Viet Sun Y Ty air dried 2026 black tea and Wawee Tea 2026 black

 

Viet Sun T Ty black on the left, in all photos

Continuing on with Vietnamese and Thai themes I've been covering, this time it's about Viet Sun and Wawee Tea black teas.  These two versions were really exceptional.  I mean so good.  Enough with the spoilers; I'll cite some product details from their sites (or for Wawee, I'll try to turn up a Facebook page post info), and get to the review.

Y Tý Air Dried Black Spring 2026  ($21 for 100 grams, $47.50 for 250)

A really nice black tea made in the hot air dried style from one of our favorite tea areas, Y Tý.

Made from medium, old and ancient trees in the Dao village, this tea brews up into a rich copper red soup. Floral, sweet, with a malty chocolate, honey character and a low-medium roast. Rich mouthfeel and long finish.

Season: April 2026

Picking Standard: 1 bud, 2-3 leaves

Region: Y Tý, Lào Cai

Elevation: 1300-1800mn

Would that really have a low-medium roast input, versus just a moderate amount of oxidation?  It doesn't matter.  I probably should have read between the lines and ordered that instead of the sun-dried version that I just reviewed.  It is really nice.  The other might change for the better, given that style, but this one might still gain some depth, and it's really nice now.

Related to value around 21 cents a gram is pretty fair as pricing goes now.  Awhile back you could buy pretty decent Dian Hong for 15 cents a gram or less, but I would imagine that has shifted, as all tea pricing has.  You would be lucky to buy tea this good at whatever price it is.

There is no information post on the Wawee Tea Facebook page, as there had been for the sheng version.  It's Thai material black tea; that's all that you need to know.  I'm describing it as being made in a style similar to Yunnan Dian Hong, but that kind of judgement doesn't add much.  That generaliztion comes across differently in relation to this other Vietnamese version being a dead ringer for Dian Hong character, and flavor aspect range.

I can share their FB page cake wrapper, since it seems I forgot to take a picture of that:

That pricing relates to about $30 for 200 grams, so $15 for 100 grams instead of 21 for the Viet Sun version.  But that's Thai pricing; Viet Sun is a Western facing vendor instead.  As with the Viet Sun whether you buy the tea for 15 or 21 cents a gram you are still lucky if the tea is this good.  There are plenty of vendors out there selling teas nowhere near this good for 50 to 70 cents a gram, either making up stories to back that, or maybe some interesting stories are real, but the tea still isn't this nice.

Review:

Viet Sun Y Ty:  this is really more what I have in mind related to Dian Hong style teas, than the sun dried version I just had.  But then those pick up intensity with age, and tend to be oxidized a little less initially, so it's not fair comparing two brand new versions.  This is still really nice.

A pleasant roasted sweet potato note stands out, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to interpret the rest as tasting like cacao, but that's a judgement call.  Sweetness is good, and feel is fine, even though it's barely getting started.  It's going to be hard for the Thai version to compare well to this.

Wawee Tea black:  this is holding its own, so far.  It's completely different.  Tones are much warmer, and flavor complexity is harder to unpack; it's not just a couple of very pleasant main notes.  Dark cherry is part of it, and something like a cured wood or incense spice tone.  Often when I'm mentioning that it's about a limitation in the flavor set, but it works well in this.  It has a lot of depth, especially for just getting started.  Maybe some of the other range is spice oriented, even towards root spice or medicinal spice.  A warm mineral base is pleasant.

If judging at this stage which I like better, which is still too early to call, I'd have to go with the first version.  That standard, pleasant, well-balanced Dian Hong style is a personal favorite.  But the Thai version expresses more depth and complexity, so far, and everything it expresses is pleasant.  This should be a great comparison tasting.

I've got the proportion wrong, including less of the loose Vietnamese version, because it's hard to judge when one is loose and the other compressed.  I'll add a touch more, which will throw off how the transition cycle plays out over the next round or two.  I usually work around that by adding what looks normal to me, and it always veers back to 8 grams or so, but I tried to back off the proportion of the first, and didn't do so in the same way for the second.

VS Y Ty #2:  roasted sweet potato and cacao stand out again.  Or maybe that's yam instead, or maybe it's transitioning from sweet potato to yam.  You get the idea.  Mineral depth is pleasant; that really gives it balance.  A somewhat high sweetness level also works well with the rest.  Feel is nice, with decent fullness.  It's not dry but it also doesn't lack some feel structure.  A warmer and heavier flavor edge tastes like a touch of coffee, which mixes with the mineral range, and supports the rest.  It's really good.

Wawee:  it changed quite a bit; I would've expected that.  It's picking up a brandy-like flavor input, which is more or less the dominant flavor already.  Another part tastes like a bark spice, just not cinnamon.  Warmer mineral gives those pronounced flavors balance.  There is still fruit, more or less still in the range of dried black cherry, but it's secondary to the other range now.  Just a touch of tartness integrates well with that particular fruit range.  Ordinarily pronounced tartness makes black tea unpleasant, to me, but in a very limited amount it can be good, especially when it integrates well with the rest.

This tea is more intense than the other; the taste is stronger, and it carries over to aftertaste more.  It spans more range; it's more complex as well.  The other expresses a little more depth; there's something about it that seems to convey a deeper, more grounded taste experience.  Maybe that relates to the mineral input, or maybe it's an emergent effect that's mainly in my own interpretation, instead of the aspects themselves.

It occurs to me to keep mentioning how I like both in comparison to each other round to round; usually reviews never include that.  The Thai tea might be better in a couple of senses but the Vietnamese version really matches a style I love, so I'd go with that.  I would guess that this Thai tea is far from finished though, that it will keep evolving and changing, and will brew a long cycle, so it may seem better in one or two more senses before it's over.

back in this Bangkok home tasting space

Ina, that Siamese cat, has a cool look, but all of our cats do

VS Y Ty #3:  the warmer tones shift a little; what had been mineral and a vague earthy input changed to be closer to leather.  In a good sense; the warm and sweet tone of a new bomber jacket material, not the musty and harsher scent of older horse saddle.  Cacao stands out more than ever.  Flavor intensity is kind of in a normal range, but depth adds to the experience, in a way that's hard to describe.  For people who drink Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea) that description would already be quite familiar.  

Wawee:  fruit picks up.  It's still black cherry, but it has expanded quite a bit in range, so it's that plus something else, or more than one other thing (a little citrus enters in, and something like butternut squash flavor joins the rest).  The tartness has almost entirely dropped out.  The form of that fruit is intense, sweet, and complex, taking on a fruit roll-up sort of character.  

Incense / bark spice and mineral tone have moved into a supporting flavors role.  At this point the Wawee tea is better, per my subjective judgment, and I suppose if one tried to claim some sort of objective assessment form probably better in that sense too.  Compression level was too high in a version of this I bought 2 or 3 years ago, which really did impact the experience of it, but they've got it just right for this cake, loose enough that it comes apart easily using a pu'er knife (or pick, or whatever, maybe even just your fingers).

I've been brewing these relatively quickly, because the intensity was fine for that for both.  I might go a little longer to see what changes, from 10 seconds or so up to more than 15, or close to 20.

These are both really exceptional black teas.  I've tried some pretty good black tea versions over the past few years and both hold their own with any of it.  I've tried a lot more range over the decade prior to that, or even 15 years, but it's harder to use older experiences as a reference.

VS Y Ty #4:  it really didn't change much, for being brewed just a little longer.  Heavier mineral flavor input occurs; that's normal.  Feel comes across as thicker and richer, but it was already ok anyway.  The feel hasn't been exceptional, but the range was positive, and it supported the overall experience.  It contributes some aftertaste experience, broadening the overall effect, but not so much.  

The main positive is that the flavor range is a personal favorite, and there is nothing like a flaw in this.  Flavor intensity could be higher, but a black tea version expressing limited complexity and intensity but good depth seems to also work, for me.  The flavors a tea does express need to be what one likes, and to match well, in such a case, but that's true for me for this.  I could probably drink a kilogram of this tea, and not tire of it.

I'm probably making this sound like a basic, simple, limited intensity tea version more than really applies to it.  It is expressing some roasted sweet potato or yam flavor, something along the line of cinnamon, and depth that reminds me of root spice, along with pleasant mineral range.  It only seems to lack complexity and intensity in comparison with the other version, which is an unusually strong and complex tea.

Wawee:  the fruit effect changed again.  Now it's closer to elderberry, an interesting range.  It is a stronger tea, across most dimensions.  Flavor range is stronger, flavor complexity is broader, feel is more pronounced, and aftertaste expression is much stronger.  In part that could be because it's from better tea plant material, but it's also more completely oxidized (it seems; the leaves are a little darker, and it brews darker).  I'm not saying that to move on to claiming that the other Vietnamese tea has more aging potential, but it probably does.  It could also just be a different style.

For people into free-associating a mix of different flavor aspects there's a lot for starting points in this Thai tea version.  I do enough of that in these text reviews, but when I drink tea for my own experience only I just go quiet, and accept the experience without analysis.

This is probably a good point to leave off with notes.  These will shift a little more over two more infusions, probably with the Thai version changing more, and maintaining more intensity.  Both teas will be similar though.  

Trying the next round confirmed this.  The Thai tea is finally losing just a little intensity, and it took a round off transitioning in flavor character, with the Vietnamese tea holding up to the same earlier level of intensity and depth.  It might be that the Vietnamese tea can keep going longer for brewing out slower, that the trade-off for the Thai version was that the first 4 or 5 infusions might be better (in a limited sense; preference determines that), and stronger, but that it can't keep that up for as long.

Both are great.  Anyone would be lucky to cross paths with one of these teas.

I'm reminded of holding a tea tasting a decade or so ago, letting the guests try a black tea like one of these.  One commented that they didn't know that they liked black tea until they had that experience.  I looked back through posts to see when that was; it was here, in 2017 (and it was a Farmerleaf sun-dried Dian Hong).  I had covered a lot of ground by then, in four years of writing this blog.

In case it seems that I'm exaggerating these experiences, that every tea is just fantastic all of the time, I can point out that the last two sheng that I tried were quite good, high in quality level, distinctive, and positive, but more limited in relation to a match to my own preference.  Now with these black teas we're back to everything being just great, including that part. 

I have more ordinary versions of tea on the way; that will shift again.  In an online discussion someone mentioned that a standard, budget oriented, blended version was pretty good, from a producer I had tried teas from before, so I'll be covering a little of that range soon.  Not really low cost factory tea, but towards that theme.

one of the two other cats

Timmie with her sister

Brutal Reality Of Being Ugly

 

he looks fine

This was kind of an interesting theme and video reference, about this subject, posted by Mike Israetel, one of those weightlifting / coaching information channel guys.  It wouldn't make much sense to just convey what he said, but I'll start with that, and add some related thoughts that this brought to mind.  His Youtube post is here.   

The first half of the video is about how there is an opposite side to "pretty privilege," that ugly people live out a different kind of reality.  That sounds right.  It sounds like an awkward thing to consider or discuss at length, but in a sense that makes it interesting.

He claimed to have lived out this reality, as a 1 or 2 out of 10, on that number scale that people sometimes reference.  That's probably not right; he probably was always a 3 or a 4, and it's probably ingenuine for him to describe what the ugliest people out there experience.  Which was all what you'd expect, that it limits your success in making friends, of course in dating, and it affects others' perceptions of you related to employment, general trustworthiness, and so on.  That's probably right.

It takes a long time in the video but he goes on to say that today people can change their diet and exercise inputs, and get cosmetic surgery, and change their lot related to all of this.  Of course that works better for adults; for children they're just not going to get that surgery, and it would be hard to address most aesthetic issues through exercise.  It seems like his general point was to convey to others who feel they experienced this that they're not alone, which is kind of already obvious, but hearing someone talking through how it works might be positive.

My own take and past experiences

On to my own take on this.  I look ok, maybe above average, so I won't be saying that I endured the same thing.  I was quite short at one point in my childhood development, in part related to starting school a year ahead of others, and that surely was a challenge.  It affected how I experienced social connections, and probably shaped who I was then, and later became, to some extent.  But I don't want to overextend that parallel; I don't think it was a close match.  I didn't develop self-confidence issues but I also never learned to take appearance seriously, because for a long time I was well behind the curve.

Two separate co-workers described their experiences to me in being overweight all of their childhood, and then later losing that weight, and when I knew them looking like anyone else, who is relatively healthy.  They described it as a sort of imposter syndrome, that it stayed with them as a self-image, even though it no longer applied.  I don't think they could unpack for me how what Mike was talking about was a factor for them, but I think both were very overweight, so they were probably regarded as negative in appearance.

It's interesting that they would share this, isn't it, and that I would have this experience twice?  My mother always had something about her character that caused other people to come to her and share their life experience, in part related to having her help sort out problems, and in part just because she made a good confident.  Maybe part of that applies to me as well.  I didn't have anything to tell them to help place those feelings.  They both looked fine; I could re-affirm that.  I personally had nothing against them related to that past, and probably would have accepted them well enough as overweight, so I could add that.  I think they were just sharing it because they could though, not because I could add something to the experience, or validate them.

A little more directly, this theme reminds me of growing up in a "gifted class" circle of friends in grade school and high school.  In junior high, our version of middle school, two of the kids in that group fell into the role of outsiders, in part related to their appearance.  They were good kids; it wasn't about that.  One looked a good bit like the lead singer of Blues Traveler, a bit big, and just odd, and the other girl sort of paralleled that.  We sort of accepted them, and sort of didn't.  It's something I've felt some weight over, as years have passed.

that Blue's Traveler singer, John Popper, looks fine; it's funny how weight changes an impression

Why is that?  I wasn't particularly self-aware, as a child, but I was a decent person.  Looking back there isn't much I did that I regret, but to the extent that I might have made someone else feel uncomfortable over a long period of time seems regrettable.  My kids bringing up the subject of bullying reminds me of this.  I never bullied them, or made fun of them.  If anything I was the main point of social connection for the one girl, who obviously had a crush on me.  But my acceptance was limited; they weren't friends with me, in the same way the rest of that circle was.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this.  And that's a main part of the experience of looking back on it now; I just don't know how to place it.  I think that to me it represents a gap in awareness of what was going on around me.  Most of what I experienced related to gaps; I wasn't clearly placing much of everything well as a child.

It's interesting considering Mike Israetel's assertion that a 1 or 2 on a scale of 10 experiences things differently.  I doubt he was experiencing that.  He looks a little unconventional now, related to being so jacked up, bald, and developing muscle on his skull.  But he looks like he's probably of average attractiveness, kind of symmetrical, and not otherwise unusual.  I don't doubt that there was more to it back then, like a weight issue, or that he could've had a look that it took time to grow into.  But it seems like that negative assessment might relate to a story he has told himself over and over, rather than an accurate assessment of a lived experience.

It's a little sad hearing a description of how some kids would have trouble with basic things, like making friends.  I think that's right.  My kids were so cute as young children, and they still struggled from time to time, in new circumstances.  I never really gave it much thought how much worse that could've been.

How to change appearance; his conclusions

I was wondering where he was going with all of this, since talking for 15 minutes about how unattractive people have it rough isn't really saying much.  People already get that.  Not the details, but they know it.

He ended by saying that anyone could become fit now, which seems right, and that people can radically change appearance through cosmetic surgery.  In a sense this last part doesn't work.  To put a context to that he suggested that someone might get significant appearance changing work done for on the order of $20,000.  That's probably right.  It wouldn't be enough to change a few different appearance issues, and a nose job and hair transplant might cost that much, but a couple of significant appearance changes could make a big difference.

It's that cost that's a concern.  Most people have no access at all to that kind of funding in their childhood or teens, and many wouldn't be able to save up that amount until their late 20s, or some never could.  It doesn't work to say that anyone could simply change appearance by the age of 30, long after they've already endured all of the problems at the main critical life phases.  I suppose for people in the wealthiest 10 to 20% a teen getting a nose job would be an option, and could seem normal.  So appearance improvement is pay to win, to use my son's manner of speaking.

I just noticed I was eating ice cream beside a cosmetic surgery clinic in Bangkok, and was surprised some basic prices were so affordable.  A nose job was about 16,000 baht, a little over $500, and liposuction right at 300.  I think that a lot of younger people probably do get those sorts of things done.  You could do cardio and improve your diet for years and never get the same results liposuction could provide, all but immediately.  They do abdominal sculpting now, including a few indentations in your fat that looks like you are starting to show abs, when it's really not that.

So maybe it works better here, to say that you can make a change?  The catch is that salaries are a lot lower; starting wages for college grads start at 15,000 per month or so, or $500 per month.  Saving up an entire month's wages could be difficult, when your budget is already stretched pretty thin.  Then again so many people have $1500 phones, so it could just come down to priorities.

There's really no way to wrap up or conclude all of this, a set of different tangents on this theme.  It's interesting how it all maps out.

Bangkok Chinatown Xin Ban Zhang and Viet Sun Tua Chua

 

Jip Eu Xin Ban Zhang left, in all photos

interesting how pale the XBZ is, and how dark the Viet Sun tea is

I'm reviewing and comparing two interesting looking tea versions from completely different sources and areas.  One is a third version of sheng from Viet Sun, the other reportedly from a village near the famous Lao Bahn Zhang origin, given to me by the owner of my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop, Kittichai of Jip Eu.

Let's start with the Viet Sun description, from here:

Tủa Chùa Tall Trees Maocha Autumn 2024 (it had been $30 for 100 grams, but it's sold out now)

A tea from the most sought after tea area in Vietnam, Tủa Chùa in Điện Biên province.

This area can be difficult to source tea from due to the high local and international demand. We were lucky to get a bit from a collector who has been aging this batch since 2024.

This area has some of the biggest tea trees in Vietnam and many are allowed to grow tall. This area is close to Laos and has a different climate than many other tea areas in Vietnam giving teas from here a unique profile. It it very dry and sunny for much of the year here.

This area is known for its signature orchid/ citrus flower fragrance with a citrus, fruity, forest almost tobacco range of flavor. This tea brews up quickly into a rich golden brew. Low-medium bitterness and astringency with heavy sweetness. Strong floral huigan that will start to build after a few cups.

Note that I'm not carrying through the correct accent variations in this area name.  It's a bit disrespectful to the language form, but that doesn't add any meaning for anyone outside of Vietnam, and I am writing this in English.

This huigan effect gets mentioned in this review, but it built up from being a significant effect from both teas (seemingly), so if anything it was a bit much.

There is no listing for the Bangkok Chinatown sheng pu'er, of course, but this listing from Yunnan Sourcing passes on background about the area:

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Xin Ban Zhang" Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

First flush of spring 2012 material from 60 to 100 year old wild arbor tea trees growing in Xin Ban Zhang village. Xin Ban Zhang is the neighbor village to Lao Ban Zhang and the tea from here shares much character with Lao Ban Zhang tea. The bitterness is a bit more persistent with Xin Ban Zhang. The leaf structure, mouth-feel and aroma is much the same. An intense cha qi accompanies the drinking experience. This intensity is the perfect fuel to transform this tea through the years.

That lists for $439 for a 400 gram cake; so much for ever trying that.  They sell a 10 gram portion for $17, so that's not so much buy-in just to try it.

We can't really draw any parallels between teas only sharing a village origin name, but this other version might be from wild arbor material, and we might expect significant bitterness, and a floral nature.  It wasn't bitter in the way described, but there's more on that in the review notes.

I found a small England based vendor selling a cake version from there, which they describe in comparable ways (that sounds pretty good):

Xin Ban Zhang Sheng Pu-erh (2019, listed for 36 pounds for a 200 gram cake, equivalent to $95 for 400 grams)

Xin Ban Zhang Sheng Pu-erh is a 2019 vintage raw pu-erh harvested from 100-200 year old tea trees in Xin Ban Zhang Village. Compressed into 200g cakes, it is a smooth tea with a complex mouthfeel. The sweet fruity flavour has a tannic base with a lasting citrus aftertaste.

...Authenticity and pricing issues aside, Lao Ban Zhang pu-erh is highly regarded for the powerful characteristics of the tea as well as the history of production in the area that goes back over 500 years. By contrast Xin Ban Zhang pu-erh has not gained such notoriety and presents a much better quality to price proposition.

Xin Ban Zhang Sheng Pu-erh raw pu-erh comes pressed in small 200g cakes and displays a complex bold mouthfeel with rich multi-layered flavours. It produces a clean liquor with a fruity and lightly woody aroma. This sheng delivers the expected strong character and lively Cha Qi. There are mineral and woody umami flavours and notes of hay, dried exotic fruits, apricot kernels and yuzu zest. The interplay between savoury and sweet flavours then progresses onto a lasting sweet yet lightly tannic finish.

Some of that overlaps with these notes on this version. They don't even mention bitterness, which would make sense with that input being moderate for this Xin Ban Zhang version I'm reviewing.  Probably that's an old listing, relating to availability and pricing from 6 or 7 years ago, but it's still interesting as an area and type reference.

Usually I don't show packaging, since there isn't much story value there, but it's interesting the Chinatown version was pre-packaged in relatively small amounts.  I should have asked how much they were selling that for; maybe I'll add it in a later edit.

Review:

Jip Eu Sin Bahn Zhang:  there's an interesting heavy mineral tone to this, with some connection to vegetal range, and also quite a bit of complex floral range.  It's interesting that it would start out so strong; this is barely wetted yet.  I'll add more of a list next time; I'm rushing this.  Thinking back, during editing, it's hard to say how rushing the review--related to having limited time, since my wife got back to town later in the morning--affected my impression and what I wrote.

Viet Sun Tua Chua:  richer and deeper flavors, also with significant warmer mineral tone, but warmer floral range, and probably a good bit of fruit.  They're not exactly similar, but it's interesting how category themes overlap, even though the aspects themselves don't.  These are both really nice teas.  How the light mineral and limited vegetal range in the other one evolves will determine how good it is, and for this one it just needs to fill in a bit of intensity, since the rest is already fine.

XBZ #2:  more of the same, just way more intense, even though I brewed these fast, under 10 seconds, and the proportion isn't that high (maybe 7 or 8 grams, in a 100 ml device, so just normal for me, but still a bit high).  Mineral sort of stands out the most, which is unusual.  It connects to both vegetal range and floral range, maybe with floral tones standing out more.  Mineral is more intense though, heavy, but in a lighter taste range form.  Sweetness is good, pronounced, it helps the rest balance well.  

It comes across as reasonably refined, and definitely complex and intense.  Aftertaste carries over, and significant bitterness is at a level that balances well.  It's nice.  Maybe it misses a little of that solid blast of floral range of other LBZ that I've tried, but it's not completely dis-similar.  Bitterness plays a different role, but that part is complicated.  There's a hint of dryness, that pairs with the heavy mineral effect.  It's not unpleasant, but it is a little unusual.

VS Tua Chua:  mineral picks up in this, along the line of the scent of an artesian well, almost leaning towards soapiness, but not quite to that.  It's unique.  Tones are warm; sweetness is good, and warm floral tone and some fruit stand out.  It's clean in effect.  Feel is rich and aftertaste intensity is good.  It's a bit less bitter, but that's moderate for both, really.

I really like this style of sheng, the way that warm tones, rich flavors, and complexity all combine together.  Maybe a year and a half of aging brought it to this kind of balance point.  It has depth; the flavor seems strong, but it runs deep more than it's a forward facing rich flavor range.  Of course the effect in the other is kind of opposite; the lighter tones stand out, even though the lighter mineral does express good depth.

Jip Eu Xin Bang Zhang #3:  interesting!  Not so different than the other rounds.  This mineral range stands out as much as any tea I've ever tried.  Floral range is pronounced.  You have to like pretty strong tea to get this, but for a sheng drinker that's a selling point, a positive feature.  A hint of dryness come across as feel structure, matching the mineral range.

VS TC:  warmer, richer tones.  Heavy mineral is also pronounced in this, just in a deeper range, maybe at a slightly lower level (relating to intensity, but I do tend to use a spatial analogy for which aspects seem more forward and what represents depth, at times).  This has a perfume-like quality, the kind of theme that often applies to really good Wuyi Yancha oolong.  It's often along the line of cognac, how it comes across, but it can be also be more aromatic, resembling perfume, as in this case.

Both of these are intense enough that a flash infusion of both should be interesting and pleasant, maybe not backing off too much intensity, but trying them as light as they can be.

Jip Eu XBZ #4:  it's still really intense, flash brewed.  Sweetness still stands out, and mineral base.  Again mineral is the strongest aspect, so it doesn't come across as a grounding base, as typically occurs.  Feel lightens in the sense of dryness shifting a bit to richness.  It's not really astringent in a conventional sense, but it definitely has structure.  This doesn't really remind me of other tea versions that I've tried; that mineral forward character is unique.

VS TC:  much richer and warmer, but again it's funny how heavy floral themes and pronounced mineral echo the other tea, but in a completely different form.  This does seem a bit like natural growth tea versions I've tried before.  

Flavor range is a little unconventional, which is actually typical, heavy on floral range bordering on fruit, with some unique spice input.  Some sort of novel root spice, I guess that would be, maybe not completely different than turmeric.  The feel isn't as challenging as in turmeric, and it comes across much differently as a balanced part of other flavor range, than turmeric itself.  Someone else might interpret this as resembling an incense spice, or it could also include that, and a half dozen unique flavors might balance against each other.  

In the Viet Sun website description one part is described as tasting like tobacco, and this aspect range I'm struggling to place might relate to that.  

A different interpretation could see this as resembling fruit.  The heavy mineral, sweetness, and overall complexity leave it open to lots of different interpretations.  Feel is rich, and somewhat full, but not at all challenging.  Both of these teas contribute good aftertaste experience, which can seem a bit much taken together.  Drinking two relatively intense, sweet, mineral intensive, complex teas together can be a bit overstimulating.  Either or these would be fine for a nice extended 45 minute session.

Both teas mentioned strong huigan or aftertaste expression in their descriptions (or at least the type-typical nature of Xin Ban Zhang is described in that way in other references cited).  It definitely applies for both of these.

Combined notes on the fifth infusion:  things got too busy to keep up detailed notetaking; my wife returned from Hawaii this morning, so there's a lot of running around and shouting.

Both transitioned to include an interesting new flavor note.  For the Sin Bahn Zhang it was a touch of mint, and for the Tua Chua menthol.  It's interesting how these are relatively completely different teas, but the aspects that they express parallel each other, just in quite different form.  They're both pretty good too.  This kind of hectic review form isn't good for trying to narrow that down, and combined tasting has been interesting, but it's a lot to take in, trying two teas that are this different.

Conclusions:

A few general comparisons might help place these teas, beyond the aspects descriptions.  They both seem to be of good quality, and I can't really use more description of that to place them.

The Xin Ban Zhang tea doesn't seem so close to Lao Bahn Zhang character, but not completely different.  Those--that I've tried, which shared a lot of character range--are marked by pronounced floral tones, which is almost fruity, within a certain bright and rich range, good sweetness, and pleasant bitterness, not really light or heavy, but in a good balancing form.  Lots of sheng expresses a light mineral base, but it's almost never in as primary an aspect form as for this Xin Bahn Zhang version, as a main thing that you taste.  This tea evolved positively, but not really for a long extended cycle, related to it starting to draw out a bit more vegetal bitterness not too long after these rounds, a green wood sort of flavor marking the end of the most pleasant range of the brewing cycle.

It's hard comparing the Viet Sun Tua Chua to the other Y Ty versions I've just tried.  It's a little older, a part I didn't remember from the order, a year and a half old per the label, versus being new.  Tones were definitely warmer, and it lacked that bright freshness of new maocha (which just means loose sheng, in this usage).  It was really complex, and flavor range was distinctive.  

It also might not have lasted as long as those other two versions, although I didn't brew these out completely, at time of writing these notes.  It was great for novelty; more natural growing conditions sheng tends to often express different flavor range, and this represented that.  I'm probably indirectly referring here to "wild" plants that have drifted some in genetic range, versus an input from having other plant types around, although who really knows about any of that.  The tea is however it is, and the rest is as much story line as reliable cause and effect.

So these were really nice, and especially unique.  These reviews sometimes seem to go in cycles, and I seem to claim that everything was just amazing for review after review, or else more ordinary, as a running pattern.  These were exceptional, but the other two Y Ty versions stood out even more, to me.  And the last Wawee Thai sheng I reviewed represented a personal favorite style, and a good version of one at that.

For teas this complex and unique I will probably experience them differently over multiple tastings, and these notes will only work well for a snapshot of a first impression.  For that reason rushing this particular tasting isn't for the best, because I was already trying to cover a lot of novel ground with them.  

Even though I'm saying that I probably liked the other Y Ty and Wawee teas more these are definitely worth trying, and represent two other very unique styles.  More flavorful and distinctive natural growth origin teas are a completely different kind of thing (the Tua Chua version), and this Xin Ban Zhang version was unlike pretty much anything else I've ever tried, related to mineral range being so intense.  It wasn't necessarily too strong, but it didn't play the normal supporting role in that taste experience.