Wild origin teas, adopting foreign tea styles

First posted by TChing here.

These two subjects came up recently in an online social meetup with Rajiv Lochan, about teas made from "wild" origin forest-source plants, and that of producers adopting and interpreting foreign styles of tea.  Problems can occur with both themes and approaches.

The range of both of these ideas and cases is all a bit complicated.  It can be hard to map out what is occurring or might occur related to using different types of natural growth plant sources, or drawing on local tea processing styles, and draw clear lines in what is typical or acceptable and what goes too far in violating some type of norm.  We didn't get very far with that discussion, so to be clear all of this is my own framing of a complex set of ideas, that we didn't discuss in detail in that meetup.

It's well known that wild growing tea plants are common throughout the Assam area, and other areas in India, and in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.  These Assamica variety plants aren't closely related to Yunnan Assamica, or maybe even to plantation Assamica versions of Indian teas.  Due to interbreeding with other species of Camelia Sinensis the range of what is growing can be inconsistent.  The typical understanding is that these plants are remnants of past use and intended planting by earlier people, not necessarily in ancient times, but as some point in the past.  Within that context the tea plants could be seen as feral versus truly wild, untended but not completely naturally propagated.  All that could be clearer, and to some extent it doesn't really matter.  

natural growth tea plant in the north of Thailand

this shows size better

what that area looks like

One influential tea blogger has claimed that wild tea plant produced beverages are better regarded as a tisane, not as true tea.  To me that goes a little far with applying category judgment, but I get it, and there's a lot to that.  Processed version results are often inconsistent, just less so for Yunnan based versions (or those represented as such).  Two of the main versions I've tried in Thailand ended up being quite sour, and then more other versions presented as such were not atypical of Yunnan Assamica plant based sheng pu'er.  I recently tried an Indian newly-created version of sheng, which was very unusual, as close to black tea in character as sheng pu'er.  It's not "pu'er," which is a region-specific type, but then sheng means "raw," so as I see it using that term is equivalent to calling any tea black (relatively fully oxidized), just a general description.

So again, what's the problem with "wild origin tea," beyond someone preferring to keep the term and range of "tea" narrowly focused?  Inconsistency can be seen as a problem, for products to vary with changes in whatever happens to be gathered.  Some of the plants could really be Camellia Taliensis material, a version that's around in Yunnan, or Camellia Formosensis, a "wild tea" plant in Taiwan.  Or something else, or a hybrid, a mix of types.  It doesn't seem to pose a significant safety issue, that a producer might be poisoning you, but just not knowing what a product essentially is can seem unusual.  Maybe to some extent there is a health risk to be considered; I can't exclude that.

maybe "Shan" versions come up most, not the Formosensis "wild teas" listed (source)

Importing styles from one country or region to another is something else, raising a different concern.  Rajiv expressed how Indians producing something called Longjing or Matcha could be deceiving, whether or not location based designation protection deems that unacceptable or not.  I completely agree.  

This reminds me of a very early experience with tea in visiting Vietnam, trying a version of Japanese green tea there, produced with Japanese support.  I'd be a better judge now of how close the style match was, but I bought some and drank it, and it seemed fine, or maybe just a little rough edged.  At the time I thought it was great that countries and cultures could influence each other like that, to share experience and technology.  Later, after thinking it through and being exposed to more background, I realized that it was likely that the tea was destined to be sold as being from Japan, regardless of where it was finally consumed.  That's different.  The knowledge sharing and alternative product development steps still seem fine, but that last step not so much.

Can we say that Vietnam should not produce Japanese style tea?  It's not as easy to conclude that.  The toothpaste is definitely out of the tube in relation to Vietnam producing Taiwanese style oolong, a lot of which is understood to return to Taiwan to be sold as Taiwanese tea back there.  It would be all the easier for Vietnamese-Taiwanese versions to be misrepresented in other countries.  In the North of Thailand you can buy the same Thai tea packaged as either from local production, what it is, or as being from Taiwan, what it isn't.  That's a hearsay based account, to be clear, related to what has been passed on to me second hand as vendor communication.  It doesn't conflict with how other types of branded products are sold here.

Let's set that aside, and consider that if every product is sold as exactly what it is, should India produce Japanese style green tea or not?  It's hard to find a broad enough justification to say no, but there are clear reasons for seeing that as a negative thing.

What about sheng ("pu'er")?  As I see it we are onto a different kind of case, because at least based on my single related experience the resulting product from India couldn't be presented as Yunnan true pu'er, even if one wanted to do so.  It's too different.  Of course a variation of sheng made just across a border from China could be exactly the same as teas made a few kilometers away.

one year old Ketlee Indian "sheng;" it's dark

So now we are talking about hybrid styles, about one region borrowing processing steps and final tea styles from another.  Is that ok?  To me it is, but I can relate to why some "purists" wouldn't think so.  My favorite Indonesian tea producer, Toba Wangi, has moved to produce tea plant types from other places, made by drawing on foreign processing styles, as novel new tea types.  I think that's fine, but maybe not everyone else would.  It could depend on how the tea plants were obtained, and of course on branding / marketing claims.

early Toba Wangi plantation plantings; definitely monoculture

Nepal tea being sold as Darjeeling is something else altogether; now we are back to a sort of counterfeiting case.  What about a Nepal tea being based on a Darjeeling clone, borrowing as much as possible from Darjeeling processing, grown in conditions chosen to duplicate results, but still sold as Nepal tea?  That seems less clear, and not as clearly ok.  And that seems much closer to what Vietnam is doing with Taiwanese oolong, since all of those steps and factors match in that case.  Even Taiwanese people are brought there to process the tea, per my understanding. As Chinese people are now, and have long since been, training people in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar to make pu'er-like tea.  

locally produced "wild" Thai "sheng pu'er-like" tea

Vietnam is different related to this case; the tradition of making what they tend to call "sun-dried tea" is not new to them (or maybe really just translated to dried tea, per what I've been told).  Those teas have long since been bought and brought back to China to be blended into Yiwu pu'er versions.  Mind you Vietnam makes a broad range of local styles that don't exist anywhere else too; their tea tradition is very diverse and developed.  Some of it is rustic and rough-edged, and some refined, distinctive, novel, and very high in quality.  Vietnamese teas don't get the credit they deserve, but the more awareness and demand spreads the more pricing inflates, so it's probably not a completely bad thing.

It's hard to end either subject with a clear "in conclusion..." summary.  Varying experiences bring up different combinations of circumstances and final outcomes.  I'm probably a lot more open to producers using different kinds of tea materials and processing styles than some others would be.  I see it as a natural evolution.  The sustainability issue related to using currently growing, forest based plants isn't lost on me; one main (frequent) alternative is for producers to clear-cut forest sections for mono-culture tea production.  That's not better.  Then right up to the edge of tea version counterfeiting I'm fine with producers borrowing styles.

Borrowing tea type names is almost a different subject.  Should Thailand producers be able to call teas Oriental Beauty?  If a type based on Yunnan sheng pu'er is made elsewhere, which is common, and pre-dated the current borders of China and the conventional name "pu'er," per my understanding, what should that be called?  Opinions would vary.  The point here was to raise these issues for consideration, for limited discussion, more than proposing my own take on resolutions or limitations tied to any of these themes.

Thai Oriental Beauty, or at least it's based partly on that type and style

Huyen's family's trials in making Vietnamese teas

Huyen showing off a "witch's broom" home-made sheng trial sample

I've written about doing online meet-ups recently, mainly including four friends:  Suzana from India, Ralph from Germany, and Huyen from Vietnam.  This blog has included lots of mention of Huyen, from her visiting once and passing on lots of interesting and pleasant teas from Vietnam.

Her family has been making tea lately.  Vietnam is a main producer country, and they are from an area 200 km outside of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), so tea is around, live, growing plants.  Some of those plants are relatively mature trees.  The idea isn't to go into production as a business, just experimentation related to tea interest as tea drinkers.  This early post about Huyen's take on tea, reviewing a couple of samples, goes into some background.  This post ("Vietnamese trà chít (or trà bó)") is on that "witch's broom" tea.

This photo from that first post kind of captures what her family is like:

If I wasn't a middle-aged man I'd ask them to adopt me; no one has a vibe as genuine and positive as all of them, and that's how they always seem to be.  This picture of Huyen is one of my favorites:

That baby is a little boy now; time passes quickly.  Huyen recently shared these photos of collecting leaves for the early round of those processing trials:

some really mature tea plants growing near where they live

Their background goes a bit beyond just being typical tea enthusiasts.  Huyen's family works for (owns?) Tra Viet, a gift shop business that sells tea.  Her brother and sister-in-law are tea experts, of a sort, with her sister-in-law's case relating to success in competition in the Tea Masters organization.  I could do a post on all that, their background and other connections to tea, but this is mostly only about them trying out making a few versions of tea recently.

Huyen shows the leaves, and talks about what the teas are, how they made them, and what the end effect is like, the brewed tea character, in those meet-ups.  It has been a really interesting insight into those earlier stages of the tea production process.  I've heard a bit about how different types are made but I'm by no means well informed related to that, and having never actually made tea anything I ever learned from reading would just be academic.

I'll write out a short description of what I understood, and couple that with more input from Huyen, along with her reviewing my take, and photos.  In discussing tea with them and putting together her notes it strikes me that they tend not to describe teas in terms of flavors lists, as is common in Western tea blogs, and to a lesser degree in Western oriented tea marketing content.  I'd be speculating as to why, but I can do that.

Some people value mouth-feel and aftertaste aspects just as much as flavor (or cha qi "feel" effect); there's that.  Then flavor descriptions tend to be subjective, so you can describe the character of teas, but the flavor-list any one person outlines isn't the same list the next person would convey, even with both having appropriate prior experience.  One solution to that is to say a bit about tea character and then leave most of the experience as experiential; don't try to pin it down with analysis.  Character aspects like fresh, sweet, or intense also cover informative range, as discussing flaws also does.

Of course Huyen did say a little about these different teas in the discussions, even related to flavors, but since I wasn't really taking notes this focuses more on sharing photos and her input about processing steps, what they tried in making each.


It wouldn't really work to also cover how these trials relate to the most typical local styles, for the most part, and this doesn't attempt it.  The idea comes up that any tea plant type (variety Assamica or Sinensis, and specific cultivar beyond that) can be made into any final version of finished tea (black, white, green, sheng or shu pu'er, etc.), which is a bit too simple.  The opposite idea also comes up, that only very specific cultivars can be used to make specific types of tea, versions of one of those broad categories, and that's not exactly right either, per my understanding.

Compounds in raw leaves of different plant types vary, so different plant types are better suited for making particular finished versions.  To make a completely original version of any specific tea (eg. Longjing, Anxi Tie Guan Yin, sheng pu'er from a limited region) you would need to use the exact same plant type, and processing steps, and to make a completely original versioon to also grow those plants in that original location.  A version only grown elsewhere could be similar, and any changes to plant type input or processing would either shift the end result, a little or a lot, depending.

This will skip a lot of scope related to exactly what the plant type inputs are, and main local versions typically produced.  It's about how production trials were carried out and the end result, which is enough.  Mapping that back to see what might have been different is out of scope.  We talked about plant types a good bit in the video meet-up discussion but I wasn't really taking notes on it.

Huyen mentioned Shan plants, covered in this reference

Tea production trials

white tea:  Huyen showed a version made using the simplest production process, white tea.  The simplest version of this approach just lets the leaves dry; that's it.  Adding any heating or rolling steps (kneading the leaves), or shaping, would move away from the white tea type range.  The leaves looked colorful, and varied in color, as fresh versions of different white teas can. 

As I remember Huyen describing the tea it was subtle but very fresh and sweet.  She mentioned it transitioning, and some white teas with similar appearance can include fresh fruit or floral flavors, and then also run through savory range as infusions go by, like sun-dried tomato, with that varying as a relative input.

She added detail beyond that:

This is white tea version 1: 

Material: raw tea leaves from Shan tea trees which were grown by seeds (Vietnamese calls: chè (tea) hột (seed). 
Picking: 1 bud, 2 -3 young leaves
Processing: withering around 1,5 days and sun-dried in 2 days



Somehow I had missed that she really made two white teas; this describes the second:


This is white tea version 2: 

- Material: raw tea leaves from Shan tea trees which were grown by another variety - using tea stems to create new tea tree (Vietnamese calls chè (tea)  cành (stems)
- Picking: 1 bud and 2 young leaves 
- processing: withering 1 day and sun-dried in 3 days


You can see the different color of tea leaves from 2 varieties.

I don't remember hearing a version description related to that one.  Some white teas are a little subtle, and others are very subtle, with some of the paler white teas I've tried from Vietnam including an interesting dry mineral undertone, like limestone or flint. 

That extends to green tea range too; some versions described mainly in terms of being ancient-tree, high-mountain source teas, with no specific type offered, can seem to be in between green tea, sheng, and white tea in style.  Huyen has discussed how some Vietnamese teas are presented as "dried tea" (their translation), which does relate closest to sheng pu'er in style (per my understanding of old conversations; not the most reliable source), but may not necessarily be a direct match for a Chinese category or style of tea. 

This version from Huyen describes exactly what I'm talking about, while reviewing a related style of tea in comparison with a Thai sheng, and it mentions a separate Thai white version that looks exactly like that first white tea shown here.  This post from 2015 represents my first exposure to an "ancient source Vietnamese green tea," and this post about a "snow tea" from Vietnam (also from Huyen) is also related to that general theme.


witch's broom, multiple versions:  I reviewed a version of Vietnamese tea presented in this style before (from Somnuc, a friend from Laos, instead of Huyen), which is typically a variation of sheng.  It's not pu'er, since it's from Vietnam instead of Yunnan, so I'll just stick to sheng in further references, since "raw" isn't a regional designation.  In that post I cited the original local naming, as informed by Huyen: trà chít or trà bó.

One version (listed later) they rolled a little and allowed to oxidize, experimenting with a hybrid style, but these first two trials are just conventional sheng, per my understanding.  That would mean they are wok-fried teas that just aren't heated as long or as hot as green tea, using a more limited kill-green or sha-qing step to keep some enzymes active, enabling aging transition.

These descriptions cover how they made them, again with less for flavor-list descriptions.  Per trying two versions before--not enough for a blanket judgment, to be clear--a mineral aspect is really heavy in these teas.  That's kind of true of Vietnamese teas in general, although it can drop completely out in some oolong versions, and doesn't necessarily define or apply to all Vietnamese black teas.  Huyen did pass on her impression of both but I'd end up mixing them if I tried to convey them from memory, and I want to finish this post instead of continuing to add to it.


This is broom tea. There are 2 versions.

This one ☝️: picking 1 bud, 3-4 tea leaves (10cm) in tea stems garden.
- Processing: withering in 1 day, after that tighting it and sun-dried in 2 days. Then 
unting it (like photo you see) and sun dried continuously (not finished until now because of raining)

witch's broom, a more traditional version:  they only wok-fried this version, closest to sheng processing, with no step related to rolling or breaking up leaf cells.


This is the second one:
Material is same the first one
- Processing: withering in 1 day, tighting and sun dried in 1 day, then unting and continue to sun dried in 2 days.
- Brewing: we grill a little bit before brewing and tea color as you see
- Tasting: it is interesting about smoky smell and fresh together, little bit acrid, quite full body taste and more infusions

Unlike with conventional sheng they rolled a last trial version a little to break up the leaves slightly, and to let the tea oxidize some before the heating (wok frying) step.  If I'm matching up her discussion account with the right teas she said that the tea turned out well.


Actually, there is one more version of broom tea like the second one. The different point is after tightening we sun dried for 2 days, untying the tea to dry continuously by sun.  About processing we rolled tea leaves a little after withering.

As I remember Huyen said that she liked the effect of adding some oxidation input to the more conventional sheng style.  That would tend to add some sweetness to the tea character, and some warmth and deeper tones, a touch towards black tea range, but it could potentially also offset long-term aging potential for sheng (in general).  For samples made for testing out processing, in small quantity, that wouldn't really be relevant anyway. 

I've been trying a lot of sheng over the past five months, testing out everything I own at different ages, trying and re-trying versions (this tangent will connect).  One sub-theme that keeps coming up is that some sheng versions, many of them, are much better after a year or two of aging.  For teas stored in a dryer environment (like Kunming, where a number of my teas came from) that same fermentation level can be present after 3 to 5 years instead.  Presumably they will be trying and sharing these teas over the course of this year, but not keeping them around to try out over the following years (I would expect); but that would make for an interesting longer time-frame test.

Related to that pattern, I just retried a Kokang Myanmar sheng this morning, a 2018 version, that seemed to change character and improve a lot since trying it a number of times in 2019.  I should re-taste that along with a bit older Myanmar sheng (2016) I just picked up, to see if the pattern I described holds.  That would be a test to the extent that one can separate out one input--fermentation level related to storage conditions--from among all the others, especially the general character starting points.  I'll get back to that, but if the background is interest that recent 2016 version review post is here (a tea I bought from the Chawang Shop), and the 2019 review of the 2018 Kokang version is here.



Black tea, compressed into small disks; Huyen's description:


Compressed tea: same material like broom tea
Processing: withering in 1 day, then pounding it and pressing as you see the shape. Finally, sun dried in 2 days
We also grilled it around 3 minutes before brewing it.

As we had discussed in an earlier video meet-up session that last pre-warming or light roasting step I've only ever heard of in relation to dok-cha, a Korean variation of sheng or hei cha.  Huyen's brother was familiar with that type, and said that the preparation is somewhat common to both, and to some extent tea character related to Vietnamese versions they've tried.  This is black tea; it's something else, but they're preparing it in a similar way.

They tend to always heat water with charcoal, using decorative clay stoves and varying types of pots, so it would be easy for them to use suitable gear that is already on han for that roasting step.

Huyen did pass on a relatively complete description in an in-meet-up tasting, but that will be sparse based on my recollection.  She said that it tasted like black tea (of course), with warm and sweet tones, and good complexity, but with a slightly unconventional character that unfolded in the form of more than average transition across infusion rounds.  From the sound of it the tea might have been less than fully oxidized; brewed, wet leaf would tell more of that story, since a lot of dry leaves look much darker when dry than when wet.

More pictures from the meet-ups:

Some of these might actually show those teas, but I'm not going to try to do a complete mapping.  Again it's more about showing what the discussion experience is like (again photos courtesy of Suzana Syiem).

the sign-off, a good place to start (Ralph missed that day)

even without Huyen's smile that setting looked cool

it's always nice having guests join

showing Mandarin oranges to a sweet little girl, who spoke English well

that one black tea disk

I just noticed that's Elsa on Huyen's shirt

the brewed version of the black tea disk

the rest of us mention teas sometimes too

Kokang 2018 Myanmar sheng; meeting the producer

I just met some of the staff from the Kokang Myanmar based producer at an expo (sales convention) this past weekend, and tried their 2006 sheng earlier that day; it will be a good time to keep going and review a younger version.  The first half of this post is a review, with the second covering ideas they shared there at the event.

Paging around their website and Facebook page doesn't turn up a lot beside some direct contacts, general background, and shared images, with this inner tea label filling in details along those lines:

Sounds good.  I generally take specific tea-tree age claims with a grain of salt, and they practiced some restraint in not even going there in this label.  There are really old tea trees throughout Yunnan (of course), Myanmar, and Northern Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, so to some extent whatever age range people cite as a source-plant age could be partially justified.  It's probably also true that growers aren't out there in the forests scattering chemical fertilizers and spraying pesticides, that the vegetation in those environments has reached its own natural balance long ago.

Technically this isn't pu'er since that tea-type name is registered as restricted to Yunnan, but then this part of Myanmar was a part of China at one point before that restriction was ever in effect.  Locally it must have a different name in their local language.  As I take naming conventions it still is sheng, because the Chinese didn't register the modifier of it being "raw," as far as I know.

Full disclosure:  they did provide these teas for review (many thanks!).  I was going to buy some too, given the pleasant tasting experience and very fair pricing, which I'll skip citing here since it may have related to a promotional offering at that expo event, only discussing relative quality level and value in general terms at one point.

Review:

The dry leaf scent is sweet, bright, and rich.  In brewing the tea the scent of rinsed leaves is very sweet, with a strong honey-like smell.  I'll only pass on some first impressions from the first round (and I guess carried over from trying it two days ago) since it's not where it will be when fully wet.

It's sweet, light, and bright.  Bitterness doesn't develop much so early on but that will kick in.  That honey flavor is pleasant, joined by still non-distinct floral, fruit, and mineral range.  This is mostly floral but a light and dry version of mineral stands out already.  Even for being a bit light the feel structure is nice and aftertaste lingers, both so intense the tea experience doesn't diminish after you swallow.


This second round was brewed for a relatively short time, under 10 seconds, and it's still a bit intense.  Until the infusions lose intensity a half dozen rounds in, or later, using a 5 second time would work better.  It's not overbrewed in the sense of being unpleasant, or hard to appreciate or evaluate, just stronger than I prefer.

In that 2006 version review I'd mentioned how a mineral aspect reminded me of one in Vietnamese Thai Nguyen teas, a light and dry but relatively intense mineral aspect that seemed to tie to a vegetal range along the line of kale.  That's present in this too.  Sweetness stands out the most, warm like honey, and pronounced floral tone after that, and then next that mineral.  There is bitterness but that level balances reasonably well; it's still moderate.  It helps that I've been drinking an awful lot of sheng for the past year and a half; helping with interpreting a significant level of bitterness as "moderate," and enjoying that in the right balance.

This is probably not that far off the last version Noppadol passed on, which was a very positive tea (and one he gave me a sample of last year was as well).  I tried that first version again in the last two weeks, even though he gave it to me half a year ago now; I tend to drink the teas I don't like as much quickly and then hold onto the ones I do.  Backwards, right?  At some point to get the most out of them I need to share them, since me having the same experience again seems to add less value than someone else experiencing them.

Feel and aftertaste stand out in experiencing this; I've not done that part justice.  It's sweet to begin with, while you are still drinking it, but after you swallow that bitterness crosses over to a pronounced experience of sweetness.  I've largely given up communicating where tea feel-structure impacts your mouth, but this feels full throughout, with a good bit of structure coming across all across the rear of your tongue, mouth, and throat.  The feel isn't as rich, oily, and full but still soft as can occur but it's pleasant, not dry or harsh in any way.

leaves still unfurling; color a bit darker for being in shadow

Brewed quite quickly the balance works really well.  Somehow it's even sweeter; the flavor intensity in this is impressive.  Per splitting that to taste (as experienced by the mouth) and aroma / fragrance (as picked up in the rear nasal passages, as aromatic components) that sweetness is a taste, as the even more limited bitterness is, but the tea is also fragrant.  The floral range is very nice; that may even trail over to a bit of dried sweet fruit, like a light version of dried mango (of course there are lots of species of those).

The only negative might relate to someone not loving that form of mineral, which works for me.  Again it's pronounced, just not as much as the sweetness and floral range, a dry mineral (eg. limestone) trailing into a hint of vegetal range.  For the right green tea lover this tea could be ideal, although the bitterness may not match expectations or ideal preference.  Bitterness level drops a lot in comparison with the rest brewed lightly, so even though the balance in the last round worked ok for me this is much better.  It's a beautiful tea; it's easy to appreciate how good this is, how distinctive, and the quality level these experienced attributes represent.  Just not necessarily for someone at the start of their sheng journey; avoiding bitterness as much as possible early on might work better for many, and this might not be perceived as balancing well related to that.


A bit of a tangent, but it makes me consider how this will age.  It's more than intense enough to not simply fade over a normal span of limited aging, and could surely hold up to a long cycle, but being as approachable as it is may not be the most positive sign.  Then again I think with this degree of flavor intensity, bitterness, and structure it might come out the other side of dozen years of moderately humid storage just fine.  I should try explaining that to my wife, related to picking up a tong.  I already need to go through a tea storage re-configuration just to quiet her threats of either throwing out the tea or me along with it.

There might be a moderate-age sweet-spot this tea goes through on the sooner side.  At one year old it will have lost a little of it's youthful bright character and intensity but also would have swapped out some bitterness and astringency.  It might be really nice within one to two more years as that exchange continues.  Some people do seem to love middle-aged sheng, drinking versions between 3 and 8 years along, which makes less sense to others.  It would depend on the tea, and the storage.


Next round more of the same; I don't remember this transitioning all that much in that expo tasting session.  The flavor of the honey seems slightly more pronounced; the profile has warmed a little.  That kale-range vegetable, which always was a minor aspect compared to the rest, seems to be transitioning to hardwood, a more typical profile.  Mineral might be easing up a little, letting the honey and floral really take over. 

That honey-like warm sweetness and rich, mild, but still-fragrant floral scent overlaps a little with Ya Shi (duck shit) Dan Cong character, just framed in a completely different context.  For a Dan Cong oolong lover this bitterness may well be way too much, and the level of mineral unfamiliar, or at least unpleasant.  For someone who loves a broad range of teas for different reasons--how I see my own case--both could be great.  I'm not saying this is the Ya Shi of sheng, that overall place and character map over, only that one set of two different flavor aspects does.

I'd had a tasting-environment complication of kids out here using the trampoline beside my outdoor tasting location but things have went quiet.  It's a nice day, early in the morning, warm but not hot yet; it's hard to appreciate good weather in Bangkok unless a cool edge to the feel triggers it.

trampoline jumping and messing with electronics; not ideal

selfie version, with laundry drying

The next round is more of the same; not such a bad thing.  It's soft enough now that messing around with longer infusion times might work but the intensity is still definitely there brewed light.  I love the character of this tea but brewing transitions also relate to not drinking exactly the same thing 10 rounds in a row, experiencing that extra dimension.  That trade-out within the next year or two of aging might compensate for that, adding some other range that could evolve throughout an infusion cycle, along with trading out a lot of what is already present.  This tea definitely has sweetness and floral intensity to spare.

Wood tone picks up a little brewing it slightly longer next round.  It's still pleasant, still not completely different than it had been, but this seems to be the early part of it fading.  People who throw in the towel after the character changes to be slightly less positive might call it quits here; for others who would rather experience more a tea can offer could keep going for awhile.  To me it's still very nice; the overall balance is good.


All in all a very nice tea.  It can't be judged related to the price they were asking at a wholesale oriented sales expo but for value related to that factor it's an incredible tea.  This may not be on the same level as $1 / gram Yunnan gushu versions, related to sought-after character aspects unique to limited areas, but it shares some of the same scope for what it is, definitely at least an upper middle-level quality sheng version.  What I mean by that isn't that it's above average as factory sheng goes, an above average version of the entire category range beyond that instead.  Of course personal preference related to aspects and demand for tea related to location shift things, across a broad scope of how good it is and where a fair market price would be.

beautiful fully opened brewed leaves

2006 version.  much more broken, but almost the same color!

I'm tempted to compare it to that 2006 version, to say which I liked better.  At this point it's a bit of a toss-up because they're just so different in style, positive in completely different ways.  I think in 2 to 3 years that older version will be really nice, properly through it's fermentation transitions, or at least enough to bring that potential across, after steaming in Bangkok heat for that time.  This 2018 version doesn't necessarily need bitterness or astringency to drop out to be approachable but it may be just as pleasant in a different way at that time, and may also have good long-term potential, just based on starting in a different place (probably).

I like both, but the other is more interesting for being unique, and this version better for seeming a higher quality tea version, ticking more boxes related to how young sheng should be.  For whatever personal preference reasons I'm most drawn to sheng versions inclined towards fruit range, so this doesn't match my own best-case profile, but for the character range it covers it's quite nice.

Related to value, the price I bought the 2006 version for and what this 2018 cake were selling for were both amazing.  It often comes up trying to place if teas selling for $60-$80 per standard size cake amount (357 grams) really justify that upper-medium range of pricing, with a jump from there straight to $1 a gram for those presented as gushu.  Both of these were priced nowhere near that middle-range level but they hold their own for positive character.  From there supply and demand kick in though; putting "Yiwu gushu" on a cake links it to established high demand, especially if the source reliability implies that it really is that.

nice representatives (the one not wearing a badge was fellow visitor)

At the expo:

I can pass on some of what I remember the Kokang representatives mentioning at that expo, but of course I didn't use a recorder or take notes, so some of that recollection could be a bit off.


How old are the tea trees?

As good a place as any to start.  Of course they cited lots of different ages; some 200-300 years old, some younger or older.  It's my understanding that tea plants came to countries like Myanmar, Northern Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam a very long time ago, and tea-tree age estimation is imprecise, so no one would really know for sure, short of calling in a biologist.  These teas are from the Shan state, where other versions I've tried from a local vendor friend (Noppadol) has passed some on, of course the region bordering China.  I should've asked about the conflicts there but got side-tracked talking about tea instead.



How long have they been making shu?

Not so long, starting in 2015.  This question occurred to me related to trying a pretty good shu from Myanmar relatively recently, a Tea Side version, and related to trying their 2006 version of Kokang sheng.  The one representative visiting, Maung Lwin, was described by another as a 5th generation tea producer (referenced on their website page), so apparently involved with the production and business ownership as his family has been for a long time. 

I'll review that shu before too long, and did try it there already, so I have a relatively clear impression of it now.  It was good; a bit mild and subtle, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  It might've been less fermented than some, which makes you wonder if it wouldn't have more potential related to aging and transitioning more over a longer time period.


In reference to why the teas are less smoky now.

The one representative showed pictures of lots of very large woks processing the leaves, all with smoke contained in isolation housings that ventilate the fires' smoke away from the tea, eliminating potential contact with the tea.  It makes sense that some of the flavor in teas (sheng) could be some version of natural smoke flavor (just how the tea happens to taste), but also that contact with smoke during processing and storage would also be a factor.  The idea comes up that it's not difficult to tell the difference between the two, and who knows, maybe with the right exposure that would go well.  I have trouble separating the input distinctions I think I can make from those that are actually reliable.

The effect from smoke contact would probably vary a lot though, depending on the form that contact took, type of wood, etc.  This sheng definitely isn't smoky, which already came up in the review.

they also produce dragonballs (not clearly identifiable in this, on the right)

Can people buy the teas online directly from them?

My impression is that they're just not set up for that, based on their response, and reviewing the website bears that out.  They must sell the tea but seem to not be using a direct retail sales model.  I bought an old version from another vendor (the Chawang Shop, an online outlet in Kunming), and someone mentioned another vendor selling that same tea elsewhere, so it's around.  This might make their teas a perfect opportunity for resale back in the US, since although they're not set up for selling a couple of cakes and samples they must be able to sell larger volumes.  They were at this expo to meet resellers to distribute at wholesale volumes, so now could be the perfect time for that.


Are the teas organic?

We didn't discuss this in the form of them guaranteeing that they are, but we did related to the perceived importance of certifications.  They implied that all the teas are naturally grown, without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, but of course if they are producing a broad range of different products from differently sourced leaf material there seems a chance that inputs could vary.  The label print reminds me of this point (the one I posted an image of earlier):

"...grown in Northeastern Shan State in Myanmar, altitude mountain sea level at around 1800 to 2000 meters, never applied pesticides, chemical fertilizers..."


They specifically mentioned that the black tea they produce is from different plant material from a different area, so it may be that the claims and background don't carry over to those.  The black tea was ok, interesting and pleasant if not as complex as it might be.  It was really pleasant in terms of fragrance, but then a separate review will tell that story better.

I really appreciated the opportunity to meet and talk to them, and experiencing the teas has been a wonderful experience.  I think I'll appreciate the shu and black tea all the more for having a chance to mess around with brewing parameters, since to me if you infuse sheng fast and light at a high proportion that works well, but for those others varying inputs makes a lot of difference.