100 and 300 year old plant material Bing Dao sheng pu'er

 

A local tea contact passed on some amazing tea, sheng pu'er from Bing Dao.  Usually with tea of this origin you end up considering the likelihood that it's really from Bing Dao, but in this case I'm pretty sure that it is.  It's an interesting story as to why.  Here's a limited description of what it is:

"...all from Bingdao laozhai Fengzi hao brand authentically laoshu (below 200 year old tea tree) and Gushu (more than 200 year old)..."

That source is perhaps the main local (Bangkok) tea expert.  

I don't use that term "expert" lightly; there aren't many people I would refer to as such.  I accept that Olivier Schneider is both a tea expert and pu'er expert; that works as an example.  Earlier on he wrote articles in puerh.fr, but he has moved on to different kinds of exploration in the decade since, including tea production.  It's just an example. 

Lots of vendors know lots about tea, but their focus tends to be narrow (generally; not always).  Producers end up experiencing depth that others just can't match, but generally within a different type of narrow range.

This tea expert is Steven Liu, author of his own tea blog, here (which I think is a pen name; his formal name isn't a complete secret).  He's been writing that for 14 years, a year longer than I've been at it.  He is creator of a main Thai tea group on FB (with almost 80,000 members; not bad), and a main Thai tea marketplace group on there as well.  He hosts different kinds of talks and seminars on tea, and travels to events related to tea, reviewing tea production; all the usual themes.  Local tea enthusiasts all know him, even more than me (a lot more; he is a local Thai, and is more connected).  

He didn't buy this tea, a producer he is in contact with and was visiting gave it to him (or essentially that; I'm writing this from memory of a message discussion).  It's real.  How good it is makes for another subject, but it's almost certainly a pretty good, type typical version, with "pretty good" being used in an unconventional way.  Skipping ahead, it is exceptional (both; I'm trying a 100 year old material version and 300, both from 2025).

Since I haven't described us as being close local friends, why would he share tea of this caliber with me?  Longstanding tea enthusiasts would get it; it's natural to share tea, and you would extend that further with people who would appreciate tea versions more, or who you share other commonality with, like writing about the subject, running FB groups, and holding events.  Reviewing a Bing Dao version here not long ago reminded him of the theme, and he felt that I should try a real, good version, which is very kind (my deepest thanks!).

Review:

100 year old plant source:  it's really good.  That's what I would have expected, so these teas will be up against some high baseline expectations.  It will make for a good opportunity to describe how that factors in, and what I make of drinking exceptional tea (sheng especially), versus pretty good and pleasant versions.

A hint of dry mineral will probably turn to stronger and clean mineral next round, and that's it for even vaguely negative aspect input.  Even that's more positive than negative.  Sweetness is good, and tone is bright and pleasant.  The flavors span floral range, with a lot of mineral base standing out.  Bitterness is pronounced but moderate, but it will probably reach the level this tea provides when fully wetted next round.  It all balances really well; it's refined.  All of that for the light first infusion.

300-400 year old plant source:  this is similar, but I'll end up focusing on and describing minor differences.  It's sweet enough, and floral, with mineral standing out, and limited bitterness.  One part of the tone is warmer and deeper.  This might develop more complexity, and a slightly different flavor profile.  

For the flavor being just a touch warmer, mineral and bitterness being more subdued (a little), and for it seeming to cover a different kind of depth this seems like it could be a year older.  These teas seem pretty new though, maybe a 2025 version instead of 2026, but seemingly not really aged.  [later editing note:  that guess was right, they're from 2025].  That's in relation to them being here (in Bangkok); in a cool and dry environment these could be 3 or 4 years old, and just not changed much yet anyway.  For here maybe the first half a year these were exposed to local conditions changed them faster than I expected, and these are really from 2026 [so to be clear it's not as if I really could tell.]

It's hard to pin down how plant material being older changes things, because it's hard to rely on that story of background being accurate, even from more reliable sources.  This local tea contact, Steven, visited Bing Dao, and he is really into the background and details related to tea, so I'm guessing that these are as reliable and legitimate as you could get [with just a little more detail in the intro part, but not much].  And he's not selling these, at least to me, and I think in general; he just shared them.  We're more contacts than friends too; I've only met him once, in person.  Some people into tea are open to sharing, sometimes especially with people who can relate to what teas are.

I've described this tea as expressing more warmth and depth, but it would also work to say that it's leaning towards a spice range flavor, like incense spice or aromatic tree bark, maybe like agar wood (not that I'm really familiar with that).  I explored tisanes more in an earlier life phase; I would've had more familiarity with that range then.

100 year old plant material second infusion:  very clean, with good intensity, and a very pleasant flavor profile.  Floral range is bright and sweet, and moderate mineral base and bitterness match that well.  The flavor picked up quite a bit of range.  You could phrase that as complexity--including more elements--and depth, seeming to span some range that serves as a base for the rest (mostly mineral).  Aftertaste carry-over is pleasant, and the limited bitterness does trail on as sweetness (hui gan).  Feel is significant but it doesn't really center in one place in your mouth, causing sensation across a lot of it, relating to a moderate mouth watering effect.

This tea is better than it needs to be for me to appreciate it.  It all really balances well, with flavor and every other aspect quite positive.  It's not as if it could be too good, if that could somehow be a limitation, but beyond a certain quality range the teas seem to justify a good bit of attention and respect, so that you can end up putting work in just being fully present for the experience.  It's not entirely negative to drink tea mindlessly; that can be positive in a different way.  There are other things one could focus on, like drinking it outside on a sunny and breezy morning, cats walking by, and so on.

300-400 year old material:  bitterness and mineral base are more moderate, but this includes a lot more depth and flavor range.  It's a simple tea still, in one limited sense; the range it covers is limited, but it works well, it's very pleasant and refined.

Older plant material sheng versions can be less intense, especially related to the strong bitterness and heavy mineral edge.  That's happening with this.  Other complexity enters in, often, as with this expanded flavor set and richer feel.  This has evolved to cover more root spice range, something like sassafras.  I don't mean that it tastes like root beer, although that could be partly accurate.  

I grew up in a forested area, in Western PA, and certainly don't remember the scent profiles of a lot of kinds of trees, but when I was younger I was very frequently exposed to them.  I would climb trees, dig up a lot of things that made no sense to be digging up, and we cut a diverse range for firewood, I guess like in Abraham Lincoln's life story.  A number of fresh root types have a cool, bright, almost fruity smell.  Maybe this part gets a little strange, but I would crush leaves to huff the scent as I hiked in later years, in Colorado.  Especially pine and sage.  In the garden I'm drinking these in I don't do that, but flowering vines do share their scent at different times, which is pleasant.

Someone else could see part of this flavor as falling within vegetal range.  I had okra with breakfast; I suppose it's not completely different than that kind of scent, or flavor.  But to me a light root spice interpretation is more natural, for this round.  It's a stretch to call a light, bright, sweet root spice flavor vegetal.

Drinking water between rounds tasted very sweet, an interesting after effect from some sheng versions.  Sometimes that relates to a strong bitterness and sweetness intensity, and these aren't intense in that way, in the sense of that experience being strong.  It's still pronounced though.  For as mild as these are they could be a little older than I had guessed, 2025, and that softened bitterness and astringency could relate to 2 or 3 years of settling input.  I would guess that they're relatively young though, only a year or two old, and they're just like that, intense in a different way, that's not harsh or intrusive.

100 years, third infusion:  that's so pleasant!  I've tried tea presented as Bing Dao in the last few weeks, but I can't really do much with connecting or associating this with that, or rejecting commonality.  It probably seems similar.  If that tea was this good it was really good, and as I recall it wasn't so far off this for general taste range.  Light floral range pops more in this than in the other older plant material version, which also includes other flavor range.  The sweetness and floral intensity balances really well with moderate bitterness and light mineral base.

300-400:  it's interesting how this overlaps with the other version, but is so different, in a different sense.  This includes more flavor range, as I've already described, with bitterness and mineral playing a more limited role (although it's moderate in that too).  The part I keep describing as different spice range seems to transition to mint, or at least including mint.  It's catchy.  Of course that's a light and herbal mint, like spearmint, not a sharper and heavier peppermint.  Maybe some would call that camphor, but it's a light expression of it, if so.

Going back and trying the first the bitterness and slightly drier feel stand out, when those seem really well balanced with sweetness and floral intensity before you make that comparison.  One more infusion might be enough for now.  I can kind of feel these teas, but it's not too much of that part that's an issue, just that this is already a lot of tea experience.  I'll hold a tasting tomorrow; I suppose in a different way I'll go through a lot more then.  But with more emphasis on a social aspect, and some related ideas; it's different.  This requires focus.

100 years, fourth infusion:  not so different than last round; I should probably keep this short, since it was already a lot to read.  It improves, becoming catchier and better balanced, and the balance was already good.  The floral range might include just a little dried fruit at this point.

300-400:  the impression of depth still stands out.  It's interesting how that works out; you can't really place what is causing it.  Broad flavor range and feel thickness are part of it, but it's more than that.  Flavor intensity is pronounced in one sense and limited in another.  It's definitely not a sheng version that smacks you in the mouth, but it's not thin or limited either.  It lacks the limestone light mineral in the other version, but there is a mineral base.  It's refined and balanced, but that's probably not so descriptive.

I think this is a tea experience that a lot of people would value quite a bit, but it would help to have tried a lot of sheng to recognize and relate to it.  It really is refined; the parts come together well as a whole.

later infusions:  obviously this wasn't anywhere near the end, I just stopped taking notes.  Later transitions are sometimes interesting, but in general the first 4 or 5 rounds tell the story, and the rest is more about how it holds up to a lot of infusions.  But it's usually not worth writing hundreds more words about, or reading them.  The main reason for limiting notes is to keep this text volume readable.

Conclusions:

Just fantastic teas, probably about as good as anything I've tried, and perhaps better than I can fully appreciate.  In one sense I have basic tastes, which I won't go too far into here.  If you read about the teas we just tried in a tasting, in the last post, that could help explains how I absolutely love teas that are flavorful and distinctive, but not "refined" in this sense, especially Thai and Vietnamese versions.

I can't expand too much on placing what I experienced of them.  One concern comes up, about noticing the typical, distinctive aspects range for local origin typical versions.  Bing Dao is said to include a cooling sensation after you drink it, and to include honey sweetness (and maybe other characteristics; that's just what comes to mind, of standard hearsay).  One part of a flavor reminded me of mint at one point, but I didn't mention a cooling effect.  It's likely enough that if I was "looking for that" I would have noted it, regardless of how prominent it was.  Same for the honey flavor, maybe.

It's not unusual for me to try a tea a few times and notice something I had missed, even if I tried to do a complete review of what I had experienced earlier on.  Interpretation of experience works out like that.  But how can you fully value something novel and sought after, like a cooling sensation after drinking a tea, if you aren't noticing it?  I suppose that I couldn't.  It leads into considering other learned preference for experiences, but I'll skip another tangent on that.  

The teas were great in some pretty conventional ways, extending that a little into interesting and unusually pleasant range.  But I'm no clearer on whether or not the other tea I recently tried was "real Bing Dao" or not.  I don't think it was this good, but that can be hard to place.

the cat was fixated on a squirrel during the review tasting

he was hanging upside down by his feet, eating part of a flower

she is Siamese, so a Thai cat in two different senses

Thai and Vietnamese black tea and sheng pu'er at a Bangkok meetup

 

it wasn't this meetup; I forgot to take a picture (but this is Seth and Huyen)

I finally hosted people for a tea meetup this weekend, trying some really nice teas, that went well together as a set.  The main focus was on Thailand and Vietnam origins, but the two last versions didn't fit this post heading description at all, as aged Yunnan sheng (2004 from Dayi / Taetea), and 2020 Fu hei cha.  I took no pictures of the event or participants; that's an oversight.

The sequence of teas worked out well.  The people joining were in a good place to appreciate them, so discussion was pleasant, including range beyond tea.  This will leave those parts out, and focus on the teas, and why the order made sense.  That last part is a lot of the meaning here, about how trying a diverse range of teas can really inform the experience of everything in the set, more than a narrower theme.

In one sense these were all really good quality teas, and pleasant versions, and in another sense just basics range.  It's interesting how that works out.

101 Plantation Thai Oriental Beauty:  I've reviewed a lot of these teas, some recently, with this one reviewed here.  It's a pleasant, drinkable, very approachable place to start, tasting like honey, citrus, and cinnamon as OB tends to.  This version is pretty far up the scale as quality level for Thai OB goes, one of the better versions that I've tried.  

rolled leaf form OB on the left

That said, it still includes just a bit of green wood flavor input, and some of those positive flavors could be a little more intense, so it's just on the pretty good side of the Taiwanese range, better than average, but not comparable to the best of the best.  Which is still pretty good.  Given the price is moderate all that adds up to a cue for Thai local tea enthusiasts to order it online as soon as they hear about it, because it won't be around long.

Wawee Tea black tea:  I love this tea, which is kind of a main running theme across these versions, that they're what I like, just now and in general.  It includes plenty of cacao and fruit, with warm floral tones, and no tartness, which to me detracts from the overall experience.  The balance, sweetness level, and intensity are good, beyond that flavor profile being quite pleasant.  

I reviewed this tea in comparison with the next one we tried from Viet Sun in this post; strange it worked out that way.  I already mentioned loving both tea versions; it relates to that.  That detailed description doesn't exactly match what I'm saying here about these teas; so it can go, that you can really zero in on specifics in a combined tasting, spending an hour on just experiencing two tea versions, versus drinking them in other ways.

It's not so far off a standard Dian Hong style.  By that I mean that it includes a lot of warm mineral range and depth, and even though I've described it as including bright, intense, forward flavors--or at least that seems implied to me, as I read this.  It is as much about that depth as it is the forward range.  Which works well for me; I like that style.  With any tea experience there's an emergent "how good?" effect that relates as much to match to preference as any of these aspects or styles that I describe.  This tea version works really well for me.

Viet Sun Vietnamese black tea (Y Tý Air Dried Black Spring 2026; probably sold out now, that's generally how that goes).  

This version smells really sweet, and lots like cacao, with fruit notes coming in beyond that, and it is really intense.  It switches that focus on depth, or equal balance with warmer, deeper tones, for that blast of cacao and fruit.  But it balances just as well, just in a completely different way.  Flavors are really pronounced and clean, without a hint of anything negative, or any flaw.  This is a fantastic version of this style and form of tea.  The guests could really relate to both, and to the difference between them.  But it was time to shift theme.

Wawee Tea sheng pu'er (or since it's Thai tea just sheng, or however you prefer for designation):  in drinking "light to heavy" it could seem more intuitive to get to this tea first, because the tone is lighter.  It's bright, fresh, and intense, with lighter fruit and floral range, a bit of bitterness, and limited vegetal range.  Sweetness is great, balancing the rest.  It's a great match to what I love in drinkable young sheng, especially that overall intensity.  That's why I had us try this after the black teas instead; it's way more intense than them, even though flavor tones are lighter.  Sometimes people have trouble relating to a balance of bitterness included in a flavor set but everyone present seemed to relate well to this version.  It is approachable, not overly bitter, as some sheng can be.

It made for an interesting discussion point, about how aspects like bitterness and astringency can vary, and about why I describe factory teas as one particular thing, often in somewhat negative terms.  That came up again later, as we tried an aged Dayi (purple label 7542, from 2004).  It goes without saying that lots of teas from factory production tend to be even more intense, and less approachable, sort of "designed" for aging, even though it just works out that way.  The leaf being broken--often--lends to this harsher effect and greater intensity.  Then there's really a divide between the main producers, Dayi / Taetea, CNNP / Zhongcha, and Xiaguan, and how the rest of the smaller producers come across, which is not unified.  But that's a lot to get into here, even at the higher level summary, as we just did.

Viet Sun Y Ty sheng (I think the H'mong version, instead of the Dao):  this is my favorite of the set of Viet Sun teas I bought earlier this year, or at least it was, so it was nice trying it as well.  It's not so far off the Wawee character, but a little more refined in a sense, and intense in a different way.  I suppose the flavor profile is different.  I wasn't trying to clock specific flavor lists in this kind of tasting, especially for going through a lot of brewing details fairly quickly to keep it all moving along.  And we had a nice snack, maybe after this tea version.  There's a good local bakery in the Suan Dusit University, a main branch of the Home Bakery, that makes nice pastries, croissants, and egg tarts, and we had a nice mix.

those two Y Ty origin versions

This was one visitor's favorite; he really connected with these approachable and pleasant sheng.  Bitterness is pretty moderate for both of these versions, and intensity is significant but not challenging.  Flavor sets are pleasant; to me they are easy to relate to.  But again it was time to shift theme.

2004 Dayi / Taetea purple label 7542:  this tea is finally aged to where it should be, after 22 years in hot and humid Bangkok storage, so just a bit ahead of schedule.  It was a huge shift, moving from black tea, then light and approachable sheng, then onto well-aged sheng pu'er.  But it helped that the tea is still intense in terms of positive flavor range, and not challenging in any way.  4 or 5 years ago it would have been.  Of course it tastes like old furniture, old books, or like an old cabin in the woods would smell.  But clean; the hot and humid storage isn't as musty as one might expect.  

Specific storage areas can include that kind of input, a bit of extra fermented cardboard, or cement block.  Getting air contact right helps.  In one sense this might seem to mean very little air contact, since if you set this tea out on a shelf it would go dead.  I store the teas wrapped in either the plastic wrapper they come in, or in multi-layer packaging, or both, and then they're in storage boxes that get opened relatively regularly.  If you only opened a storage box every other month you could limit that extra inner layer of containment.  But it's more common now for people to use mylar sealing envelope type storage to keep them very contained, after conditioning to a desired level of moisture / humidity content.  It's always 70% or more humidity level in Bangkok, so it's fine, in a decent range.

This tea is pretty good; there's more I could say about that.  The people joining seemed to get that.  Where we rushed through the black teas a bit more, saving them for drinking some mixed together for a large cold-brew batch later, we did a couple of extra rounds with this.  I tried keeping proportion moderate for the two younger sheng, using longer infusion times, so we "used up" the potential for those better.  I was brewing two combined infusions ("stacked") from a 200+ ml gaiwan, mixing that to serve as a bit less than 400 ml split by 5 people; a good bit for this kind of tasting theme.

2020 Fu cake (this was the Lincang origin version, reviewed here):  I've taken to including one of two similar Fu hei cha versions, from Oriental Leaf, as a last round for tastings.  It's very different than the rest, no matter what we drink, and heavy in character, but quite approachable.  The uniqueness works well; everyone always loves the tea version, and it's one last eye-opening indicator of how much range tea can cover.  

These versions--there is a second from a different origin that's similar but different--can taste a bit like yeast or fresh bread, extending into a fresh rye or dark rye bread flavors.  There is a touch of citrus and honey from the jin hua / golden flower input.  Depth and complexity are great, and it's all way more approachable than one would expect.  It can be a little bit of a shock trying something so novel so far through a tasting experience, but it's interesting to end on that kind of surprise.

The guests really got the teas.  Two I've met at least a couple of times before, at these tasting meetups.  Two were new to Bangkok, exploring South East Asia, as many guests have been before, a bit transient.  I miss some of those people, or I suppose a lot of them.  I've been lucky to meet so many bright spirited, charming, enthusiastic, and open tea drinkers.  People bringing different perspectives helped discussion extend in interesting directions beyond just focusing on the tea.  

We talked a bit about Thai culture, the local art scene, what temples are like, differences in SE Asian countries, travel, and so on.  The subject of Japanese tea ceremony came up, but it's a lot to fully treat in depth, so as with many other tangents we only brushed through mention of a few points.  It can be problematic for the discussion to feel balanced in covering so much range in such a limited form like that, or some developed tangents can leave some guests out.  In this meetup it all really worked.  Size of the group matters; 5 of us joined, with 5 people either cancelling or being tentative and then not coming, and with 10 people it would've been much harder to manage.

we met inside instead of out here this time; it's a bit warm lately

the other garden space

fence view facing the other way, with a mango hanging, and cat checking out a squirrel

my nemesis; he eats the mango before they're even ready

101 Tea Thailand Oriental Beauty and Red Oolong

 

I'm excited about this tea review.  This producer represents the best range of main Thai oolong producers, per my past experience.  I don't mean that this will necessarily be the absolute best oolong coming out of Thailand, surpassing every small boutique producer; I'm saying that among the main producers per my experience they have been the most consistent, making the best versions that I've tried.  But I do drink a lot more sheng pu'er, for what that's worth.

I've already tried this Oriental Beauty, and it's pretty good.  Red oolong, or more oxidized oolong, is a pretty standard type that's generally usually pretty good, so both should be nice.  I bought the OB, and 101 sent the Red Oolong to try (many thanks to them for that!).

Let's check their listing information:

101 Tea Premium Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea Loose Leaf (200g) (500 baht, about $15)

Our most exceptional Oriental Beauty to date. This limited small-batch harvest from our tea plantation in Doi Mae Salong delivers a noticeably higher flavor profile than our regular release — richer, more complex, and deeply aromatic. Also known as White Tip Oolong, each leaf is hand-picked once a year during summer, when tiny leafhoppers gently bite the tea leaves, triggering a natural transformation that produces its signature sweet fruit aroma and honey-like Stunning golden-tipped leaves. brew into a vibrant red cup with a taste that lingers. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Their OB has been pretty decent in the past, but seeing this did help me decide to try this version.  Note that 200 grams for $15 is lower in cost than just about anything you would ever buy out of Taiwan, so when comparing value between Thailand and there you just don't have a comparable price range, at least in Western markets.  But I didn't buy this in a Western market; I bought it directly, online, in Thailand.  So there is no clear and final point to be made; pricing varies by origin, quality level, and by where teas are being bought and sold.

The word "oriental" has dropped out of use in "the West," now typically regarded as a negative term, but that's not really true in Thailand.  That political correctness / shifting word use theme can seem a little absurd, to me.  It doesn't only relate to race or regional designations; ordinary terms like bathroom or toilet can keep shifting, or terms that mean handicapped shift from old forms ("crippled," "retarded") to whatever they're onto now.  It is what it is.

101 Tea Premium Red Oolong Tea Loose Leaf (10g x 25 Packs, Box Set)  (450 baht for 250 grams, $13.40)

Discover the rich, distinctive character of our premium Red Oolong, specially crafted through a longer oxidation process. This exceptional tea boasts a stunning reddish hue and smooth, mellow taste enhanced by subtle hints of ripe fruit and honey, conveniently packaged into individual 10g packs, each brewing one perfect pot of tea, ideal for family gatherings, tea time enjoyment, or as a thoughtful gift.

Note that there's relatively little about what these are, for example which tea plant types were used to make them.  Thai oolong is commonly made from two cultivars, from #12 / Jin Xuan and #17 / Ruan Zhi (or Bai Lu; that's perhaps more accurate).  There would be older Qing Xin plant types around (a family or older plant types), and some Tie Guan Yin, and others, so these teas could be from different plant types.  I don't see it as necessary to say more about oxidation level, given what these are; describing flavors as they have done is a good approach.

Review

Oriental Beauty, first infusion:  many people would use a rinse step to clean the tea, sort of, and to get tightly rolled ball shape to open up.  I didn't, and usually don't.  Oriental Beauty, or Dong Fang Mei Ren, is usually prepared in a twisted leaf shape, while this is rolled instead; make of what you will.  One vendor took to calling rolled OB versions as Gui Fei, and I really don't know if that's more accurate or not.

This tea is really nice.  It's just getting started, just opening up, but a longish over 30 second infusion time is strong enough to describe.  One part is similar to cinnamon spice, and more range covers fruit, sort of citrusy, but it extends beyond that.  Or maybe it's that the citrus range is broad; it includes that nice sharp twang of orange zest, the outer peel, and also the deeper and more complex flavors in marmalade, a cooked jam version.  Marmalade is also my kitten's name; this is her:

that's Fu style hei cha instead, but I am trying this tea in the same place

Red oolong:  it's also good.  It's not expressing bright intensity as fast as the other version, so describing it more next round will probably represent it better.  There is plenty of warmth and depth, and it's smooth and round.  Fresher and brighter flavor range is limited; that's what I'm guessing will pick up.  

Later in this review I'll do more with describing "how good?," placing that better.  This seems a little bit better than a standard and basic tea version though.  Comparison with the other version could be problematic, because that really is exceptional, and that aspect range is a personal favorite, among oolong range.  There are others; there is a lot of different exceptional oolong character to appreciate.

OB #2:  the flavor set deepens.  A first early hint of vegetal range enters in, a mild green wood input.  But most of the rest is still fruit and spice.  The earlier citrus input might've shifted to dried apricot more instead.  If someone wasn't expecting cinnamon, or spice, they might have trouble picking out that part, and it could seem like some warmer depth that's hard to place.  The flavors are clean and full, beyond that hint of green wood, which will gradually increase over rounds (per earlier experience).

To describe just how good this is we need to consider other supporting aspects.  The flavor is fine.  It could be different in a few ways, or more intense or complex, but it's very favorable and pleasant.  Feel is rich and full, but it could be richer and more full.  Aftertaste expression is significant, but it could be even stronger.  

So the tea is good, across all aspect and marker range (quality indicators), and it's down to how much room for improvement there is.  Some, but that's sort of splitting hairs.  It's quite good, and none of those dimensions represent a gap or flaw.  If a Taiwanese tea curator sold a version for over $1 a gram that was identical, or this same tea, it would seem not good enough to match that type.  Most of what you would buy for two or three times as much would be no better, or maybe not this good.

Red oolong:  good, but not great.  I've tried a red oolong sample from Thailand not long ago; I forgot where I got that.  The best versions taste a lot like cacao, with dark cherry flavor input, as that one did.  Of course that can vary, and other versions can be positive in different ways.

This has decent sweetness, but it's not exceptional.  It has good depth, but flavor range isn't as positive as it could be.  Maybe it tastes a little like cacao, but it's not pronounced.  When you can't really make out what a tea tastes like well floral range often comes to mind; it could be interpreted as that.  I'll see if I can do better with a breakdown next round.

OB #3:  cinnamon stands out all the more in this.  There is a more vague fruit range beyond that, but it's not as clearly defined.  It's along the line of citrus or dried apricot still, just harder to place.  The green wood input isn't really evolving; if anything that cinnamon note is expanding instead, seeming to cover related range.  Sweetness is still very positive, and the overall effect is quite pleasant.

Often Thai Oriental Beauty will seem a bit more muted than Taiwanese versions, but this isn't like that, at all.  Intensity is positive.  And there are no negative flavor or character inputs, beyond a light trace of green wood, that's not so noticeable this round.  It's a very solid tea.

Red oolong:  warmth picks up.  It had tasted like cacao last round, mostly, but this is now covering more cacao along with mild roasted coffee instead.  It works; it might be slightly better.  There's some dried fruit range beyond that, but not enough to make it easy to pick out.  One part seems vaguely floral, along the line of rose petal.  It's good, it just doesn't hold up as well in direct comparison with the other tea.  This would be a good breakfast tea; the character would work well for having it with food.

For some teas Western brewing works better, combining 5 minutes worth of infusion output together, instead of drinking it as the individual shorter rounds.  This may be like that.  In general the higher the quality a tea version is the more Gong Fu brewing lets it shine, and for moderate or lower quality teas experiencing all of the aspects mixed can be more positive.  This isn't bad; it's just that the other form may work better.

In going back and trying the other version (OB) that sharper, green wood edge stands out all the more.  For some that could seem like a negative input, and limitation, and they might even like this red oolong more.  I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, so a touch of dryness in feel character is something I barely notice, since I'm accustomed to much stronger astringency range.  If someone prefers really soft tea forms the red oolong compares better than I'm describing.

Later thoughts:  I didn't take more notes, but over the next couple of rounds the OB version seemed to be expressing a pronounced honey flavor note, and the Red Oolong evolved to taste more like fresh bread, which seemed nice.  It might not be what everyone is looking for from the type, but it was pleasant.

Conclusions:

It was problematic comparing the two, because the Oriental Beauty version is so good, which seemed like it might come up, related to trying it earlier.  It's one of the better Thai rolled oolong versions I've tried (which of course includes plenty of subjective judgement; I mean that I liked it, in addition to it seeming to representing general good quality level).  Flavors were great, intensity and sweetness were good, and feel was positive.  

If you really wanted to find a potential flaw a hint of green wood flavor is present, or maybe even a faint touch of sourness, but it's really good tea, and positive flavors stand out a lot more.  Value is great for this tea; at this low pricing level a tea this good is a steal.  Ordinary examples of Thai oolong cost nearly this much, and they're typically not comparable.  You can buy better quality Oriental Beauty from Taiwan, if you know how to source it, but all of that would cost more than twice as much, and without careful and effective sourcing you would be more likely to find versions that aren't this good.

The Red Oolong was fine, although I've tried a slightly better version in the last month, as things worked out.  It's good for a basic tea, especially if someone likes that style (not necessarily heavy on cacao and cherry flavor, but including that, along with other warm tones).  It's smooth, drinkable, and pleasant.  It would be good as a tea to brew Western style, putting 3 or 4 grams in an infuser basket or French press, to brew two good sized, strong rounds.  It would make a great breakfast tea.  Some people would miss the edgier astringency in some mild black teas, so that part just comes down to preference.

I would drink the OB with breakfast too, but then I tend to have lots of kinds of tea that way.  It's almost a little limiting when a version seems too refined or special to drink with food, because that could throw off full appreciation of the range of aspects.  I'll sit and just drink tea for an extended time once or twice a week for reviews, focusing on the experience, and generally don't appreciate teas like that very often beyond that format.  It takes more time, focus, and effort.