Health issues: shingles and cardiac warning signs

 

The writing here is always so positive; why not communicate what goes well, and pass over what doesn't?  If I try a terrible tea I would probably not mention it, and mediocre experiences all the less.  

Recently I've been through some significant health problems, which I think might be relevant to others in different ways, so I'll break form and talk about that.

Six weeks or so ago I started experiencing pain related to shingles.  It took a few days to make that connection, and that was right when I was traveling back to Bangkok from Honolulu, so it took a full week to get that diagnosed and start treatment.  That's too long; you are generally in for a month or more of recovery if you get that late a start on treatment.  And I was; nearly a month after that the pain had finally mostly dropped out, and I started an experience of chest and shoulder pain concerns that may or may not have been related (per my doctors it wasn't, but the coincidence seems unlikely, given the overlap in symptoms range).

So let's start back with what shingles is, and how it goes, and then move on to the cardio issues, what investigation of that was like, and what it all means (to me; maybe there is no general meaning).

Shingles

Shingles is the experience of skin problems (rash / small blisters), itching, and nerve related pain.  It connects with earlier experience of chicken pox, from a long latent virus reactivating in late middle age at times of stress or reduced immune response.  I had that.  It started with low back pain, moved on to a rash on my leg, and then the pain moved to my leg.  You go on antiviral meds for a bit to help with it, but it also has to run its course, and if you get a late start on treatment that will go long, maybe months long.

It expanded what I've ever got around to experiencing of pain.  I always had a sense that when others described long term pain experience as profound and awful that I wasn't clear on forms of that.  The pain really wasn't that bad; with pain killer medication it was fine.  Without it sleep would've been quite problematic.  Nerve pain is a strange experience, nothing like a burn or an injury.  It runs deep, like a sharp cramp experience, that includes deeper pain effects, that just never stops.  My own experience was probably limited.  A more intense version would've been truly terrible.

Ramping up rest was one problematic part.  That's what got me into that condition, that I was way too busy for a week or two, or a month really, back in Honolulu, setting up my kids' education and life context there.  And I kept exercising.  Exercise helps my immune response, it seems to me, but without adequate rest it all just crashes.  

I tried to rest as much as possible during my shingles treatment, but a few hours of relative inactivity here or there was offset by staying busy just as often, for just as long.  Then you always wonder if the balance shouldn't have been different, as pain effects continue on for a few weeks, instead of the week or so that most infections or virus experiences take.  But a month later it all mostly cleared, only for something more troubling to start in.

Heart issues

Just as I was finally clearing the last of leg pain, after my skin had cleared, I started experiencing shoulder and back pain, and then chest pain.  On the left side too, roughly centered around my heart.  At first I wasn't very concerned, oddly, thinking this was just the next phase of the shingles experience.  I went back to a skin doctor, a different one, since mine was unavailable that day, who assured me it couldn't connect, and suggested that maybe I'd injured myself while sleeping.  I thought that myself at first, as I had about the back pain related to the start of the shingles.  But it worsened quickly, and centered more on my heart area.

I ended up seeing a cardiologist, of course; deep chest pain and radiating shoulder, back, and arm problems naturally lead to that.  After an initial EKG I did a stress test, a cool experience.  They check your heart with a sonogram / ultrasound, and put an EKG on you while you walk on a treadmill, ramping up to an 85% of maximum heart rate.  That worked out to 140 beats per minute, an interesting level assessment, to me, since I run, and track that while running.  I tend to run in between 135 and 145 bpm, with brief maximum periods of 160.  Of course I "aced" that test; they had to keep increasing speed and ramp inclination, until it was at 20% slope, going around 10 mph / 15 kph.

An anomaly turned up, an abnormal reading.  I couldn't really place that, and cardiologists seem to not be able to map out everything that potentially might mean.  Or maybe they just skip that part, since patients would listen to the worst of that range and think that they're dying.  They scheduled a CAT scan, just to check further.

That was a fascinating experience.  They don't just put you in that machine, like a giant tube; they use a "contrast media" injection to highlight what isn't getting blood flow in your heart.  You feel that course through you, rushing up to your head, then down through the rest of your body.  My results came back positive; I'm fine.  My doctor seemed a bit dismissive at that point, as if I was somehow making the whole thing up, or overreacting, in spite of me actually feeling chest pain, and the stress test turning up an anomaly on a stress-test EKG.

I ran the next day, of course, based on him saying I could do whatever I wanted, and stress tested myself in a different way, running for 45 minutes (7 km / 4 1/2 miles), half of it around 150 bpm.  I'm really ok.  Exercise always seems to help me clear health issues; I ran after 7 or 8 days of having Covid initially, and recovered from most symptoms within 12 hours of that experience.  That chest pain mostly resolved within 12 hours of running.

Did that issue connect to shingles?

Was it related to shingles?  I think so.  In researching shingles experience myself it can affect different internal organs, as it had also caused pain in my stomach earlier on.  My first skin doctor said that there could be no connection, because it's not on the same "nerve line."  But cardiac events and risk are said to be much higher after shingles outbreaks (not just Google AI's input; this is well established in mainstream medical background references, and research studies).

All throughout this experience of course it was problematic for me to second-guess doctor's input related to their conclusions.  I thought the chest pain probably connected to shingles, and none of the doctors did.  Then it wasn't clear whether it would matter or not.  Looking back if I had chest pain related to a coronary blockage that would've been much more serious, and if it was just extra, somewhat mobile pain experience then it wouldn't necessarily mean anything, or be a concern.  It had seemed that they should be able to test types and levels of antibodies to get a better feel for what was going on but their approach didn't work out like that.  Maybe that could work, or maybe not.

The part about real heart problems, added risk, connecting to shingles is something else.  Per what I'd read your risk of having a significant problem goes up by 30%; if you search just a little you'll see that number over and over.  So maybe I shouldn't have tested if I would really drop dead, based on running at roughly their computed 100% maximum capacity for nearly half an hour?  It was just my normal workout experience, which my doctor had okayed.  But probably I shouldn't have did that.

Lessons learned

This is the first time that I've been sick for a month that I can ever remember.  Maybe the first time?  A flu might run a little long, and Covid took over a week to clear, but that was about it.  So it has me re-thinking what longer term illness experience is all about.

At my age, 56, it's odd that I'm experiencing this only now.  I feel fortunate to have not had the experience before.

One thing that stood out was that timing of response for medical intervention depends a lot on what you have going on, which may not necessarily relate to severity of symptoms.  Shingles you want to start treating right away, within 3 days, if possible, and the skin rash part may not appear in that time-frame.  They can test for random pain issues being caused by that using an antibody test, so they can start treatment earlier.  But if your low back, or shoulder, experiences a bit of pain that's probably just related to pinching a nerve by sleeping in an odd position.  If the pain keeps changing form and location then maybe not.

Chest pain is kind of an odd special case.  My wife mentioned how her uncle had limited chest pain, or at least some sensation, then very pronounced pain in his jaw, and then he lost consciousness, all relatively quickly.  He had experienced a heart attack.  Luckily he lived, but not everyone having that experience does.

During my CAT scan experience they tested if the contrast media injection would work for the test, and found that it wouldn't, on my left side, the one I felt pain in.  Later the doctor explained that maybe the vein injection site was only leaking, it wasn't necessarily that I had major blood flow issues.  It wasn't comforting though, being there for a test to see if something was seriously wrong with me.

The subject of different types of pain comes up, at different levels, sharp or non-distinct, and in the odd form related to "nerve pain."  All pain would be nerve pain, but a subset related to a nerve issue, versus an injury, or other typical cause, can feel unusual, deeper, and pronounced in a different way.  They asked if the pain in my chest was like a squeezing effect, and I probably don't know what that's like just yet.  It was just a deep, localized, minor and dull pain.

I suppose there is a lot more I could say about medical treatment options or contexts in Bangkok, where I experienced all of this.  Back in the US it would have been a lot more complicated, and slower.  The cost would have been astronomical.  My work health care coverage is great, and treatment costs are moderate in general here anyway.

It brings up the subject of how medical care is a for-profit service industry in different places, in the US and here in Thailand, so how they treat you relates to the profit potential.  You being sick is a positive thing for the hospital, and quick recovery or resolution kind of isn't.  The hospital I visited, Bumrungrad, the main expat and medical tourism hospital, sells lots of "extra" medical care services, like longevity related treatments, bordering on or overlapping with spa themes.  You can buy someone a million baht gift card there ($30k USD, per an ad there), or download their app to manage payments.  In general people would probably want to get some limited treatment and get back out of there.

Another tangent; a social media podcaster's case

This leads to considering another person's case, the health issues experienced by Chris Williamson, a podcaster, described here.  He has experienced something I think of as mystery illness, for the last year and a half.  His version relates to feeling low in energy, with mood impact, and other general malaise symptoms.  

My brother, sister, and a close friend have different kinds of hard to interpret conditions; this theme seems more common than ever now.  My brother's case might be the most serious, involving lots of mixed health disruption, maybe mostly related to catching a lyme disease case late.  That friend might've experienced his condition being triggered through Covid (not "the jab," he had it before that came out).  Or he'd had a seemingly genetic condition that included sensitivity to different chemical inputs before that, to artificial fragrances and pollutants, and it could all connect.  My sister probably just had hard to interpret and treat digestion issues.  

The running theme I'm trying to address here is that although modern medicine can resolve some issues others seem to keep coming up.

Back to Chris Williamson's case he listed what seemed to be 8 or 9 potential causes, including lyme disease, mold contact, liver fluke parasites, and a longer list I'd have to rewatch that video to cite.  The specifics of his case weren't the interesting part, it was that someone in the relative peak of health might experience significant decline that they can't identify, even after a year and a half of relatively unlimited, in-depth review.  

A doctor's comment stood out to me there (in "the comments," not part of that content):  he suggested that it could just be stress related, and that a busy work schedule combined with a busy medical treatment schedule could be compounding his problem.  Of course a general audience can't guess about that, but it's an intriguing possibility, that seeking out a lot of seemingly valid health care may be making his problem worse, adding more life stress input, when that could be a main cause.

He didn't mention if he had tried taking a break.  It had seemed not.  He described his viewer count escalating, and at different points mentioned aspects of his very busy schedule.  That complex video, with references and clips in many locations, including those from a half a dozen health care professionals, and a few business associates and friends, would have taken months of input to put together, and maybe a few man-months of effort.  

He tells stories, so describing that one in detail would seem a natural step.  But there seemed to be an irony to him taking what must have been at least 100 hours of video to tell a story that's probably in part about him being overworked.  It has drawn 1.2 million views in 9 days, while an interview with Matthew McConaughey drew less than 800k, in two weeks. 

What that one doctor suggested, indirectly, is that maybe we all experience lots of negative health inputs that are simply the background condition we live with.  The parasites might be an exception, but viral load, some mold and other contamination contact, sleep disruption, stress, mixed diet inputs, and so on might be completely normal, even in partly negative forms.  Adjustments could be positive, but chasing down the last negative health input might be a secondary negative factor.  People really need to moderate stress, and get enough rest.

I'm not saying that feeling chest pain is something that people should just accept, or really closely connecting this to my own experiences.  But my mother made a good point, that to a very healthy person any random pain might seem anomalous and concerning, while for many people a list of aches and pains may just be a normal background experience.  If something new were to hurt that might not seem odd.

Chris Williamson doesn't seem to be overreacting to low energy or a bit of extra pain; as he frames it something is seriously wrong.  It would be odd if that's a reaction to long-term stress and being overworked, and something is very off, but it mostly relates to being really busy for years on end.  

It made me also consider if maybe there aren't other inputs at play, that are not mentioned in that video.  Plenty of people are into "biohacking" now, or at a minimum leaning into something like Adderall (stimulant) use to promote productivity.  Many people take a broad stack of supplements, to offset aging, support exercise recovery, limit effects of inflammation, or whatever other goals they pursue.  Maybe long term exposure to a mix of inputs finally "caught up" with Chris, and it's hard to walk back their negative effects, or even harder yet to identify what's not working out.  

Of course I wish him the best.  He's among the best of that kind of information and entertainment source, as I see it.  Whether he just needs a long break or if one or two main inputs is a cause I hope he gets it worked out.

Malaysian stored 2003 and 2018 Liu Bao comparison

Hilltown Jin Hua version left, in all photos

I'm trying two more Liu Bao from a Malaysian vendor, Legend of Tea.  The last experience with another Liu Bao version was great, one of the best versions I've tried.  I would expect more of the same, that these will be really nice.  They're this:

Jin Hua Liu Bao (2018, $16 for 100 grams)

Jinhua Liu Bao tea features small golden particles on the surface of the tea leaves, known as "Jinhua (golden flowers)." These golden flowers are a hallmark of high-quality Liu Bao tea. Their presence indicates beneficial microbial activity during the tea's aging process. The enzymes secreted by these microbes accelerate the transformation of substances in the tea, enhancing its flavour and enriching it with health-benefiting compounds. Jinhua has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, boosts immunity, and promotes cardiovascular health.

Jinhua Liu Bao tea has black-brown, tightly rolled leaves. The brewed tea is a rich, bright red colour, with a mellow, sweet taste and a pure aroma that combines floral and aged notes. The tea leaves are uniformly soft and moist, showing vitality and a deep, vibrant colour.

Aged Bing Lang Xiang 032 Liu Bao (from 2003; the page doesn't have a 100 gram option, so it's $63.40 for 250 grams, $25 for 100 grams when sold at that higher volume pricing)

Aged Bing Lang Xiang 032 is made using the traditional "double steamed, double pressed" method and aged for years in a clean cellar, resulting in its unique betel nut flavour. Its vibrant blackish brown colour tea leaves are plump, even and supple. The radiant dark red tea liquor envelopes a rich "chenyun" taste, along with a delightful interplay of thickness, strength, and sweetness that lingers long after each sip.

It is a harmonious blend, where the betelnut aroma is enticing, while the smooth, fresh sweetness fills your moth. The enchanting aftertaste, refreshingly enduring, will leave you yearning for another blissful moment with this extraordinary Liubao tea.

I can never do much with flagging a betel nut flavor / aroma (what Bing Lang translates to, with Xiang meaning flavor or aroma), because I'm not familiar with that.  I also can't place the "double steamed, double pressed" processing method.

It's interesting hearing of those differences in relation to the aspect and character differences, described following, which I wrote out prior to reading these descriptions.

Review:

#1, 2018 Jin Hua version:  this is a lot lighter in brewed liquid appearance, for what that's worth.  For tasting these blind I don't know what that means.  It could be a younger tea, or the other may be fermented more during processing (through a wet piling type of step).

This is heavy on mineral.  I'm drinking the first infusion, with no rinse, or at least the review starts there.  More people would rinse Liu Bao than wouldn't, I think, at least in "Western tea circles."  The review would just start at infusion two, in such a case.  

The mineral is that slate mineral that's common in Liu Bao.  The other flavor range is also present, some pine, sweetness that could emerge as dried fruit later, and medicinal root sort of flavor, ginseng.  It's pretty clean, but I think mineral range will probably drop back from here, and the rest will balance better.  That's the equivalent of sheng pu'er being more approachable after the first round or two, just related to different aspects.

I may be picking up more preference for Liu Bao, from these tastings.  It helps that lots of these have been exceptional versions (although I'm on the 4th and 5th from two different vendors, so it's not that much of them).  I've been drinking Fu hei cha style teas as well.

#2, 2003 Bing Lang Xiang:  so different!  The flavor is much warmer and heavier, not a complete surprise given the color difference.  So is this a much older tea version, or is it fermented more by processing?  It could be both.  It would be surprising if additional processing fermentation wasn't an input, but with 25 to 30 years of aging maybe Liu Bao could shift to heavier, warmer tones.  Or maybe 20, in Malaysia, in a naturally hot and humid environment.  Like here, in Bangkok; it's 30 C / 90 F in the rainy season now.

This tea is complex as well; I'll add more of a flavor list next round.

still a lot of brewed tea color difference, even with both brewed quickly

#1 (2018), second infusion:  even more complex.  Heavier slate mineral is still present, but the drier side of that softened and deepened, and the rest balances better.  This is really nice.  It balances the standard complex flavor range (mineral, pine, ginseng, some dried fruit).  Warm, heavy tones are pleasant.  It doesn't remind me of shou pu'er range, not that earthy and heavy, but it's a little towards that, along the line of fallen timber, which would smell like curing tree bark.  [later edit:  I missed betel nut.  Maybe it tasted a lot like that, I wouldn't really know.]

Sweetness is good, feel is nice and thick, and aftertaste is pronounced.  This might evolve a little for one more round, to balance even better, but it's already there now.  Slate mineral might be a bit much for someone not on that page, but to me it's pretty much as it should be.

#2, (2003):  that changed even more; the list from last round and this one might be slightly different.  A little char emerges, like charcoal.  That wasn't present last round, that I noticed.  A heavy, inky mineral flavor range picked up as well, only partly related to that.  Sweetness is good, balancing that.  Pine is part of the flavor range, and maybe a little ginseng, it's just not as pronounced as in the other version.  Rich feel is nice, and flavor depth.

#1, third infusion:  an aspect towards smoke or char is picking up in this; that's interesting.  I really would have expected that to be present earlier on, if it was going to show up.  It's on even ground, the same intensity, as that other range that had been present.  It links nicely with the slate mineral, and being supported or balanced by the ginseng / herb and limited fruit range is nice.

#2:  not changing so much.  These are actually much closer in character than they've been, related to the shift in the other version.  This is smoother and deeper, not matching as much slate mineral as the other expresses.  The rest kind of comes together.

#1, fourth infusion:  this will probably be it for notes, since per usual I have other things to get to.  That mineral note is all the stronger; interesting.  It's moving off charcoal, onto being complex, again with plenty of slate.  If someone was averse to this general range they might see this as tasting like a cigarette butt, but for me it's more slate mineral with some charcoal.  

#2:  a new catchy aspect entered in.  Like root beer?  It might also relate to fruit, but to me that new range is centered on root spice more instead.  These both might have a couple of interesting infusions to go.  But I really need to suspend this tasting for now, and I'm not great at picking it all back up in a later second session.  

My wife will go back to Honolulu before too long and I need to go do some clothes shopping for the kids, to fulfill some orders they've placed (for extra pants, and at least one more bucket hat for Kalani).

Conclusions:

I did try more rounds of these, just without taking notes.  They were more similar than they'd been for the first few rounds, maybe with a little more richness, depth, and complexity in the second version.  But they were similar enough that I think people not really dialed in to specific preferences related to Liu Bao might see them as in the same general range.

Considering how I place them later, in reference to my own preferences, earlier on I would've strongly preferred the second version.  It seemed richer, with more complexity and depth, and was going through some interesting transition in later rounds.  But I've come to be able to appreciate what I take to be standard Liu Bao range more.  

The first version is "only" 7 years old, with aging and transition perhaps speeded up a bit by contact with golden flowers (jinhua fungus, which sometimes goes by a scientific name in Western based tea descriptions,  Eurotium Cristatum).  Maybe I'm more open to this style related to recently trying versions of hei cha exposed to this from a different vendor source, Oriental Leaf, in the latest examples as two kind of unusual hybrid hei cha forms.  

This first version did express a slightly more challenging form initially, with heavier slate mineral dominating the flavor profile, but it softened a few rounds in, gaining complexity and better balance.  The second was rich and deep in warm mineral and other flavors from the start, just transitioning to other aspect scope after those few rounds instead.

I suppose I did like the second version more, but there wasn't that much difference.  If value was a main factor buying a good bit of first would lead to a similar positive experience.  But then again that extra depth was nice.  I'm not sure about "will leave you yearning for another blissful moment with this extraordinary Liubao tea" but it did seem to highlight what is most pleasant about higher quality Liu Bao, in versions that are better than one might normally run across.  It's probably also the case that if you buy 22 year old Liu Bao that's been stored in Kunming it would need another decade to fermentation transition to this level.

Not intending to "pick on" Yunnan Sourcing, probably the main Western vendor outlet for pu'er and hei cha, but let's check on the version in the top of their Liu Bao listings that is closest to this in age:

2002 Aged Wild Liu Bao Tea "803" from Guangxi ($69 for 250 grams)

Small artisan produced Wild Liu Bao grown in a remote part of Wuzhou County in Guangxi Province. Expertly processed and then stored for almost 15 years in Guangxi. This tea has been re-packed 500 grams per bamboo basket. The basket is numbered 803.

The tea itself has some camphor, vanilla, and betel notes. The large leaf with stems makes for an interesting and unique aged Liu Bao experience. Highly recommended for those who want to try something aged and unique.

That costs $5.60 cents more, is one year older, and probably hasn't fermentation transitioned as much (given the storage location difference), although spending 15 of those years in slightly more humid Guangxi would help keep it from being as "well preserved."  

it's hard to place the color differences, large leaves, and stem content in the YS version

these leaves are darker (probably good), and more chopped (maybe not as positive)

It could be not nearly as good as these, or perhaps even better; you can't really tell from vendor descriptions, or even customer comments.  Most Yunnan Sourcing comments were about people loving that version, with one guy saying "Good, I drank better but this is quality good."  Per lots of hearsay input Yunnan Sourcing would almost certainly remove any negative comments or low ratings on that site, so it's hard to place what may have been commented but isn't there now.  

I take all this to mean that 20+ year old, exceptional quality options are out there, and $60+ for 250 grams could be a standard market range.  It would be interesting to see how they compare directly.  This "Hilltown" version is among the best Liu Bao I've ever tried, a full quality level beyond what I've tried in the past, other than those two recent versions.  But who knows what that means; maybe I've only tried ordinary versions before that.  I've tried a few from Yunnan Sourcing in the past, probably reviewed 8 or so years ago now, but I probably bought more mid-range, value oriented versions, and of course I can't clearly compare across that kind of time-span.  

Those teas more or less led to me not exploring Liu Bao much more (although I've drank a half a kilogram since, since a friend in Malaysia sent me a good bit of it), but I think for some tea types it takes a critical mass of exploration to really "get it."  I drank sheng pu'er on and off for years before taking it up as a favorite type.  Fu zhuan / Fu brick hei cha I liked more right away, but it can be pleasant and approachable while giving up some complexity, depth, and refinement to teas like these two.  And it seems to help to sort through versions for that, to try a few to get to styles that work best for you.  Once you do experience value in relation to cost can be really positive.

I plan to retry a couple of Fu hei cha style versions from Legend of Tea, essentially the same that I've tried before.  It should be interesting placing them again after all of this recent--in the past 3 months--exposure to varying hei cha versions.

Shaanxi Fu hei cha processed Lincang material

 

The last review of an Oriental Leaf tea (sent by them for review; many thanks!) was of a relatively unusual type, a Shou Mei white tea used for secondary Fu hei cha style processing.  It was good, and of course unique.  This could be just about anything, based on that.

I wrote the review notes without knowing what it was, which I looked up later.

Chang’an Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea Mini Cake 2022 – Yunnan Leaf, Shaanxi Fermentation

In ancient China, tea merchants carried Raw Mao Cha (黑毛茶) tea from the misty Southern China mountains to the imperial capital of Chang’an, where it became beloved for its warming, restorative character during long Silk Road journeys. Our Chang’an Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea Mini Cake pays homage to that tradition, marrying first-grade Yunnan Lincang 临沧 dark tea leaves with the historic Jingyang 泾阳 fermentation that nurtures the signature “Golden Flower” probiotic bloom.

Beneath its smooth black-brown surface lies an amber-red liquor reminiscent of aged whisky or polished carnelian—bright, clear, and resilient across many infusions. The aroma evokes toasted wood, aged barn oak, and a gentle hint of honeyed dates, while the palate unfolds with velvety malt sweetness, subtle nutty tones, and a whisper of warm earth. Its finish is clean, slightly sticky-sweet like glutinous rice candy, leaving a long-lasting, soothing warmth.

Unlike dense traditional bricks, this 60g thin mini cake breaks apart easily by hand—ideal for gifting, travel, or brewing a single session without waste. Its Chinese name, “Bashui Run Chang’an” (“八水绕长安 Eight Waters Nourish Chang’an”), celebrates the life-giving rivers that cradle the ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty, infusing each cup with the poetic soul of Shaanxi.

So it's something different, again.  Really it would help to unpack more about that general tea type, and distinctive type-typical local variations from that area (Shaanxi province), but I may never get around to that.

I should clarify that Oriental Leaf may specialize in hei cha, and Fu brick style teas, but they sell a broad range.  I think they're sending me these more interesting versions just now because they think I'd find them interesting, and I do.

Review:

#1:  it's tempting to guess the tea type even before listing out aspects.  It's in between black and hei cha styles, it seems.  The color is reddish; that's typically oxidation.  Flavors, the primary range, are mostly black tea oriented, towards fruit and floral, with pleasant mineral grounding that, maybe into dark wood a bit.  But there's something else, a type of spice range that's unique.  And malt; that's back to standard black tea character.  

Maybe there's even a little distinctive sourness, which can come up in some types of black tea, but which stand out in different ways in hei cha.  I'll try a second round to get a different perspective on the tea, brewing it a little lighter, since I let this go a little long, to get the compressed tea to open up.

#2:  woodiness picks up a bit.  Intensity is considerable, especially considering this was a flash infusion.  Proportion is higher than it needed to be, even though it's just in the normal range that I use.  That distinctive spice note stands out.  It's almost closer to what I've experienced in different tisane ranges before, than in standard tea.  It's hard to put a name or type to that though.  It's not dis-similar to some heavier flavor floral herbs, like roselle.  A different part relates a lot more to a bark spice herb, or the like.  To use tasting shorthand people often reference something tasting medicinal, when it's hard to place; I guess that works.  I take that to mean "vaguely like ginseng," but of course it would mean different things.  

It's less similar to a standard black tea form, this round.  Those other flavors pick up, even a range I'm describing as sourness, which people might place in different ways.  Do you know how when you sharpen a pencil in an old-style sharpener, how that graphite mineral smell and the well-cured wood smell mix, in a much more sweet and aromatic form than a bit of wood and graphite shavings should produce?  It's like that.  But a bit more earthiness enters in, like a touch of dried mushroom.  Floral and fruit tones are also present, but they're hard to describe in a distinct way.

#3:  it all ties together all the better.  It may just be how I interpret it, versus an objectively clear transition pattern, but the fruit seems to pick up a bit now.  It's at the overlap between heavy floral range and dried fruit, towards Chinese date, jujube.

It would be funny if this was a tisane blend.  It's too complex, and expresses too much of what stands out in "real tea."  But a tisane like willow herb (fireweed / Ivan chay) can be quite complex, and it's typically not so different than this.  I think this still has too much complexity and depth for it to be that.  There's a limited range and depth to all tisanes, for the most part, which can be hard to work around even when blending inputs.  Real tea gives you that complexity, structure, full feel, and aftertaste input.

Again I'm stumped, for the second time in a row.  I'll try a couple more infusions to discuss transitions, then check what this is.

#4:  it's evolving, just not changing too much.  That distinctive sourness is fading, and richer fruit and floral tones stand out all the more.  If someone used half this proportion that could've potentially happened a little faster, and the final infusion count wouldn't go as far.  

Feel is nice in this, full and rich.  Sweetness is good; without that this particular flavor set wouldn't tie together as well.  It might be that only someone open to novel experiences would like this.  It's really not so far off black tea character, as some flavor aspects go, and it could just be that, but it would have to be a very distinctive version of that, something really different.  But it's not like hei cha forms I'm familiar with either.

#5:  I read what this is:  it's Lincang Assamica material processed using Fu hei cha methods, including exposure to the Golden Flowers fungus.  Cool!  Their description (cited above) is as close as I'm probably getting.  It's interesting that it turns out like this, from those starting points.

Conclusions:

Another fascinating and novel tea, something completely different.  The character was clearly positive, beyond the novelty, including complexity, depth, and balance.  Not everyone would appreciate this experience, but then that's common ground for both pu'er and hei cha experience (or if someone sees them as parts of the same set then that's redundant, unless you add an "other" back in modifying hei cha).

Our descriptions weren't identical but they overlapped quite a bit, and the spirit was the same, just different ways of describing the same tea.  Often vendors hold back from being that descriptive, for a few good reasons.  Teas can change over time, so then a few years later a description might seem off.  And people tend to interpret experiences differently, so conveying the general spirit might still seem to miss getting details right.  It's possible that a vendor might describe a tea in the best possible light, for example leaving "sourness" out as a description, which could seem like adding a biased spin, even though again the aspects list conclusion is fairly subjective.

This tea costs $18 for 60 grams, but it's hard to interpret that value part since this tea probably doesn't exist in any similar form from any other source.  That's costly as hei cha goes, but hei cha comes in a broad range of forms and quality levels.  This quality level of hei cha is unusual, and the style is a lot more novel than that.  It's made from pu'er material, it would seem, one main input to that cost.  I don't think that a per-gram price means much, since that kind of comparison just can't be done.  It works out to 30 cents a gram, for what that's worth.

Intensity of this tea stands out; that could be easy to miss, in a comment about it being a bit too strong for my typical proportion, which I'm using for young sheng pu'er.  It's fine if you flash brew it, not too strong, but using less would make more sense.  That intensity makes sense given that it's Lincang material, which one would expect to be bitter (in the sheng form, maybe not prepared as a hei cha), sweet, clean and complex (in good quality versions), and intense.

In the end this is pretty far from the character of typical inexpensive, lower quality material based Fu zhuan or Fu brick versions (which can be nice; a rough edge here or there doesn't always take much away from pleasant character and interesting flavors).  Let's check Google AI's input about that:

Fu zhuan is a type of Chinese dark tea (hei cha) from Hunan Province that is pressed into bricks and fermented to develop a beneficial fungus called "golden flower" (\(jinhua\)). This unique process gives it a distinctive taste, often described as sweet and herbal with woody notes, and it is historically linked to helping nomads with their high-meat diets. It is known for its potential health benefits, including supporting digestion and has a smooth mouthfeel that is very flexible for brewing.  

Just to clarify this is the production origin site:  Fermentation Site: Jingyang, Shaanxi, China

That description isn't too far off (sweet, herbal, woody).  What I was describing as medicinal bark spice can be interpreted more simply as wood character.  Or as aged barn oak, per the vendor's take.  It's complex enough that a broad range of interpretations would be possible.  And at the same time clean enough in effect that beyond a touch of distinctive sourness (which does seem related to the Golden Flowers typical input, now that I think it through) that there aren't many off or negative aspects to describe in any way.  

It's main strength and weakness is that it's unusual, which people could take in different ways.  The aspects character part is nice.