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.

Two day trip to Lopburi, the town with monkeys

 

Keoni and I just did a two day trip to Lopburi, the small town 3 or 4 hours north of Bangkok that's overrun by monkeys.  There are less monkeys now, which in general was a good thing.  To me the highlight was how easy and inexpensive it is to do short trips out of Bangkok, especially related to using the train system.  Eye and I--my wife--have went on a lot of short weekend trips, but we always drive.  It's interesting how the trade-off works out, even though it's just as one would expect.  Let's start there.

Train travel

It cost us 27 baht per person per trip for the train, under 1 USD.  That's something like $3 on a three hour round trip, in total, for two people.  That's crazy.  Obviously the Thai government subsidized local train travel really heavily.  An air conditioned train would have cost more, and issues with reserving seats come up for those.  It still wouldn't have been much.  

There's a decent chance that there was a foreigner rate and I should have been paying three times that much ($3 or 4 for the trip, maybe 5 or 6), but that changes nothing.  Keoni bought the tickets, and if so they let it go, that his companion didn't look as Thai.  Maybe I am considered local, for that purpose, because I have a Thai driver's license, so I am a resident.

Even if it was $10, more than ten times as much, I wouldn't mind paying more, but dual pricing does offend some local foreigners.  I probably pay as much tax as everyone in the train car we were in combined, aside from sales tax; that's why others see it as a problem.  We are kind of poor, but that relates to maintaining two households in two different countries.

We were discussing the general downsides of this form of travel just after getting back, and there aren't many.  If the train is really full you might need to sit with two people on a seat designed to hold two people, across from someone you don't know, sharing foot space.  The way up was like that, most of the way, until more people got off and we moved.  It doesn't change a lot, but it was nice sitting on a cushioned bench style seat designed for two people instead.

The bathroom was local style; a stainless steel squat toilet.  For many Westerners that could be a deal breaker, a fixture that's almost impossible to use.  It wouldn't have been a big deal for us, and on a three hour trip we only went in there to take a picture of it.

People went by every 10 minutes or so offering food or drinks, at 7/11 or local market pricing levels.  You could keep drinking water, soda, or canned coffee, and eat fruit or simple Thai meals, like grilled meats or pad krapao (essentially the Thai national dish, ground pork fried with basil, with rice, usually served with a fried egg).  One might wonder if that food is safe.  My guess is that you could eat it every day for a year and be fine, but it's only a guess.  Those drinks were under $1 (half that), and meals at just under $1 (nearly that), so you would be spending like a local.

It's not all that hot now, but the first day was worse.  We are acclimated to the local weather, so it's fine for us.  Other visitors wouldn't be, and they might suffer, on a hot day.  You can plan to go quite early, missing that part.  The trains run several times a day.

Lopburi; sites and monkeys

They've rounded up most of the monkeys, keeping them in a caged area somewhere, we heard.  Someone else commented online that they were moved out to the forest, and that may be a pleasant cover story, that sounds better than hearing that they're now essentially zoo prisoners.  We saw maybe 20, in two days; that was enough to get a feel for it.  In the past we saw hundreds, on a one-day visit; they were absolutely everywhere.  You needed to carry a stick around to keep them from trying to steal things from you.  Of course they want food, but they had probably learned that if they steal your sunglasses or cell phone you immediately pursue ways to trade them things to get those back.

A main attraction there is a really nice historical museum, that Eye and I visited last fall.  Keoni and I went there.  It's interesting hearing about Thai history, about what happened in the 6th to 8th centuries there, the peak of that local culture, and at other time periods.  

Having learned more about Thai history over the years it became more apparent that this was a fairly sanitized and limited range instruction about even the local history.  It kept referencing Khmer (Cambodian empire) architecture and personal goods style themes, but never once said that the area was ruled by a foreign power, which I think is just how that went.  Of course it doesn't matter.  I was interested in hearing more about the time period prior to the 6th century, since we visited Si Thep last year as well, and there was an interesting city-state time period in there, but they didn't say much about that.  They did reach back to stone and bronze age roots, and describe the history of that, which I found especially fascinating.

I'm not really claiming that they were sanitizing and revising Thai history.  It was more that exclusive focus on some main themes limited others even coming up.  That's splitting hairs, isn't it?  There was a time period when Lopburi was very developed and advanced, prominent in the broad region, and there was a lot to cover about that, during that 6th to 8th century range.  It's fine that they didn't cover as much about the 8th century to the present, or the first century up to 5th.  

I think it's a Western perspective approach to wonder about what came before, as if that's a critical part of the same story.  But then when you learn about the Roman empire you "only" have 4 or 5 centuries to work with, and with dominant Greek culture maybe even less, and there was always something before.  In general as you move back the details become less granular, and you end up hearing about artifacts implying a lot of things, without a written history tracing what it all meant.

That museum is still fantastic, very much worth a visit.  Probably if you visited another half dozen historical sites you would build up more of an image of that main time-frame, and perhaps some about what came before and after.

We didn't do that.  We arrived Saturday afternoon, saw that museum, sorted out a hotel stay, rested a little, and looked around and had dinner.

not all that historical, but it is related to tea

Travel by train versus car

In lots of places there are local tuk-tuks or songtaews (trucks with benches in the back) to get around locally, but we didn't see much of that there.  So we walked.  Using a car you tend to focus in on just a few main places, between driving and parking, and you see things block by block more on foot.  Eye and I walk enough that we get to both when we drive, since she loves local markets and seeing different areas.

Still, I suppose it's a trade-off not having a car.  We were limited to local hotels, but luckily there were a lot.  Again we payed next to nothing for the hotel stay; around 500 baht, or $15.  Often it's better to bump that to 600-700 to get a breakfast included, but we found a decent option that was fine, and very central, and went with it.

There's a newer part of town, and the older part, that we were in.  I think they relocated a lot of government buildings and some new infrastructure to get away from the monkeys.  Then later the monkeys got to be a bit much, and they relocated most of them instead.  They are kind of nasty little creatures, beyond being really cute.  Keo and I experienced one threatening us at the Khao Keo Open Zoo, outside of Pattaya, this past summer.  All we did was look at him, which he took as a threat.  He growled and waved a bit, I guess it was.  So we picked up sticks to walk past him, since he was on the handrail of a narrow walkway, and seeing the sticks he reeled in the aggression, as if he never meant it in the first place.

Once at that same zoo a monkey stole a bag of chips from our niece.  Soon after a monkey with a baby made a threatening face and sound to us, seemingly telling us that if anything happened she would fight to protect her child.  Before there was any time to react my wife copied that expression and gesture, telling that monkey in no uncertain terms that she would also fight to protect her children, and the monkey would lose.  They both settled into a sort of mutual respect after that, and the monkey walked off.

They're a bit scary, even though they're small, because if you got bit in the least by them, or even scratched, you'd probably need to have a round of four rabies shots immediately (the first one; the rest follow on a schedule).  

I've been through that, related to getting bitten by a local shop cat.  I love that cat too; she is a close friend.  But she was agitated that day, probably from fighting with other street cats, and she crawled under my leg as I squatted to pet her, and then felt trapped, by the placement she had chosen, and reacted.  Cats really do have fast reaction time; a cat would lose a fight with a human, but you would look like you lost within not so many seconds.  

The exchange cost her dearly; she couldn't be trusted to stay on a leash outside that shop, and has been caged daily since, free to roam that shop and household in their off hours.  I still pet her.  If I need rabies shots again I'll get them, but as I see it she needs my friendship and support more than ever, and people and cats sometimes make mistakes.

Other parts

There wasn't much more to it.  They had two small night markets where we could seek out dinner, but we got take-out from a strip of food shops instead.  I bought egg tarts that I had for breakfast.  Keoni had grilled chicken for dinner, and I had vegetarian food (it's a 10 day long vegetarian festival, or was, ending this past weekend).

We stopped at a coffee shop twice (Cafe Amazon; there were other local options, but not many).  We walked over to see the next roundabout / main intersection area, but there wasn't much there to see.  We visited a favorite Chinese drink and ice cream outlet, Mixue, which was decorated for Halloween, which is a bit atypical.  It was nice seeing some of the town, but there were only government, military, and university buildings in that area.  We never did figure out how to take a songtaew (a truck converted to serve as a tiny bus alternative).

Spending more time in Lopburi might not be interesting.  We didn't see the new government / city center area, and didn't visit much for ruins, so two days might still be ok.  We've been to a lot of ruins, and they kind of repeat at some point.  Ayutayah and Sukhothai are more extensive and developed.  It's interesting that there's not much at all of that in Bangkok; it really wasn't an ancient or old developed area.  The city's history goes back many hundreds of years, but not to the 6th to 8th centuries, or at least so it seems.

Lopburi had a municipal water supply system in the 1600s; not bad

It goes without saying that I'm referencing the Western / Roman calendar, but I'll add that here.  The year is different in Thailand, based on the Buddha's life as a starting point.  It's Monday, October 19, 2569 BE:

Buddhist Era (B.E.): Thailand counts years from the death of Gautama Buddha, placing the calendar 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar (2026 + 543 = 2569).

Thai Abbreviation: Written in Thai as พ.ศ. (Phut Sakarat).

Unless I'm wrong about that, and these historical dates really run 500 years earlier?  Probably that's it, and the era we kept hearing about related to 600 CE / AD onward.

Conclusions

I would highly recommend people in Bangkok or visitors include some local travel in their plans.  Why not?  Sukhothai is also fantastic to visit, and you can do Ayuttayah on a day-trip, just outside of Bangkok.  To go further, up to Chiang Mai, for example, it's better to take a second class air conditioned train, so the seats can convert to bunks.  That didn't cost much over 1000 baht back when we last did it, and is probably closer to 2000 now ($60), but it's worth it.

It's interesting considering how it might be uncomfortable for some to do what we just did.  Plenty of people speak some English, but more don't, and foods being unfamiliar could be an issue.  Keo had grilled chicken and french fries, with a small salad, so other Western food is around.  People might worry about getting sick, or could be concerned if crime is an issue, or if the monkeys are dangerous.  They kind of are, but risk is limited, especially since there aren't many now.

Si Thep is also a great local area to visit, with historical sites there relating to the time period just before this main Lopburi regional influence.  It's another hour and a half drive further north, so you would probably need a car for that.  Renting cars in Thailand isn't that difficult or expensive, but driving might be, for people from the US, accustomed to using the other side of the road.  Sukhothai is nice too anyway, a bit further north, but better set up for transportation and foreign visitors.

Bing Dao origin shou pu'er

 

I reviewed a sheng pu'er from Bing Dao from Oriental Leaf recently, here, and this is a shou version, the pre-fermented pu'er range.  Many thanks to this vendor for providing this tea for review!

To me two thoughts come up immediately when considering Bing Dao shou pu'er.  1) is it real?, 2) does it make sense to pre-ferment (wet pile) Bing Dao material, to turn it into shou?

It's probably real.  It's from a main producer in that area, Mengku Rongshi, per description from this vendor, so that would comparable to questioning if a Lao Ban Zhang from Chen Sheng Hao is real (known for a long term sourcing contract in that area).  It could still be fake, and people can think whatever they want, and that conclusion is a knee-jerk reaction in some tea circles.  But it's probably not.

Does it make sense to pre-ferment some of the most exceptional tea material you could find in this way?  Not to me, no, but of course it's for people who like shou more than I do.  I'm a sheng drinker, and I'd rather drink above average sheng than the best shou available.  But is seems a bit harsh and judgmental to say that the range shouldn't even exist.  It makes no sense to me, but it would to some others, with different preferences.

Let's consider the vendor listing:

Bingdao Aged Ripe Pu-erh (2026 · Coin Cakes) — Mengku Rongshi

40 grams worth, five 8 gram coins, sells for $14.50, which does sound kind of low in cost.  It doesn't say when the tea material was produced, even though it claims to be aged, which people could take as a second red flag, if so inclined.  The divide between spring and fall material comes to mind; they could be using autumn harvest tea for this purpose, and the material would be worth less to start with, and the origin area would still be the same.  In sheng you can often pick up a bit of difference in intensity and character type, related to autumn harvest versions, but it may not stand out as much in shou.

I tend to value the tea experience more than the story anyway, so it matters less, from that kind of perspective.  Their description:

Ripe pu-erh from the Bingdao growing area in Yunnan — one of the most regarded tea regions in China — fermented using Mengku Rongshi's box fermentation method and aged before release. No waiting required. The tea is ready to drink now, packaged in individual tins of five 8g coin cakes. Each coin is scored with a cross so it breaks cleanly into four pieces — a practical feature for adjusting your brew weight. Available as a single tin (40g) or a full box of eight tins (320g). [that sells for $110, again lower than you would expect).

Bingdao is a tea-growing area in Shuangjiang County, Lincang, Yunnan — the same county where Mengku Rongshi has been based since the family began making tea in 1935. It is one of the most sought-after origins in Chinese pu-erh, known for material with a distinctive character: clean, sweet, with a cooling finish and strong salivation that lingers after the cup is empty. These qualities are not common in ripe pu-erh, where fermentation often softens or masks the character of the raw material. Getting them to carry through into a finished shou pu-erh requires both good material and careful process.

The Process

Mengku Rongshi ferments this tea using their box fermentation method — a controlled approach in which the tea is managed in enclosed fermentation units rather than open large-pile wodui. Temperature, humidity, and timing are monitored and adjusted throughout. The result is a cleaner, more precise fermentation with less of the off-notes that conventional large-pile processing can introduce...

Aroma: Sugar and caramel lead, with a background of fruit and dry wood. The cup aroma carries a clean, candied sweetness.

Soup: Deep red, clear, and bright. The texture is smooth — silky is the word that comes up most often. Not thin, not heavy; just even and continuous.

Taste: Sweet and smooth, with a distinct sugar-and-caramel quality throughout. The Bingdao character comes through in the finish: a light cooling sensation on the tongue, strong salivation, and a clean rock-sugar sweetness at the back of the throat that stays for several minutes.

Smaller batch shou processing has been a somewhat well known theme in "the West" for the past decade or so, but there isn't that much of it made, so there aren't lots of options to try different versions.  But it's no secret, and examples do turn up.  It's more typically presented as an experimental approach, not something a vendor has been carrying out for a long period of time, so results might vary.  

Here's an example of a Thai vendor, Tea Side, producing 2016 and 2018 versions, posted in 2019 here.  Those were good.  Not like this, but the material surely didn't have the same potential, and it was the results of processing after some trial and error, but not a couple decades of consistent production (or whatever this relates to).  This was a review of their 2021 version, in 2025, probably representing a more developed, slightly age transitioned version, as a more developed example (which they described as "Chocolate Noir;" both that and this Bing Dao version share pronounced cacao flavor).

Review:

First infusion:  I let this soak for well over 30 seconds, so that it would open up in the first round.  I didn't use a rinse, which wouldn't work as well for a pressed shape like this anyway, since you would be rinsing only the outside surface.

Flavor is really nice.  As shou goes; I'm not a natural shou drinker, which I'll address more in an intro that I add later.  There's a pronounced cacao note, the main thing you notice.  Then an inky minerality, and what comes across to me as rich dried fruit, that could be interpreted differently.  Some shou has a funky sort of fermentation related input that fades after a couple of rounds and if it's in this it's really moderate, and hard to notice.  It can taste like wet cement block, petroleum, fermenting cardboard, or in worst cases like fish, or fermented fish sauce.  There's really none of all that.

Body / feel is really thick, of course.  Cacao carries over most in the aftertaste, so far.  There seems to be a savory aspect included, that's not strong, so it relates more to background, giving it depth.  It tastes a little like sun-dried tomato.  That's quite a lot of aspect range for the first round, but then this is brewed strong.  Shou never really picks up problematic aspects when overbrewed, or put another way, it's hard to really overbrew it.  I'll try it lighter though, and see what that changes.

Second infusion:  this round I brewed for 5 seconds, just long enough to stir the leaves around a bit with the lid, then poured back out.  Intensity and feel strength drop, of course.  The flavor profile doesn't change that much, but how it comes across does.  Warm mineral tone evens up with cacao for intensity.  Fruit isn't as noticeable.  That fruit was so rich and heavy that I'd have to make up a dried fruit type to come close to capturing what it was / is.  Prune is close enough though, dried plum.

This is pleasant brewed light, and intense enough, but probably brewing between 10 and 15 seconds would be an optimum, for me.  That's a really strong infusion strength, for using 8 grams in 100 ml for a tea this intense, but it works for this type.  

Dark bread range seems to enter in as a main flavor range, replacing some of that earlier set, or combining with it.  Really dark bread, like pumpernickel, maybe just without that one seed spice flavor input.

Third infusion:  not so different than last round; that description still applies.  Heavier dried fruit range might be lighter, on towards a dried berry input instead.

Is this so exceptional that it justifies existing, changing what should have been great quality material sheng into a shou / wet pile fermented form?  Preference for types enters into that kind of analysis and conclusion.  To me no; this must have been better as sheng.  But for people into distinctive, unique forms of shou the answer might be different.  It's really for them, not for me.  It will be interesting to see how pricing works out, which kind of factors in, but again that's a separate theme.  I think ordinary but more exceptional factory shou is good enough, and represents the type range well enough, but again that means little coming from a shou drinker.

I've been through this before.  A friend passed on a gushu shou from some known tea area before, and I had trouble placing if it made any sense, for it to even exist.  It has been nice having that better shou available to drink during fasts.  I have other more ordinary range shou around for that, and I might have drank through half a kilogram or so of it on fasts over the last three years (I fast a good bit; four times a year, five days each fast).  But it's nice trying something a little different and better.  I've kept experimenting with what else my stomach can tolerate, without much success beyond aged white tea, and very limited other hei cha range.

In trying this round again the flavors seem to flatten out a little, losing distinctiveness related to covering more scope (now mineral and dark bread, plus cacao, and limited dried fruit).  It's nice that it's so clean; often a touch of what leans towards sourness comes across in shou.  You wouldn't identify it as sourness, necessarily, but it relates to aged books or old cardboard smell in way that starts to be comparable.  Cement block mineral is more of a Liu Bao thing, and more general mustiness often relates to a storage input, or at least seems to.  None of all that is present in this.

Fourth infusion:  the balance of those different flavors is interesting.  I let this brew between 15 and 20 seconds, and that brings back intensity that works better for me, of course related to infusion strength.  

Feel includes some richness and fullness, and aftertaste carries over, but for a sheng drinker all other tea range can seem a little limited related to those.  Shou can be oily and thick, so I guess it's just a different effect, not less of one.

The flavors I had already mentioned integrate well at this stage.  They're harder to identify as separate aspects or notes, which doesn't necessarily enhance or degrade the experience, it's just different.  I suppose the dark bread aspect is shifting towards a lighter spice note, which is still related to that dark bread theme.  You wouldn't really necessarily identify this as tasting like cacao or dried fruit at this stage; it combines with the rest, and mineral base, spice, and dark bread have shifted to be more of what you pick up.  I suppose I see it as including that range, giving it complexity, but you can't really separate out those notes as they seemed to be expressed earlier on.

I'll give this another longer yet infusion time, around 30 seconds, and that might be enough notes for this.  There is late stage transition to note and consider, but I'm often fine with skipping that part, seeing the main story as already told.

Fifth infusion:  it picks up more strength as mineral depth than the rest.  It's a relatively different context for a comparable effect, but Dian Hong black tea can land in a similar place, related to a general pattern, of expressing depth more than forward flavor.  I like that in Dian Hong; it works for me, even though it could easily be regarded as a flaw or limitation in a tea version.  In this it's fine.  I think a shou drinker would relate to it more as I do with that black tea, than how I do trying this round.  It's interesting, and not overly negative, but not necessarily appealing either.

Mineral tone changes.  I really could probably review this tea again and just write about how the mineral tone is coming across each round.  Descriptions of that end up being vague, mentioning rock types, or partial comparisons to non-food related inputs, like fallen tree bark or petroleum.  

I suppose as higher level, general character summaries go this may come across as expressing a clean version of forest floor notes, to some.  That can be very pleasant when it works well, and this is clean and positive.  Imagine yourself sitting by a bubbling spring, in a wet, cool, green forest, on a spring day, with pines sheltering you, and ferns filling in the forest floor.  It tastes a little like that would smell, with wet rocks and fermenting fallen tree logs standing out.  Of course I'm picturing a specific place in describing that; I'm from the forests of western Pennsylvania.  There's a feel to such places that captures your imagination, making you think that animated local spirit influences might actually be real.  I digress.

The tea is pretty good.  I'll add more about that in conclusions, after adding a vendor description.

Conclusions:

It's interesting seeing caramel in the initial product description.  That's the kind of thing that you would notice if you had read it in description, since it would bring it to mind.  Rich, warm toned, relatively sweet tea could always be identified as tasting like caramel or toffee.  I just didn't make that connection.

It's interesting considering how good this is; is the quality level really as high as shou tends to get?  Are the flavors and other character roughly as positive as any other shou that I've tried.  Sure, they are.  That would mean more to me personally if I loved shou more.

It would really seem a waste of this tea to drink it as something your stomach tolerates well when fasting.  Fasting doesn't exactly throw off my sense of taste, but how you relate to flavors is different then.  A baseline for a lot of life experience shifts.  To me it adds an underlying layer of stress to life experience; you are always not doing something, that your body is inclined to do, to eat on a daily basis.

Of course when I re-try a later round I notice pronounced sweetness, which I do associate with caramel (per the comment about the power of suggestion).  I'm writing the edited version in the early afternoon, which isn't usually how that goes.  This is probably the cleanest version of shou I've yet to try; there is no fermentation related murkiness.  It makes you wonder about the actual age; over just 3 or 4 years a lot of the early fermentation effect clears up, any off flavors, but over a decade or more depth picks up, tones clean up a little more, and some limited forward flavor range gets swapped out for that depth.  This could be more than 3 or 4 years old; it would explain that clean character.

For shou drinkers I suppose this would be a must-try sort of version.  Some people might even miss the rough edges, the heavy, complex, intensity that good factory shou brings across, bumping that intensity at the cost of including rougher aspect range, and edgier feel.  This might seem too refined.  But then it's interesting trying extreme ranges of different tea types, to help place the rest.  

To me that even applies to bad tea; that rough, harsh, problematic Chinatown shou, that's earthy in an off way, and a touch sour, helps you place the middle and higher ends of shou range better.  You might not make it through a whole cake of that kind of thing, if you end up buying it, and it might be better for your health if you didn't.  But it's nice experiencing the full range of what tea experience can be.  This version represents the "higher" end instead, which people would relate to differently, depending on their individual preferences.