Mental approach and state related to long term water fasting

I'm on day 4 of a 5 day water fast now, four full days without eating, counting that I started on Sunday evening and it's Thursday evening now.  For some people that's not that long a duration; they can extend it into multiple weeks.  5 or 7 days is pretty common for significant length water fasts though.

I'll get into what I consider to be a water fast, but I'll start with the point here.  Fasting requires an interesting mental approach, and it's interesting how your mental state plays out over 5 days, or more or less time.  Maybe it's what one would expect; it would depend on what you would expect.

Back to the definition of water fasting; there are a few, but the way I'm using it I will drink tea or herb tea, or diet soda, but nothing with any calorie content.  Of course some people limit it to water; that is implied in the term I'm using for it.  Some people drink coffee, but I drink mine with milk and sugar, and don't want to try to switch over on a very empty stomach.  

I don't drink a lot of diet soda when fasting, but I might have one or two.  I drank one so far; that will be it.  A local Thai producer, Singh, makes a nice diet lemon or orange soda that's a pleasant break from tasting nothing but tea for days.  I usually only drink herb tea a couple of times, but not because I see it as a negative input.  Related to tea I've found that I can only drink shou pu'er, some hei cha, and aged white tea, because those are easy on your stomach.  Shou is best.  Not because I like that type, because it's definitely not a favorite, but it works best.

Not to go too far into the how-to scope here, or probably at all into why to fast, but for the most part the only other thing I ingest is sodium, potassium, and magnesium electrolytes, or salts.  I use the chloride compound version of all of those, because they are readily accessible and the cheapest.  I don't eat much for vitamins; I did just take a multi-vitamin, but hadn't up until then.  The magnesium I take as a tablet (gel coated capsule, I guess that was), and the other two I mix into water and drink.  What dosage to take is pretty complicated; I'll skip that here.  I will say that it takes forever to get a decent input range sorted out, and it probably varies by person, and by what that person is experiencing.

Mental state

Someone on Reddit mentioned that the added mental tension or stress from not eating is part of the reason you benefit from it, which I found very interesting.  Their idea was that if you feel a constant tension for several days, and could resolve it completely just by eating, but don't, then the rest of your life feels that much less tense or stressful, because you conditioned to experience temporary but sustained stress.  I can't say for sure if that works, but maybe, or probably.

I really wanted to pass on more subjective experience description here, not theory on how it plays out, to say what it's like.  It changes as you gain exposure to fasting, so the first three times it's very different than after a number of fasts.  

This might be about 12 for me; I'm not keeping track (maybe just over a dozen, thinking it through more, or it could be 15, since I fasted a lot that first year).  I try to fast for 5 days 4 times a year, but this year I've only done it once earlier this year, so far, about seven months ago.  I spent about six months with my kids, in Honolulu and then in Bangkok, the two places where we live, and I limit activities like that while I'm around them.  It's nice eating with them, and cooking for them, so I just skip the practice, until later.  I'm living with Keoni now but not my daughter; he just graduated high school, so he's back in Bangkok, not returning to Honolulu for now.

a full sized child, kitten, and tea; these are important parts of my life now

In the beginning it's very stressful, and you experience more severe hunger and energy level disruption.  You think about food a lot more, and it causes more stress.  After a half dozen fasts you don't think about food very often, but an emptiness persists, and some degree of stress.

That's already pretty much the short version.  Somehow it seemed deeper than that, more complicated.  The form of the stress is unique.  People into fasting claim that you experience an unusual mental clarity, and I agree with that.  I can get way more work done if I'm on days 3, 4, or 5 of a fast than normal.  But I'm a little edgy too, prone to being short with people, so it comes at a cost.

I guess in general the starting points seem more important, and valid.  Why fast?  If it's just to experience stress then there would be lots of ways to add that to your life.  There is a list of conventionally accepted benefits, but those are impossible to verify, both by personal experience and through research.  They center around autophagy, a body process that clears out damaged cell material to use as resources, which is triggered by exercise, but all the more so by fasting.  All of this is conventional understanding; it's not easy to verify.  Supposedly it reduces risk of cancer and diabetes, and who knows what else.

There's not much that personal experience completely supports.  I feel a little mentally clearer since taking up fasting.  I seem to experience more energy when I run.  That would relate to metabolic flexibility, another benefit, related to your body adapting to use fat energy better.  I'm in ketosis right now; fat or muscle tissue is all the energy there is to keep my metabolism going.  Reserve glycogen seems to run out on day three, but again that's just another guess.

One very odd positive result occurred, that I can't fully connect:  around when I started fasting the grey hair I had then mostly returned to being colored again.  It seems a stretch, doesn't it?  And could even relate to improving general health, making limited changes to diet and exercise, or getting a bit more sleep.  There's no way to track the cause and effect.

So I may be fasting for nothing; the supposed benefits may not be real.  For plenty of others it's easy to accept what random web sources contribute, but for me it's not.  There's research on autophagy, but not so much on fasting effects.  It would be all but impossible to separate cause and effect in studies too.

Taking up another tangent, people might wonder if there aren't clear signs that the stress on your body is negative.  Wouldn't someone get sick more often, while not eating?  Kind of.  I get a minor sore throat sometimes, and sometimes taking some vitamin C clears that up, and at least once I've quit a fast because that seems to be a sign to.  In general not though.  

You feel stress, and hunger, and get a bit grumpy.  Energy level can vary some, but not at all like the crazy shifts for the first two to three fasts.  It would be better to start gradually, to minimize all of that, but of course I didn't.  I tried to fast for 5 days the first time, and figured out that not supplementing electrolytes wouldn't work.  I experienced common side effects, like problems sleeping, muscle cramping, and even perceived irregular heartbeat.  

Of course I quit that first fast when all of that came up.  I think that's an important part of it; striking a balance between being really committed to the fast and also being ok with giving it up if you feel sick, or if stress level goes too high.  I've been busy at work before and stopped a fast early; you have to keep track of how much stress still makes sense.

Now I can sleep fairly well, not so different than normally.  That is a bit odd, that not eating for days doesn't affect my sleep, at all.

Of course it makes you wonder if you aren't as sharp mentally, and might make some sort of mistake, driving, in work duties, or whatever else.  I minimize work impact by fasting on Wednesdays, normally, so the end of the fast is on the weekend.  I just said that the first half is worse, earlier on, but the first day is fine, and really only the second relates to more hunger.  Day three energy level varies, which isn't ideal, but starting a fast on Saturday would cause that on a Monday, which also wouldn't be great.  This week I'm fasting Monday to Friday, because my son stays with me, so I want to eat when he does on the weekend.

Update after the fast; how it went

It's Friday evening now, when I was scheduled to end the fast.  I'll often pull the plug two hours early, related to the time I took the last bite five days ago, going from dinner to dinner over those days.  It often works out that I ended eating at 7:30 or 8 to start, and it makes no sense to wait until 8 to eat to really fulfill that 120 hours (5x24).  Plenty of people approach it that way though, which is fine.

Today I ate at lunch; it might have only been 112, so hardly over 4 1/2 days.  Work has been really intense this week, involving a lot of productivity, meetings, and need to think a lot, and I wanted to be a little sharper for Friday afternoon.  I already knew that within the first hour or two after eating your body is kind of focused on digestion, with blood sugar from that only becoming available as it gets processed, so you don't snap right back to normal.  But it sort of worked; I could do work that last half of the day without counting down to when I would eat.

This fast seemed a little harsher than usual.  Taking 7 months off seemed to leave me less acclimated.  Or so I'm guessing; the busy work-week probably didn't help.  I was in a car accident the day before I started the fast, which was minor, so not a concern, but the stress level from that didn't make for a great start, going into it less relaxed.

I walked a lot less than I usually do.  Often I'll see a fast as a great time to get lots of steps in, because any energy used comes out of fat, and I'm not mainly doing it to lose weight, but I could use to lose a few pounds.  I'm up close to 80 kg or 180 pounds now, maybe a bit under both, and at 1.7 m / 5' 7" that's not so heavy, but it's more than I weighed in my 40s and earlier 50s.  I run, and less body weight is better, less stress on everything.

I'm not running now, for the last two weeks, because my right foot isn't ok, experiencing what seems to be an early start on bone spurs.  I've been running on it for three months anyway, just cutting back, but for pretty much every running injury I get that pattern plays out, that I cut distance and intensity back, and then only heal when I take a break for a few weeks, or a month.  So I'm not walking that much now either, but some.

What lessons did I learn?  Even after dozens of days of fasting, maybe 60 to 80?, the experience can still vary.  It's great if you can experience very little stress, and some unproductive time.  Ordinary life is harder during fasting.  I think it helps a lot with my mental clarity the rest of the time, and general health, so it's probably still a positive trade off, across lots of dimensions of my life.

Bao Zhong and Dong Fang Mei Ren from Moychay

 

I'm reviewing a Bao Zhong and Dong Fang Mei Ren (Oriental Beauty) from Moychay, more from a set of samples.  I'll skip the background story part here, since I've covered that before, and get right to their site listing descriptions, and the review notes.

Baozhong Oolong Tea, (22 Euro for 80 grams, $25.55, or 32 cents per gram)

Baozhong Oolong Tea is a high-mountain oolong produced in Sanming, Fujian Province, at an average elevation of 1100 meters.Co-developed with Taiwan in 1998, this tea is harvested around the Dragon Boat Festival, a time considered challenging for tea production. What makes it unique is the natural bite from small green leafhoppers (Jacobiasca formosana), which triggers a biochemical transformation in the leaves, releasing aromatic terpenoids that give the tea its signature floral-honey profile.

Baozhong tea is "younger sister" of Oriental Beauty oolong tea, also made from the Jin Xuan cultivar and picked entirely by hand, using a one bud and two leaves standard. It undergoes a multi-step process: sun withering, shade withering, repeated tossing (浪青), semi-fermenting (60–80%), fixation, a second fermentation, rolling, loosening, and drying. This yields a visually distinctive tea with curled strips and a five-color mix of red, yellow, white, green, and brown.

The brewed liquor is golden amber, with a mellow, clean, and honeyed flavor. Layers of fruit, flower, and gentle vegetal notes unfold over multiple infusions. The tea is smooth in texture and long-lasting in taste, known for its clarity and richness.

I wasn't familiar with the tie-in between Bao Zhong and Oriental Beauty / Dong Fang Mei Ren; most of what I've tried is processed to be less oxidized, and not like that.  It's interesting reading this after the notes; they're mostly about how close this is to DFMR, and how it differs.

This works as a reference for what is more typical of what I've tried, two origin area themed versions from Tea Mania, another favorite vendor.  On to the second tea's site listing description:

Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea (Dongfang Meiren Wulong Cha), (36.24 Euro for 80 grams, $42, just over 50 cents a gram)

Oriental Beauty Tea is a traditional semi-oxidized oolong produced in Sanming City, Fujian Province, at an average altitude of 1100 meters. Co-developed with Taiwan in 1998, this tea is harvested around the Dragon Boat Festival, during a narrow seasonal window considered particularly challenging for tea production. Its distinctive character comes from the natural bite of small green leafhoppers (Jacobiasca formosana), which triggers a transformation in the fresh leaves, producing natural floral and honeyed aromas.

The tea is made from the Jin Xuan cultivar and picked by hand, following the standard of one bud with two leaves. Its production involves withering under sunlight and shade, repeated tossing (浪青), semi-fermenting (60–80%), fixation, a second fermentation phase, rolling, breaking, and slow drying. The final leaves are twisted, down-covered, and display a five-color appearance—red, yellow, white, green, and brown.

When brewed, Oriental Beauty Tea yields a bright golden liquor with a rich and mellow flavor. Its aroma carries layers of honey, fruit, flowers, and freshness, with a soft and sweet body that lingers on the palate. It is known for its smooth, clean profile and complex fragrance, often referred to as “beauty fragrance.”

I thought that OB was usually made from an older Qing Xin local cultivar (local in what sense I don't know; the plants surely came from China at some point, but Jin Xuan is the product of a much later breeding process, a hybrid).  Let's check on Wikipedia's opinion on that:

Dongfang meiren is produced from a variety of cultivars of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, that are grown without insecticides to encourage a common pest, the tea jassid (Jacobiasca formosana), to feed on the leaves, stems, and buds...

Because of the need for J. formosana feeding, the tea must be grown in warmer areas. In Taiwan, it is primarily grown in Hakka areas of the hilly northwestern part of the country at lower altitudes (300–800 m or 980–2,620 ft) between the mountains and the plains.[1] Beipu and Emei in Hsinchu County are noted centers of production...

The tea bushes are planted on the leeward side of hills in areas with sufficient humidity and sunshine.[1] The tea is only harvested in the middle of summer, only about 40–50% of the leaves can be used, and the harvest is susceptible to drought.[1] Therefore, the annual yield is low and the price is relatively high.

So according to what random people wrote there plant types vary; fair enough.  I must have written at least a dozen posts on other OB versions here, but I'm not going back through any of that, or developing this issue further here.  The tea experience is the thing, so on to the review notes.

Review:

Baozhong:  that tastes like Dong Fang Mei Ren alright (with all of this comparison between types written before I read those descriptions, and their take on the connection).  

The dry leaf definitely looks like it, instead of being a lighter oolong, as is common.  I can't say how atypical a more oxidized version actually is, since I'm not that familiar with the type, but if it works well then it works.

It has those nice sweet cinnamon and fruit notes common in DFMR / Oriental Beauty.  There's a bit of citrus, but the depth and complexity imply I'll be able to list out more flavors once it gets going more.  I brewed this for over 30 seconds, to get it started, but the leaves are only completely wetted now.  Feel is pretty good, and aftertaste expression is pleasant, especially that cinnamon note carrying over.  This is quite good.  Not the style I expected, but one I like even better than that.

DFMR:  in the same range as the first, including warm tones, some cinnamon, great depth, and plenty of complexity.  There's a brandy or cognac like flavor quality to this that's better than the other, but the first expresses better aftertaste at this stage.  There's a lot going on in this, but I think it might be easier to unpack next round.  Sweetness level is great, warmth works well with the rest, and deep mineral tones ground it well.  It's also a pretty good tea.

I was just thinking going in that if these are just ordinary range that's fine, and I should emphasize how not every tea needs to be an amazing version of a type.  It's nice when that comes up, but for a basic type like a blended Da Hong Pao you aren't really looking for that.  I just tried a Da Hong Pao from Moychay that I won't write about, that was fine, but not amazing, just decent.  And a Bai Rui Xiang wuyi yancha (rock oolong, Wuyishan area Fujian oolong) that wasn't that good, that fell well below the norm (don't buy that from them).  

I only write about teas I like, in general, from any vendor, unless the flaw or limitation tells a story, something like a Lapsang Souchong that is finally too smoky.  For these Moychay teas some were more exceptional than others, but that pair was the only ones so far that I've not posted the notes as a review for.  They're solid in general.  But these seem great, so far, so it's the other kind of case, where they really do seem to define the high end of a range.

Baozhong #2:  it hasn't really evolved.  Flavors were quite positive the last round, so that's not so bad, but it seemed like these might push on to being even more distinct and intense.  I'm kind of judging this as a Dong Fang Mei Ren, since it resembles that style, and in a sense that's not fair.  Related to what I had expected of type-typical Baozhong style this shouldn't be this fruity, or taste this much like cinnamon, and shouldn't be this oxidized to begin with, (which could be an error on my part; the normal range could be different from or broader than I thought).    

It's pretty good.  Cinnamon is pleasant, the hint of citrus works, and it seems to include general spice and fruit tones beyond that.  As a best-case DFMR the flavors could pop a little more, but it would still stand up as a pretty decent version of one of those.  Feel and aftertaste could be slightly more pronounced but they're in a very positive range.  Mineral depth is good, and overall complexity.

DFMR:  cinnamon really develops in this; it grounds the rest in that warm, almost earthy range.  Fruit is pronounced, but again not as distinct as it could be, so there's some citrus, and other dried fruit, but it would require imagination to pull that apart as a flavor list.  Some vendors would be happy to add another half dozen aspect descriptions, and for as complex as this is it would be justified.  But it all kind of mixes together, so it's not that apparent.  

Some of the fruit range reminds me of banana bread, or cooked banana.  The citrus is mostly just orange.  Mineral depth adds a lot.  This is so oxidized that the warmth and feel is essentially the same as for mild black tea, which is fine, to me that works.  The other tea doesn't include that astringency structure, and touch of dryness; it's more like a well-oxidized oolong (which makes sense; it is that).  

Yesterday I tried those other two Moychay oolongs, the Da Hong Pao and Bai Rui Xiang, and the plants around me shared more than I had, but I'm reluctant to give them any of this.  Maybe once it brews out more I'll share more.

These kinds of teas work well brewed lightly, so that you can really pull apart the flavor range, and savor the experience, but it might be nice to try them a little stronger, to see what that changes.  I'm still not going to brew them over 20 seconds, to avoid wasting the tea, but at around that timing they'll be quite strong, at this proportion (7 grams in a 100 ml gaiwan).

Bao Zhong #3:  not changing much.  Interpreted as an ordinary, more oxidized oolong this is really favorable.  Feel is fine (better than that, really; it's rich and full), flavor complexity is pretty good, taste range is positive, and it balances.  Trying to get it to match a Dong Fang Mei Ren standard type and outcome doesn't work as well, but it's not that.  As an OB / DFMR it doesn't pop quite enough, with specific flavor intensity a bit muted, but it is expressing cinnamon and fruit.  It's still quite good.

DFMR:  this is quite good too, just in a different character range.  The maxed out oxidation level would be familiar to people who drink a lot of DFMR, or have tried a good number, a half dozen decent examples.  It can be like that, and other versions are close enough to it.  Feel structure softens, and it feels fuller; it's interesting that it would transition like that so fast.  The most intense fruit has faded already, and warm tones and depth stand out.  Cinnamon is still really pronounced, the main thing that stands out.  

For someone most excited about fruit range these both might already be declining.  That's a little fast, but brighter tones extracting first isn't so unusual.  I'll probably write notes for only one more round.

Bao Zhong #4:  again pretty solid, but some of the lighter and more interesting flavor has faded, the more intense cinnamon and citrus.  This is still good; the flavor range and depth is nice.  More vague floral range picks up, and a more subdued fruit tone supports that, something like dried longan (a personal favorite; that fruit note is limited, but what is there is nice).  

DFMR:  pretty much the same as the last round, so there's not more to tell.  It's still quite positive.  It might be interpreted as holding up to more infusions more positively than the other, which is a good sign for quality level.  Or on a different read they just transition differently, not better and worse.

Conclusions

Really solid tea versions!  It will be interesting seeing the vendor descriptions.  I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't completely match some of that, especially related to the Bao Zhong, since interpretations can vary, and I doubt that they emphasize a match to DFMR style [I was wrong; they did].  

It will also be interesting to see pricing.  These were good, and unusual, so it wouldn't be so easy to place a market value on them.  DFMR tends to be pricey, for above average versions, and this wasn't unusual and particularly exceptional, but it is pretty good.  [later edit]:  the second, the DFMR, was priced higher than the other, and that seems fair, related to the type difference, and a possible quality level difference.  30 and 50 cents per gram for these seems fine; that's good value, for oolongs of this quality level.

Hua Xiang and Da Shu hong cha / floral and big tree black teas

 

I'm reviewing two more teas from a set of samples from Moychay, this time promising looking black teas.

These were shared by Moychay for review, as thanks for limited help with editing.  I've tried plenty of Moychay teas in the past, and find them to be sort of comparable to Yunnan Sourcing, as a market style vendor carrying a lot of different types.  An order of magnitude less range than Yunnan Sourcing though; maybe a little closer to a conventional, broad type sourcing vendor.

Back when the world was different, I think in 2017, my family and I visited Russia, and I went to two different Moychay shops there.  Beyond trying "regional" Georgian teas the quality of some of those really changed my view on some scope.

Their take on these teas follows, as usual added here after writing review notes:

Hua Xiang Hong Cha Black Tea (45 grams for 22 Euro, or $25.50; 57 cents a gram)

Floral Black Tea This wonderful "hong wulong" (red oolong tea) is made from the high-aroma cultivars Jin Guanyin, Jin Mudan, Huang Guanyin, and Zi Meigui, grown in sustainable agriculture certified tea gardens in the southern foothills of the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province. At an altitude of 550 meters, these gardens provide the ideal environment for producing premium black tea with a distinct floral profile. 

The tea is hand-picked in the spring season (March–April), selecting one bud with two or three leaves. The production process includes withering, oxidizing, rolling, fermentation, drying, and refining. This meticulous craftsmanship results in tightly rolled leaves with a vibrant appearance and a rich aroma. 

When brewed, Floral Oolong Black Tea produces a bright, clear infusion with a sweet, mellow, and full-bodied flavor. The enzymatic oxidation during production reduces tea polyphenols by over 90%, resulting in a tea with red liquor, red leaves, and a smooth, sweet aftertaste. It is highly durable, yielding consistent flavor over eight or more infusions.

It's interesting that this is described as being made from four different plant input types.  The flavor is quite complex, which could tie back to that varying input, but the character seems pretty limited in range and consistent, as narrower input versions tend to be.  It doesn't taste like some sort of blend.  One part of this tasting relates to mixing the last of these two for one round, going into how blends differ from narrower input versions.

I don't do much with the theme of a "red oolong" here.  Those are essentially a variation of black teas, oxidized to the same level, just drawing on different processing inputs to get there, resulting in a slightly different form.  I reviewed a Thai "red oolong" version recently here, with a second black tea for comparison.  There are some parallels with these two versions, but a comparison with them wasn't informative enough to go into here, and I didn't identify this as oolong related until after taking the notes, and adding this description.  

That tea was a little closer to what I expect of this type, very mild, but intense in flavor, typically centered on flavors like cherry, berry, cacao, and cinnamon.  This version started out quite floral and moved more into fruit range later on.

Black Tea DA SHU HONG CHA (Big Tree), Chinese tea from Jingmai Mountain, Yunnan Province (Red Tea), 60g  (8.26 Euro, $9.58, 16 cents a gram)

Da Shu Black Tea is produced from the ancient tea trees of Jingmai Mountain, located in Lancang County, Pu’er City, Yunnan Province. Jingmai Mountain, recently recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, is home to over 28,000 acres of ancient tea gardens. These gardens, where tea trees grow alongside native vegetation, provide a unique environment that contributes to the tea’s exceptional quality.

The tea is hand-picked between March 20 and May 30 each year, selecting one bud with three leaves from Yunnan Da Ye Zhong tea trees. Grown at an altitude of 1200 meters, the tea benefits from the region’s rich biodiversity and favorable climate. The production process involves traditional methods, including withering, fermentation, and sun-drying, which preserve the tea’s natural sweetness and aroma.

Da Shu Black Tea brews into a bright, amber-colored infusion. Its flavor is marked by an immediate and lasting sweetness, complemented by a distinctive orchid aroma and a pronounced mountain freshness. The tea’s smooth texture and long-lasting aftertaste make it ideal for multiple infusions.

The difference in cost is striking; the first is around four times the per gram cost of the second.  It seems like better quality tea, in a more distinctive, rare, and in-demand style, but I really like the character of the second tea type, so it's much more even than that for my own preference.  

There's an early round flavor inclusion in the second that's more or less a flaw, but beyond that it's quite solid.  The first includes a bit of tartness, a least favorite flavor aspect in teas for me.  Or taste; that could be coming from tongue based sensation, with some people using flavor to describe aroma based sensations, which really overlap experientially as we process the experience.  Common use of these terms is typically vague; you can call all of it flavor or taste, as you like, or break it down otherwise.

Review:

Hua Xiang Hong Cha:  a little light because it's just getting started, but this is exceptional.  It is sweet and floral, with good mineral complexity.  A bit of spice joins the floral range, which is rich and complex enough that it probably relates to more than one flower, maybe orchid on the lighter level and something richer like lavender beyond that.  The flavor is so complex that this will probably evolve to include other range as it transitions across rounds.

It's a style that anyone could appreciate, very complex, balanced, and refined.  All the same it's a higher end, forward flavor range style of black tea, along the line of how a recent Mi Lan Xiang version came across, a black tea made from a plant type usually used for Dan Cong oolong.  And I really love the other flavor range (cacao and roasted sweet potato or yam), depth, and warmth of Yunnan style black tea, even when you give up some flavor complexity and refinement to experience that.  

This isn't tart; I'm not saying that, although there is a trace of that as an input.  It does include a hint of cacao, so that's not a gap.  I'm just saying that I have a favorite black tea style, even if it's often more basic than this, so it could come across as lower in quality level.

Da Shu Hong Cha:  that was a decent lead-in for saying that this version is exactly like that, but it's not, even though it overlaps a lot with what I was discussing.  It does include more warmth and depth, so it's mostly that the flavor range isn't exactly what I was thinking of.

It's important to be able to appreciate what a tea offers, instead of comparing it to some abstract type or quality norm, and seeing gaps instead of what is there that's positive.  At least in terms of what I've written that's what I'm doing here.  These teas are really good though; they're much better than I need tea to be to like them.  So I'll need to be careful to describe the experience as I really interpret it, as gratefully appreciating what is positive, which is essentially all of this experience.

This tea does include a flavor aspect that's unusual, sort of woody, or perhaps along the line of spice.  It's taking a little longer to fully open up than the other, but there is also plenty of positive range.  It's probably as well to do a more complete list style description next round though.

Hua Xiang #2:  even better.  That hint of tartness is fading already, and flavor range picks up.  This will probably be better yet next round, really hitting its stride.  There's a lot going on in this.  It tastes like floral range, still in a complex form, as more than one flower type.  You don't notice cacao for that blending in with the rest, but it seems to be there.  Warm mineral grounds the experience.  There's not a lot of spice range, but there is more warm tone adding to complexity.  Interpreting one part as dried dark cherry works.

Feel is pleasant, sweetness level is good, intensity is good, and refinement is fine.  I suppose someone who is picky enough could find that the balance doesn't work for them related to tartness being a component, and for feel being a little dry along the back and edges of your mouth.  But to me that's splitting hairs, extending personal preference for style into not being able to appreciate a really good tea version.

Da Shu:  it's interesting how this expresses so much warmth and depth.  You don't really notice the other tea lacking those things, but the contrast makes them stand out.  I can relate to this tea better, as I've described personal preference here already.  There is a funky sort of note in this, which I think it could be reasonable to regard as a flaw, although I really see it as a distinctive flavor input that one may or may not like.  It's a balsa wood sort of flavor, not so far off cardboard, but not that.  It's as pronounced as the cacao and other range, making it hard to identify the rest.  I suppose it also includes flavor like roasted butternut squash, or it could be sweet potato.

The first tea sounds better, from my reading of the lists I'm writing out, but I can still relate better to the second.  Personal preference is a funny thing.  In a couple of different senses the first tea is better.

Hua Xiang #3:  not so different than last round, but it is evolving slightly.  The balance of what was there before shifts a little, in ways that would be hard to describe.  Tartness isn't pronounced, but it is still present.  To me a fruit note resembles dark cherry most, but it would be natural to interpret it as cranberry if one combined those flavor identifications together.  Floral range still stands out quite a bit.  The rest is subtle, but it passes on an impression of complexity, the cacao and mineral.

A hint of mint might be picking up.  That should sound familiar to many, from a Red Jade / Ruby Taiwanese black tea type, that includes a good bit of that.  If this didn't include tartness, and had a bit more depth, it would be one of my all time favorite black tea experiences.  As it is it's pleasant.

Da Shu:  the best this has been.  That unusual balsa wood note more or less dropped out, or faded to be hard to notice.  It picks up a creaminess, which works well with the rest of the character.  Cacao really stands out.  A fruit note could be more distinct; it's somewhere between dried longan and dried berry or dark cherry.  The difference between these, them covering completely separate ranges, and flavors (although those do overlap), makes me wonder how they would be combined.  I'll mix the last of this round to see.

It's better than both in a sense, but it gives up a lot in terms of the aspects being distinct.  That's the general trade-off between well balanced blends and more individual types, that can have strengths and weaknesses, a gap in some character, but that can be appreciated differently.  The feel, flavor profile, and overall effect balance really well, but the flavors come across as more muddled, less distinct.  

Somehow the aftertaste range ends up being very pleasant; what trails after really works.  The cacao and fruit inputs of both combine there.  Feel is probably better than either tea individually.  I was curious about that but it's not for me to routinely be mixing teas.  It prevents them from expressing their individual characters.

Hua Xiang #4:  I've been brewing these relatively quickly, at 15 seconds or so, and I'll give them more like 25 to see what that changes.  When I write in these posts that I don't measure proportions but have a pretty good idea of how much is there that relates to this kind of experience.  These are 7 gram samples, and I often use just a little more, even though these fill a 100 ml gaiwan fairly well.  7 grams is perfect, to me.

This again only changes a little, but the change is positive.  This much cacao, fruit, and creaminess cover part of the range of a chocolate covered cherry.  There's still plenty of floral range, but to me it has shifted more on to fruit.  The other version had been even creamier, with a good bit of cacao as well.  Of course someone else might not interpret it as that at all; that could seem like a spice input to someone else, or just a part of the fruit or floral range.  Or like a mild malt, or whatever else.  If you think of Ovaltine / Milo / malted milk ball while drinking these--probably both--the comparison would seem to work.

There is still a faint hint of tartness, but feel switches to an impact in the front half of your mouth instead.  That doesn't mean anything in particular to me.

Da Shu:  creamier, deeper, with more cacao, and richer overall feel and flavor.  But it lacks the up front / higher end punch of the other version.  Aftertaste is even more pleasant.  Cacao and a richer dried fruit note carry over, even though flavors are less intense while you drink it (than the other; still pretty intense in general).  

That warm mineral fullness and depth is a personal favorite part of black tea experience, for me.

These teas aren't finished, but that's enough to get the main story across, and at most they might transition some for a couple of more rounds.

Conclusions:

Both were good, both representing two very different styles.  You could tell that the first was higher in quality in some conventional ways, more intense, distinctive, and complex.  The second is essentially a Dian Hong version, meaning a Yunnan origin black tea; it's definitely from there.  Some style limitation within that implied, which seems to apply; the character falls within that expected type range.

Given I liked the second as much it seems a better value (it costs a fourth the per-unit price of the first).  But for people who prefer that style of the first tea the difference would stand out more.  It's definitely a lot harder to find teas like that.  Dian Hong is around, sometimes with a minor gap in flavor range, as this shows in the first couple of rounds, but it commonly has that pleasant flavor profile and great depth.

To me this second style of tea (the Da Shu) is great for owning a good bit of, to use as a daily drinker, a fall-back tea to have with breakfast over and over.  They had sold 150 grams of it as a third option, beyond 60 and a 7 gram sample, but no longer list that.  I've bought a kilogram of somewhat related style teas a few times; from the right kind of source that can be a really good value.  

Some might think that they could blend that with other types, or add some sort of tisane flavoring, but I wouldn't.  I might alternate between brewing it Gongfu and Western style, and that's about it.  Or it works well to brew in a tea bottle, "grandpa style," an especially favorable approach for drinking during travel.

The first tea, the Hua Xiang, is too pleasant and intense for that; I wouldn't even brew that Western style.