Trying wild origin tea versions, white and oolong (Wuyi Yancha style)

I'm trying two more wild origin teas from ITea World, probably the last of that set I'll get to.  There is a green version but that's my least favorite kind, and reviewing it tends to boiling down to mentioning a few aspects, beyond some vague talking around quality level.

That tea was from this set:

Chinese Wild Tea Sampler: 5 Flavors for $5 with Free Shipping

That's it, not much at all for 25 grams of interesting tea.  Their marketing oriented descriptions:

Wild White Tea:  Plucked wild in Fuding, our Bai Mu Dan white tea features downy silver needles releasing a dewy floral bouquet mingled with sun-ripened fruits and meadow sweetness. Each sip delivers a mellow, soothing creaminess.

Wild Oolong Tea:  Hailing from a Wuyi Mountain tea family, our artisan has over 15 years of expertise in handcrafting traditional-style Wuyi Rock Tea and black tea, having learned the art from a young age by apprenticing with family members.

They seem a bit like that, with less to go on there about what the oolong is like.

Looking around that site the white tea lists for $20-some for 40 grams, and the oolong is around $30 for 40 grams (I'm seeing pricing in Thai baht, initially, so the pricing listing isn't exact).  $25 and 30 it is, switching that over.  I never do really evaluate value later in this post, since that gets speculative anyway, trying to fold together issues related to demand per type, quality level, novelty, and then likely final preference.  

Pricing over 50 cents a gram is getting up there, but for some specialty tea range that's still normal.  I tend to try to buy teas that are more like 20 to 30 cents a gram, or less, but then I also buy relatively directly from producers.  I usually drink sheng pu'er or black tea, with some better oolong and rarer white tea range running a little higher in cost.  

I guess the pricing is probably ok, but more direct comparison with similar versions would tell more of that story.  Then when you are considering novel wild-origin teas it can be harder to find similar products, of any kind or at any price level.

Review:

white, #1:  that's nice.  It's smooth, sweet, rich, and distinctive.  An unusual and pleasant flavor profile may be the story of this tea.  It seems to include a bit of mint, and then warmer depth offsets that, giving it complexity.  The mint is like wintergreen mint, or at least the artificial flavor represented as that, very mild in comparison with something like peppermint.  One part is vegetal, a little like fennel.  It might be easier to break down the rest next round.

oolong:  that's catchy too.  I'm not noticing a distinct familiar Wuyi Yancha style this fits into, which is probably just as well.  The warm tones and good balance seems to relate to this being a bit more oxidized and roasted than a modern lighter style that I'm more familiar with.  When it all works this other range can be even nicer.  Of course mineral tones are part of it, as a base for the rest.  From there it's complex, but hard to really break down.  One part may be closest to warm spice, and another range like dark wood.  Sweetness might tie to something like toffee.

white, #2:  the fennel part picked up most, which works.  It shifts to warmer tones, off fresh fennel into fennel seed range a bit.  It's harder to notice a mint background note but it still seems to be there.  Complexity seems pretty good; it's hard to communicate how that works based only on a couple of flavor descriptions.  Part of a warmer base also seems to relate to autumn leaf range.  To me that can be expressed differently, as dry, light, sweet tones or instead as wetter, heavier range, relating to fresh dry leaves or wet versions.  This is the first case, dry, light, and sweet, and also complex.

oolong #2:  this warms and deepens.  It includes that one peach-like note that can be distinctive in Dan Cong; interesting seeing that stand out this much in a Wuyi Yancha version.  I suppose interpreted differently it's just floral, but to me clearly peach.  It's so pronounced that at this round it seems like a pretty good Dan Cong version, which is not a bad range to fall into.  

It lacks the rough edge that often adjoins those, the harsh astringency, but in my experience that seems to tie to quality level in Dan Cong, and to some extent probably also to growing elevation.  Most likely the connection is a bit incidental, and cheaper higher volume production, low elevation farmed Dan Cong is not processed quite as well, with plants stressed with fertilizer input to get the most out of them, and higher elevation sources are harvest less, and allowed to grow more naturally.  All just guesses, of course.

The sweetness carries over as a pleasant aftertaste.  It could extend a little longer; as a quality level marker--if taken that way--this suggests that this is upper medium quality range, with room for improvement.

white, #3:  creaminess picks up; that's an interesting shift.  I hadn't even mentioned it before; I suppose that it had factored in.  Trying this a little lighter probably shifts what comes across.  I suppose it's worth noting again that I write all this before I see any vendor description; it's interesting that creaminess is mentioned by them and also stands out.

It still works to describe this as like fennel with a hint of mint, with warmer but sweet complexity along the line of autumn leaf.  It's transitioning though; within a round or two a different description will probably work better.

oolong:  still pretty close to a Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong that happens to taste a lot like peach, with some supporting floral range and warm tones.  It's fairly clean too, with good sweetness; all the other aspects indicate this is a little better than just "upper medium quality level."  Maybe not some elevated "best of the best range," but then it's not even matching a standard type that its origin relates to anyway.

This reminds me of one of Cindy's Wuyishan origin teas, from Wuyi Origin, tasting a lot like peach one year, when it normally might've included that but certainly didn't typically include such a pronounced aspect.  Terroir inputs can vary some year to year, and of course by narrow location.  

I looked at the vendor page for more description, since there wasn't much flavor breakdown in that initial sampler-summary version:

...tea exhibits a rich floral and fruity aroma that infuses the water. Upon sipping, the floral and fruity notes rise, filling the nose with their fragrance.The flavor is robust and refreshing, with a pronounced sweetness that stimulates the salivary glands and leaves a clear, crisp aftertaste. The enduring sweetness provides a lingering, delightful aftertaste that is truly memorable.

Heavy on marketing spin but that actually kind of works.  They might've mentioned peach.

white, #4:  there is another shift; that creaminess has edged towards creamsicle, which I guess relates to citrus picking up a little.  This will probably eventually transition to warmer tones, or at least heavier vegetal range, but I'll probably leave off taking notes here.  8 infusions is a lot for my patience, and the short quiet window on a Saturday morning for tasting will end before too long.  

This tea exceeded my expectations; I expected some positive character from it, but it's normal for a lot of white tea range to come across as much thinner, and more limited, not as complex or intense.  Beyond including that the flavor set is interesting, integrated, and positive.  I've not mentioned much for feel structure but it's not thin either.  Aftertaste expression is there but limited, which I don't see as that much of a limitation; it can vary in different tea versions.

oolong:  not that much transition, maybe just a slight shift in earlier aspects balance.  Dominant warm peach flavor works especially well for me, so that's fine.  

This is definitely a tea that a Dan Cong lover could appreciate, even they had adjusted to expect higher quality range.  Feel range is pretty good; it could be a little thicker, but it's fine.  Aftertaste is positive; it trails on afterwards nicely.  Complexity is good; warm toffee range fills in depth beyond the peach and supporting floral range.  

There's not that much mineral base, as lots of Wuyi Yancha oolongs go; I suppose that could be interpreted as a limitation.  Really it not being fully type-typical is either a main weakness or else a good thing, since the range expressed is so nice.  Someone splitting hairs could say that the feel structure not being full enough is a limitation, since it's not well-balanced by that input, but to me that's not really even a flaw in this, never mind a significant one.  It's quite good, and the "wild origin" description leads me to expect something a little off the standard range.  More natural growing conditions can often lend to novel flavor inputs entering in, as has occurred with both these teas.

These seem particularly well made.  Starting with good material is one thing, but teas need to be processed skillfully to bring out a well-balanced character.  There's a synchronicity that comes with all of it coming together in an amazing way, how the best of the best standard versions come across, and I'm not saying that these are there, because they're quite good but not that fantastic.  There are essentially no flaws to point out in either though, just a limitation here or there, an aspect range that could be dialed up a little.

For the white tea that comes with the general style; it usually doesn't match the complexity, intensity, and full feel and aftertaste expression of many other tea types.  For that tea it being so positive, complex, novel, and pleasant to experience is enough.  

The Wuyi Yancha could pass for pretty good Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong, even with oxidation and roast level appropriate for that, better than most tend to be, which to me is generally a good thing, just maybe a little unusual related to the trueness to type theme.

Not from this tasting, instead from drinking some random sheng pu'er yesterday, I wanted to mention something relating to this teaware.  You don't need to spend much to use functional, pleasant teaware.  I buy these 100 ml, plain, white gaiwans in a Chinatown shop, selling there for around $3, but $10 might be more typical from other sources.  These cups I buy at a Japanese ceramics outlet shop, for around $1 each.  It's like the Ross Dress for Less theme, I think; they sell extra versions from large batch local production.

Then I use two so that I can pour the tea from one to the other to cool it.  I tend to use an extra to re-hydrate some goji berries every morning, eating those as a supplement.  I think it's a good source of beta carotene, what vitamin A is derived from, and supposedly it contains anti-aging related compounds.  I'm not really endorsing that, just explaining why my daily tea setup uses three cups.

AI content use in tea marketing; message discussion with AI

 

I haven't avoided this topic, but I don't have much to say to about it, so I've never mentioned it here.  People are clear on why AI text content and pictures are interesting and positive, and also what the down-sides are, that kids can use it to write their paper instead of them doing so, while learning to write, and that it displaces artists, or people creating marketing content, and so on.

A recent post in a main Facebook group, Gong Fu Cha, drew criticism for being AI generated.  It was this:

𝐘𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐭

宜兴紫砂壶

History

The Yixing purple sand teapot, also known as Zisha teapot, has a rich history that dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) in China. The clay used for these teapots comes from the region around Yixing in Jiangsu province. This area is renowned for its unique type of clay called "zisha" or "purple sand," which can also be red or green.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Yixing teapots gained significant popularity, and many skilled artisans emerged, elevating the craftsmanship to an art form. By the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), Yixing teapots were widely regarded as essential items for tea connoisseurs.

Reasons to Use a Yixing Teapot

1. Porosity: The clay used in Yixing teapots is slightly porous, which allows the teapot to "breathe." This enhances the flavor and aroma of the tea over time, as the pot absorbs the essence of the tea brewed in it.

2. Heat Retention: Yixing clay has excellent heat retention properties, which helps maintain a consistent temperature during brewing, enhancing the extraction of flavors.

3. Patina: Over time, a patina develops on the inside of the teapot, further enhancing the taste of the tea. This makes each pot unique to its owner and the teas brewed within it.

4. Aesthetic Appeal: Yixing teapots are highly valued for their artistic and aesthetic qualities. Each pot is often handcrafted and can be an exquisite piece of art, reflecting the skill and creativity of the artisan.

The Yixing purple sand teapot is not just a vessel for brewing tea but a symbol of Chinese tea culture, artistry, and tradition. Its unique properties and the skill required to create them make Yixing teapots highly prized among tea enthusiasts and collectors worldwide.

It seems fine to me.  Or is it?  Is there a reason why a program writing this kind of content instead of a human discussing this background is problematic?  I'll get to all that.  Is the picture itself also AI generated?  Probably, but I can't tell for sure.  This one seems to be, from the next day:

Usually I have the next half a dozen points in mind, almost immediately mapped out, based on how I've arranged related ideas in the past.  Not this time.  It doesn't help that I don't care about clay teaware at all.  It's helpful for me to narrow tea related interest, to keep the scope manageable, and that has been a good dividing line.  

I own three clay pots for brewing tea, two of which I bought in Taiwan, and one of which my wife gave me from her father owning it, who hasn't been alive for the last 35 years.  I've not even fully seasoned the two that I bought about 6 years ago; I use gaiwans.  I know very little about clay teapots, and it works out better not to learn more.  Then someday I'll probably get to it.

Then the next picture relates to tea itself.  Someone mentioned in a comment that the tea cake looks like pu'er pudding, not the actual compressed tea.  Tea cakes don't really tend to look exactly like that; the material form and texture is ok but the shape isn't.  The text content is probably AI material too, for both.  So again, what is the problem?  Next bots could be coordinating this AI content generation and posting it themselves; how would that be a further problem?

It ties to another concern I've had recently about clearly fake group request profiles, that I tend to delete from the larger Facebook group I admin for (International Tea Talk).  Why has there been a wave of new, clearly fake profile requests?  Why were they not adjusted slightly to not be so obvious about not being actual people?  Probably within months those changes will occur; they'll update their process.  

They are easy to spot due to being created in the past two weeks or so, all with a single picture (which you have to click through to recognize, that the profile contains one picture), all based on background details that don't add up (from Ukraine, but living elsewhere, educated at Harvard, etc.).  Any one of those details is reasonable, but the sets don't seem to make sense together.

It all seems to add up to a problematic shift in how we are going to be experiencing social media, very soon.  Fake profiles will be much more common than they are now, and harder to spot, and they'll be able to create and post content that won't be as obvious as those two posts were.  

Someone posting one of those two mentioned that they prefer to use AI content to not steal random photos online from others, which works in one sense.  But that would be all the less easy to spot if content was presented as created by a person instead, as long as they managed where they farmed the content carefully.  Or not carefully at all, and the programs could just track which sources content had been taken from that were flagged and deleted later.  Of course if they steal from a main vendor, or use high-profile media content, or FB group post content, that's going to get noticed, but they wouldn't even need to use human intuition to filter that, they could just go by trial and error. 

The initial obvious problem isn't the main problem, that gradually AI will replace human specialist knowledge, and even interaction.  In the past low effort drop-shipping sort of vending startups were easy to spot, and they came and went fast.  It's not so much the form that is a problem, it's that you almost certainly would be buying tea from someone who knows very little about the subject, and is probably more concerned with streamlining and automated marketing (including content creation), ordering, and fulfilment process than with what they are selling.

Later on websites, sales portals, online background content, and interaction will all be much easier to generate relatively automatically.  We are already seeing more sophisticated vending materials that are obviously AI generated.  Later on it won't be as obvious.

It's the next step after that seems to be a concern.  The online interaction in relation to this automatically generated content will be supported by more sophisticated bots.  It's easy to spot now when online marketing posts are bolstered by positive comments from fake profiles.  The dots seem easy enough to connect, but they won't always be.  Later on an ad could lead someone to what seems to be developed content related to in-depth specialist exploration of tea, with online materials documenting a supportive and interactive customer base that reinforces how good that source really is.  And it all could be fake. 

Lets consider a rather unusual example case that relates to just how far this kind of thing could go.

Making friends with AI in social media

I think I recently discussed a range of different themes with a pilot program AI profile, earlier this year.  That's still only a high probability, because in some ways that "person" seemed real.  I suspect that's because input was being mixed from what was created by a human and then re-organized and managed by a program.

Maybe the context doesn't matter, but I can include that.  It was on Quora, a question and answer site that I had been more active in over the past, and still frequent.  I've created two Quora Spaces there, one about tea (Specialty Tea) and general cultural themes related to different national cultures (About Foreign Cultures), and have answered lots and lots of questions.  It seems as well to not flag the profile or add details that effectively do so, but the "shared interest" related to one of a dozen or so odd running themes I've written about here over the last year or two, but not tea.

I think I commented on something posted, then that "person" responded, then reached out about it through message, and we talked from there.  How would it not be obvious if it was really a person or not?  I think a lot of the starting point content was human generated, that initial discussion was created around what one would normally say about themselves, or respond to standard questions or starting points.  

Then there was a bit of limited continuity related to discussion flow; they didn't talk by messages as a person would, closely linking discussion themes.  This was explained away in terms of a contextual theme.  One of the first AI discussion programs, not so long ago, masked that the "person" was really a program by making them a teenager, which would explain away limited communication ability and inconsistency.  It was something like that, established as a base context early on, just not that.

It seemed like the mix of blending human created input with use and message functions by a program really worked.  It would be possible to have a person write out a number of responses or longer passages that tell a really compelling personal story, just a fictional one.  Written in the right way a number of content passages could have great depth, and really link together, then with most discussion content not holding up to that level.

It wouldn't even need to be fictional; there is no reason why I couldn't convert my own perspective, background, and life experiences into a relatable, convincing AI language model program, designed to discuss things with others.  It would help if I built in a relatively severe personal limitation, to mask inconsistencies and errors that would occur.  

It's not the one that probable-program I talked to used, but "coming clean" about experiencing mental health issues in the form of depression, anxiety, or manic episodes would work.  Then lapses in answering or discussing things consistently would be understandable.  The empathy of the person "it" talks to would kick in, and the person in discussion with it would be less likely to call out the program on not making complete sense, or forgetting things.

You could even have the program blame people when they repeated themes, for being repetitive, or forgetting points already made.  A little would go a long way with that; the more unpleasant a discussion experience would be the less likely it might be to continue.  This was actually an approach used in that discussion, cross-referencing repetition.

In my own case it would work to develop themes and discussion points related to my own interests, about running, or tea, and so on.  Getting a program to interact in the form of a normal conversation would be very difficult.  Chat GPT can mirror content creation very well now, but the flow of conversation is something else.  Any program model would be quite rough to begin with.  

How would you keep making adjustments to that?  You would create a profile on somewhere like Quora and practice.  Then you would watch out for when the function didn't work, I suppose especially related to when someone finally called you out on being a program.  After some discussion that "person" raised the issue of others accusing it / them of sounding like an AI, in kind of a cool twist, seemingly fishing for feedback.  

Or maybe it was a person, right?  Maybe the personal limitation they described makes them sound exactly like an AI, with the same kind of odd speech patterns, inconsistency, and range and discussion continuity limitations.

All of this is a lot more sophisticated than a bot posting about liking a tea would need to be, to create fake and misleading marketing content, identified as discussion instead of first-person product marketing.  But people are watching for that sort of thing already (and to a lesser extent moderation programs are); that's the problem flagged by these posts, in most of the comments responding.  Those people used AI generated images and some AI generated text content, essentially presented as what it was, and others immediately questioned if this was allowed under group rules.  

It's not prohibited in that group yet, as far as I know, because it just started appearing.  Then it's a bit scary that people are already populating these groups with hundreds if not thousands of fake members, profiles set up for some yet unknown purpose.  In the past it would've related to farming "likes," and it's probably partly that, but who knows what else is intended, or will become possible in the next year or two.

Another example; a scammer profile shows how far and fast this can develop

Someone just posted in a group related to Hawaii, where I live part of the time, asking a question, about surfing.  It looked odd, how they worded it, but their name, profile picture, and the question all looked pretty legit, until you looked deeper.  Then it was all clearly fake.  People commented that they were a scammer, but even before that I glanced at the profile to see why their comments seemed odd, worded unnaturally (which can just relate to someone using English as a second language).  I would assume the people flagging the account as a scammer related to getting direct messages, but that wasn't completely clear.

The pictures were of a Ukrainian model, with a very American name (along the line of Rose Smith, just not that).  One tell was the "person" being from California City, California.  That's a real place, with a population of 15,000, but foreigner scammers tend to mix things that make sense with what doesn't, like assuming that a city named after a state would be a conventional place to be from, without checking that it's really a very small town.  

Then even at a glance other parts of their profile didn't add up; an earlier feed post was about working as a runway model, and another related to being from Ukraine, both of which were not listed on the background.  The person was listed as a clothing designer at The Gap, linking to a Gap profile that had a few hundred likes, with one picture posted, so not "that" Gap.  A related website link was broken, pulling up a Chinese language notice that the site wasn't actively supported.

The rest is more about where I'm going with this; the profile was created in 2009, with those pictures uploaded in 2019 and 20.

Everyone already knows that there are a lot of fake accounts on all social media platforms, there to be used for farming likes, purchasing followers or friends, or for whatever other purposes.  For one to be that old it seems likely that the people using it, probably scammers, hacked into either an old and inactive account or took over an active one, which someone then gave up on using.  Posting stolen content years in advance related to laying a foundation for using the accounts.  They probably have hundreds set aside for such use, so they can initiate all sorts of related discussions and schemes, and then lose nothing when Facebook moderation shuts them down.

So far that's all pretty standard stuff.  When we see marketing content draw enthusiastic feedback from lots of profiles it looks like that's what this is, when people comment on how great a product looks, or they post linked mentions to notify their "friends" about it.

Once AI gets a little more sophisticated this will open up brand new forms of "sock puppeting," using secondary, alternate profiles to support points made in posts.  It seems so dodgy that it's hard to imagine tea vendors using this approach.  If someone is selling some odd drop-shipped product maybe they would go this route, paying for bot profiles to post lots discussion feedback and testimonials about how an off-brand shoe design or pair of pants is so unique and groundbreaking.  But for tea?  We aren't there yet.

I have tried teas from sources that seem to make a start towards that though, from people who know nothing about tea, using cut-and-pasted website marketing content, selling very moderate quality product versions, positioned somewhat randomly in relation to what the tea really is.  Once all that gets pushed a couple of steps forward the sites will be much cleaner, the text and image content much better, and packaging and vending forms more developed.  From day one it could include ample testimonial input, all made up, with social media posts populated with feedback from many satisfied customers.  

Bots could become much more adept at working backwards to navigate group rules; it wouldn't take much development for them to be better at that than most vendors now are.  You would think that a Darjeeling producer could write about issues or background related to Darjeeling, to post that as discussion, only implying that they can also sell related teas, but it's not like that now.  It's starting to be, but AI based bots could become better at that game than people in no time, maybe by the end of this year.

Luckily people aren't completely redundant, yet; we still need to function as consumers.  The bots can't develop their own financial resources and consumption demand requirements, or take personal satisfaction in online exchanges.  Once they do people will finally become obsolete.

Chinese Tea Time Oriental Beauty / Dong Fang Mei Ren

 

I'm reviewing a third tea sent by Chinese Tea Time for review (many thanks to them), this time a version of Oriental Beauty / Dong Fang Mei Ren.  

It's from China, so not conventional in background right away, since that's a Taiwanese origin oolong type.  Typically it's relatively oxidized in style, more so than most oolong range, twisted in dry leaf form, but in a looser, more curled form than Wuyi Yancha, Dan Cong, or sheng pu'er maocha.  Typical flavor profile includes citrus, bergamot or orange, warm tones, cinnamon, or dried fruit.  Even the leaf appearance of this version doesn't match the standard look, the twisted leaf preparation, so this may be a little off a standard form range.

a Thai Oriental Beauty version that I reviewed last year

This version, one produced in Thailand, shows that typical appearance.  Not only is the leaf twisted in a more open, coiled style color variation often includes dark brown and light tan colored leaves, sometimes with lighter bud content, as this includes.

I can't find a good product description of the Chinese Tea Time version I'm reviewing.  Here is a very general one on their Instagram page:

Dongfang Meiren or Oriental beauty tea is a semi-fermented tea with a mellow taste, easy to drink, and a beautiful bright yellow color. It is suitable for those who love to eat meat. It is rich in many benefits, such as...

Who knows about that kind of thing, attributed health benefits; you can click the link to check if you want.  Their Shopee sales page had included more details for the green teas that I reviewed, but it seems to be out of stock now, so there is no listing to reference.  After talking with the main business owner and contact it's unavailable, at least through that Shopee outlet, and they would only sell directly from China just now.  That earlier Instagram page probably works as a contact link, as well as any other.

To be clear their specialty is probably green tea.  Those earlier two versions were fantastic.  In discussing this with the business owner more input on that background came up:

I think the tea looks different because it wasn't made from a Taiwanese version of a tea plant, but from the plant used to make Xinyang Maojian instead.

Xinyang Maojian from Shangcheng (local area) has a unique smell and taste, which varies by origin location.  Shangcheng tea is unique and positive in taste because natural mineral water is used to grow the tea, and the air is clean (very little pollution).  Shangcheng is near the high mountain (Dabie Shan), and the highest point in those mountains.

I like the taste and smell of the tea from Shangcheng better than from the rest of the Xingang Maojian from other places.

Some of the tea we sell is made by Mr. Sun Wen Shan, a well-known tea master, whom I can say has golden hands.  He loves to make many kinds of tea, not only green tea, but white, oolong, yellow, and black tea.  He has always received awards in events he has participated in the event, this year receiving a gold medal in a local contest.  

Growing location is also a factor, a main input.  I sometimes like other green teas even more than his when they are produced from high mountain tea material sources, because these can include even more floral aspects.

All that is clear enough.  It's interesting to note that tea types can be made from plant types, cultivars, or else plant versions with naturally varying genetics, that have different names than the final tea types, or there might not be distinct plant names.  Either way this OB isn't made from a Taiwanese oolong plant, instead one more often used to produce green tea.

Maybe oxidation level is lower, as I've more or less guessed in this review, or maybe a lot of the difference is from plant type input and and minor variations in processing.  It sort of doesn't matter, how the causes sort out; the end effect is what it is.  The tea is good, just not a close match for conventional Taiwanese Oriental Beauty style.

Review:

Infusion #1:  this is different, not in the normal style range for the type.  Oriental Beauty is almost always about 80% oxidized, or at least that's how it tends to be presented.  Accurately identifying that as a percentage level might not work.  This is much greener, or at least it looks to be so, and flavor character suggests that.  It may work really well, it's just odd trying it in a different form.  

Flavor character is interesting.  There is a greenish / vegetal edge, and then other warm and complex range.  It's a little closer to how some Dan Cong comes across, just not exactly a match for that either.  I'm looking for conventional OB range, citrus, or bergamot, with cinnamon or other spice, and warm and sweet tones in general.  It's sort of like that, but I'd not describe it as such without seeking that out, being biased to find it.  It might be as floral as any of that.

#2:  I brewed this light; often that helps with identifying flavor aspects.  I'll try it brewed stronger next round to see how that changes things.  It's more complex than it had been, including an interesting flavor set.  Some warmer tones pick up, but it's still in a relatively medium range for warmth versus lighter floral or vegetal character.  Sweetness seems to resemble honey, and there is some citrus range, just not as pronounced as OB often includes.  From there it seems more floral to me, not really also including spice as much as that.

Judged in relation to quality this is clearly quite good.  Fullness is pleasant, general character is refined, and complexity is good.  As a match to standard OB style it doesn't work as well.  Someone really into that tea type might absolutely love this, or could be disappointed.  It would depend on the other range that they also like, and how they take this character not being the other way, more oxidized, warmer in tone, including citrus, sometimes dried fruit, even more sweetness, and some spice range, towards cinnamon.

People often want to guess if a leaf material input was really bug bitten, and for this it's more a question of what set of inputs is different.  Is it tea plant type, harvest period, terroir or processing related, or the bug-bitten part?  The oxidation level seems lower than is most typical, so that's a likely part of it.

  

[Later edit]:  per input from the vendor this oxidation level isn't really below medium range for oolongs, and the leaves look darker in the final wet version than I would expect.  But flavors match more lightly oxidized teas, and the brewed color is fairly light, dark golden yellow instead of on towards redder.

second infusion of that Thai OB; I'm using "redder" here loosely

As a separate aside, it's also possible that there had been some original range of "Oriental Beauty" style that is broader than we are now familiar with, that this type evolved later to become closer to black tea than it had been earlier on.  We now just assume that what is fairly consistent from Taiwan is how that tea type had originally been, but it's normal for preference for oolong types and how they are made to shift over time, even time periods as short as a decade.  Wuyi Yancha were more oxidized in a more traditional style, I've heard, and it's even clearer in relation to Anxi (Fujian) Tie Guan Yin, which have evolved to be hardly oxidized at all, often with little or no roast input in processing.  It's commonly mentioned that a more traditional TGY form was nothing like that in the past.

More likely this is a modern interpretation, based on the current OB form, but adjusted from that, more different in relation to a number of inputs varying than just one.

#3:  I'm not describing the vegetal input clearly for this.  It tastes like flower plant stem, that characteristic odd astringency, touch of bitterness, and light edge.  From there fullness of feel, clean flavors, and complexity identify this as good quality tea, but again the style is unusual.  Not just for Oriental Beauty, really; it's in an atypical range in general.  

I had said that this seems to share some common ground with Dan Cong, related to it being lighter (less oxidized), floral, complex, and refined, but it's not a close match.  That vegetal input isn't so familiar from any other tea type that comes to mind.  Any vegetal range overlaps most with green tea as a broad category type.

Feel is a little unusual too, more noticeable when brewed stronger.  It has an unusual form of the astringency.  I guess that matches what one might expect tying to the vegetal flavor, what might result from biting a flower plant stem, a mild puckering effect, versus other conventional fullness or roughness.  That part isn't necessarily positive, but not so negative either.  It just makes for an odd experience for so many parts being unconventional.  It's as if this is more connected to a tea type that I'm not familiar with, instead of being an example of Taiwanese-style Oriental Beauty.

#4:  citrus picks up; that's positive.  Warmth increases too, with the honey-like tone standing out more.  This is more like conventional OB than it had been.  If the plant-stem input was swapped out for something richer and deeper, like cinnamon or raisin, this would be a perfect match.  As it is these aspects work well enough together; it's pleasant.  

It's quite refined, a vague term I use to mean that it's clean, complex, and balanced in a way that's hard to describe.  Since this isn't transitioning so much I'll probably just do one more round of notes and let that go, even though this might only be half finished.

mixed oxidation level, per this color range

#5:  more of the same.  Depth may pick up just a little; this is evolving positively, even if it's not changing much.  That's a good sign for the quality level.

  

Later rounds, which I tried later and didn't take notes for, tasted distinctly like pine needle.  So much so that I wondered if I hadn't missed an obvious flavor interpretation, or if instead it had evolved to change, shifting from a different vegetal tone to that.

Conclusions:

Someone's experience of this tea would depend on how they relate to the atypical aspects set, if that seems positive or off-putting.  Often you can tie that to other types preference, for example concluding that a green tea or sheng pu'er drinker might love it, while a black tea drinker wouldn't.  Maybe that's it, setting aside the sheng part, since this isn't as intense, astringent in the same way, as bitter, or as complex across floral or other typical sheng range.  Someone would need to be open to a range of different green tea styles to appreciate this.  

A Dan Cong drinker may or may not completely get it; it overlaps with that type as much as any other, but still not so much, kind of in between that and green tea character.  That one vegetal flavor range and edge is different.  Anyone who mostly loves the connection between typical OB style and black tea range might be disappointed; it lacks the warmth, depth, heavier tones, and towards dried fruit sweetness and flavor, versus lighter honey.  Citrus is moderate, and in a different form than is typical for traditional OB, not the heavy bergamot / richer orange tone.

I like it; that may or may not have come across in the descriptions.  But then I'm also a black tea drinker, and love warm and rich oolong versions, so I might like a more basic and flawed conventional OB version as much as this one.  It probably matches preference better for people who drink green tea and also oolong, versus a sheng pu'er drinker who also likes black teas.  I like oolong too, lots of range of it, and it had been my main preference for years, but once you get swept up in sheng it's hard going back, and I use black tea as my main range for alternating experiences.

One last aside, that Chinese Tea Time vendor mentioned that direct sales from China are still possible, of course varying in relation to Spring green tea availability, with the 2024 season pretty much over now.  They were selling teas in a conventional diverse volume range through Shopee, the local Thai Amazon equivalent, but their sales from China would need to be higher in volume for that to still make sense, more like 500 grams per version instead of 50 or 100.  Their Instagram profile should work as a contact.

That list of health benefits, and the Instagram page appearance.  It's interesting that their Tik Tok page has good following, shown in a post citing that profile's high level stats.

completely unrelated, a cute little girl wearing a beanie