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.

On tea market, consumer perspective, and related social media changes in China

 

a Chinese tea expo (photo provided by Cary)

I've been seeing online content about tea perspectives in China, about how producers and vendors approach tea themes, and how consumer perspective is changing. As an example, So Han Fan, the owner of West China Tea, regularly discusses this sort of thing.  It's a fascinating subject, to me. 

The questions I wrote as part of an interview form exploration cover a lot of scope.  They're answered here by a tea vendor based in China, who I've tea from, Cary of Oriental Leaf.  He has been posting a little about tea themes in China, on Reddit, which was a second starting point for considering this kind of background.  Learning more about their vendor theme and perspective probably works best through an About Us section of their website.

It's worth pausing to consider how we receive information on how tea culture works out in China in "the West."  Vendors pass it on, either those based in China, or who visit there.  The more exposure you get to that scope, especially from different kinds of sources, leads to hearing different kinds of stories and takes.  The owners of a local Bangkok Chinatown shop, with tea making and vending family in Fujian and Hong Kong, tell much different stories than actual Chinese friends, who typically aren't that into tea, in the same kinds of ways.  Vendor and producer friends living in Fujian and Yunnan convey different perspectives.  The varying input doesn't conflict; it's that tea is taken in different ways.

This interview style input drills down into that, with more focus on modern changes, variations in demand, and social media inputs and effects, than on ordinary consumer or "tea enthusiast" perspective.

Cary is a tea enthusiast.  You can tell.  There's nothing wrong with vendors picking up a commercial interest in tea without continually exploring the subject, and self-defining through it, beyond the scope of ordinary appreciation, but it's helpful when the interest leads to ongoing deeper learning.  Only a tea enthusiast would live out the cultural changes to be able to answer these questions in this depth.  I hope that readers enjoy learning from it as much as I have.

-Has the Chinese tea market remained the same over the last few years?  How would you compare it to the Western tea market (related to types preference, overall demand, or other themes)?

Market-wise, the Chinese tea market over the past two to three years—especially following the end of the pandemic—has been experiencing a downturn, with fairly notable declines across major tea categories, particularly Puer, white tea, and rock tea (Yancha), which had previously seen significant market hype. The Chinese tea market can roughly be divided into two categories: business/gifting use and personal consumption.

Regarding the first category, due to the softening of China's economy in recent years, most industries are going through a slump, leading to a cliff-like drop in business gifting demand. To give an example, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival used to be peak seasons for gifting, with massive shipments leaving the tea market as vendors stocked up specifically for these two periods. However, this year's Dragon Boat Festival saw very poor performance in the tea market, and shipments for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival have also fallen short of expectations, remaining rather sluggish. Furthermore, budgets allocated per batch of tea are now being trimmed down to cut costs.

As for the second category—personal consumption—traditional offline tea shop channels are withering away because online live-streaming has captured an increasing market share over the last few years. Live-streaming channels sell well-known premium teas at extremely low prices, though quality cannot always be fully guaranteed. A few months ago, China Central Television (CCTV) exposed a live-streaming ring in Yunnan that sold fake "famous mountain, famous village" Puer teas and faced heavy penalties, which is a prime example of this phenomenon. Aside from Puer, manufacturers of other tea categories are also aggressively deploying online channels, as live-streaming sales seem to have become a major channel for most people to purchase tea.

Regarding tea selection, Puer tea remains a primary choice for personal consumption, and of course, seasonal green teas are also vital consumption staples during their respective windows. White tea is gradually declining after peaking five or six years ago, while oolong tea—especially rock tea—still holds a relatively important position in the high-end market. Fuzhuan brick tea and Liubao tea are still considered niche categories in China, though their markets are slowly climbing. That being said, jasmine scented tea and black tea still boast massive consumption volumes; it is simply that they generate less noise in the market.

well-designed booths turn up in Bangkok, only relating coffee (Chinese expo photo from Cary)

-Can you describe Chinese tea preferences related to generally corresponding to local version preference (eg. the main local types), to often matching up with standard forms (Longjing, Tie Guan Yin), to some other types expanding in awareness and demand, or somewhere in between?  Of course this would vary by person, and individual awareness, so the question relates to standard forms of tea appreciation and broad trends, and how this changes over time.

There are no obvious tea products from a specific origin or particular tea categories showing exceptionally strong performance, nor is there any observed special consumer preference for local teas.

Marketing plays a massive role in tea selection, especially when it comes to choosing specific types of tea. The rise and fall of Puer tea over twenty years ago, the rise of white tea over a decade ago, and the decline of Tie Guan Yin ten years ago all saw marketing play a huge part. Every year, roving tea expos are held in dozens of Chinese cities, with some cities hosting two a year. These serve as a great window for observing trending fashions in Chinese tea, where one can clearly sense that Puer and white tea have been on a downward trend in recent years. Although there are indeed very good, high-quality white and Puer teas on the market, people always harbor a sense of suspicion due to market chaos and a lack of information transparency, meaning these two types of tea do not make as much noise at the expos as they did a couple of years ago. 

When it comes to choosing tea, consumers are quite diverse: some prefer local green teas out of long-standing taste habits, while others are influenced by internet information, chasing after the types of tea that everyone is recommending, especially on platforms like Xiaohongshu (RED note) and Douyin.

-Is tea used as an investment?  Does this apply at all beyond pu’er type scope?  How has this changed over the past few years?  There’s an understanding that a tea investment bubble of sorts collapsed in the last year or so; is that accurate?

Puer tea is frequently used as an investment vehicle, particularly in places like Fangcun in Guangzhou and Yiwu in Zhejiang. White tea has had an impulse in recent years to be crafted into an investment product, but it hasn't been as "successful" as Puer, while other tea categories are rarely viewed as investments. 

Among brands, Da Yi has received the most criticism in this regard, often dubbed "financial tea." A few years ago, the secondary market prices for Da Yi tea would fluctuate dramatically even within half a day. Over the past year or two, along with the softening economy, many people who previously stockpiled tea have been dumping their inventory, triggering a crash in the Puer tea market. This is indeed the case: the Fangcun market in Guangzhou, which was previously the hottest speculative hub for Puer tea, is now exceptionally quiet.

-How are hybrid styles or production of different teas in different places developing?

Such attempts are very common. For example, Fu brick tea now comes in "Golden Flower" versions across almost all six major tea categories—Golden Flower green tea, Golden Flower oolong, and so on—though the taste leaves much to be desired. Of course, there are also items like peach oolong, jasmine-scented black tea, Yunnan oolong, and chenpi white tea. I believe these are efforts made by tea factories to boost sales; every factory is innovating in the hope of igniting a specific market growth point, which might appeal more to young people, especially those who primarily buy tea via the internet. 

Oriental Leaf Fu zhuan (hei cha, with golden flowers fungus)

However, looking at the current landscape, it seems that no single blended or crossover category has achieved massive success yet. On the other hand, regarding production in non-traditional origins, some teas may have been produced elsewhere for a long time—such as Longjing tea produced in Sichuan or Wuyi rock tea produced in Yunnan. But since this kind of practice is inherently deceptive, nobody talks about it openly.

Henan origin Dong Fang Mei Ren (OB) from Wanmu (from this review post)

-If tea demand has decreased has this related to decrease in production?  Is there a change-over in demand type and forms produced instead (eg. expanding Chinese matcha production)?

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in 2026, China's tea production in 2025 reached 3.92 million tons, a 4.8% increase. The production end of tea does not appear to have decreased. I believe the decline in demand is primarily driven by economic factors. Furthermore, aside from personal consumer purchases, various modern milk tea/boba tea chains now consume massive quantities of different types of tea. Recently, CHAGEE (a Chinese milk tea brand) launched a Fuzhuan brick tea milk tea in the five northwestern provinces of China, which received quite positive reviews. The milk tea industry indeed consumes a substantial amount of tea.

-How do you place the Western emphasis on Gongfu ceremonial brewing in relation to standard Chinese tea appreciation?  Are there equivalent “tea enthusiasts” in China, who use a different range of brewing approaches, or embrace aesthetic themes differently, or is tea known of and approached differently in certain areas (eg. in tea production areas)?

Tea-drinking methods in China are diverse. Gongfu tea originally only popular in South China (such as Guangdong and Fujian), and it has only been adopted nationwide for about ten to twenty years. Even now, many Chinese people still brew tea in simple glass cups. In the pre-internet era of the last century, different regions truly had distinct brewing methods: the Northwest boiled brick tea with milk, Yunnan and Guizhou roasted tea over open fire, and Fujian and Guangdong practiced Gongfu brewing. Naturally, these traditional methods still exist today.

Many people also share their tea spaces and pursuits of tea aesthetics on Douyin, exhibiting drastically different aesthetic orientations, with each style enjoying a massive following.

I think the Western emphasis on the Gongfu tea ritual is quite normal, as people seek to capture the truest essence and flavor of the tea through ritual.

By comparison, I know some Chinese coffee enthusiasts who own a whole mountain of brewing gear—their grinders, powder distributors, filters, timers, and scales are extremely professional, likely surpassing the equipment sophistication of many Americans and Europeans. Many people in China criticize this approach as going overboard, even circulating videos of Italians making espresso very simply, without all these complex tools. I suppose the Western discussion around the ritual sense of tea is much like the Chinese debate surrounding coffee brewing.

-Can you describe how social media posting, online tea group discussion, and tea blogging work out in China; are there equivalent forms?

As we've discussed before, blogging is essentially dead in China, and BBS platforms or Discord don't exist there; social media is the main channel for tea-related discussions. Moreover, based on my observation, the atmosphere in Chinese tea communities is far inferior to that of Instagram, Reddit, or Discord. There is almost no serious discussion, and the space is saturated with marketing and metaphysical pseudoscience. 

Platforms like red note, Douyin, Kuaishou, Zhihu (which is similar to Quora), and WeChat Official Accounts feature a massive number of tea-related bloggers, but it feels largely one-way—meaning bloggers transmit information to their audience, and user participation goes no further than leaving comments, while online community engagement remains relatively weak. Discussions among tea enthusiasts probably take place more often in offline gatherings or through word-of-mouth among friends.

-Can you describe how your business focus relates to a specific form of tea appreciation, and how it goes connecting with a consumer base with similar interests, or developing type awareness?  Does that go differently in China and in the West?

If I were running an online tea business in China, it feels like I’d only have one real choice: live-streaming sales. I would need a mature streaming team to pull it off, and it would be utterly exhausting every single day. Offline business, on the other hand, relies mostly on acquaintance networks and suffers from severe homogeneity, making it hard to offer truly differentiated products and services. Both paths are draining, which isn't what I want.

livestream tea sales (photo credit and background article)

That’s why we chose to build an online business geared toward the international market. It allows me to reach global tea enthusiasts quite naturally, acquiring customers by sharing written content and imagery, and connecting with a broader community of tea lovers through niche influencers like you, and through online platforms. I much prefer my current state.

Regardless of whether it's domestic or international, I feel the tea business ultimately relies on reputation and repeat purchases. Good tea speaks for itself, driving customer retention and satisfaction. That’s precisely why we started with a relatively niche category like Fuzhuan brick tea. Being right here in its origin region gives us direct access to exceptional Fuzhuan, which is our core advantage.

The same logic applies to our Puer and Liubao teas. Years ago, I tasted some poorly stored Puer and Liubao teas, so I know firsthand what clean, natural dry storage actually means for dark tea. Because of that, we make it a point to convey this philosophy—and the superior tasting experience brought by dry-stored dark tea—directly to our customers.

My take on all of that

It seems very well-informed and insightful.  The parts about tea practice being different in different places, and exploration of hybrid and new styles, all match what I've heard from others.  My favorite Chinatown shop owners have mentioned following those online streaming tea sales before, commenting on how the teas can seem interesting, especially a time-dependent theme like early Longjing sales.  But they also commented that you really can't tell what is what from on-screen appearance and description, so it's a gamble buying anything from them.  The subject of some streamers being more reliable didn't come up in that limited discussion.

Tea vendors developing new business themes in China is also fascinating, mentioned somewhat indirectly here, related to their own experience.  Not much about that carries over to Western exposure, so it's interesting when it does, and all the more interesting when it relates to positive new source options.  

It makes you wonder why there aren't more commercial ties between Chinese sources and a Western market; that has been slow to evolve, in any form.  Social media content sources never overlapped.  There's the "great firewall" as a factor, but you can talk to people in China if they use a VPN, or possibly more directly if there are other connections (eg. they follow a Western blog).

It's all too much to summarize as conclusions here, or extend, and I don't have the expertise to do so anyway.  I've appreciated learning from these ideas, across a lot of different tea oriented scope.

Thai tea, the Cha Tra Meu orange colored version

 

I'm reviewing Thai tea, the standard orange colored, flavored, black tea version.  I'll drink it as hot tea, with milk and sugar, but it's more common to drink it iced, or blended with ice instead.

I've reviewed a relatively identical version of this tea before, here, in 2018.  Here was my input from that review:

Thai tea tastes like mild black tea with star anise and artificial flavoring added. It's not that far from orange creamsicle. 

a DQ Thai tea blizzard; it's for the best for my health that they don't sell this often

Review:

it's more colorful in real life

It's good; it tastes like Thai tea.  A little astringency stands out, related to brewing chopped black tea leaves for over 5 minutes, at a pretty high proportion, maybe 4 grams for a 14 ounce / 300 ml amount.  All that is a guess; this is weighed, and the volume is an estimate.  But the flavor is good, and that feel input is softened by milk being added, so it's not at all negative.

In describing it I'll be describing a standard Thai tea flavor; the review would be the same for almost any decent version.  Cha Tra Meu is the standard brand, so in many cases people would just be drinking this.  That translates as "hand brand tea," or literally word by word as tea brand hand, for what that's worth.  There is a "gold" version, and I've reviewed both in the past, the original and the gold, but they're not so different.

It tastes like there's a floral input in this, and some depth that's harder to place.  I've heard before that the original version was black tea, orange blossoms (flowers from an orange tree), and crushed roasted tamarind seeds.  I wouldn't really know if it tastes like that.  It might resemble vanilla a little, but to me it tastes more like star anise.  

The flavors are somewhat artificial, I think, although I should take a photo of the package to confirm that.  According to a label image cited in that much earlier review it was:

It's not so different if they are natural flavors, extracted from different inputs.  In that case they're just not completely made in a lab, from chemicals, but some of the same compounds would be included.  I suppose it would be like the case of vanilla, where the main compound can be synthesized using chemical inputs, or the real spice input includes a lot of that and also other range, so it should be more complex.

I suppose if one could discuss the "roasted tamarind seed" range more that might work as a flavor description.  It's hard to place though.  There's no other roasted seed range, or the like, that I can compare this to.  It's not completely different than roasted pumpkin seed, but also not that close to that.  I've considered trying to roast tamarind seeds before, since it's a common fruit type here (sold as a dried version, usually), but I don't think we have a good version of a spice grinder for processing something that durable.  It's not like a coffee bean; those have a shell that resembles wood.

I don't drink much Thai tea, even though it is pleasant.  There's a branch of Cha Tra Meu in my office building, and in lots of other places.  I could have this every day, without making it, but I've never bought it there.  I think I skip it because I don't want it to become a habit.  The flavor is fine, and it's not that unhealthy, probably, but sticking to plain, good quality tea just makes sense to me.

My son drinks a good bit of this sold through Cafe Amazon, a main coffee chain here.  Of course Starbucks is also prevalent, but there are probably more Cafe Amazon shops.  A standard drink costs around 60 bath there, with around 70 baht converting to $2, so it's inexpensive.  Starbucks charges more like 150, or around $5.  For something like Thai tea or matcha drinks there may not be that much difference in different versions, and how much coffee drinks vary would depend a lot on subjective preference and perspective, on judgment.  I buy coffee from Cafe Amazon from time to time, but not Starbucks.

It's interesting how where people get drinks seems to vary by social class identification more than the drink quality or type.  There's another level above Starbucks, presented as higher in quality, that's usually reflected quite a bit by well developed shop aesthetics.  A very clean looking off-white interior is common now, although industrial looking coffee shops based on more grey tones also come up.  The old theme of wood panel and plant input is mostly finished.

the Flat+White coffee shop in Bangkok (their FB page)

I might add that I often have Thai tea in a slushy form, how my son drinks it.  We went to a suki place that had this (suki is a soup version that you cook yourself, adding ingredients they provide, like meat and vegetables, or dumplings).  Maybe it's a little better blended with ice?  It's good hot too.

These ideas I've presented bring something to mind.  Am I not drinking Thai tea because of some social positioning input, maybe not as a class theme, since I'm just kind of middle class here, but because I see myself as more developed or sophisticated in relation to tea preference?  It could be that, instead of the health related input.  But I'm concerned that I already eat some ice cream, most often from Dairy Queen here, and more often Ben and Jerry's or else Breyer's in the US, and don't want to add other high sugar, significant artificial flavor input to that.  The dairy part should be fine, but in shops it's usually sweetened and condensed milk, so not a very natural form of that.

If I were to drink this even every other day then a significant part of my diet would move to this minor sugar and flavoring input.  I see specialty tea as probably being healthy, and positive (more whole leaf, naturally grown, etc.).  In moderation, drinking one or two of these a week, it probably wouldn't shift the balance that much, but those choices can add up.

Is this relatively low quality, mass produced black tea probably made with a good bit of chemical pesticide and fertilizer?  Yes, that's my guess.  But you never really get to know.

It works to conclude that Thai tea is one of my favorite flavored tea versions, or maybe my overall favorite.  I like it so much that I avoid drinking it, if that makes sense.  It could shift to become a regular habit, and I'm already using my own self-imposed unhealthy foods allocation on ice cream and donuts.