.  Trace compounds do cause the taste and feel in brewed teas, along with the input of processing, which changes those present.  But all that gets complicated.  Related to that consider the following excerpt from the latter source:

As a whole, caffeine content had the highest variation with CV of 22.7%, water extract solid showed the least variation (13.4%) and content of polyphenols (20.0%) and free amino acids (18.8%) showed intermediate variations.


I would assume that implies two different answers for relevance depending on personal interests.