Oriental Leaf Jin Hua sheng pu'er dragonball

 

I'm reviewing a Jin Hua dragonball version of sheng pu'er, provided for review by Oriental Leaf (many thanks for that!).  I don't really know much about the background, so I'll go right to the listing information first:

On Taoism Silk Road Black Pearl Jin Hua Raw Pu-erh Fu Tea ($40 for a 200 gram tin, or there's a sample size, three 7 gram "pearls" for $4.50).

On Taosim has long focused on crafting Fu tea (茯茶) using quality raw leaves from southern China. The Silk Road Black Pearl is an interesting expression of that approach — Yunnan raw Pu-erh material from Lincang, sent to Jingyang in Shaanxi province for the traditional Jin Hua (golden flower) fermentation process, bringing two distinct tea cultures together in a single tea...

Bai Ying Shan (White Eagle Mountain, 白莺山) sits in Yun County, Lincang, along the middle reaches of the Lancang River. It's a tea area known for a relatively diverse range of tea tree varieties. This tea is a blend of several cultivars from the area, including:

Er Ga Zi (二嘎子): A wild hybrid transitional variety. Known for its smooth, soft liquor, naturally high sweetness, and low bitterness or astringency.

Mengku Da Ye Zhong (勐库大叶种): The classic large-leaf Mengku variety.

Mengku Xiao Ye Zhong (勐库小叶种): A smaller-leaf counterpart from the same area.

Bai Ying Shan is not a hyped or speculative single-origin mountain. The material cost is honest, and so is the price. This tea is designed to be a reliable, everyday Pu-erh — something you can drink without second thoughts.

It mentioned being from 2024 material, which was fermented after that.  I didn't notice that much golden flowers input or secondary fermentation effect, so I'll have to speculate about how these noted aspects relate to that, or don't, in the conclusions.  Calling it a dragonball is kind of a marketing expectations judgement; in "the West" I think that's the most common term, but calling the shape "pearls" can work.  I think of that as relating to jasmine white tea, which are always smaller, but again naming doesn't change anything.

That last part they mentioned is something I had meant to comment on.  After writing review notes I had this tea again, and it works well for something to have with breakfast, to not pay that much attention to (as I did then).  And in a sense I think this "daily drinker" theme is often connected with a low-medium quality level more than it has to be.  Tea can be pretty good and still work well without the extra focus.  I drink sheng versions all the time that serve this role well, from different places, often enough as SE Asian sheng versions.

But to extend that a little good versions of orthodox Assam comes to mind, as a tea style that's great with food.  Or Dian Hong (Yunnan black); it's not that close, but still not so far away in character.  I can't really spend 45 minutes just focusing on a tea most days, and would get bored with repeating that over and over if it did work out that way.  People do mention using lower quality teas as something to drink with food, and others for focusing on over a longer time, but I drink a broad range of teas with breakfast, and don't think through this quality level cut-off issue too much.  If I really want to experience the tea more of course I won't eat while drinking it, but beyond reviews I mostly have tea with breakfast.

Review:

First infusion:  getting this dragonball to open is going to be an issue, as is typically the case.  This infused for over 30 seconds and it's not strong enough to really say much about flavors and the rest.  Maybe it will be bright, sweet, and floral, or maybe I'm getting that wrong.  

Often it works to pry the ball open once it has been through two or three infusions, and if you don't rush it leaving the ball sit in a closed gaiwan between early rounds can seem to let it steam to open.  I'm mostly just giving it long soaks early on, letting it sit for more like a minute on the second round.

Second infusion:  this unfurled much better than these usually do.  I'm not sure why; they all seem to be compressed to the same degree, or at least you can't tell the difference.

Bitterness stands out; this was brewed for awhile.  But it's in a pleasant form.  Sweetness also stands out, and what seems to be floral character.  It will be easier to do a flavor list from a lighter infusion, so I'll write it out next round.  Feel is positive already; that strong infusion form draws out some extra astringency but in general this seems rich and full instead of harsh and dry.

Third infusion:  it's a touch cloudy; that's interesting.  It's more a bad sign than a good one but it doesn't necessarily mean much.  Flavor include significant bitterness.  I didn't use a really fast infusion and that might make sense for this.  Sweetness is still good, but unpacking generally floral range beyond the bitterness is still tricky.  

There's an intensity that sheng drinkers end up craving, and this has it.  Sweetness is really pronounced, feel is full and intense, flavors are strong, if not particularly distinct, and bitterness stands out.  For people accustomed to other kinds of tea this wouldn't be that pleasant; it takes acclimation to like this style and form.  But this is a positive example of that, if one is ok with moderate bitterness.

Fourth infusion:  it's the best this has been, balancing nicely, but bitterness is still the main flavor input.  Or taste, if someone uses those terms in a different way.  A faint hint of smoke enters in, but it's still bitter, sweet, and floral.  A touch of fruit might be picking up, a bit of citrus to join the mostly floral range.  Brightness of tone and freshness makes it positive.  Plenty of mineral range grounds the experience, adding complexity and depth.  

A good number of years ago I would've had trouble relating to this tea, earlier on in sheng exploration, but now I like it.  If this had a rougher astringency feel it wouldn't balance nearly as well, but the feel intensity is in a good range.  It doesn't stand out as a great tea version, but it seems like a good example of this particular style range.  

Fifth infusion:  some vegetal range picks up this round.  It's hard to place; sort of a spring forest scent, nothing too pronounced.  It seems like the floral tone range deepens and warms as well.  A little supporting fruit hasn't changed, and it's still not very pronounced, a matter of interpretation whether it's there at all.  

To me this is the kind of tea experience that I tend to crave once in awhile, but not often, or most of the time.  It doesn't match with food experience particularly well, but you could have this with the right kind of breakfast.  Heavier and warmer flavors would work well in opposition to it.  I'd rather have a mild black tea with something like French toast and bacon, but a lighter or mixed tone breakfast would be ok with it.  I just had scrambled eggs with Thai spinach (amaranth), some pear, and rice with milk and cinnamon, as a porridge, and that would be ok.

Sixth and seventh infusions:  the brightness, sweetness, and freshness fades over these rounds, while intensity is still good.  The profile thins a little, and that hint of smoke shifts to be a hint of ash.  It's not as positive, but still pleasant.  Extending the infusion time so much for the first two rounds probably speeded up the transition cycle, so that at least some of this tea material is now brewing similar to how it would be brewed for a higher infusion count.  There are trade-offs to this presented form, and that's one of them.  Convenience is what you gain on the positive side; this would travel well, compared to carrying around a cake and pu'er knife.

Conclusions:

I had this with a breakfast within a few days after writing those notes and it was well-suited for that.  So I guess I changed my mind?  I might have been thinking that this would be light for pairing with a heavy American style breakfast, but I typically eat two eggs, often scrambled with spinach, and also some fruit, and either yogurt or a croissant.  It's not that heavy.  It all goes well with a light character young sheng, typically, even if those are more intense, bitter, and astringent than this was.

This doesn't sound like a hei cha style tea review.  I didn't even mention it, approaching it as normal sheng, and nothing in the character shifted me off that context.  Maybe there are warmer tones or a slightly different flavor profile; to some extent that's probably true.  I end up drinking a good bit of sheng that's oxidized more than is typical, for the most standard Yunnan sheng, so I wouldn't necessarily give limited style deviation much thought.  

But this expressed bitterness, and some feel structure comparable to normal sheng, it just wasn't challenging or rough.  Floral tones stood out, and a touch of citrus, and a hint of smoke, all of which doesn't sound like hei cha.  Probably if you are "looking for it" you would notice a touch of extra yeast-like flavor, and maybe even a little more honey than is typical for sheng, characteristic of that fungus input.  And it might seem like it had transitioned more than generally occurs in two years, but to me that's so variable related to storage conditions input that it doesn't mean anything in particular.  Teas change a lot here in Bangkok in two years.

It's good.  Related to value it's fine; 400 grams would be $80, so cost is moderate as decent sheng goes ($70-some per standard sized cake amount).  Someone might be disappointed if they wanted to experience a good bit more hei cha style effect, since this just seemed like sheng to me; some of their other sort of hybrid processing versions are a lot more like that, covered in earlier reviews here.

I was just drinking an earlier Fu zhuan version from them (Oriental Leaf) as Bangkok experienced heavy rain (for two days; it's flooding), reminding me how warm toned teas go well with different cooler weather.  It's never cold here; this is about as close as it gets.  The tone of this Jin Hua ball shaped tea isn't that warm, although it's not as bright and light as some sheng.  To me I can drink light, young sheng most of the time, and it matches my mood and relation to the weather, but then I only live in the tropics, so a rare 20 C / 68 F cool morning only happens a few times a year.

Vet options in Bangkok

 

I visited our vet recently when my kitten was sick, and was considering how we've had lots of different kinds of experiences with vets in Bangkok. I wanted to recommend them, and compare how other types of vet services work out.

The Vet Hospital 24 Hour, at Udom Suk (they are here): they're great, the best vet we've tried, so this is who we use now. Staff are very experienced, and they love animals. Care seems pretty solid, but that part can be hard to evaluate, since I can't really evaluate or second-guess animal medical treatment.  Our cats have been through a rough past year related to health issues, and only one case went badly, and for a mix of reasons that can't really serve as an indicative example. 

To me this is the ideal, a good value, good services local branch version, that has enough experience base to also do basic surgeries. If a vet is oriented towards value you can even use them to support short vacation stay pet care, at a similar or perhaps lower price than in local "pet hotels." All of the other private options mentioned here also provide this service, per my understanding, and lots of "pet hotels" do, but costs vary.

Thong Lo Pet Hospital: this is a main local business, with at least three different branches, so it's not only at Thong Lo. We've taken pets there before, and services seem fine, but the cost is pretty significant. I don't really blame them; overhead must be high for such a business. Not so different than "The Vet," but a more corporate themed, for-profit business positioning changes things.

Chulalongkorn and Kasaetsart Animal Hospitals: these are great options. Care is great, costs are low. The trade-off is that like in local government hospitals you will spend a few extra hours there even for basic care, and for something requiring return visits that will add up to extra days worth of time spent there. 

If you go frequently--hopefully not because of poor pet health--you can build a relationship with a specific doctor, and then things will go all the better. Limited experience with surgery and urgent care at the Chula version went as well as that kind of thing tends to go; surgery and lab facilities are very extensive. A cat specialist theme at Kasaetsart seemed to add functionality.

the Chula Small Animal Hospital main building (credit their website)

Sukhumvit Veterinarians:  there would be lots of other options, and I'm including one recommended in a Reddit thread comment (here).  They said:  "I think 2 factors that helped us feel reassured by our vet of choice was that it was a recommendation by a friend who has a geriatric dog, so can handle complicated care like that. And when we first visited, the staff was warm and seemed excited to meet our cats."

The vet staff at that Vet Hospital 24 Hour place we go to are so excited to see our cats that they greet them as friends when they arrive.  Especially the Siamese cat, who has a cool look, and a really sweet personality, but they also seem to love the other cats.  They send Line updates with photos, and I can tell that the cats get some attention while they're there, which would mean the world to them.

Broad scope of experience and specialization is also important.  Lots of vets would have lots of diverse experience, and word of mouth in different forms helps inform where others have had the best results.

Other local vets: we've mostly only been to one in Ari, that was fine. Services were ok, and cost wasn't quite as high as the Thong Lo branch. All of these places are using well trained vets, so care is generally fine all over. I suppose you would only really test that when something unusual went wrong with your pet's health, and maybe as with human medical care how that goes could relate to if there is a common or uncommon health condition occurring.  Or to the pet's general health, and other factors.

our other cat.  all are happy and in good health now, but she is a bit moody.

Banzhang sheng pu'er from Moychay

 

I looked up this listing before trying it to clarify that it is actually sheng pu'er, since the label presents it as "Banzhang Mountain Soil."  It is sheng.  

Why would it not reference Lao Banzhang, the village?  A Google AI answer probably clarifies this, as the answer you would expect:

Lao Banzhang means "Old Banzhang," referring to a famous mountain village in Yunnan, China, that produces some of the most expensive and revered raw Pu-erh tea in the world.

Name Breakdown and Origin

Lao (老): Means "old."Banzhang (班章): The name of the village, located in the Bulang Mountain range of Menghai County, Xishuangbanna. The newer settlement nearby is called Xin Banzhang or "New Banzhang."

King of Pu-erh: 

Connoisseurs call Lao Banzhang tea the "King of Pu-erh" because of its powerful energy (cha qi), intense initial bitterness, and rapid, deep-throated sweetness (huigan).

I reviewed a Xin Banzhang version from a local Chinatown shop recently, here.  So this is probably not from near the old village area, but is tea from that general area, which would explain the pricing.

Banzhang Mountain Soul Sheng Puer (8.94 Euro for 50 grams, or $10.27 USD)

That pricing is low for standard sized cakes at this point, a $70 or so 357 gram version.  Their description:

Banzhang Mountain Soul is a raw Pu-erh tea made from old-tree leaves harvested in the Banzhang region of Bulangshan mountain, Menghai.

The tea comes from high-altitude forested areas where the large-leaf varietals grow naturally and develop a strong, structured character typical of Banzhang terroir.

The leaves are picked by hand with a standard of one bud and two to three leaves, then withered, pan-fried (kill-green), rolled, and sun-dried.

The infusion is bright golden-yellow with a firm, penetrating aroma of wild herbs, wood, and mountain air. The taste is powerful and bitter-sweet, with the characteristic “霸气” (ba qi, dominant strength) associated with Banzhang teas.

A steady returning sweetness and long aftertaste make this tea suitable for both connoisseurs and long-term aging.

It's interesting there's no year cited for this.  Maybe from spring of 2025?

Either way it sounds ok from that description; let's see.

Review

First infusion:  this is quite good.  Bitterness stands out, but so does distinctive floral range, fullness, and depth, and it's only the first infusion.  Sweetness is great.  Astringency is moderate, in a good form, positive in relation to the rest.  There is good hui gan / carried over bitterness converting to sweetness.  Even without tasting other rounds this is surely an absolute steal for tea priced at that level.

The other Xin Banzhang version I'd mentioned trying was good tea, but just a little off a most conventional form.  This is it; this is what pretty good versions of this type should be like.  

I've only tried about four LBZ versions, so I can't really conclusively pin down the right style or flavor range for there, but as far as my memory goes of that it's in the right general range.  It's marked by a distinctive warm and rich floral profile, that is intense, with notable bitterness, but nothing on the highest side of the range, that doesn't integrate well with the rest of the tea character.  Good intensity is matched by depth, and flavor range is especially positive, so heavy in complex floral tones that it almost leans to being fruity, because there is so much complexity and intensity packed in a limited floral flavor scope, carrying over to pronounced aftertaste.  Does that make sense?  Maybe not.

Moychay teas are generally solid, pretty good for matching type range, decent in quality, with range of value a little more broad, but they do offer some atypical hits and misses, outliers on both ends.  I was hoping this would be an example of the first, and it seems to be.

Second infusion:  I brewed this pretty fast; that can help with identifying flavors better, and it's intense enough that it's going to be positive and strong enough brewed lighter.  

It definitely has a lot of flavor complexity to offer.  Bitterness still stands out, but to me it's in an appropriate balance.  It may be a little higher than some LBZ I've tried, but again I'm not trying to claim to know a typical profile range, based on only trying a few versions (3 come to mind, so it's probably more than that).  

The floral flavor covers a narrow range, but it's also complex, which is an interesting effect.  It seems to pack together a set of floral flavors that match and extend beyond what one flower smells like.  Orchid might represent the brightness and sweetness, a wildflower variation might give it depth, and a warm toned flower the flavor richness.  Part of that effect could be interpreted as a hint of citrus instead, maybe as a trace of lemon zest.  You automatically "see" it as only floral, because those flavors seem to integrate and link, to be one complex experience.

It's hard to describe how the sweetness and feel contribute to that.  I've not experienced extended aftertaste that much for awhile, drinking more moderate quality sheng that can be fine in positive flavor aspects, intensity, and complexity, but that don't express all of the quality related markers that much.

Since I'm finally doing a single type tasting maybe I could identify body feel some, cha qi.  But I had breakfast before this, which seems to offset how fast that input hits you, making it much harder to identify.  The long term health of my stomach is much more of a priority than drug-like effects from tea; I don't need those.

Let's switch it up and try to cite limitations or flaws; what isn't as positive?  One could interpret that there is a dry edge to the pronounced mineral tone layer (that seems to associate; I'm fine with mixing flavor and feel range descriptions, if they seem to link).  To me that's a bit of stretch; the entire feel and flavor range is very positive.  But it probably does help define "how good" this tea is.  It's quite good, but there is room for slight improvement.  Related to even moderate aging input that might be positive; a touch of extra intensity in certain feel and flavor seems to tie to transition potential.  To me it would be crazy to hold onto this tea and see what it's like in 15 to 20 years, since it's more than fine now, but preferences do vary.

Third infusion:  a faint hint of smoke enters in; that's closer to a flaw than anything else experienced.  It's always strange to me when that picks up a few rounds in, as occurred in a very recent tasting.  If that's an external input why didn't it stand out at first?  It may be a touch of natural smokiness, just how the mineral range is evolving, even though that sounds strange.

Sweetness is still good.  It could be slightly stronger; back to the theme of looking for limitations, even in positive aspects.  Feel is rich and full but it could be a little more intense.  Aftertaste expression is pretty pronounced, that doesn't represent a thin spot in the character.  Most of the rest doesn't either; I'm describing how good teas and great teas can differ.

The brightness and flavor complexity is quite positive.  A touch of lemon stands out all the more, joining the other floral range, as it had last round, but a little more so.  This tea is really good, only limited in relation to someone hoping for "great" instead.  For someone like me, for whom basic, limited, pleasant, and interesting teas are enough, this is already better than it needs to be.

Maybe I am feeling just a little stony from this.  It would be nice to be trying it outside, but it's the rainy season in Bangkok, so the cats and I were rained out of the outdoor tasting theme this morning.

Fourth infusion:  not so different than last round.  I should keep this round's description short to make this readable, and get back to notes on the next one.  That hint of rougher astringency is gone already, evolved away, and depth seems to pick up.  Bitterness falls into a lighter balance, with lots of floral range flavors resonating into the aftertaste experience.  This is a tea experience worth taking time with, and not rushing.

Fifth infusion:  it's interesting how the forward flavor complexity has dropped, the bright floral tones, bitterness, even sweetness, but depth really ramped up.  There's a lot to taste; it's not thin.  But the effect is unusual, occurring across a broader range than you normally get.  That faint hint of smoke, which may have just been how mineral was coming across at one point, is essentially gone.  Mineral is really pronounced too in this; that's part of what I mean by depth increasing, while the most forward flavor range fades into a more even balance.  

It really fills your mouth; the feel and flavor intensity stand out, across different areas.  The lemon tone switches back to warm floral scope.  I think that kind of thing is varying based on very slight differences in brewing, maybe related to limited infusion time variation.  Temperature probably varies with how fast or slow I brew rounds, with leaves cooling to soak up more heat.  Some would also be ordinary round to round transition.

I definitely feel this more than five cups would usually cause, both a heady stoniness and deeper body feel.  I don't necessarily value all of that as many others do.  It's mildly interesting, but my normal body feel and mental state effects are fine for me.  I put my time in as a stoner and it was enough.  I suppose that could also be why it all seems moderate to me; bong hits of strong weed are 100 times stonier than this tea.  I can't even imagine what that would be like today, since I quit all that 21 years ago.

Sixth infusion:  I brewed this a little longer, to see what that changes.  Flavor tones are warmer and stronger, and feel and aftertaste effects are a bit much.  I suppose I like it lighter (brewed for 10 seconds or less, even a number of rounds in).  Related to feel effect I'll probably walk around a bit; that is adding up.  

It's interesting the way heavy mineral tone comes across, brewed strong like this.  There's a continuity between lighter, brighter range, sweetness, floral complexity, and mineral depth.  It hits across a lot of levels, but it all kind of connects.  Maybe mineral and astringency don't balance as well, brewed just a little stronger.

Conclusions

Of course that tea kept brewing beyond that; that's just where I dropped taking notes.

It can be a little awkward placing "how good" a good tea version is.  Good in relation to what?  This was a lot better than most sheng versions that you would run across.  Related to as good as versions can get is too complicated and subjective a framework.  There is higher quality range, but it's more meaningful to people focused on that than it is to me.

Placing it in relation to a Lao Ban Zhang standard type doesn't go much better.  I've only tried a few versions presented as that, maybe four, and they all were really exceptional, and all similar in some ways.  Pronounced floral tones stand out, to an unusual intensity and related to a novel flavor set.  Astringency was moderate for all of them, but then the rougher edge form of sheng drops out in better versions, for whatever reasons.  They all expressed great depth, and in some cases body feel did stand out.  

This was better than the Chinatown origin Xin Ban Zhang version I've reviewed not so long ago; that included good sweetness and floral range, but mineral tones came across the strongest in that.  That's not a terrible outcome, but very pronounced floral range supported by bitterness, sweetness, and mineral depth is nicer.

It's really not fair for me to guess if this is better or worse than four other LBZ versions I've tried over a half dozen years, and it wouldn't mean much if I did.  Who knows how great or how representative those were.  As I remember most were just a little more amazing, but some of that can be about buying into the hype.

So this tea is quite good, as described, and sort of what I'd expect for the general type (as pu'er from a broader Ban Zhang area, most likely, not necessarily from right outside the older Lao Ban Zhang village).  Value is exceptional; unusually so.  

Some would turn all that around and focus on gaps in expectations instead; there is usually some room for improvement, and expectations can soar in relation to the most exceptional type ranges.  Maybe flavor profile could center on different floral range, intensity and refinement could dial up just a little, and mineral depth, and so on.  But this tea was really good; it made for an exceptional experience.