Thai Wawee Assamica black tea and Moychay Fengqing Dian Hong

 

I'm reviewing another black tea from Wawee Tea, a sample sent by them with an order of sheng and black tea, and a Moychay Dian Hong for comparison.  Reviewing two teas helps place each, through comparison and contrast, and doubles the pace that I get through teas I'm reviewing.  A large set of samples provided by Moychay helps with that first role (many thanks for that, even though it was a thanks for helping them with some editing).

The Thai tea is presented as "Assam."  It's normal for local producers to call Assamica plant type based black tea Assam, whether the style is close to that origin range type or not.  I think they kind of mean "Assamica" by that, but it doesn't matter what they mean, the teas are what they are.  

There isn't any description of that from them, since there isn't a conventional sales site to refer to.  They would have outlets on the local online shopping platforms, on Shopee and Lazada, but people in other countries couldn't use those, and people in Thailand would often already know of those if they like that style of tea.  I order from them by direct staff contact, kind of the old fashioned way, when I see posts about something that look interesting.  This is a related Facebook page; that's where I'd see such things, in others forwarding those.  I could look this up on Shopee, but I'm not going to.

I did look up another citation of a different tea bag version on that Facebook page though, here.  

Wild Assam Black Tea with Osmanthus Flowers

This is Wawee Tea's unique blend, currently served in major hotels in Bangkok.

🍂The main ingredient is Wild Assam Black Tea, produced from centuries-old wild Assam tea trees on Doi Wawee.

Guaranteed by a silver medal award in a black tea competition. International Black Tea Competition 2019, China

🌼 Blended with Osmanthus (Guihua) flowers Authentic variety from Dali, China. Grown 100% chemical-free on our own farm.

🍃 Packaged in tea bags made from corn fiber, microplastic-free.

Brewing Instructions:  Steep the tea bag in hot water for no more than 2 minutes.  For 250 ml.

20 Baht per piece

20 baht is about 60 cents, so that should be about 15 cents a gram.  The tea is pretty good; that's fair.  Again that's an osthmanthus flavored version, that looks to be made from the same black tea base, but I don't know that, and I don't know that the pricing is identical (although there's a good chance that it is).

Those brewing instructions would probably work, but it would be a real shame to throw away that tea bag after it had brewed for two minutes.  It could surely make a pleasant second infusion.

Of course Moychay lists what their tea is, and it would be sold on an online platform, here:

Black Tea DIAN HONG CHA, Chinese tea from Yunnan Province (Red Tea), 70g, 7g  (70 grams costs 7.34 Euro, or $8.35).

Dian Hong, or Yunnan Red Tea, originates from Fengqing County, Yunnan Province, a region renowned for its ideal tea-growing conditions. First developed in the late 19th century, Dian Hong transitioned from green tea production to meet the rising demand for black tea. Its unique flavor and consistent quality have earned it recognition both in China and internationally, even being gifted as a national tea to foreign dignitaries.

Cultivated at altitudes of 1800–2200 meters in Dasi Township, Fengqing County, this organic tea is hand-picked during the spring harvest (March 25 to May 5) using the traditional standard of one bud with three leaves. The tea is made from the Mengku Da Ye Zhong cultivar, and its production involves withering, rolling, fermentation, and multiple drying steps, ensuring a rich, full-bodied character.

Dian Hong brews into a deep red infusion with a complex aroma featuring honey, fruit, and floral notes. The taste is smooth and rich, with a satisfying balance of sweetness and a slight hint of bitterness. Its long-lasting aftertaste is sweet and lingering, offering a comforting experience over multiple infusions.

Let's start with that pricing; it works out to 12 cents a gram (or it would be $12 for 100 grams).  That's pretty favorable, on the low side of the range for this type.  Maybe that implies that the quality level is moderate, or maybe it's just a good deal; it just depends.  Skipping ahead maybe a bit of both, related to writing this after doing the tasting part.

atypical presentation, compared to what I'm accustomed to

Review:

Thai  Wawee Assamica:  it's pretty good.  Warm tones match what one expect from black tea of this range, the earthiness, also covering range like redwood scent.  A bit of berry also stands out, something like blackberry, but one could imagine it being interpreted as dark cherry.  Feel is full and structured, maybe more structured than full, without dryness, or being too harsh, so that part works well.  

This would be amazing as an English Breakfast Tea replacement; a much better version of that general type.  Or maybe one category over, and just better than that, but comparable in some ways.  For the leaf material being as chopped as it is astringency is still mild.  I brewed it for around 20 seconds in a 100 ml gaiwan (for 4 grams), plenty to get it started, and it's not really overbrewed, although it looks it, quite dark and red.  

This doesn't need milk or sugar, prepared like this, but you can put milk and sugar in black tea that doesn't need it, if you brew it strong, and it can still be nice.  I was in a rush yesterday and did that, brewing their Wawee tea cake extra strong, and adding milk and sugar so I could essentially gulp it down, in a very fast breakfast.

Moychay Fengqing Dian Hong:  this is brewed a little too strong.  It's 7 grams in a 100 ml gaiwan, so 20 seconds was a bit much, even though it takes 5 to 10 for teas to generally just get completely soaked.  It has more feel structure than the other tea; I didn't see that coming.  Being brewed too strong changes that; we'll see next round.  I thought that the other tea being chopped would make it brew fast, so the 4 and 7 gram proportions might balance, since this is whole leaf.

This includes a few flavors, a set that hasn't fully integrated yet.  One part is tartness, not a personal favorite in black tea range, but it can come up.  Another is fruit; that I do love.  It includes some of that conventional black tea range, I guess oriented towards malt, which I probably should've used as a description for the other one.  It seems to include a hint of black pepper; that's interesting.  Then there is also some roasted yam, or something along that line.  Maybe sweet potato instead?  Or both, combining.

It sounds quite complex, and it is, but the flavors don't combine and integrate well just yet, and there's a thinness in one part of the flavor or character profile I can't pin down.  It all might just relate to it getting started, not being there yet.  In retrying the other I'm not really noticing malt, but it seems I did miss cacao.  It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Wawee Assamica #2:  these are both all but flash brewed, using a very short infusion time, but both look kind of dark red.  This extracted faster, per the color and darkness, but we'll see.

It's actually pretty light.  It's unusual drinking this style of tea light, more of a conventional black tea, but it works, beyond not matching a brewing norm.  There's plenty of flavor, but the feel seems light.  The feel that is present works, including some richness and fullness.  Flavor includes cacao and whatever berry range that is.  This is almost a Christmas blend flavor profile, without any adjustment from other flavors.  Add some orange peel rind and cacao nibs to dial up the fruit and cocoa flavor and it's there.  Of course it's already fine as it is.

It can be hard to notice what is missing.  This doesn't taste like malt, and tea of this character would usually include much rougher astringency.  It's quite good, for the style and presentation.

Moychay Dian Hong:  this is slightly stronger, in a more conventional range, but then it is brewing 7 grams instead of 4.  I didn't adjust timing, beyond pouring the second gaiwan out first, when it had been filled second.  Tartness is dropping out already, it seems.  Even though it's really subtle that limited pepper note is cool, adding a nice effect.  Roasted yam or sweet potato is a main flavor now.  It's hard to settle on it being just one of those, even though they are different.  It's not as distinct a flavor as it could be.

Related to comparison to Dian Hong I'm familiar with this is fine, but something is missing.  It doesn't include a depth of feel, and a heavy mineral base input, to the extent those often do.  Often some versions will lack flavor intensity while they express that depth, which can seem a little strange, although that can be pleasant if you are accustomed to it.  

I experience that as a gap in what I expect.  You get a good hit of up front flavor, and it trails after some as aftertaste, but the feel just isn't there, and some flavor depth is missing.  I'm not saying that the other version includes all of that, but it covers a normal range better, so to a very limited extent it is.  But it's not a tea that could pass for a good version of Dian Hong either.  I'll push both a little more going back to a 15 to 20 second infusion, and see where they stand further along the cycle.

Thai Wawee Assamica #3:  this is holding up pretty well, for tea that I freed up from a tea bag.  The character isn't different enough to go back through it again; it's just a stronger version of what I experienced the last round.  The balance works, how it all comes together.

Moychay Dian Hong:  this is the best this has been.  Feel thickens, and mineral base picks up; that's more like it.  The black pepper note is stronger.  Or is that white pepper?  It might be.  A touch of berry like range adds to the roasted yam / sweet potato, giving it more flavor complexity, which works well with the richer feel.  

This still isn't a personal favorite style of Dian Hong example, for me, but it's much closer.  A bit of cacao and a little more sweetness would really tie the rest together better.  But it integrates the best it has, and it's fine like this.  Very limited tartness isn't as problematic (I just don't like tartness), but it's more shift in the wrong direction.

To be clear Dian Hong is my favorite black tea type.  It's very familiar.  Versions from South East Asia can be just as good, and can match typical Yunnan style very well, or they can also vary, a lot.  There are outliers in Yunnan versions and styles too.  This is sort of conventional, sort of not, in two different senses.  It lacks typical depth, mineral range isn't as pronounced as it usually would be, and the tartness isn't typical at all.  But the other flavor range is right, and the lack of harsh astringency, the tea being full but not rough or dry.  They generally don't taste malty, and this doesn't.

At this stage I like the other tea a little better.  The tartness alone might swing that balance, or it all just integrates a little better.  It's not nearly as good as the black tea cake I bought from them; for someone with my preferences it would be as well to skip this tea and just buy that.  But then this is a different thing, and for a tea to go, the tea bag form it came in, it would work well, much better than anything Twinings or similar producers make.

Both teas, infusion #4:  the Wawee tea thins a little, but then it has been a challenge brewing 4 grams of broken leaf well.  It's still good.  The Dian Hong is still the best it has been, picking up a little more depth and complexity.  

It's an overall good sign that it improves across rounds; better quality tea will do that, while lower quality versions express their best range early on, and then die.  Or maybe that also relates to material type; low elevation grown plantation tea should be more intense at first, then fade, and higher elevation or more natural grown tea tends to have more durability.  Sometimes older plant material teas can lack exceptional flavor intensity but express a lot of depth.

In the round after these, #5, the Thai Wawee tea was really dropping off, and the Dian Hong wasn't, kind of as one might expect, that whole-leaf tea would brew out slower.  But again it's also a good sign for the Dian Hong quality level.

Conclusions:

Both were pretty good.  Both had their own limitations.  For comparing to standard tea-bag tea, chopped material range versions, the Wawee tea was exceptional, but it's an odd starting point competing in that range.  It was better than that; it was fine as a conventional specialty tea.  But I suppose it could have been even better as a more whole leaf version.

The Moychay version I judged more negatively for coming into the tasting with a lot of expectations about Dian Hong style and character range.  It was good, but some early lack of some range (mineral taste, feel depth), and inclusion of tartness, seemed a lot more negative for me expecting it to be a certain way, to be different.  It's not necessarily that it compared negatively to the other version, but the other Wawee tea was better in a couple of ways.  And the Moychay tea was superior in other ways; it held up better to an infusion cycle, and came to express more complexity and depth than the other, in "later" rounds (this was a pretty short infusion sampling cycle).  

If I had to pick one that I liked more it would be the Thai tea, but they were both fairly equivalent, and that was about preference for specific flavor range, not quality.  Maybe the Moychay Dian Hong was a little higher in quality level, in spite of it also being limited in some ways.

I've been trying such exceptional teas lately that any that seem good but not great might come across as more limited to me now.  These were both good.  For anyone that actually likes a touch of tartness in black teas the Dian Hong review might seem wrong; too negative.  And without specific expectations about feel and mineral base flavor going in it could seem all the more positive.  

Dian Hong drinkers would know what I'm talking about, and anyone new to tea reading this might think it's all nonsense.  Trueness to type expectations aren't really a made up thing, but they do extend how people experience tea into an abstract range, moving beyond "how good; how pleasant?," into "does this match what I expect?"

The Moychay tea is a really good value, for as pleasant as this is.  It may not work well for spending an hour just focusing on it, for me, for it missing my main personal preference range by a couple of aspects, but this would still be a great breakfast tea.  For someone with different black tea preference it may seem much better than that.

Bangkok Chinatown Dan Cong, compared with Moychay Nanjing Yesheng Dan Cong

 

I'm reviewing a sample of tea given to me by a local Chinatown shop owner, from the K. Mui Kee Tea shop.  I stopped by my favorite shop near there, Jip Eu, to buy tea as a gift for a local monk, for an event, and they were closed due to building repairs on their shop (the roof awning was damaged; a part of it fell).  

that shop owner is so nice, but I'm always visiting Jip Eu instead, since I know them

The tea I bought looked and smelled great, a wild origin black tea, but I don't have any of that to try and review.  But they did give me a sample of Dan Cong, so I'm reviewing it along with a version from Moychay.  Moychay just sent a mix of lots of samplers, as a thanks for helping with some editing, so I'll use them for comparison versions, when it works out.

There won't be any final type description of this Chinatown tea.  Maybe they mentioned a type range, or maybe they didn't.  I think the owner said that it's not Mi Lan Xiang, but I don't remember if he mentioned what it is.  He said that it's from an old plant source, and that it's really high in quality.

The price I did get:  1800 baht for 100 grams, which is about $53.  It's a great deal for that price, but then that's kind of normal for a lot of Bangkok Chinatown shops.  It's sky-high in relation to a lot of other tea range sold in Chinatown, but you could buy versions that aren't nearly as good for 1 1/2 to 2 times that price.

Here are the Moychay listing details:

Nanjing Wild Dancong Oolong (Nanjing Yesheng Dancong Cha)  (it's about $38 for 50 grams)

Nanjing Wild Dancong Oolong is an exceptionally rare tea harvested from abandoned old tea gardens and wild tea trees in the high mountains of Nanjing County, Fujian Province. The tea originates from Dancong cultivars that were once cultivated but have since grown wild for several decades, blending naturally with undomesticated tea trees in remote forested terrain.

The tea is hand-harvested each spring in extremely limited quantities—no more than 50 kilograms per year. Locating and gaining access to these trees took years of searching, as the gardens are known only to a handful of locals and remain largely hidden deep in the mountains.

The leaves are picked as one bud with two or three mature leaves and processed using traditional methods: withering, oxidation, fixation, rolling, and drying. The dry leaves are large, twisted, and wild in appearance, with a deep forest fragrance.

When brewed, Nanjing Wild Dancong produces a golden liquor with an arresting aroma—earthy, woody, with hints of tropical flowers and resin. The flavor is intense yet clean, with deep minerality, vibrant energy, and a lasting sweet-bitter balance that reflects the strength of its wild roots. It holds up to long and multiple steepings, revealing its complex, layered personality over time.

That sounds good, but the character seemed in between conventional Dan Cong range and typical good Taiwanese oolong character, maybe closer to the latter.  That's still exceptional, but perhaps not what people seeking out novel Dan Cong experience are looking for.

It's crazy that I'm reviewing two Dan Cong versions without mentioning a type name / fragrance category.  There probably is one, related to the Bangkok Chinatown tea, but that description is a decent reason for why there isn't one for the second.

This might be the black tea I just bought, looking for more background on this Dan Cong.  If that is it that sold for 850 baht ($25) for 175 grams, or 14 cents a gram.  If it tasted as good as it smelled it's a steal at that pricing.  I should give some to another monk, and tell him I need to pinch some to try it for review.

You can get a limited sense of how this is going to go from the dry leaf appearance, which isn't how tastings usually work out.

Review:

K. Mui Kee Tea Wudong Songzhong:  this brews so much darker than the other that a main difference is surely going to be oxidation level, probably coupled with a difference in roast input.  You could see that in the dry leaves; the reddish color base is what oxidized versions would tend to look like, and the dark green with lighter green in the tips is normal for lighter oolong.

I'm not sure the type of this.  It's sort of floral, but at the same time fruity.  It's not exactly like Mi Lan Xiang, although it could be that, and it just happens to express a good bit of ripe peach as well.  [editing note:  I mean it could be that from my limited ability to match the taste; as I recall the shop owner said it's not Mi Lan Xiang, since he mentioned that he sells a lower quality, lower cost version of that, but this is something else].

This form seems perfect, the way that oxidation, and surely some roast, combine to integrate those rich, layered flavors.  The material had to be really favorable to make this, but they also got the processing just right.

Even brewed light, on the first round, it's intense, with a rich feel, and lots of flavor depth and complexity.  It carries over aftertaste effect.  I really should be able to pin down the primary flavor, but may never in this.

Moychay Nanjing Yesheng Dan Cong:  it's a completely different style, of course.  It comes across almost like other forms of oolong, like something out of Taiwan, for being this light.  Intensity is still pretty good, and creaminess is pleasant.  It's not the most type-typical for Dan Cong preparation, but it works.  

Feel is pleasant, and there's a richness and complexity to this too, and even depth.  Flavors are in a much lighter range, but overall intensity is good.  Again the lighter floral range reminds me of Taiwanese high mountain oolong.  A unique and good version of one, but it's still in that range.

People sometimes discuss brewing around a characteristic astringency in Dan Cong, and these aren't harsh at all.  There's fullness to both, but no edge.  I think that relates more to low elevation grown, lower quality versions.

KMK Songzhong #2:  this tastes more like almond this round; maybe it's that flavor type?  It still includes great warm mineral depth, and some degree of floral and fruit range.  It's complex.  There's a pleasant liqueur like character to it, like cognac, brandy, or perfume.  The intense flavor really coats your mouth, as the feel does.  This is clearly a very good quality tea.  I forget the selling price for it but it was quite high, which I suppose is justified, given how nice this is.

M Nanjing:  tones warm in this.  It includes even more mixed floral range, which I can't place.  This might relate to three different flower scents, but one part is most pronounced.  A little of a green wood sort of astringency picks up, but it's so faint that green wood isn't a natural interpretation of it.  Maybe it's closer to spruce pine buds, for anyone who has ever tasted that.  It's like the more vegetal part of sage, which works out to actually be a complex scent and flavor range.

It's difficult for this to compare or compete with the other, related to my own preference, given how much I like that warmer toned, more balanced Dan Cong style.  But within the lighter style this expresses it's good.  It's interesting that it includes creaminess; that's more a different oolong range entirely.

Switching back to the other the perfume-like scent range stands out, and a light form of completely different feel.  A spice like cinnamon might include warm flavors, and it might also affect the feel in your mouth, and this (other Chinatown Dan Cong) is like that.  Not taking a tablespoon of dry cinnamon, I don't mean, but the much milder effect from a good bit of cinnamon being put on toast, of course with butter and sugar.

KMK Songzhong #3:  a little lighter, related to forward flavors, but the depth is as strong as ever.  I'm brewing this quite fast, and could extend the time to over 10 seconds next time, instead of under that.  It's quite pleasant brewed light though, since the flavor is already intense, and the feel doesn't become thin.  Sweetness stands out well brewed light.  

This is so complex that it doesn't really match the more typical one note sort of main flavor effect of Dan Cong.  There probably is one, that I'm not catching, but it expresses a range of flavors.

M Nanjing:  even though I love the other style more this holds its own relatively well.  It's also complex and full, with pretty good aftertaste expression.  Related to my own preference the much lighter flavor tone isn't as nice, but that part could be subjective.  It includes a little vegetal range, which isn't really a flaw, but it's different than the other only hitting positive, integrated flavor notes.  This is still mostly floral in flavor range, with creaminess actually tasting a little like cream.  

KMK Songzhong #4:  it's stronger, brewed stronger, but the perfume like intensity was already good last time.  The feel becomes more structured, and warmer tones stand out more.  A spice-like aspect range is more present, not unlike cinnamon, but maybe broader than that, including more than one spice flavor.  Almond is still present, and it didn't completely drop warm floral and rich fruit range.  All of that is bundled within a narrow and integrated range, even though it's quite complex.  Or maybe it's that it all connects somehow, that it matches and links together.  It's an interesting effect.

M Nanjing:  this is still quite pleasant, not so different than the last round, just a little heavier for being brewed longer.  Again this is in between a conventional high mountain oolong style, and typical Dan Cong.  Maybe just backing off the oxidation level input leads to that effect, but I'd guess in this case the "wild origin" plant type is playing a role.  It's interesting that the wild origin plant seems to taste a lot like a Qing Xin variation, the older set of plant types used in Taiwan.  

later rounds:  I tried these over a number of additional rounds, of course.  Both stayed quite pleasant for awhile, not changing in particularly interesting or unexpected ways.  Feel grew stronger and dryer in the Chinatown version, while the Moychay tea stayed smooth and full until the end.  Both were made from exceptionally high quality tea material, just in two relatively opposite processing styles.

Conclusions:

Now I wonder how much that Chinatown version cost.  $1 a gram pricing is pretty much unheard of locally (the Moychay version was 76 cents a gram, not quite that), so it really could sell for a lot less and still seem expensive, per local norms.  I should ask that shop owner and add it here, after I finish this post, as a later edit.  

That tea probably is worth at least $1 a gram; good Dan Cong is in high demand, and that version is pretty far up the scale.  If it's something like $2 that's too much, no matter how good it is, or how old a plant source is, even if that's still a normal market rate.

I've been trying some pretty exceptional teas recently, which has me considering just what it means for a tea to be about as good as a style or type gets.  That last Fu zhuan was amazing, and the two green teas (from Viet Sun and Moychay) were really good.  Even the last Thai sheng and black tea from Wawee Tea were pretty much as good as anything I've had from Thailand, although I think in that case it related more to a match to my own preference than to an atypical quality issue.  Quality level was good, very favorable, but they also happened to be just what I like.

As a sheng pu'er drinker I can sometimes really miss that intensity and general character, when I try these other exceptional versions.  Maybe less so with the Fu zhuan; that depth, complexity, and refinement really transcended the normal type range, for those.  With Dan Cong complexity is often favorable, in spite of what I just said about them tending to taste like one flavor, as they are marketed, but depth and refinement really sets the type apart.  But I still miss the way that sheng hits; it's hard to acclimate to the lower intensity.

Related to the Moychay Dan Cong tasting like Taiwanese oolong, to me, I think some people would find that very off-putting, and for others it could be a main appeal, a draw.  It's in between the conventional style ranges, which is completely unique.  But it's not floral or fruity in the same way Dan Cong often is, including that perfume like aromatic context that can come up.  It traded out that strength for including rich feel, and creaminess, and a different overall balance.  I suppose many people might already know where they stand on lighter versus more oxidized Dan Cong preparation.

Both teas were exceptional, again.  That running theme made it hard to place those recent Chen Sheng Hao sheng pu'er versions, the inexpensive and good value types, which were pretty good, well balanced and enjoyable, but more ordinary.  I can really appreciate ordinary but good tea; to me it's good enough.

Oriental Leaf Jinyang Genshe 2010 Fu brick tea

 

This reviews an exceptional Fu zhuan (brick) hei cha version from Oriental Leaf.  This was sent by them for review (many thanks!).

I've reviewed a number of other versions from them, over last year.  A general theme was making Fu zhuan hei cha from different types of higher than usual tea material, for example from Yunnan Assamica usually used to make pu'er, or from already processed white tea.  

I've never really explored hei cha processing that much here, how it differs from producing other types, or how fermentation is induced through different processing steps.  I read, and mentioned, some background on Liu Bao awhile back, but it was a bit complicated to sort out by simplified summary.  This includes "golden flower" fungus growth, which is regarded as a positive input, but I also don't get into that much in this.

It works to mostly just describe the tea itself, the typical blog review theme.  Which often starts with citing the producer / vendor description and details, as here:

Jingyang Genshe 2010 Vintage Fu Brick Tea | Golden Flower Dark Tea  ($218 for a 468 gram brick, but it is also sold as a 30 gram sample for $17)

In 2010, in the ancient tea-trading hub of Jingyang, Shaanxi Province, master craftsman Jia Genshe 贾根社 pressed this brick using techniques his family has guarded for generations. The "Jingyang Fu Brick Tea making technique" was officially recognized and listed as National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. This designation reflects the extraordinary skill required to cultivate the Golden Flowers that define authentic Fu tea—a process that historically could only succeed under Jingyang's unique climate and water conditions.

What sets this brick apart is the preservation of an increasingly rare production step: the tea-oil infusion process (熬茶油, Áo Chá Yóu). After the Hunan Anhua black maocha (黑毛茶, Hēi Máo Chá) undergoes initial fermentation (渥堆, Wò Duī) and cutting, it is simmered to extract a thick, concentrated tea liquor. This potent essence is then poured back over the leaves before the flowering stage (发花, Fā Huā) begins. The result is a Fu brick with noticeably richer body and more complex flavor than standard production methods can achieve.

Hand compressed Fuzhuan is easier for the Golden Flower to grow than machine compressed. Since the hand-compressed tea is not as tight as the machine, there will be more space and moisture for the fungus to grow and propagate. Master Jia's entirely handmade approach—from pressing to flowering—ensures optimal conditions for the beneficial Eurotium cristatum to flourish throughout the brick.

So the description offers a good bit of build-up, with more description content in the listing.  And the selling cost of this is considerable, perhaps the highest Fu zhuan or hei cha pricing I've seen.  It would have to be one of the best hei cha versions I've ever tried to justify that.  And it is; this stands above anything else I've experienced within the entire hei cha range.  Surely this represents the high end of Fu zhuan potential, regardless of where it stands within that higher end range.

Mind you the difference between quite good Fu zhuan and a great version could seem narrow, to some.  Their "On Taoism" pressed cake examples were already pretty good, and for people assigning value (and limited cost) as a main selection input they could be good enough.  This tea is something else; it's for people really on that page.  Or buying a sample would provide the experience without the $200+ expense (for a brick version amounting to nearly half a kilogram; that's a lot of material to keep experiencing).

I've mentioned sharing that earlier tea experience, those other versions, with people in tastings (in posts here), and in general essentially everyone who has tried it has found it interesting, and liked it.  I think that relates to why Oriental Leaf is open to sharing tea of this amount and value (which sort of requires explanation, per one take on it).  It could seem like a way to "buy" blogger or reviewer support, to convert a positive reviewer into more of a proactive supporter or "shill" role, but I don't see it as working out like that.  

If I like a tea I communicate exactly the same thing, whether a vendor has sent a sample or else more tea than that.  If I dislike a tea I generally won't cover it, seeing that as an uninteresting story to tell, unless a tea is bad in an interesting way, for example a Lapsang Souchong version is way too smoky.  

I don't end up buying much bad tea, and vendors don't share it with me, so I typically review whatever is interesting enough to write about.  I bought some generic local black tea a year or so ago that wasn't; that kind of thing happens.

Review:

Infusion #1:  of course it's really something, novel, complex, and exceptional.  A rye bread like flavor stands out initially, with lots going on beyond that.  There's a sweetness that might be like honey, or maybe closer to caramel.  A spice tone matches well with the fresh baked bread flavor effect.  I suppose it's like one part of nutmeg, which works out to be a complex flavor.  Feel is full and rich, and it contributes some aftertaste experience already.  Mineral depth is warm and pronounced.

The tea is very clean and full, related to an overall impression.  There is no murkiness or heavy earthiness.  This may well be the best Fu zhuan version I've tried.  To an extent that has to be framed in relation to a personal preference, since that's the final yardstick, but you can also extend that to be an objective conclusion, it just functions in a limited sense as that.  

Editing note:  these notes were written before I read the description, heard anything about the tea, or knew the cost of it, per my standard approach.  I don't go back and edit tasting descriptions to sound more like the product description.

#2:  heavier flavors pick up.  Using a relatively high proportion, maybe 8 grams, relates to this brewing to be strong, even with limited infusion time (maybe 15 seconds this round; not that long, or that limited).  Brewed lighter sweeter, lighter flavors stand out more, and brewed heavier heavy flavors and warmer tones tend to be more of what you experience.  Astringency is stronger when a tea is brewed stronger, but this doesn't include a lot of that.  It has a full feel, and a lot of body, and that's it.

This has shifted from a fresh baked light rye flavor range to a darker bread range, on towards pumpernickel.  Spice tone is still present, but lighter, and sweetness plays a less pronounced role.  More earthy and mineral range depth stands out.  

You can taste a golden flowers input; that has a specific, characteristic flavor.  Some of what I'm missing, that I'm leaving out in notes, relates to that.  There's a touch of sourness to it, a yeasty sort of effect.  If you've tried to use brewer's yeast as a supplement, or something along that line, it's pretty close to that.  I think most people would like the flavor, and overall effect, but there's nothing necessarily universal about that; some also wouldn't.  People could apply interpretations like cardboard or cured hardwood; that could make sense.  To me it's still in a bread range, more so.

she helped out with the tasting

#3:  I brewed this faster, at less than 10 seconds, to see what that changes.

To some extent lighter tones do emerge, but it's also in the same general range.  There's a catchy flavor set, in the way these particular flavors combine.  A lighter, sweeter sort of caramel tone is more present in this round.  The spice that I identified as nutmeg is probably closer to an incense spice.  Eventually I'll try out burning some decent incense sticks, but until then I'll have trouble placing which ones.  Sandalwood, maybe?  

The feel is exceptional, that fullness, with a good bit of structure, but that's at the same time very approachable.  It doesn't contribute aftertaste in the same sense as sheng pu'er.  Flavor definitely trails afterwards, and feel does, but it's more that the whole experience stays with you.  It's also the feel across your entire mouth, and a residual flavor echo that's not the same as what you taste drinking it.  Mineral tone stands out more, like a rich, warm version of clay.  Some people might think "yuck, clay," but the range of scent tones that clay can express can be remarkable.  I played with clay a lot as a child; it was that kind of a strange, rural, old timey sort of experience of youth, for me.

From there I think other people might "get" other flavors.  One part might resemble pine cones, and another some type of curing hardwood bark.  It tastes a little like beeswax.  There's a lot of depth and complexity to both the flavor and feel experience ranges.

#4:  I'll go back to brewing this around 15 seconds; I think it will do well more fully extracted.

Spice tone stands out a bit more.  It's hard to say what spice; it's complex, so really more than one thing.  The main part is along the line of sandalwood.  I suppose this tastes like how you'd expect the "spice melange" in Dune to taste.  Let's check that:

In Dune, the Spice Melange is consistently described as smelling and tasting like bitter cinnamon. However, the experience is highly subjective; characters note that it never tastes exactly the same twice, taking on complex, life-like variations that can induce mild euphoria.

Because "melange" translates to "mixture" or "blend" in French, many culinary interpretations suggest it relies on cinnamon as a base while weaving in notes of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. The dynamic flavor profile is also frequently attributed to a "learned-flavor reaction," where your body recognizes the substance as life-enhancing and interprets the taste as intensely pleasurable.

(with the AI sampling that last part from here)

One part of this does taste like clove, but it's a very soft, rich part of the entire clove flavor range.  Maybe the spice depth isn't unlike ginger too, but again there is no strong, spicy edge.

Aftertaste is quite pronounced, probably a little stronger for brewing this stronger.  That sandalwood sort of effect really carries over.

# 5:  feel is changing, more than flavor tone, but it's also both.  It's still rich, full, and approachable, but a bit more edge enters in, a trace of dryness.  That aftertaste effect also sort of builds up on you, over lots of rounds.  You could always drink water between rounds, or some neutral food, like a rice cracker, to get it to dispel, but it's a pleasant effect.

This feel and flavor will continue to evolve; this tea is far from finished.  But I only have so much patience for taking notes, and I drank some of sheng versions left over from yesterday before starting this, with breakfast.  Breakfast was pretty exceptional today, but also kind of normal for me:  eggs with amaranth (Thai or Chinese spinach), lychee, left over pastry (egg tart and taro with latticed danish), and a small local donut.

In drinking the last of this round it again occurs to me how clean in effect this is.  For listing all of these relatively earthy or warm vegetal flavors you might expect it to be a little harsher, but it's clean and light in tone (compared to some flavors being a little heavy).  Feel is rich and full but not harsh.  Maybe related to aging input settling out rougher edges?

Conclusion

There isn't too much to add; I really liked the tea.  Flavor complexity, depth, intensity, feel, and refinement were all very positive.  Novelty was great; some other similar teas I've tried could include comparable individual aspects from this, but nothing else has come close related to pulling it all together.

I guess from there I can get back to value issues.  Fu zhuan tends to be inexpensive, and those earlier versions seemed like middle-range pricing to me, on a somewhat higher level than might be most typical ($38.50 for 190 gram cake, kind of in sheng pu'er range, relating to a $70-some 357 gram cake).  

But the most "ordinary" and low cost Fu zhuan tends to include a number of limitations, eg. moderate flavor intensity and complexity, a limited amount of off flavor range (earthiness, tasting like less positive forms of clay), rougher feel, etc.  I think that's a great place to start hei cha exploration, but eventually people might naturally want to try better versions.

Maybe citing an earlier experience will clarify this, from this post in 2017:  Yi Qing Yuan factory Hunan Fu brick tea with golden flowers

That tea sounds fine, and somewhat comparable, but from that description it doesn't sound like it's on the same level.  The tea was from Yunnan Sourcing, but they don't still list it (of course), and instead of that being from 2009 they seem to mostly only list 2018 and 19 versions now (so still a comparable age as that had been then, 8 years old).  Eight years probably does settle out quite a bit of the rougher edged range of a lot of hei cha, but 16 is probably better, for a more complete transition cycle.  

That review includes a bit on what golden flowers are (the fungus); I was doing more with looking up and including such background back then.

To be fair it's hard to place my 2017 perspective against my current exposure to hei cha, and a broad range of teas.  I was new to the range then, and I've tried a good bit since, but have focused more on pu'er.  This was written mostly to communicate the aspects as I experienced them, instead of placing the tea within a range of other Fu zhuan hei cha that's out there, but a little discussion of that seemed in order.

at a local Bangkok convention center (Queen Sirikit)