Comparing Yunnan Dian Hong with Chiang Rai Thai black tea

Farmerleaf Jing Mai Dian Hong left, Thai Chiang Rai version right

Aphiwat Kokhue contacted me though Facebook recently to talk about Thai local teas.  I love that sort of thing, hearing about unusual tea versions from people working locally in production or sales, especially related to Thailand.  Or across South-East Asia, really, and to a similar extent elsewhere too.  Part of my interest in the subject of tea relates to taking related discussion and networking too far (like helping start a Facebook group).

It can be awkward if I agree to try a tea from someone for a review and then don't like it, or if it just seems really unexceptional.  But that usually goes the other way, and it sort of just is whatever it is, more typically positive and a bit unusual.

This post is mostly just a review, not about the story behind that tea.  I might get around to saying more about that part, and it would be interesting given how distinctive the tea turned out to be.  But for now I'll just credit who that contact was, Aphiwat Kokhue Aphiwat (probably only the first two names--funny it works that way on that Facebook profile), based out of the business ไร่ชา 720 (Tea Plantation 720).   The brand name is cited as Gaw Khee Cha instead on the label.  I can only translate the third of those words from my knowledge of Thai and I doubt that would be helpful to many readers.  That listed Facebook page location is getting pretty far out there in the Chiang Rai area; that's probably where they really are located.

credit their referenced Facebook business page

I don't know for sure that this tea is made from those young, conventional farming style plants in that photo.  There would be older local plant source teas around, they just may or may not be in that area.  I can't tell from photos if a tree is a tea plant or not, not without cross-referencing and some degree of uncertainty even if it's a close-up of the leaves, but pictures in their page do show what look to be older source tea plants:

At any rate I'd need more input from Aphiwat to know more about the background of the tea that he sent.  I suspect this wasn't from young tea plants, but it's as well I don't add to that, since that's a wild guess even compared to the typical baseless speculation here.  I can describe how it was brewed though, and probably will get around to discussing it more with him, and maybe trying later tea versions.  It's guesswork buying tea off chance online contacts who mention producing it, since there is no way to know what would show up if you did, but trying a version narrows things down a little, and the tea was pretty good.

It's odd leaving it at that, since I have talked to Aphiwat some, in spite of there being a language divide.  We didn't talk about ourselves but per his profile he has kids, and as a parent that one factor means a lot to me.  I respect people who take on that really important burden, although in a different sense I also respect people for not choosing that path.  Per the photos in his profile he is a Thai local in a completely different ethnic sense, part of a native Thai community, referred to as from a hill tribe.  That expression includes no negative judgement or connotation, not in my use here or in general in Thailand, it just describes background.  It's an interesting background story, to me, which means more to me personally than it makes sense to go into.

I reviewed it along with a Farmerleaf version I just bought, listed here as Spring 2018 Jingmai Sun-Dried Black -- Short oxidation (which of course is a reference to an area in Yunnan).  I can definitely judge how much I like a tea without direct comparison as an aid but that does help isolate where aspects stand in relation to another, and doubles the review pace, in a sense.

Here is some of their product description (William's, surely, who posts really interesting tea production background on Youtube worth checking out, with this discussion of Yunnan black tea styles and a video on black tea processing especially relevant to this scope):


Natural Tea Gardens from the top of Jingmai Mountain
Picked on April 11th, third flush
Processed in our tea factory, experimental
Loose leaf Yunnan sun-dried black tea

...As far as black tea goes, these leaves can be considered lightly oxidized. The tea soup feels very vivid and has an interesting depth in the mouth. The fragrance is complex and keeps coming out as the session goes.


Their black teas vary but I always like them, so I wasn't worried about that part.  The role of the Farmerleaf version in this was to serve as a positive benchmark.

Review

The Farmerleaf version is a little light the first round. Character that does show is nice, sweet, rich, and complex, but a description will work better next round. Earthiness might be centered on a sweet version of leather in this round, not bad, but adding complexity to that would help.

The Thai tea is also too light to review, but interesting. Sweetness is less, with an unusual wood tone incorporated, more in the range of sawdust. The main basic flavors are rich, earthy, and sweet but there is also a trace of sourness. It will make a lot of difference if that part passes or develops.

Farmerleaf tea left, Chiang Rai black right

The Farmerleaf version did add a good bit of complexity and depth on the next round. This complex profile could be interpreted in lots of ways, as including cocoa, dark wood, leather, and spice, towards cinnamon but more a root spice, or else a range. Even a little dark cherry wouldn't be a stretch.

The Thai tea version is more complex too, and better balanced. That hint of sourness has largely faded, transitioning to other range. It's woody in a different sense than the other tea, not an aromatic dark wood but more an aged hickory or oak lumber, so like a newly built barn. There isn't the same level of cocoa or spice or sweetness, but the balance and character works. The earthy depth is filled in more with a clean version of forest floor.

On the third infusion more of the same for the Farmerleaf version. With just a little more cocoa or fruit this would be great, but it's quite pleasant as it is.  The flavors are clean and the overall effect is balanced and positive. Feel is pleasant, just coming across as a little thin to me for being on sheng range for so long, with the same true for aftertaste. Those don't tend to have this catchy and easy to drink character, but this gives up complexity.

Fruit is developing in the Thai version; it's different and better. The specific fruit range isn't familiar, towards a warm version  of berry, which could be interpreted as blackberry, extending into roasted sweet potato. It's completely clean in this range, not sour or muddled at all. The wood tone is onto how a fall forest smells, more like damp sticks, but a clean version of that.

On the next infusion the teas were about the same so I skipped a round of description (three, for the Farmerleaf version; it's staying consistent, which works). It would be possible to brew this Western style, of course, to change proportion and timing to brew 2 or 3 rounds instead. I'm using between 15 and 20 second infusion times, strong for other teas but it works for these, mild and approachable as they are.

Farmerleaf left, Chiang Rai Thai black right

The Thai tea is shifting a bit. That fruit is a little towards grape now, but an earthy and sweet version of it, like Welches grape juice, with a touch more earthy range. It remind me of the fruit taste from a local grape plant version at my great grandfather's house. That dark purple grape version was unique and pleasant, thick skinned with a lot of seeds, with a very rich grape flavor. On the next infusion this Thai tea version flavor deepened just a little, with some of that grape flavor moving into raisin instead.  Both teas brewed more rounds but I left off the notes at that point since they were mostly just fading.

checking out a late round brewed strong, to see what that changes (not much)

Halfway through I had been ready to conclude that the Farmerleaf tea is good but could be slightly more intense across some flavor range, and the Thai tea wasn't on the same quality level but had some redeeming character.

The first part still works, but in light of this Thai black tea transitioning positively across late rounds it's better than that, and even more unique. It's probably a couple slight processing shifts away from being really exceptional tea, but it's nice as it is. It had been about as good as orthodox Assams tend to ever be (in my limited experience), but with that late round positive transition complexity it's at the top end of that scale instead.  It's seems possible that the Farmerleaf version might have lost some intensity over roughly a year of storage; sun-dried black tea versions are said to gain depth and range and oven-dried versions are supposed to be best after a couple months of rest, and then just fade after that.

Of course preference for aspects shifts interpretation. That Gaw Khee Cha version was earthy in a range that not everyone might love, especially before it transitioned to show more pronounced fruit, but even that part worked well for me. The Farmerleaf is more standard for decent Dian Hong character, which to me is not trivial since I love those teas. It was less novel (to me, having tried some of their Dian Hong and others in the past) but it might appeal to more people.

This experience reminded me of trying a Phongsaly, Laos area black tea version passed on by Somnuc Amnousinh not so long ago.   That tea was distinctive, with a trace of rough edge, but much better than more standard type teas for having more unique positive range, higher in quality than such locally produced teas might typically be.  I remember thinking when I tried that tea that I wouldn't really mind drinking a kilogram worth of it, and I think this Thai tea could work as a much better version of a black tea daily drinker than any grocery store in the world sells.


Right at the last moment Aphiwat got back to me with more detail on what the tea actually is; just in time (or just after I hit "publish," but an edit before anyone reads this is the same thing).  He claimed that the tea plants (trees) are estimated as 700 years old, sourced from a growing area of approximately 1200 meters in elevation.

I might have said what I only implied; there is no way this seemed remotely close to being made from young-plant source farm grown Chinese or Taiwanese (variety Sinensis) plants, and more the opposite of that whole set of factors.  The size of the leaves alone almost settles it.  One could take that 700 year old estimate with a grain of salt, since per my understanding it's only hearsay, but the sources are almost certainly from older tea trees growing in a relatively natural conditions.  It seems to go a bit far to claim that there's just something about the end result from that type of starting point that stands out, but at the same time that's exactly it.

that Laos version; you should try these teas

Compressed teas and tisanes beyond pu'er

First published in parts by TChing, with the last post of three in sequential order here


This subject is familiar to most related to sheng and shu pu'er; both have long since been pressed into cakes (bings), tuochas (dented ball shapes, kind of), bricks, "dragonballs," coins, and other shapes.  This will focus on scope outside of pu'er, since those are more commonly encountered.

The common understanding is that this form related to ease of transport from condensing the size.  Teas from Yunnan could be shipped across the Tea Horse Road to all sorts of regional destinations, processed to be easier to ship, distribute, and later store (with further reading about the modern forms of that history here).  Same for Hunan brick teas, and at some point the same compression process was also applied to shou mei white tea.

More recently compressed black teas and others have become somewhat fashionable.  Why press these, though?  We're at the stage now where modern packaging solutions can cover a lot of the same functional concerns with the tea still in loose form.  Pu'er needs air contact to ferment (to change over time), and to some extent that could apply to other tea types as well, even though the same storage approach and concerns are most typically only extended to white teas.  Compression isn't essential for aging but it does work well to store teas in that form and it helps moderate level of air contact at a suitable level.

Cakes of other tea types seem cool; that's a good reason.  To a limited extent the reshaping could also change tea character slightly, it seems, so there's a functional aspect.  For other teas "designed" for storage and aging it still makes sense on that first level.  Most recently I've tried two versions of this approach applied to tisanes (herbs and fruit), which I'll cover at the end.


shou mei (white tea), or other white teas pressed in different shapes:  really this form is common enough too, but it can be hard for one person to explore even the considerable list of most standard types.  Those teas can be mild but rich-flavored, including caramel or toffee tones with aging transition, evolving to include dried fruit or spice tones.  This post reviews two versions that seemed relatively standard, one from 2008 and 2012, along with a gong mei (same thing, different leaf grade), and candy-bar style pressed white.  Comparison reviewing four white teas together in that account turned out to be a bad idea; not so many rounds in I was blasted on all that caffeine.

Gong Mei cake, a Dayi / Tae Tea version

candy-bar style compressed white tea

a unconventional white tea cake described as pressed Moonlight White (details here)

Hunan region / Fu brick teas:  these seem kind of standard too, potentially very pleasant, flavorful, and typically relatively inexpensive compressed teas that are distinct in character from sheng and shu pu'er.  I've not experienced enough versions to generalize, but of that limited set I have tried pre-fermentation was either not used or not nearly as evident as in shu, and the teas didn't have the same intensity that younger sheng possess.

Then again I've not really tried new / young enough versions of compressed hei cha to really place starting points, related to typical use of a pre-fermentation step.  This Yi Qing Yuan factory version I reviewed with "yellow flowers" was produced in 2009, and this 2007 Xiang Yi "Hei Cha Zhuan" didn't have that version of mold present in it.  That general fungus category and specific "yellow flowers" input is identified in this reference passage:


...The genus Aspergillus is a group of filamentous fungi consist of more than 250 species, which is the most economically important of the fungal genera.  Many species of Aspergillus are used in biotechnology for the production of various metabolites, such as antibiotics, organic acids, medicines or enzymes, or as agents in many food fermentations. The fungal genus Eurotium, which is the teleomorph of Aspergillus, has been proved to be a rich source of novel bioactive metabolites. 

...species formerly included in the genus Eurotium  [a yellow-flowers related reference] are displayed with their Aspergillus name.. it is considered to be safe under low- and high-osmolarity conditions...


The typical hearsay account is that the various types of fungus are generally good for you rather than potentially harmful, not exactly confirmed in that research article passage but to a limited extent supported by it.

Hunan Fu brick tea with "golden flowers"

shai hong / Yunnan black teas:  now we're talking.  I first ran across a version of those and tasted it without reviewing what it was first two years ago, back in 2017, covered here.  Yunnan black teas / dian hong (or shai hong, a reference to versions of that being sun-dried) can vary quite a bit but the range is nice.

That version reminded me a little of those Hunan brick teas for character, beyond being compressed, for being so mild, and for including pleasant dried fruit, rich sweetness, and other earthy complexity.  I've tried a couple of other compressed Yunnan black teas since and they just vary.  This other version was pleasant, and included a bit of tartness, which can be nice in the right balance.  The two main US pu'er vendors are now producing versions, Yunnan Sourcing and White2Tea, with one of the latter's versions boasting the catchy name of Natural Redhead, and the former's branded "Drunk on Red."  The marketing factor being an input seems to show up in the product names.

This video interview with a Yunnan black tea specialist (conducted by William Osmont of Farmerleaf, a Jing Mai based producer and vendor) sheds light on the processing differences in various types of black teas, it just doesn't get into the factor of pressing those.  One take-away from that matching conventional understanding:  Dian Hong, the conventional Yunnan style black teas, are oven dried, and Shai Hong are sun-dried versions, which are milder in fragrance and said to possess the potential to improve with age.  I've tried the same versions across a broad span of time before (a year or more), and they did seem to gain depth and intensity.

chunk of compressed Shai Hong (sun-dried) Yunnan black tea

compressed oolongs:  I had heard of these long before ever trying one, and did get a chance to in the form of a Moychay (Russian vendor) Da Hong Pao roasted oolong bar.  You could tell it wasn't the refined and subtle style of Wuyi Yancha that leans towards an aromatic liqueur or perfume-like aspect range, more flavor-forward and roasted to include sweet, rich caramel flavors instead, positive in character but limited due to being comprised of relatively broken material.  It worked well for me.

I have no idea if the unusual character in that product is somehow common to other compressed oolongs, if others are as flavor-intense and distinctive as that version was.  Some are probably great and others terrible, and all probably vary in taste and other aspect range; that's how that usually goes.  This looks like an interesting version of one (that I haven't tried), a 2006 pressed Da Hong Pao brick from Wuyi Origin, a well regarded producer who sells directly.

one chunk (square) of the Moychay DHP oolong bar

tangerine or orange peel stuffed shu pu'er or black teas (chen pi):  I don't want to add too much about these versions because they really deserve more background discussion and description than I have space for here.  I've tried shu pu'er and black tea versions (and have a white tea stuffed citrus peel at home yet to try), and the were nice, unique and pleasant.  And supposedly very good for health, bordering on a form of Chinese medical practice input.  I'll leave off at citing a reference to claimed health effects, framed in Traditional Chinese medicine terms.  The tea could have positive effects without that description framework being the most accurate model, or some of the benefits could be valid and accurate even if some others aren't:

Actions: Regulates Qi; adjusts the middle Jiao (acrid lifts the spleen Qi, bitter descends the stomach Qi); dries dampness; resolves phlegm; helps the spleen to transport; relieves the diaphragm; directs Qi downward.

shu pu'er stuffed tangerine (I think; could be a mandarin orange)

compressed tisanes:  a final frontier not everyone even wants to venture into, or would have heard of.  Again I tried two completely different tisane bars from Moychay (they sent me quite a few samples to review last year, and I've even started contributing some review-article content to a their website).  One was compressed fruit that seemed to contain a bit of spice, really far from standard tea in character, but pleasant.

One was a pressed version of willow herb, which also goes by fireweed, and is also called Ivan chay.  This herb is really unique for being able to oxidize, in a way similar to tea (Camellia Sinensis), although the couple of versions I've tried wouldn't get mistaken for tea.  The other was a pressed version of dried fruits, definitely different.  A version I didn't try is made of rose petals and cherry leaves.

If the way it works out similar to "real tea" versions pressing the herbs would only change loose material character a little.  They're not the same as Camellia Sinensis but the wider range of materials input enables a different range of potential.  Any herb, flower, or fruit blend could be combined and pressed that way, in theory.  Or mixes of teas and other inputs, which is a popular theme in Western markets now.  One potential down-side is that there's no current market demand for such a thing (pressed tisanes and blends), since it seems to have just started existing, but in a different sense that only increases the potential.

compressed willow herb bar (aka fireweed or Ivan chay)

compressed fruit bar

I think the compressed tisane theme was more appealing to me because trying the one local shop white tea bar and Moychay Da Hong Pao (roasted oolong) were such positive experiences.  Both of those could be brewed Gongfu style, prepared in a gaiwan using lots of short infusions, or they worked well made Western style, and probably just as well prepared "grandpa style."  That's a reference from a well-known tea blogger to a very common Chinese brewing approach, adding tea into a tea bottle with hot water and drinking it together, unstrained, re-adding water after finishing each round.  I most often use it on road trips, and wrote a post about trying out results on different tea types awhile back.

The fruit tea version would even work well simmered with black tea, perhaps with a bit more spice added, to make a fruit-oriented version of masala chai.  Or these could be added to a thermos and left to brew that way, over any length of time.  That would seem to involve committing a thermos to the practice since cleaning after something that aromatic might be problematic, maybe even if the liner was made of glass or steel.  Tisanes have the potential to be even more flexible than teas to brew, with the exception of tea types that aren't astringent and work well at any infusion strength, versions like shu pu'er or shou mei.


Really there are too many types of tea to get to among standard types as it is, but all of these make for interesting tangents and additional range to explore.

Qian Liang Hunan Hei Cha from Jip Eu

This hei cha version Kittichai, the owner of Jip Eu, passed on in one of the visits there a couple months back (my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop).  I tend to bring them teas to try, and they give me more in return, and I buy some to drink, related to wanting to own that tea, but almost in part to keep up the pretense of being a customer.  To me they're great to visit with; that stands out as much as the shopping opportunity.  I don't even know if they sell this but it was my impression that they don't, that he was just sharing something interesting.  Or maybe they do. 

I bought other tea I liked so much I've bought it three separate times now, a sheng tuocha that's on the basic side but well-aged and seemingly quite underpriced, which I will get around to writing about.  I almost want to just buy the rest of what they have of that tea and let it go at that, but somehow that seems selfish.  Maybe I should split the difference and buy a couple more tuochas.

I might as well cover what this is first, even though I tried the tea and made notes without looking that up:

It's Qian Liang hei cha from Anhua, Hunan.  Kittichai mentioned that, and about it being made as a long cylinder, aged for a long time, and then sliced in parts.  Teapedia lists a short description:


Qian Liang Cha (千两茶) is a speciality from Anhua. Anhua county of Hunan province is famous for many dark teas. The tea is similar to Pu-Erh produced and post fermented. Qian Liang Cha is pressed to long and heavy poles from which later small discs or cakes are sliced. Qian Liang Cha means translated 1000 liang tea. Liang is a traditional Chinese unit for mass. While 10 liang are appx. 1 pound and therefor a Qian Liang Cha is about 100 pounds (50kg) heavy.


Tony Gebely's "Tea:  A User's Guide" adds detail to that, beyond identifying it as hei cha:


Hua Juan Cha is produced by pounding steamed Hei Mao Cha into a cylindrical bamboo basket lined with a layer of bamboo leaves and a layer of palm husk. The cylinder is then pounded with a large wooden hammer as it is rolled tight by several people. It is then tied off and allowed to dry outdoors for several weeks...

Each Hua Juan variant uses a Chinese weight measure called a tael (两.). During the Qing dynasty when this style of tea was first produced, a Tael was equal to 36.25 g. The most common sizes produced are Qian Liang Cha (千两茶, qiān liăng chá) or thousand tael tea, Bai Liang Cha (百两茶, bǎi liǎng chá) or hundred tael tea and Shi Liang Cha (十两茶, shí liǎng chá) or ten tael tea.


That does go on to list this version out as a size of 36.25 kg, 150–160 cm tall, and 20 cm in diameter.  My wife would go crazy if I brought one of those home.

Review

The first infusion is a bit light; this will need to be brewed significantly longer to show its character well.  I didn't weigh out the sample but this proportion is low compared to what I tend to use for other types, intended for a longer infusion approach.  I'll skip to the next infusion to say more.

earlier round infusion brewed a bit strong

It's different, earthy in a unique way; that is kind of how I thought it was supposed to be.  It tastes like brewing aged wood and dried fungus, so mushroomy.  I expect that will clean up a bit over the next two infusions or so, and even using really long infusion times will produce a lot of steeps.  It's not musty or sour so the flavor doesn't need to clean up in those senses; it's pleasant.  A dark caramel sweetness supports that other range well, with plenty of flavor that is more towards dried fruit, closest to date, or between that and fig.  The thickness is nice, a slightly oily feel.

It transitions a little on the next round but the same description still applies, the balance just shifted a little.  The fungus / mushroom range mostly cleared out, and might be faded further in the next round.  The other dark wood / dried fruit range is nice.  A mineral layer played more of a role than I described, which stands out more in this round.  Of course it's warm and towards earthy, between a dark version of a rock and corroded metal. 

It's like you might expect a meteor to smell.  There is a big chunk of one at the temple we keep visiting, but to be honest I don't remember picking up any smell from it.  This doesn't have the same kind of feel structure that even softened aged sheng has but the version of thick feel is interesting.

It's not that different on the next round; I think transitions may not make for much of a story for this.  This does match up with the only other "golden flowers" version of hei cha I've tried, a Fu brick tea, based on distant memory of that experience. 

One would expect the flavor to be earthier in a much different way than it seems to come across, heavier on fungus (it is mold).  But to the extent it works to extrapolate from only two versions--which doesn't work, of course--the resulting flavor is sweet, distinctive, and clean in effect.  It's a bit faint and mild, something like dried bamboo smells (not that it's so familiar; that description is a stretch).  Like some sort of tisane, maybe, a root-spice version, not so different than a smell component of visiting an herb market in Seoul that sold a lot of ginseng.

A lighter infusion round doesn't change things much, but it's still quite pleasant, sweet, complex, and distinctive.  It's interesting contrasting that with brewing a round for about 2 minutes after, much longer than I would any other type of tea (except shu would also be fine prepared extra thick).  The mushroom aspect comes back; that aspect coming out seems to be a function of the infusion strength.  The tea is nicer brewed light but including mushroom flavor isn't as bad as it might sound.  It's funny how that drops out completely brewed lighter and other flavor range doesn't change that much.  The feel isn't necessarily all that thin brewed for 15 to 20 seconds at a relatively moderate proportion (low, for me).


Back at that 20+ second infusion timing it's better again, light on flavor and limited in body but interesting and pleasant.  It's interesting comparing this to a 10 year old Malaysian-storage aged sheng I tried yesterday, the final rounds of that, now surely around 15 infusions in.  It's not right to say the experiences are similar but there are some parallels and overlap.  The flavor is in a comparable range for type, with that sheng including more tobacco towards dark tree bark, now light in feel for being somewhat brewed out, but still substantial.  It's catchy. 

This hei cha is earthier, with more in the range of corroded metal or mountain spring mineral scent, like the smell from a pipe coming out of the side of a mountain with water flowing out of it.  Some people would love it, but tea drinkers acclimated to better aged sheng range might not, as much for being different as being inferior in character.  To me both are nice. 

I can't really place exactly how good this version is, to pin down trueness to type or quality related to a standard range for versions.  The other golden flowers Fu brick tea I tried a long time ago might've been slightly nicer, but similar in nature, or then again maybe I've just been drinking a lot of better teas in the past year, so this is being judged against a tougher baseline.  Either way it's interesting and pleasant, if a bit simple across some of the aspect range.  The mushroom and corroded metal range could put some people off but sweetness hinting towards dried fruit and other complexity balanced that in a reasonable way.


I sort of start to get it why people evolve a singular preference for better aged sheng, in a range of character types I've barely been exposed to yet.  I'm not sure that I'll drop out my liking for all other kinds of tea, as is common enough.  There was just a discussion in a FB tea group about that, with results splitting in both directions.  Some even claimed to have been really into pu'er earlier in their tea experience but have since moved on to preference for other types, the opposite of the more standard form of transition.  I probably wouldn't switch my tea drinking habit over to include a lot of this form of hei cha but it is interesting and pleasant to try different teas.