Visiting Bangkok Chinatown tea storage; reviewing Thai black tea

Kittichai!  He and his wife are so nice!

I've visited my favorite Bangkok Chinatown tea shop, Jip Eu, twice in the past few weeks.  I mean that I've been to their storage location, since their main shop is closed for repairs to the building.  A part of the roof cover out front broke and fell down, and it has required a lot of design change and extensive re-work to fix that, so who knows when it will be complete.  

Part of posting is about mentioning the location link, here.  It's about a block from their normal shop, but it would be hard to find without that map location.

The first visit there was during the vegetarian festival, a couple of weeks ago now (I've been busy with other posts).  Keoni, my son, and I had went to Yaowarat the week before to see that, then the next weekend to that shop for a visit.  I visited the next time to meet with a long-time tea contact who was in town, but I didn't get around to asking for permission to mention him, so I won't, but his name would be familiar to many.  It's nice meeting people you only knew online before; it's very rare when that doesn't go well.

Touring that location was interesting.  A lot of what you see is just cardboard boxes, since the tea is kept within those, but it's interesting hearing Kittichai, the owner, describe what broad and deep rows of boxes were.  It's more tea volume than I expected, literal tons of it.  Some was long term storage of sheng and shou pu'er, but apparently they keep moving enough oolong and other teas that it makes sense for them to have an awful lot of it around at any given time.

they had used this in place of cardboard boxes in the past, a bamboo frame

Tulin sheng pu'er tuochas; they carry Xiaguan of different ages as well

I don't think I've ever tried Liu Bao there, but they have some

Between those two visits I ended up trying a good bit of interesting tea.  On the first visit I had asked about Thai teas, since they usually mostly sell Chinese teas of different types, and Kittichai shared some black tea he said that he doesn't sell.  I review that in a separate section of this post.  It's good; I think he doesn't like it because it's a bit tart, which is a flavor aspect that I also don't care for.  But it's such a good quality version that it still works, even with that included.

We tried a Xin Ban Zhang, from the newer village near the older one, Lao Ban Zhang, which I reviewed here.  It's been a week or two, so I don't remember much of the rest.  For most visitors maybe it wouldn't seem as good a place to visit as the shop, since there is much less space for hanging out and tasting, and they typically only taste teas they have some of open anyway, but for people who know what they want you can still visit there and buy teas.

those Xin Ban Zhang leaves (left), and a Viet Sun version, reviewed here

Review:

To be clear they don't sell this tea (a Thai version of black tea), or at least that's what Kittichai said.  It makes for an interesting consideration, what Thai black tea might be like, and why some versions might not be preferrable to some people.  Of course this doesn't represent other styles; I mentioned trying a favorite Wawee Tea origin black tea in a meetup this past week, and that's nothing like this.

First infusion:  it's good tea, but the character includes significant tartness.  For me that's not a favorite flavor inclusion for black tea.  That could be why the shop owner, Kittichai, doesn't like this tea enough to pursue selling it.  Or it could be something else.  But the general character is quite positive.

Berry or cherry is a main flavor component beyond that, or complex range, if it's really both.  Some cacao is there.  Feel is fine, nice and full, sweetness is good, and it extends to an aftertaste experience.  Tartness is more or less the make or break, as I see it; if you like that included then this tea is quite good, and if not maybe not so much.  Because so much of the rest is so positive I still like it.  I doubt the tartness will drop out, but the proportion of different flavors expressed can shift.

Second infusion:  tartness stays just as strong, but other intensity ramps way up.  One flavor is like roselle, a tart version of a tisane that's popular in Thai.  It's a little like cranberry, but it's a flower, not fruit.  Cacao is still included, but it also doesn't increase, so it drops back in what you notice.  The rest of the fruit is hard to separate out, but it does seem to include berry, maybe blackberry.  This tea is pretty good.  It seems a little unorthodox, maybe even heretical, but it might work to mix this with the kind of tea that includes lots of warmth and depth but not so much forward / brighter flavor like this.  This already tastes a bit like a flavored tea or tea and tisane blend.

Drifting further off topic in that direction, it would also work as one basis for a Christmas blend.  Those tend to be black teas with a bit of citrus, cherry, and cacao, or something along that line.  This covers half of all of that without adding anything.  I experimented with making Christmas blends much earlier on in tea exploration, but it's the kind of thing people tend to move away from.  

And living in the tropics de-emphasizes Christmas, from not experiencing cold weather, and not being somewhere that it's a more central theme.  Thais put up a tree here or there, and decorate malls, and that's about it, and in Hawaii people celebrate it on their own, instead of decorating public spaces and holding related events.  It's a part of mainland culture, to them, and the ties to local culture, Polynesian themes, and to Asia are stronger there.

Third infusion:  I brewed this round much faster, to see what changes, and flavor intensity is still good, but a bit thinner.  It might need a couple of more rounds to shift to a different character, since these infusions are pretty fast, since I used the more or less standard 8 grams or so for this.

Fourth infusion:  this is improving; depth keeps picking up, and tartness fades.  This is a pretty solid tea version.  I could see how it wouldn't match everyone's preference, but it's still good.  Aftertaste expression is strong, and feel includes decent fullness.  There isn't harsh astringency structure; that part is fine, just a moderate level that supports the rest.  This tea may be even better brewed Western style, using just 2 or 3 grams and letting it brew out for 5 minutes or so in 250 ml or more.  But it was a nice effect in later rounds that the tartness faded, and it would probably be strong in an infusion made that way.

Of course this tea would brew a lot more rounds; I tried it again yesterday and brewed about 10.  It's better in the last half of the rounds than the first, to me, because the tartness drops out.

Another tangent:

There's not much to add about that tea or that shop in conclusion; that already covered it.  But a strange thing has come up related to this blog's viewership stats:

They will hit 700,000 this month (this is from the 30th).  Of course that's mostly AI bots; in the history of this blog daily viewer stats were more like 10,000 per day, or less.  They were higher before Facebook changed their algorithm to show more ads and promoted content, however many years ago that was, but they were consistently 6000 to 8000 even without posting that much.

So what does that mean?  Apparently I'm training AI systems on tea background, and probably also on writing form.  In a way that still is communication with a broad audience, it's just indirect, and almost entirely uncredited.  

It is what it is; I set out to communicate about tea, and it was never about me getting credit, or profiting.  I've made next to nothing from tea blogging, or actually exactly nothing, since any limited income came from editing content for others, and such.  A few vendors have mentioned setting up an affiliate link marketing scheme, where I would get revenue for tea sold through links here, but I've declined to be a part of that.  It wouldn't add up anyway, and then I would be creating paid marketing content, which is no good, not really the idea for here.  

Vendors do send tea for review sometimes; that's much appreciated, and it represents real value.  Thanks much, if this applies to any given reader!

I always mention when that's the case, when a tea was provided free for review, and whether that was in the form of extra samples sent with an order, or a set of samples sent for review, or actual conventional size amounts sent for review.  I try to review teas in the same way here, I guess "objectively," as much as that makes sense, but it's for the best to be clear on context anyway.  

I also try to make it clear when I'm writing about a vendor I consider a personal contact.  The Jip Eu owners feel like family to me, and it's as well let people know that their experiences would be different than mine, because they wouldn't be based on that personal connection.  They won't give you 50 grams of free tea that they don't sell.  It's still a good place to shop, once you work around Bangkok Chinatown shops being a little inconsistent, in general.  Some teas are great, and a great value, and others that are not as favorable can come up.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusions:

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

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

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

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

the cat was fixated on a squirrel during the review tasting

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

rolled leaf form OB on the left

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

those two Y Ty origin versions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the other garden space

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

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