Jingyang Fu Tea hei cha, a version with golden flowers

A company called Oriental Leaf sent some teas for review; many thanks for that.  Their flagship product range seems to be Fu brick tea hei cha, the kind that often includes golden flowers, a type of fungus.  This is described as positive; I'm sure that it's safe.  I've had tea with this fungus in it before and the experience was quite positive.  This review describes a version (from Yunnan Sourcing), and what that type of fungus is.

The web page listing identifies price and what the tea is:

YXT Jingyang Fu Tea Classic Yellow Can 300g (listing for 1860 baht, $51)

This is a Fu brick tea, a type of post-fermented tea. The tea is covered with golden flowers, also known as Eurotium cristatum, a beneficial enzyme-producing fungus. It grows naturally during the Fu brick tea production process and is a crucial indicator of the quality of the tea. In other words, the more denser the golden flowers, the better. This tea has a unique tea aroma produced by the golden flowers. It has a very thick, rich taste and will give you sweetness in the mouth and throat...

It is part of the YXT classic Yellow Can series, renowned for its robust jujube aroma, abundant golden flowers, and a distinctly pure fragrance. The tea is crafted from Maocha harvested between 2019 and 2022 in the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi...

...The naturally occurring golden flowers are plump and abundant, contributing to the tea's visual and aromatic appeal. Employing traditional tea-making techniques dating back to 1368, acknowledged as an intangible cultural heritage, the tea is produced in a 5000-square-meter dust-free workshop at the factory, ensuring the highest quality standards are maintained.

This tea is exceptionally friendly to first-time Fu tea drinkers, offering a smooth and mellow taste. I personally brewed this tea more than 15 times in succession, and the flavor remained consistent. Moreover, as you progress through subsequent infusions, the taste becomes increasingly sweet. I highly recommend this tea for those venturing into Fu tea for the first time.

**This tea has a higher-quality product in RED can. Feel free to check it out. [YXT Jingyang Fu Tea Classic RED Can 300g]

Pretty good, for covering some basics.  The quality of this seemed pretty good to me too, for this being a product they sell a slightly better version of.  17 cents per gram sounds quite reasonable.  There is a different amount option and sample listing that runs higher in per-unit cost, and that's fine too, different options for trying teas or buying more once you know that you like them.  

Fu brick and other hei cha tend to be sold in rather large pressed portions, as somewhat inexpensive tea versions.  Quality and character can vary a good bit though, and the value is different related to how pleasant a tea seems.

Review:

Infusion #1:  to rinse or not rinse; for once I don't really know the conventional answer.  I'd guess that more people rinse this.  It's hei cha, and that's standard for those, and this is literally covered with fungus.  I'll try the first round anyway, and if it seems a little odd I'll let it go.  

I'm sure this is safe anyway; even for heavily fermented sheng and for shou that risk from fermentation by-products is described as low in level, so that the rinse step relates to removing limited trace contact with toxins that could add up in effect over months and years, and lots of exposure.  Since I'm almost never drinking this tea type that kind of factor doesn't matter.

It's different, but it matches what I remember of related experience.  Warm bread-like tones stand out, with a particular yeasty aspect a main part of the experience.  I think this will deepen and develop in complexity so doing a full breakdown now doesn't make much sense.

I did drink half of it, and threw some out, so half was rinse?  That makes no sense.  There's a good bit of fungus in this still so the idea can't be removing all of that or all of the secondary by-products from it.

#2:  intensity picks way up, and some complexity along with it.  Of course a deep, dark bread, yeasty aspect range is still present.  Mentioning "dark bread" doesn't capture how complex and pleasant that experience is.  Adding types like pumpernickel or dark rye isn't so descriptive either, but it's along those lines.  

Sweetness is good, and lighter tone range balances the heavier range.  A layer of light and warm mineral supports the rest, a little like the clay smell present in the type of soil back in Pennsylvania, which is quite different here (the smell of clay in the soil), and in Hawaii.  An aftertaste component that's tied to the rest, but not identical, supports the effect of complexity.

For people who have tried Fu brick teas with golden flowers what I'm struggling to express is already clear, and for others it may not get there.  Maybe secondary positive or off aspects would define what is most exceptional or not as desirable in this range.  I'm at that level of familiarity for pu'er, but not Fu tea.  I'll have to go with just describing it.

#3:  one part picks up, but it's hard to describe this as any set of individual parts, or flavor aspects.  So far I've been relying on dark bread, yeast, and clay as comparisons, but they're not a perfect parallel.

I suppose it's the yeastiness that increases.  If you taste something like sticky buns while they're still rising, the dough, a pronounced warm yeast aspect stands out, a little different than from fresh homemade bread or pizza dough, and it's like that.  Caramel or toffee sweetness might be reminding me of that; it might be the reason I refer to that distinction.  Sweetness is still pleasant, pronounced, and the overall effect is very clean in relation to this tasting as earthy as this does.  In between spice and earth, I guess dark bread falls.

Related to subjective preference, which varies by person, and isn't such a clear yardstick, I like this quite a bit more than shou pu'er.  Some yeasty variations of shou, like what I've tried as smaller batch versions from Russia, are kind of similar, but to me this balances that yeast-like range better with the rest.  It doesn't taste like wet cardboard, which can come up for some shou pu'er; it's a little closer to nutmeg.  It might resemble an aromatic wood component too, or rather a supporting component does, that makes up the distinction between peat-intensive shou and this much lighter bread and spice Fu flavor profile.

Our cats are very drawn to try to reach and lay down in a "wardrobe," or large wooden cabinet for clothes, the one my wife uses, upstairs in our house, which is made of aromatic tropical wood.  This scent resembles that.  Of course the cats aren't supposed to do that, and we have no idea why her closet / cabinet, right beside mine, is so appealing.  I don't know the name of that wood type.  It might be teak, or maybe just something related.  I doubt that you could buy such a thing today, related to restrictions on harvesting tropical lumber; it's a carry-over from her family being fairly prosperous in the first half and middle of the 20th century.

#4:  intensity keeps up, but then I am brewing this pretty strong, using a high proportion and intermediate infusion timing, maybe 20 seconds.  There is no negative range to brew around, no pronounced bitterness, astringency, or overly strong flavor range, so it could work at any intensity.

Flavors are pretty strong; brewed this way feel is quite full and aftertaste experience is pronounced.  I think spice range seems to be picking up.  It's not exactly nutmeg, as I've already mentioned, closer to incense spice, sandalwood or frankincense, which I don't remember the scents of, since my new age renewal days are long since over, back in the mid 90s.

Pleasantness stands out, a subjective reaction instead of set of aspect experiences.  That warm, rich spice or wood tone is quite pleasant, and all the other complexity, sweetness, fullness, and mild character supports it well.  It seems a bit refined, as hei cha goes, an elusive character that (to me) marks out a more ideal range.  Lots of hei cha is nice, but they tend to be thin across part of the range, or have a bit of an off input, a little extra smoke, earthiness, harsher mineral, or off spice tone.  If this tasted more like semi-cured hardwood instead of tropical wood and spice it would still be nice, but not this nice.

#5:  I'm trying this round brewed light, closer to 10 seconds instead, to see how that changes things.

Lighter flavors stand out, with the trade-off of depth and intensity being limited.  Aftertaste is less pronounced.  This may still be transitioning to slightly warmer tones anyway, moving on from lighter dark bread range to even darker dark bread range.  Usually extending brew times in later rounds causes that kind of shift to heavier tones, but this was the opposite context.  

I think that I could drink a lot of this, a kg of it.  Or then again I'd probably still crave sheng pu'er more, so I might not get to it so often if I owned that much.  I like it better than shou and aged white teas, two other ranges that might be partly comparable in terms of aspects.  Oolongs are just different.  This is as approachable as mild but somewhat intense Wuyi Yancha, and completely different in specific flavor set, but not completely different in overall effect.

It would be fine as a breakfast tea.  I think the quality of this particular version is good enough that it would make sense in the other use too, as a tea you focus on experiencing for 45 minutes or so, when free time is open.  To me since it's a little simpler and less intense than sheng it would stand in as a pleasant part of that experience, but not necessarily as naturally as the main focus of it.  

To me a lot of the aged factory sheng pu'er people are always into are a little like that, what 20 year old versions are like now, pretty much all the CNNP range.  It would be interesting to just focus on that the first few times you try it, then from there it could be a main part of a special experience, but perhaps not the focus of it.  For having friends over sure, but not for being the main focus of a Saturday morning long session over and over.

#6:  brewed a little longer warmer tones come out all the more.  It's not transitioning much; I guess that's not a part of the experience.  You can get some of the same effect from varying infusion times, since it's good at different strengths, drinking it as slightly different forms of tea.  I'll give it one more longish 20+ second soak and the next round will be final thoughts, even though this will keep going.

#7:  quite pleasant still, still complex, layered, and interesting, while being clean and approachable at the same time.  One part is still actually catchy, that yeasty warm bread tone, and the rest is still relatively complex in supporting that.

Conclusions:

This is one of the better hei cha versions I've ever tried.  I may have only tried a two or three yellow-flower inoculated Fu brick teas before, so I'm not working from that much depth of experience for the specific type, but I have tried dozens of other hei cha versions (not counting pu'er--that count is crazy), and this is clearly quite good quality tea.  

[later edit]:  I made some minor revisions, and it seems appropriate to add a comment here about an apparent contradiction this caused.  The description said that this is naturally occurring fungus (a passage added later), and I've just said that it's intentionally inoculated.  It doesn't make that much difference.  If the tea was produced and stored in a place with a lot of that fungus already present it would be around to contact and grow on the tea, and then a producer may or may not transfer it to the tea more directly.  I don't see this as one of those critical points where the story needs to be pinned down one way or another.  If it does seem so to readers then further review of other sources about the type might add more on it.

If you were to order a half dozen random versions online there is a good chance that none would be this good.  It matches the typical type flavor range (per my understanding), includes great flavor depth and complexity, matches some standard markers for quality (thickness of feel and aftertaste), brews a good number of positive rounds, and lacks flaws.  The price seems quite fair, given that quality level.

That's how the curator vendor theme is supposed to work, but you just never know.  Of course every sales site describes teas positively.  One might think that depth of background information correlates to tea quality, or that a sales site should seem a certain way, but in the end you really have to try the tea.  Or to accept input from another reference, but it would work to be careful about that.  Few people have tried an extensive range of teas, and even if they have a reviewer might spin certain products more positively for their own reasons.

Why would I not be doing that?  For people with the patience to have read a large of number of reviews, and to have tried some of the same teas themselves, they would have a sense of how to take input here.  If this is the first post content anyone has read from this blog then there would be no indicator or baseline.

To me more Chinese-side vendors turning up is a fantastic sign for the Western tea industry.  For a long time we've been at the mercy of Western facing sites like Yunnan Sourcing, Chawang Shop, and King Tea Mall to access teas like this.  Those sources are fine, and value is actually pretty decent from all of them, but quality level and value can vary for each (by product, more so than in general), and the range isn't even close to what Chinese teas are accessible in the Chinese market.  Per my understanding, at least, based on hearsay input from lots of people, in China and just familiar with the industry there.  

Chinese vendors reaching across the aisle to make teas available in "the West" could add real competition, and could gradually change things.  In many cases this would relate to sales of low quality, over-hyped, still moderately priced versions, which is something, maybe better as a starting point for exploration than for experienced tea enthusiasts to try the most interesting versions.  

It's my impression that this source is offering a slightly better quality range version, at least in this one case, which is all that I've tried so far.  That alone could be very inconsistent; a vendor selling one great quality tea at good value doesn't mean much in relation to the rest of their product range.  I'll try a couple more types they sent and check back in about how those work out.

playing with a cousin, the sweetest little girl

both my kids

Hoàng Thu Phố Vietnamese sheng, 2023 and 2024 versions, from Bắc Hà, Lào Cai province

2023 left; higher compression makes it harder to separate

 

I've bought more of a Vietnamese sheng that my friend Huyen gave me (an earlier review, and the producer FB contact), which turned out to be a favorite version, from the Quang Tom producer.  Let's start with what it is, Huyen's description:

This tea cake is from Hoàng Thu Phố, Bắc Hà, Lào Cai province. It was made in 2023. Mostly old tea trees belongs to the H’mong people.

Seth, who was with her and also gave it to me, filled in even more background:

The area Hoang Thu Pho is in Lao Cai province on the east side of the Red River, which flows into Vietnam from Yunnan. It's in a mountain range called Tay Con Linh that peaks further eastward in Ha Giang (province). Son La is in a different mountain range called Hoang Lien Son with slightly higher elevation on the west side of the Red River, and also sits on the Black River, which also flows in from Yunnan. Both tea areas are owned by members of Hmong people groups.

The tea maker for the Hoang Thu Pho cake is a younger guy named Phuc who has been making tea for about six years. He is not Hmong, but he buys tea material from Hmong tea areas and wants to focus on making high quality teas.

I brewed and drank that cake; it was my favorite during that last 3 month stay in Honolulu.  I thought I really loved that 2023 version, but after trying the 2024 cake alongside it I guess I have a new favorite tea again.

A lot of this is about why it is atypical in style, trying to break down how others might relate to it, and why they may not love it as much as I do. As for a contact I'll add reference to their Facebook page and website:

their FB profile page

Review:

2023 #1:  This early round is muted and light, but it will really kick in.  Warm tones define the experience as rich, floral, and fruity.  

One heavy flavor range is unique, positive to me, but not necessarily objectively positive, something everyone would like.  Described positively this includes the warm, sweet richness of other tea types, leaning a little towards how a more oxidized Dan Cong might come across, with subtle and integrated roast input lending that depth.  Described more negatively, potentially in light of not fulfilling other sheng pu'er aspect / character expectations, it could be regarded as yeasty, overly heavy, lacking the brightness, astringency edge, bitterness, and lighter floral range that makes a lot of sheng distinctive.  I see it as balancing well as it is, just not in the conventional sheng profile form.

2024:  quite different; I love this already.  The other expresses heavy floral tones, bordering on rich dried fruit, along the line of dried mango or apricot, but this expresses different heavy floral and fruit range.  It's syrupy in texture, and there's a thickness, warmth, and heaviness to the flavor tones as well.  There's a trace of dry mineral edge to this version, which could either dissipate as an early round tone, or develop and probably shift to a slightly different flavor and feel range.

That heavy, rich floral tone is indescribable.  It's like walking into a flower shop where a lot of the product range is on the heavier side, orchids, roses, and lavender, and then being able to taste that heavy mixed scent as an intense version of a brewed beverage.  Could it be too much?  I suppose.  But then sheng pushing into extremes across a lot of range of intensity is part of the appeal.  It's usually just not this exact range; more typically tones would be brighter, light floral, including stronger mineral, some bitterness, and perhaps a bit of medicinal or herbal quality.  This is straight rich floral tones with a base of limited dried fruit, which will probably continue to be heavier in the other.

As so often happens I don't have the full hour plus to spare on this review so I'll keep brewing these a bit strong to push the transition process along.  These would be fine brewed lighter, taking 3 rounds to really get going instead of 2, then experienced lighter after that, but it's fine to rush them too.  

To me that's another strength of this tea too, that you can drink as very positive in character made in different ways.  For some sheng you need to drink it light to brew around high intensity, bitterness, and astringency, and I've tried other wild origin versions where you need to push them just to get normal intensity range out of it.  Neither limitation applies to these; they will work well both ways.

2023 #2:  feel structure isn't exactly what I remember, even though I last drank this tea in the last few days.  It's different when brewed heavier, at a higher infusion strength.  An astringency structure edge like that of black tea enters in, just a very mild form of it.  As a result the sweetness level seemed to drop way back.  I suppose brewing this for 10 to 15 seconds instead of 20 to 30 will bring it right back.

Feel is very rich.  There's a structure to it too, and stronger mineral than you get brewing it lighter, with floral tones and dried fruit less pronounced in the balance.  If this follows the pattern I'm remembering dried fruit comes out much heavier in later rounds, another reason I want to rush this to get through some transition.  

I still like this tea brewed in this way but the appeal isn't optimized, per my preference.  It's interesting the way feel structure and aftertaste ramp up so much.  Made this way this tea could stand up to a lot of food adjoining it, even rich and heavy versions, or breakfast foods with different aspect sets, the intensity and sourness of a strawberry cobbler, or sweetness and heaviness of a raisin pastry.  To drink this alone brewing it lighter would be better, for me.

2024:  to me this is just magical.  I love the other version, but this is richer, deeper, more complex, more floral, with more dried fruit base.  All that from a tea with less time to transition to include more depth, as occurs in the first year or two, if teas are stored in hot and humid conditions.  

To me this fruit includes a citrus tone, leaning towards bergamot.  In other tea types you typically don't experience that paired with heavy floral range, and warm tones; together it's really something.  It can come up in Darjeeling, or more as dried citrus peel in other types, often pronounced in Oriental Beauty / Dong Fang Mei Ren versions, often adjoining cinnamon spice, but the context and other flavors typically don't match this range.  The sweetness resembles honey as well, not a warm, rich version of it but a lighter type, I suppose one the bees made from orange blossoms.

Returning to one running thread, what is not to love about this experience?  It's not conventional sheng; there is that.  Bitterness is present but at a very low level; astringency structure gives it a base but that's light, and not in the same form.  It includes some mineral range but that would be easy to miss, instead of a dominant aspect balancing evenly with bitterness, astringency, sweetness, and light floral tones.

I'll be able to taste a third round without a break but then six small cups of this will be too much to keep going.  Water input for a palate break alone would work, or some food.  One Krispy Kreme glazed donut is holding down the function of coating my stomach to protect it; it's a lot to ask of just one.

2023 #3:  this seems a little flatter than I remember.  I think the comparison with a younger version is not helping, that the brighter, fresher, more intense floral range is dropping back.  

I suspect that there is an odd twist occurring with an uneven compression in this cake version too.  In the middle of the pressed disk it's frustrating how much more dense it is, hard to tease apart, or actually impossible in relation to how the 2024 version is much, much looser, so that you don't really even need a pu'er knife to access whole twisted leaves.  But I think that part has age-transitioned much slower, preserved by the lack of air contact, resulting in an odd slow-rate transition form.  That compression related transition restriction seems to draw out dried fruit tones.  Or maybe I  just imagine all this, and I've actually walked off the map.

Without the other being so much more intense, in terms of floral and fruit range, and sweetness, with a more pronounced citrus input, this would seem to express all of that, to an extent.  Fruit is more subdued, and it seems closer to dried peach or apricot than that other lighter tone.  Floral range is pronounced, but it's more of a subtle and broad layer.  Then warm tones integrate differently.  It doesn't seem right saying that it seems muted, because it's not that, but it is dialed down a little in relation to the other.  

Again, as with the other, bitterness and astringency edge being so moderate wouldn't suit everyone.  It's not standard sheng character.

2024:  fruit and floral range just pops, in a pleasant warm and rich context.  Feel seems almost liqueur-like.  It's sort of like that effect from eating a chocolate covered cherry, a theme that might have been more familiar 30 years ago, at Christmas time.  In some teas a related effect I describe as being like cognac or brandy, but this lacks the intensity of that volatile component from the alcohol.  In a different, lighter form some teas seem perfume-like, and it's closer to that, but the base context also isn't a match for that lighter volatile base in perfume.  Citrusy range is serving the same role, closer to a bergamot input.

I could relate to others seeing this as not balanced, missing the pronounced bitterness, astringency, and mineral layers in most sheng.  This is sheng for an oolong drinker, I guess.  I don't see myself as unable to appreciate moderately challenging sheng, and even feel like having the harsher tasting experience of a 10 or 12 year old Xiaguan tuocha once in awhile, or the corresponding Dayi Jia Ji tuo aspect set, well prior to when drinking either makes the most sense.  But I don't need that kind of edge or structure--a lighter version of it--to balance a tea for me to enjoy it.

I just read another tea friend describing Shui Xian, the Wuyishan / Wuyi Yancha version, not the Dan Cong plant input range, as tying to gan, the bitterness returning as sweetness effect, from "hui gan," more or less "returning sweetness."  It's an effect that happens after you swallow the tea.  That's not how I ever interpret that experience, from good, bad, or medium quality Shui Xian, but I can kind of get where he was going.  

Part of the complexity--in Shui Xian Wuyi Yancha, I'm still on that--relates to astringency range, and another part ties to complex flavor input, which varies a lot in different versions.  Bitterness isn't so typical, as with sheng, but a significant edge that takes different forms is.  He compared that to black tea experience, as being different but somehow vaguely related.  I get it; I agree, it's just down to parsing out partial similarities.  That's sort of what I'm describing as missing here, that edge.  

I don't miss the astringency, bitterness, and mineral layers though, filled in here by warmth, sweetness, rich but smoother feel, and other flavor depth.  This tea would be amazing with some of that range dialed up, but to me it's already really good in a different way.

2023 #4:  even better brewed lightly, for no more than 10 seconds.  Floral tone is much stronger.  I'd see sweetness as very pronounced, although direct comparison with a slightly sweeter tea offsets that judgment.  Warm, rich dried fruit tones are just starting to pick up, to me closest to dried apricot range at this point.

2024:  it's interesting how this version comes across so differently for including a good bit of citrus tone.  It lightens everything, and a slightly sweeter flavor range shifts context.  Fullness of feel and flavor depth play some of the same role that much heavier different inputs do in more conventional sheng.

Is this yeasty, or too heavy?  Does it drift into odd mineral range, or bread-like flavors?  I suppose, if someone is included to see it that way.  It tastes a bit like a butter croissant, or really more like a cinnamon raisin roll, not the cinnamon or raisin part so directly, but that pastry base.

this version is vegan; probably more like one made with butter

There is a touch of vegetal edge too, maybe just now entering in.  It's hard to identify for mixing with other range; maybe like green wood.

2023 #5:  note that I've not mentioned cha qi / body feel effect yet; what is that like?  Don't know.  It seems likely to me that some people are more sensitive to such things, or less so, and that vendors emphasize and even exaggerate such claims because it works as extra easily accessible, hard to critique marketing spin.  

You don't get that?  That's your own limitation.  It also makes a difference if someone doesn't eat food right before trying a tea, and drinks through a lot of rounds of one single type.  I'm not in it for the buzz anyway.  I did my time as a drug user, and I'm happy to not live that out.  Maybe I run long distances in heat at high heart rate to experience something related, but I don't see it that way.  I drank some water and ate a second glazed donut between the last two rounds; it will be all the harder to notice feel shifts as a result, which is fine.  I'd rather protect my stomach than appreciate my head spinning a little.

Brewed light (again) richness and floral tones extend, with dried fruit gradually increasing in proportion.  This tea doesn't need to be pushed, and it's better when you don't go there.  Limited feel structure, richness, and warm toned flavor depth (extra complexity) has to fill in the role that harsher aspects do in most sheng, and most other teas in general.  People who rushed through tea exploration from black teas onto sheng, barely pausing to cover oolong range, might not "get it."  

For white tea drinkers this may be all the more amazing; it's more intense, and in a related experience range.  This is what a shou mei would age to be like in a better than ideal case.  It just never gets there.

2024:  the balance of what I keep describing shifts again.  Rich and warm floral tone stands out, general sweetness, and a bright citrus edge.  Some warm mineral grounds that, and a distinct secondary aspect is just now entering in, like tea berry, between berry range and mint.

That could be interpreted in all sorts of ways.  What I've described as a touch of yeasty, bread-like, pastry aspect has shifted some too.  It's a bit like that warm, odd, distinctive edge in apple cider now, the flavor tone you don't need to actually drink the cider to experience, already present in the smell.  It's just so light that you do need to drink the tea to even notice it in this.

Conclusions

I'd better let this go for now.  Aspects will shift a little more, some of which will be positive, before these fade.  It's looking like that dried fruit flavor depth will pick up a bit more in the first (2023 version), and the second will gain unusual complexity, at least one more subtle shift that I don't see coming.  

Because these are so mild the edgier feel and flavor that tends to enter in across later rounds for sheng, often expressed as ramped-up bitterness, mineral, or even wood tone, will probably balance reasonably well.  Then sweetness and heavy floral range fading will be less positive, so in the end the teas might just be different, not so much better or worse.  At a guess the first might seem to cover it's best range, since per past experience the fruit really seems to come out, but the second losing that heavy initial floral punch probably represents the best of it's range already transitioning out.

It was interesting using the theme of considering which aspects I love could be seen as negative by others.  For me these are two personal favorites, teas that I absolutely love.  For anyone matching up with my own preferences directly these would be fantastic.  I would imagine that includes people who love oolongs as much as any other types, and then also rich flavored white teas and mild and flavorful black teas, like Dian Hong.  For sheng pu'er drinkers I guess it would just depend.

Thai tea expo / function in Bangkok Central Embassy

 

I checked out a local Thai tea event at one of many Bangkok malls, at Central Embassy, at the Open House area on the 6th floor.  It's the first such function I've ever been to in Thailand, beyond there being a few tea related booths at coffee and tea related events.  It was nice.

A series of special presentations is one part of that; a tea expert of some sort was presenting about Gongfu brewing and aged Shui Xian, it seemed.  I didn't catch that much of that; the point is pointing out that it extends beyond sales booths.  For people considering visiting they may want to check out that schedule and get in there; it all only runs for another 6 days.  There is also plenty to see and experience from the vendor booths.

The sales booths were fine, representing a broader range of tea vending than one might ordinarily hear of.  They were split between producer booths and other types of vendors, cafes and such.  I talked to the Taetea booth staff, to Emerald Thai Tea (a local producer who make different kinds, including some older plant pu'er), and to another specialty producer who makes a lot of types of teas in the North (Sawan Bondin).  I tried some teas at all three booths; that's a nice part of such an event, that people hosting sales booths are happy to share small cups of tea and talk about the products and background.

An old tea friend had a display there, Danitha / Pop of Chai Jin, a Japanese tea sales and ceremonial brewing themed place.  Zhennan is a familiar local cafe that had a booth, but I missed them being at the booth when I went by.  There were others; Pop was talking to another small shop owner who I've met before, Eastern Tea Concept, that I also said hi to.

So what would be the best draw there for people who are really into tea, or just curious to explore further?  Probably mostly just seeing the range, in case some of it really matches your own interest, and then you could buy some tea from them.  Being able to try the teas makes all the difference.  

It would be nice to support local Thai companies promoting better quality specialty tea.  My tea budget is deep in the red related to my family living in a high cost of living city on a Thai salary, in Honolulu, and I've spent more than normally allocate on Vietnamese teas recently, so my own tea spending is severely limited just now.  It was still nice meeting and talking to people.

I was asking one Thai producer and vendor about how sales would go through Myanmar, since of course they're having problems with civil war there.  He didn't know, but I met a private importer from China who was working with Myanmar tea just after that.  It made for a really interesting discussion, hearing about how things go there.  

A bit rough, of course; he said that I shouldn't be visiting Myanmar any time soon, but that with the right preparations, connections, and support he can still go there.  He said that the tea plants growing there are quite old and now integrated with old-growth jungles, kind of a common theme everywhere, whether or not it actually matches the marketing spin descriptions.  This is an interesting tangent, to me, which I discussed more in relation to Thai ancient trees and forests.

Emerald Thai Tea booth, worth checking out

those ancient forest sheng versions; it was interesting trying them there

How would someone really know tea plant ages?  You can't, really.  Variety Sinensis plants grow to be large shrubs or small trees and age to reduced productivity over a century or less, but variety Assamica plants (both Camelia Sinensis) can grow to giant trees, and some can live for over 1500 years.  Size isn't the best indicator of age; they will grow at different rates and to different sizes depending on conditions.

But with the right local context background you can at least place when tea was growing there locally, which should set a very general earlier original time when plants were introduced there.  I forget how many hundreds of years ago that related to the teas being sold from Northern Thailand; I think 300 years and 700 years, for two different versions, carried by the Emerald Thai Tea brand producer.

It sounds impossible, right?  Thai history must have been quite vague just 2 or 300 years ago.  People know who the King was, of course, and some broad details about industries and lifestyle, but drilling down to tea production is something else.  

But there was an earlier empire in the North that supposedly had clear ties to the tea production (per that discussion at the event, at least), the Lanna Kingdom.  Dating that time-frame and knowing of local tea production couldn't tell you any given plant's age, but it could support a real claim that tea was there in a given area then, or at least probably was.  That's a long time ago; who knows.  Let's check Wikipedia's input on that timing:

The Lan Na Kingdom or The Kingdom of Lanna (Northern Thai:, pronounced [ʔāː.nāː.t͡ɕǎk láːn nāː], "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; Thai: อาณาจักรล้านนา, RTGS: Anachak Lan Na, pronounced [ʔāː.nāː.t͡ɕàk láːn nāː]), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state[broken anchor] centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to 18th centuries.

The cultural development of the Northern Thai people had begun long before as successive kingdoms preceded Lan Na. As a continuation of the kingdom of Ngoenyang, Lan Na emerged strong enough in the 15th century to rival the Ayutthaya Kingdom, with whom wars were fought. However, the Lan Na Kingdom was weakened and became a tributary state of the Taungoo Dynasty in 1558. Lan Na was ruled by successive vassal kings, though some enjoyed autonomy. The Burmese rule gradually withdrew but then resumed as the new Konbaung Dynasty expanded its influence. In 1775, Lan Na chiefs left the Burmese control to join Siam, leading to the Burmese–Siamese War (1775–76).

Following the retreat of the Burmese force, Burmese control over Lan Na came to the end. Siam, under King Taksin of the Thonburi Kingdom, gained control of Lan Na in 1776. From then on, Lan Na became a tributary state of Siam under the succeeding Chakri Dynasty.

Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, the Siamese state dismantled Lan Na independence, absorbing it into the emerging Siamese nation-state.[3] 

That goes on to say that an important development step was consolidating local rulership and establishing Chiang Rai as a capital in 1262.  Of course it doesn't really relate to when tea was being produced.  If a local tea producer could somehow connect that political history with the tea industry history it could establish that production on the order of 700 years ago, or even a bit earlier, maybe 750.

Two people showed me pictures of old, giant tea tree plants; that's something.  No one really knows how old those are though.

Tae Tea / Dayi; it was nice trying some familiar range sheng pu'er there

Sawanbondin; a brand selling different ranges of teas and herbs

the Sawanbodin booth was especially nice for trying different versions

The state of better quality specialty Thai tea

I tried some relatively interesting Thai specialty tea versions back when Huyen visited in a local shop back in January, a higher quality level than I usually run across.  I've been buying and liking Wawee Thai sheng pu'er (or pu'er-style tea) for a few years, and my local friend Aphiwat makes fantastic local sheng, based somewhere near Chiang Mai.  

Plantations have been developing new styles for years, like Oriental Beauty / Dong Fang Mei Ren and red / ruby oolongs, long after producing Jin Xuan and other varietals from Taiwan as rolled oolong back in the 90s.  I keep hearing of new developments in making local gaba versions, and Thai shu pu'er.  Tea Side made small batch, basket fermented shu a number of years ago, maybe 5 or 6, so that's not really new.

So what else is new?  It would be helpful if awareness and demand for these teas developed.  People can keep on making better and more novel styles of teas, and I guess profiting from selling them when demand enables pricing spikes (I've seen them selling for the better part of $1 / gram).  But for it to become a normalized, developed market theme that exposure needs to broaden.  

I guess events like this one can help.  I might've saw a few dozen people there, not bad for one of the least consumer populated malls in Bangkok (nicknamed "Central Empty," I've heard).  There were more people throughout the mall too, hundreds of them; maybe it is finally catching on with a target consumer base.

Small cafes have been cropping up here and there more and more for years.  Then again some fail as businesses too.  There was a pu'er themed shop in Sathorn near where I worked, that's now gone, and the closest specialty tea shop, general in form, also went out, I think even prior to Covid.  There was a specialized Liu Bao shop nearby; I never did get around to checking that out, and it could still be there.  My favorite Tae Tea outlet shop closed, the one in Belle Condominiums, and another relocated, the one in IT Square, if I remember right.

I see notices for some places, new form cafes, hosting 2 or 3000 baht per person special tea type tasting events (($90 or so, on the high side), and if a local market audience could support that expense level specialty tea would be doing ok.  Peace Oriental, the main local hybrid-culture style place from years back, opened a relatively opulent branch in Gaysorn, essentially the highest end mall here, on the Central Embassy level, and kind of around the corner from it.

No one would ever know to what extent general specialty tea awareness and demand are picking up now since most sales would occur through an outlet like Shoppee or Lazada, the Thai versions of Amazon and Ebay.  I just reviewed two amazing green teas selling from there, and I would imagine that many of the outlets in this tea event would have online shops in those places.  

It's hard to get any feel for business level for sales channels like that.  Yunnan Sourcing, a main US vendor based there and in China, has a related Facebook customer interest group, and many vendors host Discord servers (groups), so you can tell, a little by the discussions, what the following is like.  I suppose if a vendor expands offerings over time they're doing ok, and if they go out of business they weren't.

It was odd not seeing teaware producers represented there; there was at least one of those at the last coffee and tea event I visited, last year.  Then again it's odd just seeing this kind of event being held anywhere, as the first and only tea specific event I've heard of in Bangkok, beyond tastings and such.  It's a good sign.

completely unrelated, a vlog style video Kalani (my daughter) made about it raining hard, more to show her take on it than the weather event