Lai Chau (Vietnam) forest green tea, and Jin Xuan Fujian green

 

Viet Sun Deep Forest left, Moychay Jin Xuan right, in all photos

I'm comparison tasting a Moychay Jin Xuan green tea with a Viet Sun Lai Chau Deep Forest Green tea (the second from spring of 2026, with the first not listing a date, but probably from this year).

This comparison is really throwing the Moychay tea version to the wolves; I already know the Viet Sun tea is exceptional, from trying earlier forms.  It held its own well though.

Moychay sent a number of different samples to try, in part related to me helping with some editing.  It's much appreciated; it will be a great chance to try lots of familiar types, and some new ones.  Most of it is warmer toned versions, lots of black tea, oolongs, some fermented / hei cha range, even some flavored versions.  It makes sense that for a lot of the year in cooler European climate warmer teas would be favored.  Not just now, so much, when lighter teas would go better with a heat wave, but it'll be fall again soon, and spring wasn't so long ago.

This is the last tea I have to try from Viet Sun, from the last order (sent as a sample for review; I'd keep buying sheng and black tea from them, if I had included more than a few versions).  Green tea is more or less my least favorite category, but the exceptions can be nice, like this one.

One additional thing I wanted to mention:  Steve said that their sales were down this year.  It's not hard to guess why (not related to teas being unfavorable; they're good):  the economy can seem uncertain in lots of places now, and inflation already stresses plenty of people's budgets.  I wonder if there aren't other inputs though.

I'm not sure how Moychay's business either expands or flattens out in "the West;" I haven't kept up with hearing about that.  This is all supposed to just be about the teas anyway.

I'm also just coming out of a 6 day long illness, I think in decent shape for tasting.  I'll lose a little intensity and finer flavor sensitivity to this cold, but it's resolved enough that drinking light teas again makes sense.  For those more difficult days it was nice drinking mild black tea, not getting much of the flavor, but appreciating the depth.

the Viet Sun version; I forgot to take a picture of the dry leaves when tasting them

the Moychay tea; the leaves looked even finer in person

Let's check their sales page input for their descriptions, and pricing:

Lai Châu Deep Forest Green Spring 2026 (they're only selling 250 grams for $57.50 now, no other sizes, at 23 cents a gram)

A green tea made from same tea tree varietal as our Lào Cai Deep forest teas but on the Lai Châu side of the mountain range. 

The tea trees in this area are growing to heights of 10+ meters in the deep forest at 2200m+ in elevation. The rich biodiversity and natural growing conditions really make their way into the cup.

This tea brews up slowly into a rich, clear golden soup. The flavor is unique and complex. Reminds me of forest flower honey, herbs, strawberry or raspberry and wild grasses with a lot of umami. There are some similarities to Japanese green teas.

Light astringency and bitterness, thick mouthfeel, long rich huigan and relaxing qi.

Another interesting aspect of this tea is the aging potential. I have tried teas from past years and they get sweeter and richer over time. The honey notes become more prominent as well.

Maybe I was thinking of that other origin area green tea from them...

Green Tea Jin Xuan Lü Cha (they only list a 7 gram size for 2 Euros, 33 cents a gram, with the 50 gram size having been sold for 30 cents a gram, when it was available)

Jin Xuan Green Tea is a high-mountain green tea produced from the Jin Xuan oolong cultivar in Sanming City, Fujian Province. Grown at an average altitude of 1100 meters, the tea is cultivated by a sustainable agriculture enterprise, recognized nationally as a green tea production base.

Harvested by hand in April, the tea is picked as one bud with two leaves. Processing follows a traditional green tea method: sun withering, indoor airing, pan-firing (kill-green), rolling, and drying... 

...Its fragrance is rich and floral, accompanied by a distinct fresh soybean note. The taste is smooth, refreshing, and sweet, making it particularly enjoyable for daily drinking.

It's interesting considering that both are probably relatively safe tea options.  Producers surely aren't pouring fertilizer and pesticide on forest grown teas, and the Jin Xuan is presented as a sustainable production output.

Of course Jin Xuan is #12 in a series of developed cultivars (cross bred plant types) in Taiwan, produced a long time ago there.  Rolled oolongs here in Thailand tend to be Jin Xuan, #17 (Ruan Zhi or Bai Lu; kind of a long story about that naming), or maybe Tie Guan Yin or Qing Xin. 

Review:

Lai Chau, first infusion:  I brewed these quite light to start; I'm not sure why that made sense to me.  Flavor is nice, just light.  There's a freshness and depth to this, with good floral range and mineral base showing through already.  It will work better as a breakdown next round.  

Moychay Jin Xuan:  it's interesting how much umami this expresses.  That might throw off using personal preference as a main marker; I can appreciate how good Japanese teas are, but I like other styles more.  This could possibly be as good as the other tea, just much different in style.  The other tea expressed some umami, but this includes more.  It's a lot better than the Thai versions one might run across here, but that's typically a low bar to clear.  The oolongs are better, and most aren't great.

Brightness and freshness relate to the main range you experience, then floral depth and sweetness enters in, with lots of an umami edge.  It seems this will balance well, and be quite complex, again easier to describe as a breakdown next round.

Lai Chau #2:  lots of intensity; brewing this 6 or so grams for over 10 seconds provides an intense infusion.  Floral range is so sweet, rich, and intense that this tastes like perfume smells.  You get some vegetal range with that, that's hard to describe, maybe along the line of deep forest fern (like the scent; you don't eat those).  After you drink it a strong aftertaste and full feel occurs in the back of your mouth, not just the throat, but the entire rear part.  Mineral stands out in that, not light or warm mineral, but mineral with depth, a range of it.  It's all quite clean.  Maybe a touch of pine bark is there, beyond those described aspects, but that's clean too.

It's complex; it would work to use other descriptions.  There is some umami.  Floral range is complex; there's a lot one could associate with it, probably as a few notes, or a range of them.  One catchy part is rich and deep, like lavender, but there's more to it.  Related to vegetal range sugar snap pea sort of applies.

Jin Xuan:  that umami hits you first, then such a strong floral input that in some teas you'd think this was altered.  But it doesn't work out that flavor-adjusted teas show the added flavor more after the first round; that kind of thing extracts right away.  And I don't think it's even possible to add umami like this.  This tea is clearly natural, it's just distinctive and unique.  

Others could place this in relation to Japanese green tea range better than I can, maybe a specific type of sencha.  It's there, with that umami, and rich floral range expression, good intensity, clean nature, good balance, refinement, etc.  Aftertaste is sweet and umami range combined.  This does hold its own with the other version.  Even for living in a country that produces a lot of Jin Xuan cultivar, and trying plenty from Taiwan (typically oolongs though, in both places) this is probably the best green tea version I've tried from that plant type.  It would be more impressive if that came up more often, but it's still really good.

In trying the last of the other there's a savory note in it too, but it's more a sun-dried tomato oriented aspect, where this is closer to the seaweed umami, it just doesn't really taste like seaweed.

Lai Chau #3:  it falls into a nice balance, with all of those layers and levels combining well.  But it's not really different.  It's nice the way that a savory sun-dried tomato umami depth ties the rest together, and how it all balances.  It's an unusually complex version of green tea.

Jin Xuan:  the proportion of those flavors changed, with umami and a specific floral note really standing out.  It also expresses depth, complexity, and balance, but those two notes stand out more than the rest.

Lai Chau #4:  vegetal range is standing out a little more; in one sense this is already fading, or at least changing, I suppose to be less positive.  It still has lots to offer though.  Perfume-like floral range is pronounced, and lots of aspects combine together.  The feel is still full and rich.

Jin Xuan:  maybe it was already transitioning towards this in the last round, but a savory note tastes a lot like toasted rice, like that flavor aspect in Longjing.  It's interesting, positioned along with a seaweed oriented umami flavor, and a good bit of rich floral range.  That still resembles lavender, to me.

Intensity, depth, and complexity are pronounced in this; it more than holds its own.  But as you go back and taste the other tea after even for giving up a little in intensity and range it's still just as pleasant, for those other flavors combining so well.  Both are holding up well, but then it is only the fourth round.

They both brewed a couple more really nice infusions, and weren't dead even after that, but I stopped taking notes there.

Conclusions:

I'm surprised that I liked the Moychay Jin Xuan as much as I did, and that it represented that high a quality level.  It's one of the better green teas I've tried in a long time, and even people accustomed to better Japanese green tea would probably love it, and also be surprised by it.  The dominant umami transitioning to other range made it better for me; the other floral tones and additional complexity worked well.  I didn't expect all of that.

But then the Viet Sun deep forest green tea was as good as I remember, very distinctive and pleasant.  I suppose due to me liking the flavor aspect range better I did like it better than the other version, but it might work to objectively say that the Jin Xuan version is slightly better quality tea.  It was more refined, with both being quite complex, and a little more distinctive in style.

Related to value both are kind of equivalent.  The Vietnamese version is selling for 23 cents a gram (at higher volume; equating volume would level out the difference), and the Chinese Jin Xuan for 30, but one already went through import to Europe, which adds cost, and potential value, for people paying different import taxes depending on origin there.  Tea as good as either would still be a decent value if selling for more; these were both exceptional.

So the only catch is that I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, and that I like black tea and varying oolong types best as fall-backs.  I like novel and pleasant hei cha versions more than green tea, which I can still appreciate, but I just never end up buying it.  I had routinely made an exception for Longjing, for years, but now I just stick to those others, and buy mostly sheng, and some black tea.

For people who really do like green tea, and want to explore what these two vendors sell, these are both good options.

Marmalade grows up fast

Chang Kham Thai wild origin Assamica black tea

 

I'm reviewing another tea from Chang Kham, sent by that business owner for review (many thanks).  He is the family member of the Sen Xing Fa Bangkok Chinatown shop that I have met a number of times over the years, who now runs a shop and outlet by that name up in Chiang Mai (located here).

I just noticed in editing this it was from 2025, so a year old now.  A tea like this probably improves slightly over the first half a year or so, as it settles, and is all the better now.  It probably won't change that much with aging over the next year or two, maybe just fading slightly, but not even all that much of that, if well stored.  

All that is guesswork; I don't mean to imply the level of confidence in that conclusion that it implies.  The main point is that there's not much concern that it wouldn't be as good related to being a year old.  Maybe it's not really better, but it wouldn't just lose intensity or freshness, like a green tea.

A description from their website:

That tea costs 1500 baht for 100 grams ($45), listed on their website.  Is that a good value?

Not really, by Thai local standards, but then there isn't that much tea of this quality level around.  It would be hard to place this against any other Thai version to use as a market price, so I'm really comparing against teas from China.  I can check on one though, since Tea Side is a Western facing outlet that carries exceptions related to what is produced:

2025 Old Trees Organic Black Tea N3, Loose Leaf  ($19 for 100 grams)

Loose black tea from 100-300-year-old trees, the highest quality material.

This is a classic black tea from trees. It is well-fermented and possesses an invigorating strong taste with many semitones and a rich aroma. The taste profile: tea rose, tulips, dried fruits, a little caramel.

Suitable for both, utilitarian consumption with sweets and for the thoughtful tea ceremony. 

The teas are probably fairly similar, but I might like the Tea Side version a little more, since their teas tend to match a Dian Hong style (from what I've tried in the past; it's a guess, related to this tea), and this was one flavor aspect removed from that standard profile (so still pretty close).  

So $45 is a bit much.  You always pay more for teas sold in brick and mortar shops, than in purely online outlets, as a rule, which is somewhat fair.  Their overhead is a lot higher, and they offer you the benefit of trying teas before you buy them (usually; that varies by store).  Also $19 is a pretty good price for what I expect that other Thai tea to be; 20-some would still be ok.

It seems strange blaming a vendor for value when they send a tea for review (many thanks for that!), but I don't intend this that way.  These kinds of really rare teas vendors would source at different pricing, and their marketing and final pricing is up to them.  

It's quite possible that you couldn't find a close equivalent to either of these teas anywhere else.  The supply chains aren't anything like standard farm production, so I'm not clear on what factors go into costs.  And it's possible that the Chang Kham tea is much better than the Tea Side version; only someone who has tried both would know.

Review:

first infusion:  this is good.  The style is distinctive, in a way that's familiar if you try enough versions of black tea; hopefully that comes across in description.  It tastes malty, but not quite as dry and mineral intensive as Assam versions (from that area in India).  It's not exactly like a malted milk ball or milkshake malt, but sort of right in between the two.

Beyond that another flavor included is cacao.  There's a bit of fruit as well, more or less along the line of dried dark cherry.  It's a nice mix.  Feel is rich, even though this is really just getting started.  It even expresses some aftertaste effect, while still starting out.  Through it all that one cacao note stands out, which is a pleasant aspect to bring the rest into a nice balance.

Because this tea lacks a lot of astringency you could brew it as intense as you want, and it would be fine.  The way these flavors are combining, with pleasant intensity, it would be as well to keep infusion strength on the light-medium side, because it will all probably come across well that way.

second infusion:  similar to the first round, but a little stronger.  There is a slight sour note to this, a bit like aged cardboard, that some people could find off-putting, and then for others it would just link to a separate mineral range that works well.  Early in my tea exploration I kept trying versions that went by the name / type Golden Monkey, and they were a bit like that.  Let's check what that might be, from Wikipedia:

Golden Monkey tea (Chinese: 金猴茶; pinyin: jīn hóu chá) is a black tea originating from the Fujian and Yunnan provinces in China. Only the bud and first leaf are picked, and the tea leaves are characterized by the pale gold threading. Golden Monkey tea is a black tea counterpart of Silver Needle white tea. The flavor profile of golden monkey tea is characterized by light, honeyed peach notes, and its lack of astringency. The name "Golden Monkey" can be used for many black teas.

...Despite the fact that tea has been grown in Yunnan for 1700 years, Golden Monkey is a relatively new tea, about 300 years old.[5] It has only been produced for export in the last 13–18 years.

This is a review of a local Thai version from 2014, almost dating back to that range.  I would describe teas differently now, but it sounds at least comparable.

That post describes a taste as resembling cantaloupe, and that might apply to this.  Or one part is definitely like sun-dried tomato, that sweet and savory flavor.  Cacao is still present, but not as the dominant flavor.  Warm mineral picks up, perhaps related to this being brewed a little stronger, or it just evolving across rounds.  All in all it's pretty good.  Again flavor preference in relation to that one flavor aspect is what would determine a take on this tea, if it seems off, or if that's regarded as pleasant, the one balsa wood sort of flavor.  I like it.

third infusion:  not really changing much.  It might pick up a little depth, and coat my mouth a little differently, feeling a little different.  

It's interesting to compare and contrast this with typical Dian Hong range, an overall personal favorite.  That malt note wouldn't be similar; Yunnan versions aren't generally like that.  I guess if they are a Golden Monkey type maybe it could be more common?  I wouldn't know.  Some cacao and range not completely unlike roasted yam is common.  I've not been describing this as like roasted yam, but it's similar, and that's one possible interpretation.  It probably works better for this third round than it had before, so it is probably changing a little.  The way the set of aspects comes across is similar though, even though it all may be shifting slightly.

The feel is nice, but it's hard to describe how or why.  It's rich, and a bit heavy, but quite smooth.  Maybe one might say that it's velvety.  As quality level goes this tea is fine; it's good.  It's more a matter of how it matches or misses related to personal preference for flavors.

I'll brew one more round a bit stronger, and this tea won't be finished, but that should be enough description.  Sometimes late rounds can be just as positive as earlier ones, or teas can thin in ways that aren't as positive, but to me that's usually not a main story of how the tea is.  It's interesting trying tea that is this approachable, in the mild and flavorful black tea range, but then I just did review a couple in relation to buying one from Viet Sun, and them sending a sample.  They weren't completely different than this.

fourth infusion:  that malt note is the strongest it has been, probably in part related to brewing this a little longer, and related to it evolving that way.  For people who have tried a few similar versions of Golden Monkey all of this should be ringing a bell.  As I remember those may not have matched this for some of the minor aspect range that shows a tea's quality, for flavor intensity and complexity, overall positive character, rich feel, and aftertaste trailing over, adding depth to the experience.  

That one balsa wood sort of note was at the center of those experiences too, if I remember right.  I wonder what that's from, if a processing form input causes that, or it's somehow related to using common tea material to start.

Conclusions:

When these kinds of black teas really work for you it's pleasant to drink a kilogram or two of them, to make it a part of a routine rotation.  I wouldn't mind having about 250 grams of this, but I wouldn't want to drink it every week for the next year.  That one malt and balsa wood note isn't something I'd want to repeat experiencing 100 times (although 30 or 40 might be ok).  

But then it's funny how all of that is completely subjective taste dependent.  I'm touchy about a black tea being tart, at all, but if a version has depth I don't mind if flavor intensity is on the low side.  Cacao, roasted sweet potato, and roasted yam are personal favorites for flavor inclusions (so this does cover quite a bit of that too), referring back to the earlier comment about liking the main Dian Hong style best.

It's a good tea version.  It's definitely worth trying this style, to see what you make of it.  I think almost anyone would like this tea, so I'm really focusing on how for some people it might be a personal favorite and for others it wouldn't.

On a completely different subject, Keoni and I checked out a really local shopping center in the Victory Monument area this past week to get a pizza (strange it related to that food choice).  I love those older places; it feels like we're out of town.

2023 Bulang sheng pu'er

 

In this I'm reviewing a 2023 Bulang sheng pu'er from Oriental Leaf.  This is a fairly unusual form of review, related to tasting this tea twice to get to a workable final set of notes.  I used my normal high proportion for brewing the tea the first time, around 8 grams for a 100 ml gaiwan, and it was too much, and it was hard to dial down intensity, even with use of flash infusions.  

It's odd being a sheng drinker and having intensity be too strong.  I could've just edited that out, but it works to describe problems with a tasting process, and how things go when you get them wrong.

This tea was provided by them for review; many thanks for that.

I'll cite their product description and get on with it:

2023 Bulang Buds First Flush Raw Puerh Cake ($90 for a 357 gram cake)

Spring Buds from Bulang Mountain | Dry-Stored

Sourced from the first picking of 2023 on Bulang Mountain and pressed into only 95 cakes, this silver-tipped raw Puerh delivers the rare combination of Bulang's bold character and early spring's natural sweetness — clean, bright, and built to age.

Bulang Mountain's first flush of 2023, pressed into 95 stone-mold cakes — this is what raw Puerh looks like when the material, the terroir, and the storage are all handled without compromise.

Finding the right Bulang material takes time. Bulang Mountain (布朗山, Bù Lǎng Shān) in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna, is one of Yunnan's most storied raw Puerh origins. It has a reputation for producing tea with a powerful, almost aggressive character — thick bitterness (苦 (Kǔ)) that hits immediately, a bold astringency (涩 (Sè)) that grips the sides of the tongue, and a 回甘 (Huí Gān, lingering sweetness) that comes back stronger than almost any other mountain. That is the Bulang identity: force, then reward.

But this material is different. We spent a long time looking before we found it...

It keeps going from there; it's interesting checking their flavor notes: 

Primary: Fresh floral (orchid, white blossom), light grass, raw green walnut

Secondary: Sweet cream, fresh-squeezed green grape, a whisper of pine resin

Underlying structure: Light mineral, faint peppery warmth, clean vegetal bitterness that resolves quickly

As it ages: Expect the floral notes to evolve toward dried apricot, wildflower honey, and eventually light sandalwood and dry cedar — the classic dry-storage aging arc for high-grade Sheng Puerh...

I'll add more about how my impression matches this in the notes and at the end, but the "powerful" part expressed earlier on pretty much captures it.

first tasting, with too much tea in the gaiwan

Review, first tasting attempt:

the color shouldn't look anything like this; it's brewed way too strong

First infusion:  I screwed this up, leaving it sit for too long looking at something online.  The review will have to start with a too-strong infusion.  The earliest transition isn't usually much of a story anyway, but it's still unfortunate.

That's so, so strong.  There won't be much to say about it, beyond trying to see if this can say something about the much lighter character to come.  Intensity seems fine for this tea; brewed too long it's overly powerful.  

Maxing out proportion, my typical approach, probably isn't suitable for this tea.  I might write another set of notes later on using very little, more like 4 grams instead of 8.

Second infusion:  that's more like it, but still more intense and more bitter than I'm currently acclimated to.  All of that South East Asian sheng has been distinctive, flavorful, and approachable, while this is more about bitterness and intensity.  

Flavors are warmer in tone that I would expect for a 2023 sheng version.  But then if teas are stored in relatively more humid places that's pretty normal.  I recently drank some of the Thai sheng from Aphiwat, that local Chiang Mai area individual producer, and it was pretty far along for transition for being about the same age (although I forget the year version; it might've even been 2024, instead of 2023).  

I suppose floral range does emerge beyond the bitterness.  There's definitely a lot of mineral depth to this, and it's clean.  This tea could stand up to 20 years stored here in Bangkok, for sure.  But how is it now, as a more bitter and intense younger tea experience?  I'll check again next round.

Third infusion:  color indicates the intensity just isn't going drop off, even brewed fast, a flash infusion.  The flavor is strong.  It's more of a conditioning exercise, experienced like this.  It's definitely lifting the haze of feeling groggy from overdoing it at work and outside of work; after another cup or two I'll probably feel normal.  But the review will have to wait, until I try it again at a lower proportion, which I won't do today, for having drank so much tea already.  

Second review, a lot lower proportion:

First infusion:  I've again let this go for longer than I usually would, for over half a minute, again looking at something online.  I'll get this straightened out.  I added a flash infusion to it to get it back to drinkable range, and the next round will be more normal.

Flavor is good.  It's a little strong, but it balances ok, and it's still in a positive range.  Mineral base stands out quite a bit, and considerable bitterness.  I suppose floral tone fills in the rest.  As with trying it yesterday it's more age transitioned than one might expect for being 3 years old.  A tea can be darker and warmer in tone if it's a little oxidized instead, and I'd be one of the best qualified tea drinkers to make that distinction, since I drink plenty of unconventionally prepared sheng from South East Asia.  It's not oxidized; somehow this has changed a good bit in 3 years, even being "dry stored."

The mineral tone is so strong that it has its own character.  It leans a little towards coming across as smoky, but that's not it.  I suppose it's like when you drink artesian well tea, that includes a lot of mineral content, but stronger.  That actually links to one of my favorite memories from childhood, drinking from a naturally flowing well at one grandparents' house.  That water was sweet, rich, complex, and delicious.  This is a little like that.

Second infusion:  a little on the light side; that's interesting to experience, after trying it in a really strong range at first.  It had faded to a pleasant and drinkable range after a 4 or 5 infusions yesterday, but I had left off taking notes by then.

Sheng can tend to "loosen up" over the first 2 or 3 infusions, and this is in that process.  Sweetness, astringency, are bitterness are all in a decent range, but it will evolve to balance better soon.  I'll save a flavor list breakdown for next round.

Third infusion:  bitterness still stands out as a main flavor aspect, along with mineral.  It's possible to see mineral and bitterness as a taste, distinct from aromatic component conveyed flavors, which people might call aroma or flavor (a general term); people use the terms in different ways.  But in our experience the final experience form from the two inputs tends to come across as unified.  

There's still a mineral flavor input that leans towards smoke.  It's hard to separate out a vaguely floral range in the rest.  It has good flavor complexity, but it all runs together.  Blended material is often like that, a mix from different inputs, or I suppose a more narrow origin version, picked from the same garden, for example, could naturally be like that.  

The main positive or negative aspect range of this is intensity, even brewed fast, at a low proportion.  Bitterness and mineral really stand out, with some matching sweetness, enough to make it work.  For people who really value that intensity this would probably be good, and for others who can't relate not so good, until this ages more.  I've spent a long time acclimating to different sheng range, and I'm fine with it, but I do love fruity and milder sheng range best, to the extent that I'm open to versions that are so oxidized that they start to move outside of the type category.

Fourth infusion:  this is changing, with the astringency / feel structure and bitterness dropping off, so that other flavor range can stand forward more.  It's just starting though; it will probably be a more complete change next round.

It's interesting trying sheng again that seems to have pretty open aging potential.  

Fifth infusion:  apparent sweetness level might bump just a little, but I think that's probably from other range fading, letting what had been there emerge better.  I'm still not succeeding with a flavor list, beyond saying mineral stands out a lot, and the rest seems mostly floral, but not intensely so.  I'll let this brew a little longer, at 15 seconds or so this round, to see what that changes.

Sixth infusion:  intensity picks up, but it's not as if a list of other flavor now stands out.  Feel gets richer, and aftertaste experience increases.  The defining character range of this tea is intensity.  If someone feels like they can't get a sheng that hits hard enough, even for trying some pretty intense range, this one would cover that.  Someone on that page would probably be good with mineral range standing out quite a bit, and floral range being a main component.  It's not really a sweet tea though.  

If you drink it quite strong the bitterness evolves to sweetness after you swallow it, the hui gan effect, but the sweetness level is only enough to give it decent balance while drinking it.

Seventh infusion:  another strength of this tea is durability; it's really only coming into its own for balanced character now, and it's surely far from fading, judging from an infusion cycle yesterday.

The flavor range reminds me of a funny critique someone once made that all young sheng tastes like kerosene to them.  That's probably more related to teas like Xiaguan tuos, or Dayi's Jia Ji tuocha versions, but interpreted in a different way it could apply more broadly.  This definitely doesn't taste like kerosene, but for someone not on the page of loving intensity and pronounced bitterness and mineral range it wouldn't be good.  This takes some of that conventional sheng pu'er character pretty far in that direction.  

Chopped or broken material tea tends to be even more challenging, and Xiaguan material often has its own intense and unique character, both in terms of flavor and feel.  This isn't like that.  For a lot of tea types high bud content can lead to a more subtle output, especially if the material is all buds.  Not always; something like Jin Jun Mei black tea can be pretty intense.  But Silver Needle variations, white teas, are often at the other end of the spectrum for intensity, on the mild side.  The fine leaf material in this might make it quite strong, more so than the high buds content.  And it's surely processed in a traditional sheng form, not oxidized or kill-greened more than is typical to pull that style a little towards oolong or green tea range.

Eighth infusion:  this is as pleasant as this has been; it evolves well later into the brewing cycle.  Rich feel is the nicest it has been as well.  A lot of teas, even some sheng, would be fading some at this stage, but this is just hitting its stride.  To me one part of the flavor starts to evolve towards citrus, actual orange or tangerine, but mineral still stands out, and a vague floral designation could still apply.  It's not really a bright or sweet flavor forward tea though; bitterness stands out a good bit earlier on, and heavy mineral tone defines it more.  People could interpret this as resembling root spice, or some type of medicinal herb, but that would integrate with those parts.  

Three years old is probably pretty young for this tea.  It's probably going to get better and go through different phases over the next 4 or 5 years, and then perhaps it would make more sense again later, after a 20 or so year aging transition cycle, maybe best after 25 years.  Bright, fresh, sweet, very floral or fruity sheng tend to lose that appeal after 4 or 5 years, unless stored in such a way that it preserves them and prevents change, in cool and dry conditions.  This will probably keep changing instead of just fading.

Conclusions:

One part of what I consider after the direct experience, the tasting, is how value works out for the tea.  This is pretty good for a cake selling for under $100.  It can be hard to identify a final, objective, clearly determined quality level.  Preference issues mix in, related to how much one likes different styles and types.  Different strengths and limitations factor in, and concerns related to trueness to type.

Intensity was great; the main point stressed in the product description.  Bitterness level was fine, but also on the high side.  For whatever reasons hui gan, a transition of bitterness to sweetness after swallowing the tea, doesn't map directly to that level of bitterness, I suppose as much to the form of it.  It was only a moderate part of the experience, to me.  That mineral base flavor really carried over as a main thing you experience in aftertaste.  It was mostly positive in form, and pleasant, so that worked.

The flavor range could have been more distinctive, if the floral tones had stood out a bit more, or had taken on a more distinct form.  That kind of thing tends to tie back to material input and narrow origin area.  I don't think this was a blend of different inputs, which is one part that can limit that; my guess is that the material was just like that.  The other aspect character was too intense and distinctive, the intensity, bitterness, and mineral input, for a lot of blending to have evened out character.

It's odd that this could pass for a 4 or 5 year old tea, dry stored, or maybe even 8 or 9, since it was presented as dry stored.  They mentioned that it was stored in Xi'an, Shaanxi; I just looked up what the climate is like there:

In Xi’an, the summers are muggy, hot, wet, and partly cloudy and the winters are very cold, mostly clear, and dry. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 25°F to 89°F and is rarely below 17°F or above 98°F.

So it might have been cool and dry half the time, and warm and humid some of the rest (but 89 F is kind of cool, compared to here in Bangkok).  

For most Western tea enthusiasts dry storage is considered to be a negative factor, but to me it just depends.  If a tea is approachable, with distinct fresh flavors, then moving away from that quickly through transition caused by humid storage input is negative.  If a tea is initially a bit challenging, with unusually high intensity, bitterness, or astringency then that same degree of transition works out well, and it's as well to get on with it.  

The next question, that's harder to settle, is if different forms of transition adjust the different aspect range in different ways, at a different pace for different parts of the change (for flavor versus feel, to look at it from a high level, or related to finer level changes).  People would have different opinions about that.  Bangkok storage seems to warm flavor tones, beyond increasing transition pace; I can leave it at that.  One typical concern over evolved flavors being too heavy, murky, or musty can relate to intentionally humid controlled conditions.  Malaysian storage is often on the humid side, or that can come up in Hong Kong, but it just depends on the specific location and how conditions are controlled, or if they're not.

I've mentioned in this that I like approachable sheng the most:  flavorful, sweet, fruity, less bitter and astringent versions.  At the same time I really do like Xiaguan teas, even though those often tend to be better after 20 years of relatively humid storage.  I've been drinking a Xiaguan tea ball that's an exception, and for whatever mix of reasons it's interesting and pleasant at less than a decade old (this one, a 2018 Reunion Xiaguan 500 gram Da Xue Shan tea ball).  Maybe the origin area factors in:

...made from early spring big-leaf tea trees from Daxueshan, Mengku, Lincang in Yunnan Province.

That brings up that some people might be looking for a narrower origin designation than Bulang, for this tea.

All in all it was pleasant and interesting.  It's a great tea to own a bit of, versus just trying a sample, because there is a lot of potential for positive changes to follow, over a long period of time, or it could be good in different ways at intermediate stages.

Bangkok looking a little like Seoul, on a recent outing

out walking in some intense heat with Kalani

home life relates a lot to cats

the last temple outing