Banzai 2017 Shan Myanmar sheng

Back to this subject, regional versions of sheng.  Noppadol Ariyakrua passed on another Myanmar origin sample two weeks ago at that last tasting in a Bangkok zoo that I'm finally getting to.  It has a cool look, with long, twisted leaves that are mixed in color; should be interesting.

I'll comparison taste it along with some of the 2018 version Lamphang Thai sheng Noppadol gave me awhile back.  He sells both versions, I think, that Thai version through a Lamphang Tea business, and this through Exotic Teas Thailand (with that second group FB page only in Thai).

Thai Lamphang sheng left, Myanmar right.  Both have a cool look.

It might make more sense to compare it to the other Myanmay sheng that I just reviewed but this Thai version should make for an interesting baseline.  It's light and sweet as new sheng goes, intense but not bitter, and complex in flavor.  The Myanmar sheng I tried not so long ago was nice too but a bit heavier on mineral content and bitterness.  It seemed like hanging around a couple years might take the edge off that version a little, even though it was quite drinkable now.


If this tea is very close to that one then the comparison will be more of a contrast, and won't inform anything, but either way I would still get to try the Thai version again.  I think I'll pass on the last of what I have from the loose sample to Huyen, who will be swapping some more Vietnamese sheng with me while someone she knows well visits, a perfect chance to work around shipping.  I'll try to keep this basic; the page and a half flavor by flavor descriptions can be a bit much to write, and probably also to read.

Noppadol at the park tasting (with Sasha checking out a squirrel)

One quick tangent first:  I more or less did a short version of a caffeine detox yesterday (at time of initial draft), all but going off it for one day.  "Detox" isn't the right word; that's a reference to people drinking whatever it is they drink to do more of what the liver and kidney already do.  I'll go to a Bangkok group meeting about that subject in a week; should be interesting.  It seems possible for people to take part in practices that are really healthy, even though they get the reason for why the steps taken are healthy completely wrong, which may apply in this case.

About the caffeine part, I only drank a little tea in the morning and decided to go with a tisane with lunch, that Russian willow herb I have left at work (aka Ivan chay, which I reviewed while investigating Cold War Eastern Germany teas).  A headache set in during the evening, which I wrote off to drinking wine at a parents meeting function at school, but in retrospect I was going through withdrawal.  I really should step the caffeine intake down over this weekend but I'll limit that to just not going overboard.  A few days later, since writing this draft, I've only been drinking tea once most days, and tried out having a tisane with lunch one day instead of tea.  It seems a good idea to offset the normal tendency to keep ramping up caffeine intake by taking a step back once in awhile, not necessarily going off it "cold turkey," but dropping the level enough to only experience limited withdrawal.

Review

After a fast rinse I gave the first round about 15 seconds, slightly on the long side as timing goes for a higher than average proportion I usually go with.  I moderated that for this tasting; the results will be as good and I can get further through rounds drinking two teas, without getting blasted by caffeine intake.  I don't expect much of that crazy cha-qi drug-like effect that came up with tasting aged Thai sheng recently.

Thai sheng left, Myanmar version right (and in following photos)

The Thai version is nice, still a bit light but sweet and pleasant, with good intensity even for being brewed lightly.  That's more why I'm drinking it than to help with comparison, which may or may not work out.  Bitterness is quite moderate, on the low side compared to a lot of young sheng, lower than for some new Yiwu versions.  It's catchy; the floral tone leans towards fruit, or may just be fruit depending on interpretation, maybe closest to dried mango.  There are a lot of kinds of mango, so lots of versions of dried mango too; this would be one of the lighter, brighter, citrus-oriented ones.

The Myanmar version has a really interesting character.  It's more intense, just not in that same bright fruit and floral range.  Part of what is there is floral, but a deeper, richer floral tone.  The main aspect that stands out, not for being strongest but for being the most novel, is a perfume-like effect.  Perfumes span a broad range, depending on what's in them, of course, but they share a common character related to how distilling a scent into an alcohol based carrier limits or changes what was there, funneling it into either a certain range or a certain form of presentation.  This is like that.  There's an interesting earthiness too, a tree-leaf sort of effect, the version that's like freshly fallen leaves in autumn.

Given how sweet and bright that is as forest scents go you can imagine how rich floral tone, fresh fallen leaves, and a bit of distilled essence of lots of things can more or less align.  Not match, but make sense together.  It's a novel effect.  No one would be drinking sheng to seek that range out, because it's not common or typical, but for drinking tea to experience something novel it's perfect.  I'll add more about other aspect range and fill in the rest about taste in the next round.

this Myanmar version (right) is a good bit darker

Second infusion

This really isn't mostly about the Thai version, since I've already reviewed that, so I'll keep this limited about that half.  It's moving towards even more citrus, now a bit lemony.  The sweetness is nice, and intensity, and there's a bit of fruit, floral range, and even a slight creaminess beyond that lemon zest standing out.  This Myanmar tea is interesting, novel, and pleasant too, just in a different way.  Bitterness is limited, with just a little, not like the other version earlier.  Some light astringency gives it a fuller feel, and ties in with the flavor that remains on your tongue after drinking it.

The Myanmar sheng isn't transitioning as much as the earlier range just developing, ramping up.  The overall flavor and feel is really bright and clean; it wouldn't take much mustiness at all to completely ruin the effect of that novel aspect range, but there's none there.  Again the floral tones are rich and perfume-like, maybe as deep and intense as lavender.  What I was interpreting as fallen leaf doesn't ramp up as much, so it's harder to notice, coming across more as part of a warm mineral range now instead.  Some of the feel remains after swallowing the tea, the thickness of it, not so much even a slightly rough astringency, but the flavor lingers on as a much more intense effect.  Again there is a touch more bitterness than in the Thai version but not pronounced as in the other Myanmar sheng I reviewed.

Both of these are those kinds of teas that more poetic reviewers could really do a lot more with describing.  Maybe I'll try that next round; let imagination take over and list out a lot of what may or may not be there, just to communicate the general effect through those.  It doesn't seem to work to address feel and aftertaste very well along with such free-form musings, which seem to more naturally focus on flavor.

Third infusion

Thai version left, Myanmar right

It's interesting that this Myanmar tea is a bit darker (the leaf), and brews a bit darker.  It may have experienced some very wet storage and fast aging in it's first year of life.  It's a 2017, and the Thai version 2018, which may have shifted aspects more than it would have stored elsewhere.  I just saw a description of those Tea Side sheng as being dry-stored in Northern Thailand, which seemed a little odd to me.  In slightly higher elevation areas well away from any sea weather patterns could have it a good bit drier up there, than where I am right now, in Bangkok.

That's 89 F, for people in the States.  63%  RH doesn't feel right at all; it's been raining continually for the last week, including all day yesterday, and it's as muggy as it could be.  They might be measuring that somewhere outside of town where everything being soaked is less of a factor, where fresh air carried in is not affected by that.  Back to the teas.


The Thai version shifts to pick up more mineral; not a bad change.  It gives it a slightly drier effect, but it's still on the soft and somewhat "juicy" side.  The flavors in this version aren't as quite as well-suited for free associating connections as in the last round but here goes.

Citrus is pronounced, still like lemon rind, but moving a little towards sweet grapefruit, the red kind.  It's floral, which I'm not good at connecting to specifics.  The mineral is bright and flinty, towards the edge of metallic, but in a pleasant sense.  Some of the other range is a light, clean, warm earthiness, a bright woodiness a bit like popsicle stick.  It's hard to connect a flavor to the sweetness; it's just sweet, but I suppose closest to sugar cane versus honey.  A different interpretation of some of that range could be a bright, light version of vegetal scope, along the lines of fresh tree leaves, which we can call sugar maple to fill something concrete in.

So why didn't I mention some of that initially?  It's an interpretation, as much as what I actually experience.  Anyone else could "take" all that in a completely different way, and not be more or less right.  It helps describe what the experience is like at the cost of maybe going too far; it's like that, but that's not necessarily a clear and completely accurate description.  Let's leave aside feel and aftertaste and apply the same approach for the Myanmar version.

Perfume like-floral range stands out.  One part of that is rich lavender, another trailing into what the solvent base might contribute, which leads towards an old books scent.  Not the mustiness of a tropical library (like where I used to love studying in at UH Manoa, in Hawaii, where those books were fermenting from being too damp).  It's more like in your parents' attic, or in the old Penn State stacks.  Floral has depth in this; a personal limitation crops up related to covering all that's there.  That fresh fallen leaf effect really did trail more into a warm mineral range, not quite as pronounced as sucking on a penny, but between there and digging up old, wet sandstone.

It would be easy to miss the earthy range in the middle of all that, which is hard to describe.  It's back towards aged leather, connecting with the old books tone, very subdued compared to the floral, and even lighter than the mineral.  The light bitterness isn't so different than biting a tree bud, probably a light hardwood, like hickory.  But if you've tasted a pine needle bud (blue spruce, especially) just subtract some pine from that and the sweet richness and tanginess aren't far off. 

I'll probably just do a fourth infusion and mention additional thoughts, since this seems long enough to me as it is.  Not rambling on and on didn't work out.

Fourth infusion

These lower than stuffed-gaiwan proportions, or really the related slightly extended brewing times, around 15 seconds each, are causing these teas to transition faster than I'm used to.  The Thai version seems to be leveling off a bit in terms of intensity, far from finished, but it's already time to increase infusion timing.  It hasn't transitioned enough to say much more about it; it's still like it was.

The Myanmar sheng too, although that unusual balance of aspect range keeps shifting a little.  This is an unusual tea.  I wouldn't be surprised if something atypical about storage was an input, not in the sense of ruining the tea, or even throwing it off, but related to changing it.  The ordinary continuum of dryer to moister storage conditions has a range of effects that I'm not completely familiar or unfamiliar with, and I can't really pin it down as tied to that.  If I were drinking it blind I might expect it to be 2 or 3 years old versus one.

I say that just because I've been drinking a lot of sheng from different places in Yunnan, and from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, lots over the last year even, and this is novel compared to all that.  That novelty could be very pleasant or a bit off depending on preference, but typically tea versions aren't out there on their own like this for character.  More wild growth conditions changes things; that might have been a related input.  It works for me.  I probably like this Thai version a little more but thinking I like it going in carries in a bias.

One more tangent (just not the last, related to this post):  Jeff Fuchs just made some interesting comments about varied inputs leading to sheng character in that tea group I admin for, International Tea Talk, in this post comment:


What my own experiences have been based on have been as much about chatting to locals as they have my own palate experiences. Generally, I'd agree that 'if' all tea was produced (and stored) equally, there are some definite qualities from the more natural environments. I'd agree that they tend to have some softness initially, but carry a second hit at the back of the mouth and tongue, which for me feels like some strength, though the flavours are mild. The 'qi' factor I'd also say carries through more in these natural environments into the bloodstream. Many will say that the Bulang Mountains have some of the most intense red/orange clays of southern Yunnan's tea regions that also affect the mineral and vegetal contents which we may or may not feel. 

Another factor that isn't talked about much is the varietal of the Big Leaf. In Yiwu and parts of Jing Mai, a smaller leaf and generally milder version of the leaf dominate, and thus are known for more mild profiles than the larger 'Menghai' leaves. So much too in the Mandarin vernacular of descriptives that isn't yet widely translated that link the soil, the finish, the initial hit on the palate. Have to say that generally I'm a fan of the Menghai zone of growth and what comes out of the genuinely unmolested mountains. One last little thought from a local buyer in Jing Hong...he mentioned that generally speaking Yiwu teas needed more time to age (if one is interested in aged teas) than did the Menghai offerings. 


If you don't know who Jeff Fuchs is you might look into that; he helped found a tea business, and has written some interesting book and blog content, and recently he's better known for "The Tea Explorer" documentary about the living history of tea.

Jeff Fuchs with a Tibetan Elder (credit the Tea and Mountain Journals)

Conclusions, and a bit about perfume

Not much for conclusions; those teas were nice though.

I gave them another longer infusion and they really are fading.  When people brag of how a tea can stand up to a dozen or more infusions one of two related things may be going on:  they might be using a really high proportion of tea (as I tend to), and flash infusions, or a more typical proportion and but they've just adapted to drinking the tea brewed very lightly, again infused fast.  In my experience it's normal to prefer teas brewed lighter over time; there's a natural transition to being able to experience the aspects better that way, with practice.  Or if someone appreciates feel and aftertaste more than flavor maybe not; they might then continue to go with stronger, longer infusions to accentuate that, at the cost of not optimizing the flavor of the tea.


All that talk of perfume had me look into the subject a little, not in any way that connected directly back to this tasting, but it was interesting, and the themes overlap with tea description.  A sample of some very introductory ideas on it from Wikipedia sketch out where the range of ideas leads:


Perfume oils usually contain tens to hundreds of ingredients and these are typically organized in a perfume for the specific role they will play. These ingredients can be roughly grouped into four groups:

Primary scents (Heart): Can consist of one or a few main ingredients for a certain concept, such as "rose". Alternatively, multiple ingredients can be used together to create an "abstract" primary scent that does not bear a resemblance to a natural ingredient. For instance, jasmine and rose scents are commonly blends for abstract floral fragrances. Cola flavourant is a good example of an abstract primary scent.

Modifiers: These ingredients alter the primary scent to give the perfume a certain desired character: for instance, fruit esters may be included in a floral primary to create a fruity floral; calone and citrus scents can be added to create a "fresher" floral. The cherry scent in cherry cola can be considered a modifier.

Blenders: A large group of ingredients that smooth out the transitions of a perfume between different "layers" or bases. These themselves can be used as a major component of the primary scent. Common blending ingredients include linalool and hydroxycitronellal.

Fixatives: Used to support the primary scent by bolstering it. Many resins, wood scents, and amber bases are used as fixatives.

The top, middle, and base notes of a fragrance may have separate primary scents and supporting ingredients.


Interesting stuff.  The idea of layers and of a top, middle, and base relate to what is recognized first versus later (and also molecule weights, which tie in with that), with some of the rest more about main and supporting scent components.  To some extent what we experience in tasting in tea relates to similar perceived layering or temporal sequence patterns.  But all of these are natural results of the plant character and processing effects, not designed by mixing ingredients.  In terms of temporal sequence I tend to say more about how aftertaste varies from the flavor while drinking a tea (which I don't usually split into parts).  Interpreting flavors as layered or analogous to physically arranged also works, with mineral tones often seeming to function as a base, and bright floral and fruit aspects standing out as a higher range.


We are doing something similar to smelling when we taste tea, or other foods.  Scent is picking up an impression that informs the overall flavor (sensation in the rear lower nasal passages; not exactly the same thing as smelling something), along with what our tongues pick up.  There's only so much the theory, communicated in how perfume development and experience works, can be helpful in the experience of tasting, but tea review descriptions do often draw on those idea frameworks.

Scent training to recognize distinct compounds is something else; that would be interesting and could be potentially useful.  But that would relate more to practicing sensory identification than learning the theory behind it.  I've ran across an interesting looking workshop in Darjeeling that relates to this, borrowing from scent training background to inform tea analysis and blending.  An analytical understanding of how we experience things would seem to only go so far in supporting the subjective appreciation or "liking" part.

Holding an open tea tasting in a Bangkok park

A little over a week ago a friend and I, Sasha Abramovich, held that trial run tasting in the Benjasiri park, and this week the open version. It worked out.  I was concerned about rain and too many people showing up and neither happened.  If anything the attendee count was a little low, with 8 people actually joining the tasting, and two more women sitting nearby trying a few rounds of tea along with us (one visiting from China, as chance had it).

The way it played out was a little chaotic, as more ceremonial and theme-specific tea tastings go.  We just kept trying different things, sort of in a lighter to heavier order initially, but even that much structure gave way later.  Noppadol Ariyakura, the vendor who sells those two Lamphang teas I reviewed (with the reviews here), helped bring tea versions and also prepare them (many thanks to him for that).  That worked well for adding more variety and one more layer of discussion, but it also led to a "tasting a lot of different teas" theme, which was fine given the purpose of the event.

A group that small allowed for some other discussion too, personal introductions and such.  To place that related to other tasting themes it will work to talk around that range first, and get back to event details, like what we tried, and how water supply issues worked out.

all but me, and I didn't get a good picture of the two other women

the park background, before the tasting

one of my favorite pictures, her there 4 years ago

Keo as a 5 year old, that same day at that park

Different tea tasting themes

in a Moscow bookstore with Alexander and Dasha (left), Laos Tea "staff"

There are a broad range of intended purposes and process themes a tea tasting might relate to.  I went to an event at a local tea shop that was sort of along this line, at Seven Suns (a local cafe), about trying a broad range of teas.  Another event in Moscow trying Laos Tea products was also about mixing types and casual discussion as much as critical tasting.  That was nice, and those two Laos Tea "staff" were interesting and pleasant to talk to.


One local vertical sheng tasting related to trying different Yiwu versions of different years was the opposite.  Not only was the selection theme tighter, and the brewing process adhered to, but together that led to a more limited and controlled discussion context. It was nice though, just closer to a ceremony in terms of formality than hanging out in a tea bar or a park.  Of course tea cafes vary.


It should work to descibe theme differences more clearly as different factors.


Narrower themes work better for more detailed tasting resolution.  I keep going on about this related to comparison review:  to taste teas most effectively, in the highest resolution, covering a much narrower range is better.  "Young sheng only" is still a bit broad; the closer the types are the easier it is to focus on minor differences versus just trying different things.  Directly comparing two or more very similar teas enables picking out subtle differences in flavor range, the mouth-feel of teas, or the length and character of aftertaste aspects.  Some aspects can serve as markers for quality level, and these might stand out better through such comparison.


Tighter control of parameters helps with more complete and detailed comparison.  Water temperature, brewing time, the water used, tasting timing, should all be very uniform, if closer review is a goal.  But it may not be.  Casual conversation about subjects other than tea isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just doesn't fit well in all event themes. 


Tasting more teas over a varied range works better for a broad introduction.  It just depends on the goals.  To get people introduced to a broad range of types you have to give up focus.  Optimized brewing may or may not be a relevant factor; if half of the point is to support other discussion and conversation de-emphasizing a controlled structure may work better.


The theme may or may not focus on brewing and other tea background as subject matter.  This doesn't necessarily naturally pair with the formal / informal and narrow / broad type divides I just covered.  It would probably mean different things in each context, focusing on much more general issues if the theme is an initial introduction versus narrow type exploration.  It's possible to hold an event that's all about how to prepare tea, investigating how minor differences affect outcome, or serving as a preparation tutorial, or ceremonial aspects. 

Or it would work to push all of that into the background and focus on other aspects of the experience, or even separate discussion.  Somewhere in the middle works too; to cover that as one part of the theme.  We didn't for this; I noted when the brewing wasn't right, if I'd made a mistake, or pointed out trying varied infusion strengths a little, but that was about it.

Sasha explaining something

This event details

We tried more teas than would typically make sense at a more standard tasting, across a broader range.  Before the event I was concerned that attendance level might be too high, due to mentioning the event in a few online groups, so I brought teas that would hold up well to a loose brewing approach, or even Western style brewing.  It seemed possible that it would be necessary to split the attendees into smaller groups.  Of course I expected moderate turn-out anyway; it's just how that sort of thing often goes.

Noppadol brought a number of different teas, so that expanded range.  I'll list out most of what we tried, roughly in order, but here more split between what I brought and teas that he did instead:


2008 shou mei (aged compressed white tea)

Thai Yunnan-style black tea (an old tea tree version from Tea Side)

Lampang area Thai version of sheng pu'er

Menghai shou pu'er (2008 version from Moychay; pretty good shou)

silver needle (Noppadol provided; I don't have details for the teas he supplied)

Lapsang Souchong, a Chinese unsmoked version of a Fujian black tea

Longjing, Chinese green tea


Those might've worked better re-organized in a different order that made more sense.  Noppadol and I didn't really coordinate what we were each going to bring and brew, or plan out the event order.  Once you give up the typical structure and pacing it sort of doesn't matter as much anyway; when slightly overwhelmed by variety being able to notice a finer level of details in the teas more or less drops out.  We really did end up trying a shou and a silver needle back to back, or nearly in direct comparison; that was kind of extreme, even given the chaotic running theme.

Noppadol pouring tea; a squirrel also checked out the tasting in the tree by us

One main concern I had was about a source of hot water, and that factor also threw off uniformity of the tasting.  I brought two small thermoses of hot water, in order to have those to use as a start.  The main plan for water source was for Noppadol to bring a small gas stove, and for us to bring well-suited bottled water, but it turned out that you can't bring a stove into that park (which was not a complete surprise).  Plan B was to use hot water from a vendor, which you get from a concession stand there, as we had in the trial run a week before.  I'm guessing that was unfiltered Bangkok tap water, not unsafe to drink when boiled, but pretty far from ideal, and I definitely wouldn't live on that as a water source.

Noppadol's wife joined us (not at the event; she's not in the pictures), and she heated one round of water out in the parking area, so we switched back and forth between "local water" and spring water.  It's probably as well that we were drinking teas that were flexible about inputs like that, for the most part.  I think as chance had it white teas weren't ever brewed with that park vendor water, which was as well since you could tell the difference it made using it.  I brought a kettle (a "plan C"), but the only power outlets being located in those concession areas would make using one a bit more complicated.

Meeting people; other parts of the event

It was interesting that one guy was from Singapore, another Sweden, and two locals from the US joined.  Sasha, my friend prior to the event, is from Israel last, and his wife and Noppadol are Thais.  A Thai woman sitting next to us tried a number of teas, and a Chinese visitor did as well.  Bangkok is actually like that; people can be from all over.  I had expected some French locals to join who didn't, and a British expat friend said he might drop by.  If a good bit more people had joined the feel would've been different; it wouldn't have worked well to keep it formatted as one group trying teas together.

It was nice keeping the event theme loose; bridging into chatting about background and such, and switching back into tangents about tea processing or types.  We covered so much ground I forgot that I brought a snack to go with the tea, McVitie's Digestives, a British type of cookie that's perfect for tea tasting, very neutral but tasty and nice.


I'm not sure what works as a "lesson learned," or what I'd do differently.  Reining in the tea order or types theme to make more sense might not hurt.  It seems odd to ramp up marketing that sort of event to increase turn-out.  It didn't seem like Thais who saw the notice felt it related to them, but then based on the people I've worked with better loose tea interest isn't as common as it might be here.  Thai FB tea groups have lots of members; there must be lots of exceptions.


I'd like to try an event in a different place, and have a plan for where, but it will take until after this coming holiday weekend to check on that.  I added a survey to draw feedback about where to have a tasting in the International Tea Talk group that I'm an admin for.  It seemed like it might work to get a cafe to hold a related event (as Seven Suns once did), or even to get a few Chinatown shops involved, and set up an informal tasting tour.  At this rate I'd be helping expand tea awareness here bit by bit, but as long as the outings are pleasant and people enjoy them that's not so bad.

a nice space in the local Dusit Zoo that might also work

the animal prison theme is rough but we visit there more for open green spaces

Myanmar Shan Misty Mountain 2018 sheng

This is another tea sample from Noppadol Ariyakrua, the Lamphang Tea vendor who helped me with that tea tasting a couple weeks back.  The Northern Thai local sheng version he passed on for review was really nice, and the Thai Moonlight White was especially pleasant and interesting to me, so I was really looking forward to this one.

at that tasting, a picture I hadn't shared, with Noppadol (center)

Noppadol lists other teas in different ranges on this separate Exotic Teas Thailand page, so far only posted in Thai language. 


For my preference that Thai sheng was very nice, but then a Myanmar based version adds that location theme as interesting context, even beyond different teas expressing different aspects.


I've only had a little sheng from Myanmar and what I did try was really nice.  Individual styles of sheng vary a lot though, even within narrow locations, based on leaf sources and processing differences.  For this being a Spring 2018 sample storage and aging differences kind of drop out; this barely had time to rest a little from being made.

funny how different the exact same leaves look in a different layout format

Review

The taste is bright, fresh, and intense.  There's a good bit of mineral, and some astringency and bitterness, but very pleasant floral tones also stand out.  It would almost be a shame to let this tea age, to trade off some of that intensity for a softer character.  Of course I'd have been saying the opposite a year or two ago, that this tea really could use a couple of years to soften up and swap out some bitterness for other range.  It's not that I was more right either time, preference can just vary with acclimation.

having breakfast outside to avoid the kids making noise

I went slightly longer on the second infusion for snapping a couple pictures and the tea is still in a good range--brewed for not much over 10 seconds--but even lighter is better.  Mineral ramps up for being brewed stronger, coming across as a hint of smoke. I usually don't like smoky sheng but at this level it works.



For more taste description I'd need to fill in which flowers are in the floral part, or which rocks for minerals.  But I'm drawing a blank, so I'll move on to feel and aftertaste.  The fullness feel of the tea is nice but not overly pronounced related to where in your mouth that occurs.  It's general, also relating to a hint of dryness.


Bitterness picked up along with astringency for being that bit stronger, and both trail nicely into a sweetness aftertaste.  The mineral really hangs in there, an aspect that reminds me of tastes from drinking from an artesian well.

probably not the faster brewed infusion

A faster 5 second infusion the next round is perfect: plenty intense and well balanced.  There is substantial bitterness but per my expectations and preference the sweetness, floral flavor, and mineral tones balances that.  The next infusion is about the same; I'll leave off related to describing transitions.


I could compare this from memory with that Thai version, or reach further back in recollection to lots of profiles for Yunnan area shengs, or similar teas from Vietnam.  The overall balance of aspects that tend to come up often shifts a little more than anything else, or intensity is different.  Mineral tone is pronounced in this, and that hint of what seems to be a natural smoke aspect is novel; usually sheng I've tried seem to be decently smoky or not at all.  It all works.  With another year or two of aging it would work well in a slightly different way, I'd expect.

Later conclusions, and about another local tea tasting

Kind of brief, all that, but probably better to not add any more to it.  I really liked the tea.  I'd expect it has plenty of bitterness and astringency to transition nicely into pronounced warmer and softer flavors over a few years, or to hold up to a lot of transition over a longer time.  The Thai sheng version from Noppadol might have been a little more "easy drinking," sweeter and slightly more approachable in those regards, but both were still nice, to me.  I wouldn't consider either to be in the most oolong-preference-friendly style some shengs follow, but maybe the Thai version falls a little closer to that.


Since I did actually keep this short I might mention I'm thinking of holding another public tea tasting, this time in the local Dusit Zoo.  The tentative time is from 10 to noon on Saturday, August 18th.

That zoo is closing at the end of this month, after being there for 80 years.  It's especially impressive for being a former Royal nature preserve before that, so a lot of the trees in that place probably are hundreds of years old.  I don't know of anywhere remotely like that in Bangkok, and I'll be sad to not have a chance to visit it anymore after the next three weeks.  Animals being kept in captivity is sort of a different related theme, not all positive, but to me that was never the main draw for visiting there.

The food court seating area there is just perfect for such a thing, very comfortable, with a great look and feel, and easy access to power for heating water and lots of seating.  You'd think that zoo might be busy due to the closing but I'm guessing it won't be, not even for lunch, since the news of the closure only reached me due to being a regular visitor (although it was in a local newspaper).  To the rest of Bangkok they'll probably just notice later that their local zoo isn't there anymore.

an elevated walkway there is nice, a different view of things

that food court area, beside the elephants and acrobatics show areas

feeding goats.  we had fed one elephant, every month, when Keo was young.

That last video indirectly captures why I'll miss that place so much, for the same reason my wife will.  I saw my kids grow up there.  That video is from December of 2012, when he had just turned 4.  We will keep making nice memories in different places but you can't replace that sort of connection, our favorite place for him to visit when he was young, where Kalani grew up too.  My wife always lived close to that zoo so she remembers going there with her father, probably some of her fondest memories of him since he died when she was a child.

There's still time to stock up a few more memories from there, but only three weeks.

Visiting Chinatown, trying another LBZ; Bangkok's first department store

Ordinarily visiting the local Chinatown isn't enough of a story to relate, at least taken alone.  This visit was different.  I finally met Noppadol again there at my favorite shop, Jip Eu.  He is the part-time local Thai and Myanmar tea vendor who helped out with two different tea tastings last year (covered here and here).  And my friends Sasha and Nok stopped by; I haven't seen them for awhile, since they've been out traveling.  I met a local doctor who I've met there before too, but I've forgotten his name.  It was nice seeing everyone and the teas we tried there were really interesting.

I would usually start with that, but I'm going to cover a visit to Bangkok's first department store just after that outing first, checking out the Nightingale-Olympic.  That way readers only curious about the department store part can skip the last half, and others who could care less about 1950's era Thai Department stores, and what is in them, can skip this first part instead.

pictures don't do the feel justice; it's like a museum in there

The Nightingale Olympic Department store

Old Siam; market space with shops above

I've been meaning to check this out since hearing about it a couple of years ago (in references like this article).  Reviews in places like Trip Advisor are divided; people agree that it's like stepping into the past, like time-travel as much as visiting a museum, but then they differ on how interesting and positive that is.  Some loved it, while others were put off by not wanting to own anything in the store, and didn't feel comfortable there.


I walked through the Old Siam mall on the way there (through a lot of Chinatown too, really).  That made for an interesting warm-up.  I bought a silk jacket for my wedding in that center 11 years ago.  It feels like a part of the old world in there too, but it's still active, a very functional retail center.  Due to walking around hot city streets I bought a "Arctic rush" slush float at a Dairy Queen in that center, the modern version of a "Mister Misty freeze" that I grew up with.  It seemed odd checking out stalls with countless interesting and cool looking traditional snacks in the center of the market area, while eating something completely foreign to that theme, but it was worth it to change internal temperature so quickly.

Nightingale Olympic was different.  I was the only person in there, except for a half dozen staff.  I could immediately relate to peoples' account of a negative vibe; the staff looked at me almost accusingly, as if I was probably only there as a tourist (kind of the case, to be fair).


I really wanted to start snapping pictures but those accounts mentioned a "no photos" policy, also documented there in the store by signs.  The downstairs was mostly clothes, with both the look of the shop (and design) and the clothes all looking a bit dated.

I went upstairs.  They had really old musical instruments and sports equipment up there, with only one staff member there to give me a strange look.  New versions of soccer balls and barbells made for an updated, practical option for a purchase, if someone wanted to participate in a typical retail role in such a way.

One photo in a review had included disks that I couldn't identify; I checked those out.  They turned out to be what I think were wood and metal discuses; very odd.  A lot of the musical instruments and sports equipment (beyond the barbells and soccer balls) were probably too old to be useful to most.  The musical instruments went way, way back in terms of what was there; I couldn't even identify all of it.  Lots of very old looking guitars stood out; some of those might really have value.

Back downstairs I walked around a little to be surprised to find something I really did want to buy, something that I never would've even imagined existed:  doll dresses in a traditional Thai style, the colorful silk versions.  My daughter would love those.  Anyone living in Bangkok, or a visitor who felt a connection to old Thai culture, with a 5 year old girl who loves Barbies would react to that much differently than anyone else.

Sure enough back at home my daughter was thrilled.  Anna and Elsa (the "Frozen" characters) are now dressed in traditional Thai outfits.  Kalani didn't love the period Thai-silk pants (not exactly pants) as much as the dress so I actually went back just two days later, and bought three more outfits and a Thai vesion of Barbie wearing another one.  The outfits were only 100 baht each ($3); buying a few more seemed a good idea, so her Barbies can hold a themed event together.  I thought she could give an outfit to her best friend too, to share one since she now has 6, but it seems unlikely she'll part with any.

I asked at that store and they do re-stock those; even if you visit and they're out they would get them back.  Asking for them in English might not go well.  I hadn't thought it through but that staff may have seemed a bit negative about seeing a foreign tourist because language issues could come up.  I switched over to speaking in Thai there; mine is a bit limited, and rough, but if someone can deal with me dropping out the tones it still works to say a few things.

Jip Eu shop visit

late-rounds smaller-group  tasting

Noppadol brought a version from a Lincang village (I forget the name of which), and since Kittichai, the Jip Eu shop owner, had a version from that village for comparison we tried both together.  They were both a little bitter but as long as someone was able to appreciate that style they were both nice, and more interesting for tasting them in comparison.

Noppadol passed on a sample of some Yunnan sheng, and gave me another of those tuochas of Thai Lamphang sheng I'd asked him to bring (we've gotta even that balance back out; I'll have to figure out what to pass back on that's interesting and of comparable value).  That Thai sheng is aging nicely; it seems to be in the range of style that could use a few years to mellow and transition some bitterness but doesn't necessarily need over a decade of aging transition to be pleasant.

I'll skip right to it:  Kittichai had Lao Ban Zhang sheng mini-discs and provided one for us to try after that.  I really should have bought some of those; I tend to get caught up in wanting what I missed last time and bought an aged tuocha Noppadol had bought last time that I missed.  I'll have to go back for that LBZ before it disappears.  I did pick up a second aged tuocha that I bought on another short stop there since, one for our family monk, since I'd tried the first version I bought in the first day.

Per the last post, in the past week, about trying a Lao Ban Zhang version, how would one know if it's "real," actually from there?  That always gets complicated, when it comes to teas that are in such high demand that selling other types as something they're not is profitable.  The standard answer is "use trusted sources," which invokes a bit of a regress; how to establish and justify that trust?  I'm going to report what this tea was like and my best guess based on character, but again it's not as if I have a familiar baseline in memory to compare it with.

they're busy getting ready for Chinese New Year, packing gift boxes

The tea was great.  It had some bitterness to it, but that transitioned to a very nice sweetness, and balanced well.  One aspect range might have been interpreted as floral tone, but really a pronounced honey flavor in that sweetness stood out even more.  It was intense in character; that was one difference that seemed to stand against the last LBZ version actually being that.

The balance made it work even better than those positive aspects sound; it was clearly one of the better sheng I've ever tried.  As for cha qi / drug-like effect it's harder to isolate that when drinking a tea along with other versions and in a good-sized group.  It's hard enough for me to pin that down in a very controlled environment at home, and I was chatting with lots of people there.  We stopped out to a lunch in a nearby shop (food offsets tea effect as much as anything, but then it was lunch time), then later drank more of that and another tea.  At the least that LBZ example was outstanding tea; that makes for a good start.

One other way you can tell if a tea is "real" LBZ is by price; if the cost is too low it just isn't that, because the initial tea material sells for a lot.  Unless I've got it wrong they were selling those 8 gram mini-disks in a small tong, of sorts, at a rate of 100 baht ($3) per disk; on the low side for LBZ but perhaps conceivable.  To me it's always better to buy tea because you like the tea, not because you are investing in a story, even if the story is true, and the tea seemed worth that.


After the lunch--at a nice local shop across the road, well worth checking out, even for being basic and local-style--we tried a pretty good version of a Rou Gui.  It was in a cinnamon-intensive style, so quite type-typical, within one range of how those go.  The roast balance was nice in that version, and the quality level of that tea.  Really that tea could've been a revelation to someone who hadn't been exposed to above average Wuyi Yancha, and as it was that was just more normal tasting for visiting them there.


I really like the owners of that shop.  It feels a little like visiting family to stop by there, like it does in visiting the monks in the local temple my son and I were ordained in.  I saw pictures of them visiting China during New Years break, winter scenes from a mountain environment, and Kittichai told me about visiting a tea competition in Anxi back in October.  Maybe I haven't been there for awhile.

I think a first time visitor would have a different experience; it can be hard to sort through expectations and get straight to the teas that you would like most there.  There is no clear menu of what they sell, and they seem to have something different around every visit, probably with at least a 100 versions tucked away here and there.  The shop specializes in Wuyi Yancha, and due to them having family ties to the Anxi region they would carry unusual versions of Tie Guan Yin.  I've bought nice Dan Cong there (relatively speaking; they sell good mid-range versions of it), decent Longjing, and a nice silver-needle compressed cake.

preview of a later post, a 2006 Nan Jian Tu Lin raw tuocha

One last odd turn came up in re-visiting the store the next time, swinging by to pick up that aged tuocha (which I'll review separately, and a Hunan brick tea sample Kittichai gave me).  A foreign visitor stopped by to look for something specific, which turned out to be a green tea type that wasn't well-identified by the packaging photo he had.


It turned out he was from Poland (a place I've written about related to local tea culture recently, here, with local blogger input as a second post).  And he was in the shop due to reading my blog post mentioning there; cool!


We talked a little about tea types, the open-bin storage used for teas in some stalls (better to go with the large-jar stored tea, really, and even that isn't all that functional), and eventually he left with a little Longjing.  The tea was really for his mother, complicating buying what he thought she might want.  It's kind of a shame he was that close to decent Tie Guan Yin and didn't buy any, given the lighter tea character focus, but at least decent Longjing makes for a nice start on passable tea.

Bing Dao sheng pu'er coin

Seeing discussion about Bing Dao origin sheng pu'er lately reminded me that I've long since had a sample Bing Dao mini-disk I'd been meaning to try.  I think my friend Noppadol probably gave this to me about three years ago (it's stamped as a 2018 version).  He sells some tea, here, and it involved with making a decent Lamphang origin Thai sheng (reviewed here).  I've got a tuocha of that hanging around too, and already drank one.

first try at a public tasting event, with Noppadol left and Sasha and Nok beside him

I couldn't find much about this tea brand, beyond reference to it selling other teas:  GEXIANG Brand Yiwu Guafengzhai Pu-erh Tea Cake 2019

coins are cool, like a tiny cake, and they don't unfurl slowly like a dragonball

I won't try to guess if the reputation of that shop implies anything about the tea; that's too indirect to really be meaningful.  Do I think this is "real?"  I'm not even sure what that means in this context.  Bing Dao is definitely an origin area, but people discuss it in terms of broad or narrower defined range.  Sergey's Geography of Chinese Tea book would be a perfect place for reviewing that, or looking through Olivier's puerh.fr to see if there's an article on it.  This post draft had included "but I won't" ending that sentence, but I found a citation about it in a blog post of mine from 2019 looking for something else (from puerh.fr):

Bing Dao is the group of village Bing Dao

From the point of view of local Bing Dao (冰岛) is quite eccentric to Da Xue Shan and Mengku . Nestled in Northern Mengku , Bing Dao village is quite far from the summit, the boundary between Mengku Valley Nanmei .

Bing Dao is now though and definitely the most famous village of Da Xue Shan, but also all the Yunnan and more than 2000 euros per kg of crude maocha (2014) , authentic teas Bing Dao reach prices which no young puerh could have asserted before. If it is less than a decade that we see such a craze around Bing Dao, the reputation of the village and its tea is not new and dates back to the fifteenth century.

We often hear that it is the village of Dao Bing originate all tea plants Mengku see by extension the local variety " Mengku large leaves" that can be found now in many region of Yunnan. This is not entirely false , and many gardens teas Mengku we probably born between 1500 and today from seeds or cuttings from Bing Dao, based myth Bing Dao mother of tea of Mengku , myth echoed by the famous pancake Mu Shu Cha (literally "mother of tea trees ) produced by Mengku Rong Shi from 2005 and completed the advent of this village.

So there's that, and more in that article.  I mentioned trying a huang pian version of Bing Dao in that post about a poorly attended tea tasting (where I ran across that citation), but I just don't count huang pian as a conventional character example, and it was that (presented as that, maybe it wasn't really Bing Dao, and maybe it wasn't really huang pian).

Type-typical descriptions always vary, throwing around terms like aroma, fragrance, floral, bitterness, mouthfeel, and so on.  I've scanned through a dozen versions in the past month for it coming up a lot and it doesn't narrowing as a result.

The point here is to see what this tea is like, and make notes on that, edited into a blog post.  After I try a few more, if I ever do, I can compare those to a dozen online summary descriptions and make of it what I will.  All that would be really unsatisfying for some people, not even making a start on a "is it real?" matching process, or at least the background review.  I did a longer cycle with more steps "sorting out" if the LBZ versions I kept trying might be "real," but it was unsatisfying adding extra steps.  For now I'll either enjoy this tea or else I won't.  

To add a guess though:  based on whatever narrowest definition of Bing Dao is out there it's "not real," but if the term is used loosely (incorrectly) as a broader area reference maybe, or maybe not.

Review:

First infusion (after a rinse):  interesting!  This has depth, already.  It's mostly floral, with a good bit of underlying mineral, but those sorts of list descriptions don't really capture what I mean by that.  There is a catchy and distinct flavor, so there's that, but the overall effect is cool.  That distinct flavor is probably really a complex set, a band of rich floral tones that borrows some from fruit range.  The mineral form is really distinctive too.  It's light in a sense, like limestone, but it also contains some warmth.  Depth of the overall experience is interesting; for this being a light first infusion it includes good mouthfeel and aftertaste.  It will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Second infusion:  that infusion was on the fast side too, not over 10 seconds, and intensity ramped way up anyway.  That complex underlying mineral tone is almost the main thing noticeable in this, the dominant aspect range; that's different, it tends to never work out like that.  It still has really pronounced floral range, that leans so far towards rich fruit tone that it would be open to varying interpretations, but the mineral part is really something.  A plant stem like vegetal range connects the two, making it all seem continuous, and somehow even more intense for hitting across a broad range.  Good sweetness makes it work better and bitterness is present but moderate.  This would've had to have seemed different four years ago; that's a long time here in Bangkok.  

I'm not sure how well "balanced" applies as a summary; this is novel, so it would be open to interpretation how positive it is, or how well it all integrates.  I like it because I tend to value novelty, and there's nothing negative about it, and the overall intensity and the aspects themselves are positive.  But it's still odd.

Third infusion:  I am getting the impression that this is higher quality tea than I tend to drink.  It's definitely more unique in style than what I tend to encounter.  The next round is similar:  intense, complex, with bitterness offset by nice sweetness, floral tones, and warm mineral, complex in a few ways beyond that.  

I'm always saying aftertaste is pronounced but this occurs in a different way.  Not about time duration; it doesn't last that much longer than any other version with significant aftertaste intensity, beyond a common trailing-off effect.  It's just intense after you drink it, across feel, based all around your mouth, and related to trailing sweetness.  That catchy mineral range is strong while drinking it and after.  It's warm and a bit metallic now, like sucking a penny, but it includes other mineral tone as well.  It reminds me a little of getting toasted pumpkin seeds right recently, when I steamed some fresh pumpkin, that earthy, rich, complex flavor of the seeds themselves and the warmer roast input.

Fourth infusion:  some transitions occur but for as wordy as this is becoming I should take a round off and say more next time instead.  A really pleasant floral tone picked up, so warm and sweet that it's in between plumeria and orange citrus.  It's too bad I didn't try this tea years ago when I got it; I might've been able to buy more of these.  Even higher pricing than I tend to spend on tea would seem fair for this.  Then it's awkward considering that further as specifics; if this thing is 5 grams, and it was priced at $5 ($1 / gram), would I buy that?  Probably not, but it's probably worth it, in terms of buying into a more unusual experience, even setting aside a back-story theme.  I'm accustomed to Thai spending practices, and although Starbucks coffees do cost $7 here I wouldn't buy them.

Fifth infusion:  a first faint hint of aspect that's not clearly positive enters in, a bit of woodiness, or a mineral range that smells like hot sand.  Even that complements the rest though.  That crazy level of feel and aftertaste experience including mouthfeel is relaxing a bit, with this coming across as juicier but less intense.  I'm sweating like I'm in a sauna, probably related to humidity level as much as temperature or this tea radically altering my bodily functions.  It's 32 or 33 out, so not hot for us (91 F), but it's also over 70% humidity, from raining a lot lately.  No one else in Bangkok is sitting outside drinking hot tea at noon today, even in the shade.  

I'll have to check on my kids lunch soon and never tend to do these reviews in two parts, but it seems unfair to this tea to report on the first half of the cycle, or to rush through three more infusions (which is how I always address that).  On to the rushing then.

Completely off the point, I got my first covid booster three days ago, a Pfizer, after two Astrazeneka shots last year, and today is the first day I'm really back to normal.  Or close enough that I feel normal; my immune system took that hard, really gearing up for war, it would seem.  Nothing too troubling came up for side-effects but it all really added up.

Sixth infusion:  the main thing that stands out is how catchy this is, that set of complex aspects coming together.  It hits hard in a few ways but it's how it integrates that works.  That one mineral part is so strong and so closely associated with mouthfeel that it's almost as if I can taste it with the roof of my mouth.  The floral and fruit range is really complex, and linked to the warmer mineral, through a lighter vegetal range.  That warm mineral seems to exhibit depth from being tied to other range, maybe root spice.  There's so much going on that it comes across as a dynamic experience, as if there are moving parts to it.  Nothing is really moving though, beyond the aftertaste shifting form quite a bit.

Seventh infusion:  not transitioning so much; maybe I will throw in the towel, for now.  That hint of citrus seems slightly stronger in this, but that could easily be the kind of thing that varies with slight infusion time variation. 

This has been an interesting and positive experience.  I could probably describe the feeling side of this experience better (towards cha qi effect) if high humidity wasn't causing as much reaction.  I don't mind sweating, and it's normal for me, but it was really dry up until this rainy period about five days ago, so the change feels more extreme.  If I get time I'll go run in the afternoon heat; that should be even more interesting.

Of course I can't say if this seems like Bing Dao to me or not, because I don't remember that I've ever tried a version, so probably didn't.  It's very positive and novel, which seems a good step towards that being more likely.  And the tea being like it is works well either way, no matter what it is.

Later:  it was interesting how bitterness didn't really fade but other flavors did, through a good number of additional infusions, making it proportionally more bitter.  Since that bitterness level had been moderate it still seemed quite positive, just odd that it worked out that way.

Conclusions:

It was good, as described.  I don't really have any more to add about the Bing Dao storyline theme, or how I would place this in relation to other sheng experiences.  It seemed a bit novel, which is always nice, if a tea is this pleasant.  

It's seemingly better tea than I tend to buy, so I would only be attempting to place it in relation to other samples I've tried that are better than I tend to buy in any volume.  That just doesn't seem meaningful, to go on to broad conclusions about style or quality level, beyond these impressions, so I won't.