Placing sustainable, forest-based tea agriculture

I've not met up with Sasha Abramovich or Nok recently, and I finally did again this past weekend.  A local tea celebrity of sorts dropped by, Kenneth Rimdahl of Monsoon teas.  I'll say a little about what we tried and then run through some news related to Kenneth.  He's been doing a lot with a sustainable, forest-friendly tea sourcing that's the main theme here, with just a little on that meeting covered first.

a first outdoor tasting trial awhile back, last year

Tasting tea and hanging out

Sasha brewed two Tea Side teas for us, a 1980 sheng (reviewed here) and a 2006 sheng (re-reviewed here, in comparison with what turned out to be a different 2006 HTC Thai sheng).  It was interesting trying two teas I was already familiar with in a different setting.  The second tea is the first aged sheng cake I ever bought, so I have some at home, but I don't drink it often.  It's nice tea.

Sasha also brewed a few nice sheng samples from Tea Dee, commissioned or shop-produced tea versions that represent the best respected tea shop in Bangkok, owned by Khun Zhang.  Double Dog is as well known but for being a Chinatown cafe, and they also sell tea, but no other Thai business comes close to matching that shop's local reputation related to pu'er.  Oddly I've only visited them once, in a location that has since moved (now in Thanya Park), because that shop is way out towards the airport from where I live and work in the city center.  There's a nice park out there we visit once in awhile, Rama 9 / Suang Luang, but I never get my wife to agree to add tea shopping to the list of days' activities when we visit it.

view from their apartment; that's Benjasiri, the park in the last photo

Not much of a review of teas we tried so far, but I didn't intend for this to go into that.  There's more I could say about the Tea Dee cakes but it would only be a general impression due to writing this days later.  They seemed different from each other, generally sweet and floral in different ways, and like quite good tea material.  They didn't seem to be made in a drink-right-now modern style (more traditional instead), but not overly bitter, astringent, and unapproachable.  They seemed to represent tea that could still be a good value even if selling for over $100 per cake when "young," before aging; that's probably saying enough.

Kenneth brought a couple samples of interesting Ceylon / Sri Lankan teas.  I probably shouldn't say more about one that seemed unique in style and appearance since it represents a work-in-progress for a new product development.  A second (green tea, I think it was) was unique for being able to change color, to switch from the pale gold that green teas are to pink with a little lime added.  That transition capacity is familiar from blue pea / butterfly pea tisane but I've not seen actual tea that does that, until this one.  I definitely like green teas the least of any broad category but that tea was fine too.  The black tea version was a good bit better than "fine;" it was quite nice tea, and not exactly like other better Ceylon I've tried in style.

Onto news about Kenneth then, which does skip a lot of what we discussed that day, and how it went in general.  It was a nice outing.  We drank too much tea but I sort of saw that coming and only tried a couple of tisanes with breakfast.

Kenneth and Monsoon update

Monsoon opened a Bangkok branch around three weeks ago.  I've seen news related to that, but just didn't get around to visiting there or mentioning it here.  It's way out in the South-East of town, not as far as Tea Dee, but closer to that than to city center, my job (the main site), or where I live.  The second main site for the company I work for (not related to tea; the subject is a hobby interest) is actually out in Bangna, on Bangna-Trad road.  It's even further out than that Monsoon shop, and a ten minute drive from Thanya Park (but I use the sky-train here for commuting).

Monsoon's primary theme is selling tea blends, with a focus on Thai-produced forest-friendly tea.  I reviewed a white tea version a couple of years ago and that was nice.  Kenneth talked about that at a TedX talk a year or so back, and the Bangkok Post ran a story on him and the forest friendly tea theme. 

On a related subject, I ran through details of a different type of related sustainable-production initiative carried out in Laos in this post (which reviews two local tea versions), with a website of the related participating NGO covering more details.

Laos wild tea, photo credit Comité de coopération avec le Laos website (used with permission)

I have mixed feelings about this forest-friendly theme, and the background can be a bit complicated, so that I'll say more about all that here than I did about trying 8 or 9 novel teas earlier in the post.  Kenneth is nice, and he seems genuinely concerned about that sustainability concern; at least that seems to be a good starting point.

Forest-friendly sustainable tea production

Let's get the reservation and potential problem out of the way first:  this theme is at least in part a marketing approach. 

Teas really are healthy, but when a vendor promotes how healthy a tea is they trying to make a sale based on ideas that aren't usually as well-grounded as they represent them to be.  I think there is a good chance that green tea is good for cardiovascular health, and there is some research evidence supporting that, but when a tea vendor makes that claim it comes across more as sales-pitch than them trying to be helpful and informative.  I don't drink green tea much anyway; I don't like it as much, and other versions would overlap in terms of beneficial compounds present.

Some of that type of concern probably applies here.  A complete critique of how the factors are likely to balance isn't possible, self-interest based marketing versus broader-interest based sustainability focus.  It is possible to run through my take on how "real" I think this particular sustainability theme is, so I will cover that.

It's real, but it's not an important factor if the consideration is limited only to being related to tea in Thailand.  Let's back up and examine why I think that (and note that it is only my impression, to an extent).

This 2008 research reference offers us a dated snapshot of tea production in Thailand:

This 14 year old production summary converts to a total land space of 75,076 rai used to make tea.  That converts to 29,600 acres, or 47 square miles, an area of 6 miles by 8 miles.  It's a good bit of land, but essentially nothing at all compared the land used to grow rice, fruit, or palm oil here. 

Let's check on that and use the latter (palm oil production) for comparison:

According to this reference there are (as of 2015) approximately 700,000 hectares of land in use in Thailand for production of palm oil.  That equates to 17.2 million acres.  Put another way there is 58 times more land in use to produce palm oil than tea in Thailand.  That's based on these numbers; tea production probably has increased, and I wouldn't be surprised if that palm oil estimate is on the low side, based on driving past palm plantations for hours in the South, lands that had been cleared of all native vegetation for that use.  The palm oil production growth and land-use are escalating much more quickly too, since the tea industry is probably quite a bit more developed and mature now, with demand leveled off, making it a lot more of a development concern, as shown by this reference:

That's happening mostly in the South of Thailand, related to what climate supports growth of that palm plant type best.  The general idea is that scale of tea production just isn't on the same scale as other agricultural production, so the risk for environmental destruction directly related to tea farming also cannot be.  For all I know logging impact may well be more of a competing concern in the North than other forms of agriculture are, and land-use study might not be as easy to pin down for that kind of thing.

That would seem to point back towards this being a good story that sells tea, a basis for presenting ideas through different channels to promote a business, but not mostly based on a real issue.  Not so fast though; there seems to be more to this, and it doesn't reduce to only being a factor related to tea.

Forest conservation as a broader trend

There are definitely competing interests that relate to land use and forest preservation; this much is clear.  Destruction of standing old-growth forests to produce tea may well be a relative non-issue, compared to the scale of other agricultural-use concerns, but preservation of those forests definitely is an issue.  Thailand, like most other countries, has set up environmental reserves and protections that tie to a broad range of concerns.  I highly recommend reading this background summary on Forest Management in Thailand, prepared by the International Forestry Cooperation Office, a branch of a government protection agency that also involves Thai Royal family support.  Their summary outlines the current status and goals:


...There is no doubt that remaining forests need to be protected and that deforested areas need to be replanted. Moreover, there is no disagreement that local people must be involved in conservation efforts if they are to succeed...

...Forest resources provide a multitude of goods and services, including pulp, timber, nontimber products, medicinal and edible plants, as well as other raw materials such as rattan and bamboo. More than 1,000 recorded species of plants contain medical properties and 30,000-40,000 households harvest them on a full-time basis. Furthermore, 60% of the rural population or roughly 30,000 communities living near forests rely on edible plants for their daily needs and more than 500 species of these plants are sold in local markets throughout the country... 

The past history and regulatory efforts in place described in that short work are too detailed to summarize here, even in citation sampling format like that.  One general theme meets back up with what Kenneth is promoting related to tea:

...Communities located within and near forests have been motivated to participate in the sustainable management of natural resources through well designed conservation policies and legal frameworks, especially those pertaining to forests, which have been amended to address rapid social change and emerging environmental issues...

...Thailand, which once exported timber, is now a net importer and has high expectations of the role forests will play in nature conservation. Since 1989, all natural forest (25% of total area) is protected by law from commercial exploitation...

...Community forests in Thailand are classified into two types: natural and rehabilitated or developed. They can be established on three categories of land: national reserved forest or public and overgrown areas; land under the jurisdiction of other government agencies (e.g., monasteries, educational institutes, military areas); and private locations.

The first type consists of natural forests where people in nearby communities join together to protect them in order to benefit from their productive capacity and to maintain their norms and culture... 


I'm sure that there are functional programs and other initiatives in place that support sustainable, natural-growth land use, even beyond what is described in that reference.  At the same time the more that minimal impact land use can enable economic development the more effective and functional those programs will be in practice.

One additional context detail:  the tea is already there

This part I almost left out, as familiar ground to me since I've been reviewing this relevant background for a couple of years (based mostly on input from Kenneth, and also other sources prior to talking to him), but it wouldn't be familiar to many.  The tea plants are already there, essentially growing wild.  Tea was introduced into areas in Southern China, Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand well over a millenium ago. 

Which forms of the tea plants are the most original and native, and the role people played in distributing them are debated, but the consensus take is that wild forms of Assamica (one of two varieties of Camellia Sinensis) first originated in Yunnan, and that movement of the plants to a broader region was probably helped out quite a bit by people.  Thailand was settled by waves of people from China and other places extending back well prior to known history.

It's really something of an unrelated tangent here, but I'll include a citation about the plant-history of tea that relates, and a link to support further reading:

The tea plant was initially domesticated in China over 4,000 year ago (Yamanishi, 1995)... 

...we calculated China type tea and Assam type tea as having first diverged approximately 22,000 years ago, and Chinese Assam type tea and Indian Assam type tea as having diverged from each other approximately 2,770 years ago... 


There is a lot more to that story.  The short version:  tea plants are there, growing relatively wild in the North of Thailand, almost certainly put there by groups of people who aren't well-documented by a known history (but some pre-history is described here).  Kenneth emphasizes that earlier use relates to miang consumption, to practices of eating tea that are common to those in Myanmar (and in Northern India, I think?), and probably other places.  I'm not sure if eating tea really did pre-date brewing tea, locally or elsewhere, or if it's possible to place the two in relation to each other as regional traditional practices over a long time-frame.

Deeper detailed history aside, what I'm trying to summarize here would seem very odd if the idea was to plant some sort of community farms inside forested areas, versus using leaf material from plants that are already growing there (the actual case).  If these forests are destroyed for alternate use, or perhaps even just used for logging (depending on tree-harvesting process used), many of the tea plants and other useful bio-diverse plant-life might be destroyed.

Onto conclusions

It might seem like I'm concluding that every little bit helps, and that what Kenneth is promoting is one small step in the right direction, joining other government initiatives and land-use themes.  That seems at least partly true, if potentially a bit optimistic.  Not all government programs are effective at achieving intended goals, and I'm not sure how much economic benefit "wild" tea development currently has on such concerns, or what the future potential is.

All the same these ideas map together in an obvious way.  The theory and broad government-control directive requires other steps and drivers to support it; that much was cited here in that Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment summary.  It's not "sustainable" in one deeper sense for only government restrictions and NGO monitoring and education efforts to prevent high-impact forest land use; a positive economic driver could potentially also play an important role.


Is it better for the Thai natural environment to buy Monsoon wild-grown tea instead of plantation-produced oolong?  Maybe a little.  There wouldn't be a significant effect from that personal choice on a small scale but to some extent the small inputs would "roll up."  I suspect that Kenneth and Monsoon's efforts round down to making no difference taken alone, but that all such forest-use initiatives considered together are a significant factor, and one that can potentially be extended. 

To me this leads directly on to considering other factors.  If you buy a tea blend sold in a small tin, what about the pit-mine impact from producing that metal, versus use of some other type of packaging?  The mine for the metal ore might be in Laos, with the packaging production in China, and the likely end point for the tin as a landfill in Thailand, with transportation related impact all through those steps. 

This is part of our current set of challenges; sorting out which inputs and causal connections really do make a difference, and identifying how to maximize the cumulative effects of our choices.  It starts out as simply as choosing paper or plastic bags, or deciding to carry re-usable cloth bags instead.  If one person's choice in some regard extends to a factor of a thousand times more impact than which tea source they choose then more focus is better directed there.

In conclusion, how much difference this really makes is hard to place.  But it is one representative part of a very important subject that does need to be addressed.  Probably palm oil farming represents a real land-use issue that needs to be considered and monitored at a national level, more so than tea production.  Of course China is destroying natural areas much faster to ramp up tea production there, because tea is a much larger industry there.

clear-cut tea farming (but not in Thailand or China)

It would be nice if personal beverage choices could make a marginal difference in long-term land use in Thailand.  To some limited extent Monsoon products represent that potential, whether that is actually the main driver for their sourcing framework or not.  I think Kenneth's intentions are good, but of course businesses also need to be profitable, so goals tend to mix.  If profit is motivating this development and natural-growth forest preservation and use is also being supported then it represents a case of multiple forms of values matching up.

For me personally I try to remain skeptical about claims and background descriptions made about tea across a broad range, but also stay open to new ideas, and remain somewhat optimistic.  Drinking a different version of tea won't make much difference, but helping make a little difference could reasonably be experienced as a positive thing.

Jip Eu traditional roasted-style competition grade Tie Guan Yin

Maybe the visit after this one (Kittichai is lower right)

Kittichai, the Jip Eu shop owner (my favorite shop in Bangkok), passed on samples of this tea to me during a recent visit.  I don't even think they sell this; it was from his visit to a tea competition back in Anxi, which focused on Tie Guan Yin oolong from there.  He has family in both Wuyishan and Anxi, Fujian, so ties back to tea growing and production related to both Wuyi Yancha and the TGY typically lighter rolled style oolongs.

Traditionally those TGY oolongs weren't as light as is relatively universal now, or so the common story goes.  It's still possible to find more traditional slightly more oxidized or more roasted versions (or both; it's great when both inputs can balance well).  I compared two versions in an earlier post, once lightly oxidized and heavily roasted with the other at a medium level for both.  It probably related as much to preference as to one being objectively better (although quality would be an input, along with style), but I liked the medium-oxidation medium-roast version better in that case.

We'll see what this seems to be.  According to Kittichai this version may or may not have been a type / category winner but it definitely placed, passed on to him from a producer participating in that competition.

So I don't think they have more to sell at their shop (Jip Eu), but they do carry a really broad range of teas, including good TGY, so someone looking for that should visit and spend some time tasting with them, to see what they like of what they do carry.  They specialize in Wuyi Yancha instead but I've bought a good moderate priced version of Dan Cong there, and good Longjing (green tea), and lately aged sheng tuochas that I've not got around to reviewing.

I went back twice to buy another after trying this; I should write about it

Review

second infusion, but it's still opening up

It's definitely a bit roasted.  Some roasted versions are charred, cooked long enough that mostly that roast stands out, and of course as a well-above average quality version this strikes more of a balance.  I think it will develop further as the leaves unfurl more but it's nice early on.  It has a characteristic sweet, floral aspect common to a lot of Tie Guan Yin, distinctive of the type, especially versions grown in Anxi, versus those transplanted to other places.  It also comes across as a hint of cooked sweet corn, with a warmer general tone than unroasted version express.  The sweetness really stands out too; it tastes a bit like a light caramel, like a browned sugar.

On the second infusion the tea picks up some depth and the roast really stands out, the related cooked-sugar sweetness.  The balance of the tea works, how the aspects come together.  This may have been oxidized slightly more than the bright green TGY versions but it's the roast that's responsible for most of the transition away from that type of final character, for sure.  It seems to me that's a standard style now, to keep oxidation level relatively low and use the roast to adjust flavor profile, versus oxidizing the tea more and also roasting it.  There is a very faint hint of char but in general it just warms the flavor range profile and converts some floral and light vegetal character more to a cooked sugar range.  Mineral is pronounced as well; that balances the other aspects well.

The next infusion was on the fast side, to see how the tea works out made as a light infusion.  For once this proportion is such that gaiwan isn't filled with leaves, so flash infusions aren't necessary to adjust for that extreme.  The tea works well light but the flavors come across a little thinner; at this proportion infusion times of over 10 seconds work better, with optimum depending on preference.

The roast effect draws out flavor complexity that's hard to describe, but I'll give it a go.  Mineral range extends to an inkiness, to tasting a bit as ink smells.  That may or may not be related to roast; just as likely not.  The sweetness and floral aspect probably aren't resulting from roasting either, except in the way the sweetness takes the form of cooked sugar versus a lighter range.  One light vegetal range in the last round reminded me a little of how better grades of marijuana smell.  This might be wrong but for some reason I thought that might be tied to terpenes, the aroma compound set. 

Let's check a reference on that (tied to a different product subject mentioned in this text, but the terpenes scope is the same):


What you’re sensing in meals, fruits, flowers, and even cleaning products are terpenes.

These organic compounds that give plants flavour and smell (and the reason you can tell a difference between a coconut and a raspberry) are present in cannabis flowers, too.

So let’s dive into what terpenes really are... Terpenes (pronounced tur-peens), or terpenoids, are aromatic metabolites found in the oils of all plants.

There are more than 20,000 terpenes in existence and at least 100 produced by the Cannabis plant. Terpenoid production evolved over time in plants, including cannabis, to attract pollinators and to act as defense compounds.



So there's that.  According to that reference they not only smell nice in different ways they also have an effect on people:

...terpenes have their own effects apart from their relationship with cannabinoids, including inhibiting serotonin uptake and enhancing norepinephrine activity (acting as antidepressants), increasing dopamine (regulating emotions and pleasure experiences), and augmenting GABA (the “downer” neurotransmitter associated with relaxing effects).


But are these found in tea?  Yes, according to a World of Tea reference (now rebranded as a Specialty Tea Alliance reference):

The flavor and aroma of each tea depends on a wide variety of combinations of these compounds, hence the name aroma complex. Compounds such as, linalool and linalool oxide are responsible for sweetness; geraniol and phenylacetaldehyde are responsible for floral aromas; nerolidol, benzaldehyde, methyl salicylate, and phenyl ethanol are responsible for fruity flavors; and trans-2-hexenal, n-hexanal, cis-3-hexenol, and b-ionone are responsible for a tea’s fresh flavor...

Linalool is one, a linear terpene, with a list of some other cyclic terpene compounds familiar as tea-related flavors in the following Wikipedia table graphic:

That aromatic compound Wikipedia reference is interesting, the rest of it, to me well worth a look.

The next round isn't so different.  Again it's nice the way the mineral, sweetness, floral, touch of sweet corn, cooked sugar / light caramel, and light vegetal aspect all balance.  There is really no char at all to be noticed; the little that was present faded over the first couple of infusions.  This tea doesn't transition much (change over the rounds) but then at least it was nice the whole time.

A touch of aromatic wood tone joins in at this infusion (4 or 5?), towards cedar or redwood, just not quite that aromatic.  The transition costs the tea a bit in terms of sweetness and floral range but that still works well; it still balances nicely with the rest.

I really liked the tea.  The high quality level is evident.  That balance of slightly more oxidation and some limited roast input in the other version I mentioned in another review worked slightly better, but in this case it was more a style difference than related to this tea not being as good a version.  This style still does work; the roasting draws out a nice complexity, in addition to just changing the initial character.  It retains the brightness and sweetness and adds other levels.  I just like the warmth and different tone of slightly more oxidized oolongs better, and the overall balance such a profile can strike.

with her best friend during Chinese New Year

Nyot Ou Laos huang pian from Anna of Kinnari Tea

I'm trying another tea from Anna, the owner of Kinnari Tea (of Laos), passed on by her in a visit here two months ago (with an earlier write-up of other Laos sheng versions here).  I'm not getting behind in trying teas, I'm staying behind.  I looked through what I had from her and there's a Moonlight White, one of my favorite types.  Somehow I felt like experiencing this one more today based on immediate inclination though, a huang pian version.  I don't think she sells this tea, to clarify that related to a "Kinnari Tea" reference; it's my impression that in this case she just passed on a sample of something interesting she had ran across.

I've botched her tea description before by reading the writing wrong so I'll cite the picture along with saying what it is:

I'm reading that as Nyot Ou Nammanoy Huang Pian, produced in October of 2017.  According to Maps Yot Ou is a district in Laos North-West of Phongsaly (likely an odd difference in transliteration), and I'd expext that other name to be a local village, although it is conceivable that it's a reference to something else.

Somehow it's not surprising that Maps doesn't know the names of local villages in Northern Laos yet.  Pulling that up in a search brings up a video by William of Farmerleaf about visiting that area, on a development initiative I've said more about in the past, here.  That first post I mentioned (reviewing another tea from Anna) talks through that connection, about an NGO initiative there related to improving options for local tea production, covered in this other reference link.  To me that's a fascinating subject, and both William's take on it and that other organization's reference information is well worth checking out.

Review

The initial flavor is interesting, and novel.  It's soft, in a different range than conventional sheng, which is to be expected; that's kind of the point.  Huang pian is yellow leaf tea, older leaf versions that had yellowed, also called "farmer's tea" due to being sorted out in processing and drank by farmers instead of being sold (due to not being regarded as a standard version the tea, not because it's better).  It's sweet, and a bit earthy, like a very mild wood or tree bark tone, even a bit towards cork, but not in a way that is musty or sour.  It's not really fully infused yet on this first round so I'll pass on a longer description on the next one.

On the next round intensity ramps way up, the underlying mineral tone and the rest that I'd already described, mild wood, tree bark, and a touch of cork.  There's a little spice in there too, probably; transition may draw that out to be more noticeable.  The main flavor is tree-bark, along the lines of birch or aspen tree bark, a thin paper-type version of one.  Pine bark has a much different scent, towards the needles, but just as close to the wood, with the bark a bit earthier than either.  Other hardwood tree bark is much warmer and more aromatic, closer to how a fermented version of cinnamon might come across (which is itself a type of tree bark:  Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus Cinnamomum). 

One might wonder why I would know so much about tree bark.  I split a lot of firewood in my childhood, and even did some commercial logging at one point.  It was a hands-on labor-intensive rural sort of childhood.  I remember my sister once getting partly rolled under a full sized tree trunk we were moving around when she was probably around 6 or 7, which would've made me 8 or 9.  At least I wasn't the one using the chainsaw.  We cut and split a lot more firewood for use in a fireplace and wood-burner than that, the theme that comes up in Abraham Lincoln's childhood.

wild turkeys in the PA woods at my parent's house

 
Some might interpret this as me saying that my life was a bit rougher than it should have been, but I don't mean that.  Some other work I helped with went a bit overboard, construction work, building maintenance, and car restoration, but all of it made me who I am today.  Nothing I ever do is as hard as building a house at 13, not even getting through a difficult engineering program, or taking up unfamiliar work in a foreign country.  Back to the tea theme though.


The mineral range in this version is interesting; it comes across as a heavy type of rock and also as metal.  Bark, rock, and metal probably doesn't sound good as a description (although I'd imagine there are people who think it does), but it really works.  It's about the flavors balancing well together, in addition to each one being "clean" in effect and positive.  A little too much metal or the wrong effect from tree bark would make a tea seem undrinkable, but in the right balance it can be very nice, as this version is.

It's not all that close to other more conventional forms of pu'er, to use a comparison to help place it.  The overall effect is probably closer to a hei cha, to a mild and sweet version of a Hunan Fu brick tea, but the flavors aren't a perfect match for that.  It's tempting to express a related general description, to say that Hunan Fu brick teas follow some general pattern for aspects, but I've not tried so many that even the initial comparison is clearly justified.  Here's a review of version with golden flowers, and a review of a version without, as an initial start on that.

On the next infusion (the third) the metal / mineral picks up in relation to the tree bark / wood, but otherwise it's similar.  There's a catchy way in which the aftertaste stays along the center of your tongue; it's an effect you get from drinking from a natural spring or artesian well when the water is heavy with minerals.  Probably tied to certain minerals, as much as proportion, but I have no idea what those would be.

It makes you wonder what kind of intake of minerals a broad-type, consistently high volume tea drinker would take in, doesn't it?  Some kinds of water alone can have elevated levels of some minerals, and for this beverage we are extracting what the plants intentionally extracted from the ground water and stored in the leaves as functional cells and compounds like chlorophyll.  I'm not worried, more the opposite; I wonder what health benefits result from intake of the various compounds in teas, and from the minerals.  I don't spend a lot of time considering or researching that but at a guess I'll be healthier for drinking a lot of tea.  Or already am; I turned 50 a few months ago and it would be normal for me to look older at this age.  It's not as if I've never appeared in a photo in this blog but I'll go back through my Photos back-up to show a picture as related background.

probably not ideal for purpose; Bangkok has been smoggy lately

that works better; from two weeks ago

oddly that was the picture of them acting the least silly

On the next infusion (fourth) vegetal range gains back some ground, but the character is shifting a little.  It still contains some tree bark range, but green tree wood is ramping up, with more of what could be spice filling in.  To me--and this aspect is faint enough that this is even more an interpretation than most descriptions, which are all at least partly that--the spice is closest to nutmeg.  Nutmeg seems a complex-flavored spice to me, not one that expresses one simple flavor, in the same way cinnamon generally comes across (or at least to that extent; cinnamon has a lot going on too).  It probably only relates to part of what nutmeg tastes like.  I'll stop short of breaking nutmeg flavor into parts; although it's tempting to go there that would probably be incoherent.

4th infusion; they tend to start to look the same

On the next infusion (fifth) it could be my imagination but it seems like sweetness is picking up a little.  It was at a normal level before, enough to provide a good balance for the rest of the range, just not so notable that I was going on about it.  Usually the compounds that seem to come across as sweetness seem to infuse out earlier on, stronger over the first 3 or 4 infusions, so the effect is usually tapering off around the fifth infusion instead of ramping up.  It's probably just a quirk related to what I'm noticing.  It's roughly the same as the last infusion, and that one aspect is probably not really different.

I just brewed two infusions one right after the other, which reminds me of a point I made on another review (might as well make this blog repetitive); brewing temperature does change outcome, and waiting 10 minutes between infusions to allow the device and leaves to cool will change things.  I was messing around for at least 15 minutes prior to the fifth infusion, and now at the sixth round this tea was brewed hotter. 

It doesn't change much, throwing off that theory a little, but it is slightly different.  Wood-tone along the line of sticks had been strongest in that last round (which I didn't get around to noting) and this is closer to including a touch of cinnamon now.  That relates to the earlier-mentioned nutmeg; the two aren't that far apart.  Really it's in between cinnamon and nutmeg for this round, so tied to it even closer than only mentioning cinnamon implies.

Conclusions / interpretation

This tea is far from spent but it does seem to be fading a little on the seventh infusion.  Using longer infusion times, finally extending them to over 10 seconds, will adjust for that, although drinking two more on the light side would also work well.  Changing parameters related to infusion time will change aspect balance a little; it brings on a natural transition in what you experience, along with some compounds already rinsing out more than others.  This type of tea will probably be very pleasant out to very late rounds since the character was already in the range for where late-round brewing often goes (a bit woody, warm mineral, etc.), and that was already working out well.

It's a cool version of tea.  In one sense it's simple and straightforward; it's not thin or lacking in aftertaste, but compared to really intense sheng it's not doing as much with those ranges.  Flavors aren't necessarily intense, but they are unusual in the range they cover.  Small shifts in aspects or just in the balance of aspects make the tea seem different, since it is somewhat subtle, and expresses mineral and vegetal range in a novel way.  Per a different interpretation this could all just be regarded as "autumn leaf;" the character isn't so far from that, close enough that it also works as a description.

I'm not sure why this tea is like this.  It's a 2017 huang pian; that's what I know from the label, beyond a source area description that doesn't ring a bell, surely a place in Northern Laos.  It's says "10 / 2017" so this being an autumn harvest tea is a factor; those are more subtle, and likely different in character in standard ways that I'm not the best person to summarize.  It's a compressed tea; that's not unusual at all for Yunnan sheng versions, but production in places like Laos (and Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar) doesn't always relate to using that last processing step, re-softening and pressing the maocha, designed as much to enable the tea to travel better (initially), and now for aging storage, more than for the limited changes in character doing that causes.

I'm not sure why it's so brown, but then I suppose that is probably normal for how huang pian (yellow leaf) versions age over a year + time-frame.  Conventional sheng often starts out greener, or greenish-grey, more of a typical rock color, and then just darken, even over the first year, or especially then.  I think what I'm seeing for conventional aging patterns may not be typical, since it's very hot and humid here in Bangkok.  Sheng loses that new-sheng character fast, and an edgy young shu transitions to smoother and sweeter and complex in a different way fast too.  Teas tucked away in storage aren't experiencing the daily heat related to swings in temperature quite as much as I am (it's 34 C out now, 93 F, and it's not even the hot season, and only noon).

It was a nice tea to try; something interesting and pleasant in a novel way.