Pre-travel blogging: off to Russia soon

the Kremlin!  (photo credit)

It seems odd writing about travel before traveling.  I've done it before, related to an online search for sources of tea (planning to visit both Korea and Japan), as much about ways one might approach that as to the references.  Since that's been 2 1/2 years I forgot how similar this current draft is to that post; it's a bit redundant, really.

aurora forecast (credit this space weather site)

The background:  we'll visit Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Murmansk, starting next week.  Of course I don't plan to even consider tea shopping up at the edge of the Arctic circle.



As an online friend mentioned it would be helpful to have shops you want to visit "starred" in Maps before the trip, but how to go about finding those places?  Google search "tea," obviously, but beyond that there are interesting and indirect ways to look for leads.  Ill go through some options in this post. 



First I'll point out the obvious:  I'm not going to Russia mostly to check out tea.  It was my wife's idea to go there to see the aurora borealis (northern lights) and she thinks that Russian culture would be interesting.  I think so too; both should be amazing.  Ever since that unfortunate Cold War it has seemed like an interesting place.  I won't do much with a tea theme there but that didn't stop me from looking into the subject over the last few weeks. 

Google / Google Maps

Since the idea was to talk to people, and beating the bushes was part of the intent, the early round of looking into tea shops leads didn't include this.  Of course it works, and standard Google-search alternatives like the Moychay shops get mentioned that way too.  It's just not as easy to click around and tell what individual shops and products are like as it is to hear that from someone.  At best a link-listing of "best tea shops" might turn up and then you could almost stop there (just add those to Maps as stars, since things can get a bit hectic "on the ground" during vacations).

Language can be a problem, in some countries, and English search won't work very well, or Maps labeling based in English.  I'm not sure how that plays out in Russia; they don't speak a lot of English, per my understanding, but one would expect them to expect English-speaking tourists.

a shop and some starred search in Moscow

the "tea" search results from Maps in St. Petersburg; a decent start

Tea group contacts

I asked around in a FB group I'm an admin for, International Tea Talk.  This wouldn't be a natural second level to try for everyone, but since I'm into tea groups it was.  Really just asking in a couple isn't enough; using search functions makes sense to catch if someone asked the same thing in the past.  That could run a little long, to do in very many places, but then someone could also spend a day paging around leads from Google search if they really wanted to.  A chance contact turned up the Tea Magic Shop vendor, and Sergey (the owner) seems nice.  If someone on your FB friends list is a Russian who is into tea that could shorten the process, and one of two Russian tea vendors I know was really helpful.

Related to getting help online, I go back and forth over how much to credit or mention people who pass on input in these blog posts.  Since checking on their preference is problematic I usually only reference online (public) statements, or ask permission when an idea or discussion quote is very useful.

that coldest temperature is only -5 F; no problem

Trip Advisor, Expat forums

Trip Advisor is great for looking up hotels or lists of attractions, but there's a travel themed forum that can also be very helpful.  Forum participants might blame you for not using a search function if the same question tends to come up often, or for not looking at the FAQ section, but you can still just type it out anyway.  In online groups and that site I just tune out questions like "what should I see in Bangkok?," unless I feel like adding something.  The short version about Bangkok:  temples are cool here, and Thai food can be nice.

Asking in the Trip Advisor forum worked; people with varying interests in tea made good suggestions.  I tried in an Expat forum and it didn't work, really.  If wasting time at it is of interest someone could look up and ask in a dozen different FB groups and various expat forums, and eventually the right person might see a post.  Of course checking again and again on all that would be tedious, and who knows which of those would or wouldn't use alerts to help support that.

One thing became clear in that discussion, even based on only limited input:  Russians don't drink all that much Russian tea.  Most of the people I talked to weren't clear that it even exists.  I like to check out shops and preferences in local places we visit but I've been a bit spoiled for going to main producer countries (China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia).  Not only is tea widely available in those places--not so much in Indonesia, better versions, but in the rest--it's also possible to try as local products.  If I find good Wuyi Yancha or pu'er in Russian shops that will be interesting, but I already know where to get those teas.  Still, some of the input was interesting, as this comment was, following mentioning the standard chain shops there:


...in St.Petersburg tea (and coffee) chains:

- Море чая http://morecha.ru
- Унция http://www.chay.info/eng
- Кантата http://www.cantata.ru


They all have stores in the "tourist downtown" area so you'll probably stumble across one or another. But like you've guessed and most posts here said you'll find either commercial teas or from China/Japan/etc. In Soviet times we used to have at least two famous brands of Russian tea: Три слона (Three elefants) and Бодрость (cheerfulness) but they are gone long time.


Tea shop leads, local culture background, and history in one detailed comment; very nice!

Blogs

One likely problem for this scope is that a tea blogger in Russia would write in Russian.  Automatic translation works but the results can be choppy and unclear.  My favorite US tea blog, Steep Stories, focuses on looking into teas from out of the way places, and he's reviewed a number of them from Russia.  The next problem:  that's going to work well for ordering a tea produced in Russia (and I found a great online lead using that approach), but not so well for shops where someone might go.

I turned up nothing for tea blogs based out of Russia anyway, although this US based version post did discuss what a Samovar is:

Using Google Translate to convert "tea blog" into Russian and searching based on that probably would have been more productive, but then I would definitely need to read any of those identified through automatic translation.

Instagram

Finding pictures of tea shops is actually a really promising approach.  People look for public exposure there, and use different tags, but this kind of approach also really takes some doing.  At some point it has to be about how pleasant the messing around is instead of how productive.

Conclusions

I didn't get far with all that.  There are a half-dozen tea shops starred in Maps in Moscow and that one citation covered what turned up related to St. Petersburg.  Time spent digging through groups didn't get far; I might have added a few shops to a starred list beyond Google search results.

It's funny how there's usually one shop you really should check out, based on a close match with your own interests, and it's a bit unproductive to find out about it after you finish the trip.  I found some great shop options in NYC on a visit through online search, but later group discussion turned up one that was probably better, not so far from our hotel, that I didn't know of to visit.

Since this trip is more about seeing the Kremlin and aurora borealis than tea I won't mind so much if I barely get started on the subject there.  It just wouldn't make for much of a follow-up blog post talking about "not finding any tea in Russia."

White chocolate masala chai Christmas blend

Originally posted as:  http://www.tching.com/2017/12/christmas-tea-blend-2017/


I've been meaning to get back to making a masala chai and a Christmas tea blend, so to clear through both I combined the themes.  This also contains a touch of bitter orange marmalade to fill in the spice range with a little fruit but the title seemed wordy adding it.

I've done Christmas tea blends before, and talked through what that's all about quite a bit.  Two years ago I did a fruit and spice blend, and last year's version went a bit further from the basics (black tea, orange citrus, and cinnamon) to include vanilla, cacao nibs, and black cherry jam, so based on chocolate covered cherries.  It was nice, just a bit removed from a typical dry tea and spice blend.

This year I didn't put the advance thought in and prep was mostly limited to what I had around.  That actually came up as both a positive and negative factor in the outcome.

Christmas nativity play; there to see that cow in the lower right

my cheerful Christmas cow

Ingredients

-Thai organic CTC black tea
-ginger, clove, cardamom, touch of salt and black pepper
-bitter orange marmalade
-white chocolate
-palm sugar, milk


I did have to buy the black tea for this; funny there was no CTC tea in the house.  I think my wife picked up a couple of free tea bags in a hotel stay once but I went ahead and bought some loose black tea anyway.

I used all dry spices; spice-rack versions.  If the spices are relatively fresh that's fine (not on the old side, I mean, anything in jars isn't fresh in the other sense), since spices have a pretty good life-span.  Flavor dropping off is one thing but after a couple of years they really can pick up a mustiness.  Ginger is typically easy to use fresh, since we cook with the root here, and it's even easy to find back in the US, but we seemed to be out.  I think the powdered ginger was the oldest of the spices and did contribute a slight mustiness.  Luckily the proportion of ginger was quite low in this version, something I'll get to more in the next section.

I would expect that black cherry would be nice for the fruit balance, or orange peel for citrus, but bitter orange marmalade was the closest thing on hand.  I considered squeezing in a bit of fresh pomelo juice (Asian grapefruit), since that was on hand around, but didn't expect it to work as well.

White chocolate was sort of a gamble.  I wasn't sure the texture would work, but then using real vanilla bean (in the past) does contribute a really thick, creamy texture to spice and tea blends, which is still ok.  Adding a touch of salt gives blends balance.  I'm not sure it changed much but I went with a dash of black pepper for this version, which isn't atypical for masala chai, I just don't like peppery chai.  Palm sugar isn't that different than a natural brown sugar; it was really just what was around.

Proportions, process

The blend was mostly black tea.  Clove was heaviest after that, with this version light on ginger.  There was a good bit of chocolate, nearly as much as in a Hershey bar, but not enough to make the drink into a tea flavored hot chocolate instead of a chocolate flavored tea.  I didn't measure those, which leads into an aside I've been meaning to mention, and probably have already covered, about not sticking to well-determined proportions or parameters.

It comes from an approach to cooking.  I taught myself to cook in my 20s, based on my mother's cooking (which is quite good, mainly traditional foods back in Pennyslvania), and on a partial study in making dorm food in college.  Part of my approach was to never, ever use recipes, except maybe for something like chocolate chip cookies--those are touchy.  It was about the process as much as the outcome.  Funny that just came up in talking about making tea; you can probably imagine why.  People get into the ceremonial aspects of that, or see it as some sort of Zen practice, with the Japanese tea ceremony based on that sort of thinking.  I could be more careful about using ideal parameters (I am an engineer too; I get it), but then it becomes about optimization, not the experience.  For me winging it is part of an organic process, and experience limited natural variation is too.

So back to that blend.  I mixed the ingredients and simmered for around 15 minutes.  For more whole spices I'd probably go with at least 20 minutes, but that's fine for finer processed versions.  Whenever you taste such a mix without milk it seems like you've completely ruined it, but adding the milk swings it all into a reasonable balance.  It's probably more typical to simmer along with the milk, and it's my impression that the milk does actually cook a little, changing the flavor, but this time I didn't.

Conclusion, outcome

It worked!  Often the first go at something novel really points towards how to get it right the next time instead, but this balanced well, and was nice.  The chocolate fell into a nice relation to the spicing, and the levels of all of the flavors worked out well.  Clove was strongest of the spice elements, but they all mixed so much that no one element was really pronounced over the others.  The marmalade folded in so well that it was hard to notice it even had any citrus aspect, but I think it probably supported the other flavors more than was evident.  The texture was fine, a little thick, but then ordinary masala chai tends to seem a little thick too.

It was a bit close to hot chocolate, of course, really in between a masala chai version and that.  It worked well for me, but I wouldn't want to drink either of those things too often.  It's a lot easier to review; it tastes like those ingredients.  It would match well with cold weather but it's in the mid 20s here (C; probably up to around 80 F now, cool for us in Bangkok but not cold weather).  I made enough to have two very large cups with breakfast, and judging from the amount of soaked tea and spices I was probably good and dosed with caffeine from that.


Part of the point was trying something new, and part was also about encouraging others that making tea blends is possible.  You don't just need to rely on Teavana or David's to hand something over, and really don't need to go find whole spice versions to make a costly tea blend either.


I'd think lots of things might work well for this holiday blend theme, lots of which I've seen in review posts about them:  pine needles (more on using those here and here), peppermint candy, etc.  It might be cool to try and figure out how to integrate nuts, or other things that wouldn't typically go in a tea blend, cognac, or egg nog, whatever comes to mind.  At worst a batch would be awful, so the time and ingredients would be wasted.

drying fruit for a version awhile back

Messing around with the tea input would be a natural variation.  I often use both CTC black tea and a mid-range quality orthodox black version (if I have both around), but an aged shou mei might fold into spice flavors just as well, or maybe better if you could balance the richness and subtlety well.  Smoked tea (Lapsang Souchong) has blending potential, but you know how it goes with those, finding a good one and getting the balance right would be tricky.

It starts to go a bit far but a Hunan brick tea might have interesting potential, keeping the spice a little lighter in that case so the unusual nature of that tea would have a chance to shine through.  One of those with a little cinnamon and nutmeg, dried orange peel, apple, and some dried fruit (raisin or date) might be great.  Crazy spicing like rosemary and sage might work for a different version, in the right mix.

Or just mixing black tea, cinnamon, and dried orange peel would be great, I'd think.

2016 Christmas in PA, with snow

visiting grandparents last holidays

Presenting an introduction to tea at a CultCheers event

I presented an introduction to tea at a recent CultCheers event, a pilot version of their function format.  It was really more of a small informal discussion, a very nice context, during which we tried some teas.

There isn't much more to add about the event premise.  It struck me as a cross between a meet - up function and a TED talk in the early discussion, and it worked out like that.  The idea was to have a subject expert discuss a topic, supported by a host arranging an informal meeting place (with a video explaining that here).  It's odd assuming the role of a tea expert but I have given the subject some thought.  In later forms of the events there would be some degree of expense sharing but in this pilot version it was free to participants.  I presented at a Random Thainess event last year (described here) that wasn't completely different, just with a main running theme focus (Thailand), and based on multiple short presentations, with events always in the same location. 

We tried a Yunnan black tea (a Farmerleaf sun dried Dian Hong), a 2008 shou mei cake, and a 2014 Tae Tea / Dayi 7542 sheng pu'er.  It seemed odd not including oolong but the idea was to try really novel teas, and rolled oolong is what they make in Thailand, already available in lots of places, and Wuyi Yancha or Dan Cong would be a little touchier about brewing parameters.  Those teas we did try could be prepared Western style, without close tracking of timing, except for the sheng, and that worked for demonstrating Gongfu style brewing instead at the end.

The questions and discussion were great.  The participants had varying backgrounds with tea but many raised some great points, which helped move the format off being more like a lecture, allowing for an organic form of jumping around within sub-topics.  For example,  someone asked if a short initial infusion really can decaffeinate tea.  The short version: no; the caffeine infuses at about the same rate that flavor does, with the specifics in a table in this post about caffeine in tea.

It makes it easier explaining tea background and specifics in person, related to questions and other people's prior experience. That could have went another hour.  Related to that I'll add some additional comments for points I might have expanded on a little more, after showing some event pictures here first.

the making tea part

a nice set-up

with the event host

Extending some of the discussion ideas

I won't try to explain what we discussed, but I will add a bit to some of the ideas here, about the next thing we didn't get to across a lot of the scope.

Tea storage:  we talked about how tea storage is important, how some teas are more sensitive to losing flavor (especially green tea), and why zip lock bags really aren't a good alternative.  Related to buying tea stored in large jars in a shop, I mentioned in this post about shopping for tea in NYC's Chinatown how I would gamble on whether some more durable types could hold up to that, especially rolled oolong, or even loose white tea.  Pu'er, other hei cha, and compressed white teas improve with age, so the time could help, and some air exposure should be fine.  Some black teas would fare better than others,  especially sun - dried blacks.  I don't really drink much jasmine green tea but the compressed ball shape could help those do better than loose green tea (dragon pearls, or whatever they call them).

probably never a good idea to buy this tea, but cost is low for gambling on it

one version of large-jar storage; not ideal, but maybe worth checking out

Other references:   there's a lot about tea out there, but as we discussed trying teas is the thing, not reading about them (it just helps knowing they're out there to find them). A section in a beginners guide post covers other references, and a post about direct sourcing covers some vendor contacts.


Oolong:  it's odd we didn't get to those, since to me oolongs are among the best options for people getting into better loose tea, and personal favorites.  Rolled oolongs, which are produced in Thailand, are easy to brew (or hard to screw up), generally inexpensive, and ok across a range of quality levels.  Oriental Beauty is a Taiwanese type that tastes like citrus, bergamot, or cinnamon spice, more oxidized so closer to a black tea than lighter oolongs, which also turn out well brewed in different ways.  Wuyi Yancha and Dan Cong are a little trickier to get the best out of, and I'd use Gongfu style brewing for those, but both have a really interesting flavor range (and feel and aftertaste; later on one tends to not only focus on taste). I wrote a Quora answer once about what different oolongs taste like, which is impossible to fully answer, but a couple of paragraphs does make a start on that.

Da Hong Pao dry leaves, a favorite oolong type

Cold brewing: I'd mentioned this, but maybe didn't clarify exactly how this could work for using the last of a tea in the rush.  All those teas we tried on that tasting day really weren't finished, and all of them could be put in lukewarm water, then in the refrigerator, for 8 hours to a day to make another infusion to drink later or the next day.  I would try to never leave teas even refrigerated for 2 days instead but you can.  There's not really a limit to how many times a tea can be brewed;  until the flavor is gone or is no longer pleasant.  I think only the sheng pu'er isn't well suited for cold brewing, but that's just a matter of preference.


Brewing temperature:  those teas we did try were selected to brew well at boiling point temperatures.  This subject gets complicated, because there is only universal agreement that green teas should be brewed at cooler than boiling point temperatures, and which ones at which temperature is contested for those too.  I just wrote a post summarizing a group discussion over whether oolong should be brewed at boiling point or not.  The short version:  brewing tables say no, to use 85-90 C water, but half of the discussion participants said yes, to use boiling point water.  It's probably as well to not go into why there is a difference of opinion; it's in that post.  It could work to experiment, and see which parameters you like, which might vary over time, or could even vary related to using different versions of the same teas.


Online tea group culture:  we definitely didn't into get to this subject.  I only mention it here as a warning that it's not that uncommon to have bad experiences in researching and discussing tea online.  An online friend just mentioned one version of that:  she started a new-to-tea theme blog a few years ago, and people in one of the main tea forums said that her opinion and experience sharing meant nothing because she was new to the subject.  I very much disagree.  After experiencing a learning curve background knowledge increases, and preferences tend to change, but the experiences of people new to tea are just as valid as those with depth of knowledge and experience. 

I helped co-found a Facebook tea group (this one, with an international theme) and we don't even need to show people the door for expressing that type of disdain for others because the group culture just isn't like that.  It works to remember that in general those people are only trying to share their own hard-won knowledge, to try and read comments as suggestions, but at some point leaving toxic discussion environments is the only real alternative.

my blog mascot as a Christmas nativity play cow; different

Conclusions

The event was a great experience!  I've done a bit with sharing tea experiences and ideas in real life in the past but I'll have to stay open to different forms of it in the future.

King Tea Mall mini Lao Ban Zhang disc

I'd mentioned there being a couple of additional pu'er to get to from King Tea Mall samples, one a Lao Ban Zhang mini-disc (8 grams; single serving size), branded as Bokuryo.  I'll try it.

It never works but I was going to keep the rambling down, to keep this minimal.  I'll not talk about my pu'er background, or LBZ in general, or get side-tracked talking about parameters, water sources, my day or whatever else.  I've never tried a tea from this area--even though it's probably the most famous area related to pu'er production--so that sort of baseline is just not there.  I also don't tend to notice effects of tea as much as others, "cha qi," although there have been some exceptions, but I'll pass on what comes up.

The vendor description can serve as background:  2017 Bokuryo Lao Ban Zhang gushu (old tree) autumn mini cake sheng cha.

They explain that per their definition gushu refers to tea tree plants over 300 years old.  That web page has some nice pictures of the local area, and of a comparison tasting between tea leaves from this age and from younger plants.  They also explain that spring material is so expensive that offering versions of that is prohibitive.  These cost $38 for 7 pieces (a tiny tong), or 56 grams, which is a bit, but then price is all relative for teas.  Later I would also be able to make adjustments to expectations related to the different seasons for leaf sources (for this being an autumn tea) but for now I'll just describe the tea.  That last related King Tea Mall sheng review did cover two teas from spring and fall, but they were from two different source areas too (from Yiwu and Naka), so even if obvious generalities did emerge I'd have to set a lot more trials into memory to sort out causes.

There was one other unusual factor in this tasting:  my wife took my phone to get a screen cover replaced, and my spare phone (its replacement--if I was doing tangents here I'd add more about that), and two of hers.  There is still a tablet at the house, and a couple of basic cameras, but I decided to just let the picture taking drop.  I thought I had pictures of the mini-disk / tea coin from before, and there are some in the vendor page I'll cite.  I did take this picture of the leaves after it was all over, way after, when I brewed it a few times the next day too (the tea just wouldn't quit):

So I'll post a section of vendor pictures in the middle, but the normal running pictorial companion isn't happening for this review.  For description, the leaves were a bit lighter than in that picture the day before, and the tea brewed to a light gold / straw-like color, as sheng tends to, both darker and more golden when brewed stronger.

Review

The initial taste is nice, but it's still not that far into opening up.  I keep expecting these teas to be really harsh and bitter, but it won't be that.  On the next infusion I can actually taste it; the tea really is nice.

I've tried a lot of teas something like this, in a very similar range of aspects, but this one pulls it off really well, maybe slightly better.  Even those Vietnamese old-tree teas weren't that far off this, but different.  There is a little bitterness to it, but way less than I would have expected, a level that integrates well with the rest.  It's "warm" and aromatic.  There's a catchy aspect range that I'm definitely not going to do justice to.  I guess mineral is probably the right range for that.  But talk of different rocks, mineral springs, and corroding metals, like the smell of an old oil-rig structure from 100 years ago all really don't bring across what those actually smell like, or what flavors that might relate would be like.

With similar aspects shifted just a little this could be harsh, and I'd be talking about redeeming characteristics and how it isn't so bad.  In this balance with these specific aspects it completely works.  I guess a green-wood tone is another part of it, and as a long list of aspects--which I'll say more about next round--is going to indicate over-all complexity might be what is really positive, more than any one catchy aspect or trait.  Or it could be both.  Now it's interesting to consider how this should taste, against all that, if it's actually type-correct or not.  Some patterns emerge between trying spring and autumn versions of the other two shengs earlier but it would be pointless to make much of guessing about that.

It's not as if the tea is really soft and approachable, as other tea types are, it's just in that range compared to my expectations.  On the third infusion the intensity picks up, the tea is fully in the brewing cycle, and although I went with a relatively short infusion time (10 seconds or so) very short steeps would probably be as well, using flash infusions instead.  It's nice to get the full effect of feel, and there is quite a bit going on related to that, and aftertaste (the same, it hits hard and stays with you).  It's interesting to just let minutes go by and keep experiencing that range, to notice the tea flavor and feel not going away.  You could probably spend an afternoon drinking this tea, taking a couple of sips every five minutes and then just staying in that.  It's funny I put it that way in these notes, given how the tasting did work out later.  All that's a bit beyond how I tend to experience tea, I kind of just drink it, but the extra depth of those aspects being stronger is interesting.

Back to taste, the bitterness did pick up a little (as if I infused it longer, but really it was just opening up, so it wasn't about that), but it still balances well.  There's a mineral-range warmth to it, and some fresh wood-tone, and the experience seems to extend towards a spice range.  "Bitter" doesn't really capture that part of the aspects; the taste is almost a little towards citrus, closest to the range of lemon peel, so it's as if both that flavor set and feel relate.  I don't want to say the tea is sour, because it's not, but the coupled astringency and taste of bitterness I've experienced in a good number of shengs has more depth in this, more is going on.  That citrus taste might instead relate to something like a less than fully ripened nectarine.  It's not stone fruit in the sense of a ripe, juicy peach but what I'm identifying as lemon peel could be read in different ways.

Pictures section

From the vendor page for this tea; as I'd mentioned I skipped taking them for this session.

like a tiny cake, 8 grams worth

comparing gushu and shrub (younger tea plant); description follows

"Left is gushu, and opposite is shrub. After same times steep, leaves of gushu have dark color, but shrub’ have bright and green color like brewed green tea."

it looked like this, straw-like gold

Continued

Subjectively, do I like it?  Sure.  It seems like exceptional tea, that's for sure.  I love experiencing new things in tea and that's what this is.  There's a lot to like and the novelty is cool.  It would be interesting to see how this tea is in a couple of years too, to check on aging transition.  It definitely doesn't need change to be drinkable but I get a sense it might improve, per my preference.  The bright, intense freshness might drop off a little but the tea flavor range should become a bit "warmer" in context and deepen a little.

I was concerned that 8 grams might be a lot of this tea.  Sheng tends to brew a lot rounds, and to be intense, and only 3 or 4 infusions in I'm wondering how far I could go with rounds.  I am definitely feeling it.  It's not as if the "cha qi" effect is a complete unknown, I've just not experienced strong versions of it that often, or loved the experience in the past.  I've got a history with alcohol and drug use that I really won't get into here but I will say that I've done enough with all that.  I'll drink two beers at a time sometimes, but usually one is plenty, and I'm happy to leave behind any type of chemical stimulation.  Life stimulates me, or else sometimes it doesn't, and adding just a little caffeine to moderate tempo is plenty of adjustment.  I'll keep trying this and ride out more of it but getting stoned on tea would never become a habit for me.  Not that there is anything wrong with liking that.  As one fellow tea-lover put it, who was also not really on that page, if he wanted to get stoned he really could smoke a joint.

On the next infusion the tea softens, warms further, and deepens; the balance is even nicer.  As strong as this tea is it's imperative to not give it long infusion times.  By long I mean 10 or 15 seconds is probably still ok, with it being a matter of preference if 5 isn't much better, but 20 is too much.  You often see references to people doing staged times, saying they start with 10 seconds (or whatever it is) and add 5 or 10 seconds to each infusion time after.  I've never really related to that.  A lot of the teas I'm drinking don't taper off in intensity much at all through the first 6 to 8 infusions, or even more, and it would be odd to brew them progressively longer like that; it would make no sense.  For teas that die fast that works, maybe, but most often that seems to relate to a specific range of flaws in teas, not about some types brewing less.  Some tea types brew out faster, some black teas, or really roasted Wuyi Yancha, but even for those that staging as it's typically described would be too pronounced, the timing ramp-up would be too fast.

I finally made an infusion that was a little too light, a quick in and out, but I really could drink all the tea like that, it still works.  I also just took 20 minutes off drinking the tea in the middle of the session to let that drugged feeling play out a little.  I'll try a few more infusions in short order to see how going with it goes.  Someone who is more into that sort of thing could describe energy patterns change in their body, which chakra was being activated or something such, but I'll have to pass on that part.  I just feel strange.

On the next infusion--which I've lost count of--I wouldn't say the tea is fading but it is letting up a little.  At this point 15 to 20 second infusions make sense to keep the intensity up.  I can list out flavors but they're not different, just transitioned in how they layer:  bitterness is quite limited, but still present, and mineral tone gives a broad base, with so much range even the mineral range is complex.  There's a mellow warmth to the flavor range, sort of part of the wood-tone effect, something along the lines of fresh-cut hickory wood.  Those aromatic hardwoods are completely different than the wood-tone you get to when a medium quality range oolong brews out, but I probably wouldn't be able to do the contrast justice.  It all trails towards some sort of spice range, but in such a subdued sense it's hard to capture which.  Again the brighter range also reminds me of lemon peel zest, with potential for alternative takes on that in other fruit range description (being a secondary aspect it's harder to pin down).  It's got some depth, with the mouth-feel and aftertaste ranges really complex too.

I only made it through two more cups before going out to sit on a swing in the yard.  Colors look more vivid now, and my sense of time seems altered; I am stoned on this tea.  I had some breakfast while I was drinking it (a mild version of a granola), and it would have been even stronger without food, too much for me.  I'd recommend getting outside while drinking it.  Saturday mornings are my tasting window, since the kids go to a Chinese lesson and swim session, or else the shouting and banging in the background might not be as positive.  It's our cool season now, so Bangkok is nice, only around 30 C and dry (86 F; funny how that really does feel cool).

it felt a little like that, but her normal level of joy is hard to match

I just accidentally brewed this for something like 45 seconds not paying attention; the tea really is fading or else that would be bad.  From here one minute steeps would still be ok, or a bit over 30 seconds strong enough to drink.  It's probably up to somewhere around 10 infusions, or maybe just over. 

It's my impression that with more experience in focusing on sheng people tend to like it lighter, and it would easily brew 20 infusions on the very short side, with plenty of intensity, given that someone liked that lighter brewed-strength range.  From drinking other teas that work better brewed stronger I'm not completely in that habit, and it seems to me that liking very lightly brewed teas occurs as a natural preference drift.  Someone could easily pick it up, and just go straight there, and for people who talk of optimums in brewing tea that's probably what they would be referring to, after a naturally evolving change.  Taken in one way that kind of expectation for there to be optimums in tea brewing can ignore personal preference as valid, and accept that a natural preference transition is valid only at the end point, or that majority opinions are right and others are wrong, but that's not how I see the experience of tea at all.

Conclusion

Countless infusions in the tea isn't giving up, it just transitions to a bit thinner, with a wood-tone edge becoming more pronounced.  It was an interesting ride being stoned on tea for a number of hours but I'm not sure how often I'd want to go through that.  Cutting the dose by half would make it more manageable (snapping that disk in two).  The flavor range was nice too, although I suspect I'd really like the tea better in a couple of years, even though it wasn't harsh at all now.  It was a cool experience, definitely not disappointing.

The tea never did completely fade.  I tried brewing a few infusions with it the next day and it just became thinner, and the profile became less positive, so I let it go.

Juan Yian Hong Da Hong Pao (an original DHP version)

I'd mentioned that on a somewhat recent visit to the Bangkok Chinatown the owners of my favorite shop there, Jip Eu, were nice enough to pass on some of a pressed silver needle cake, and another tea I didn't describe.  This is it, a Da Hong Pao from one of the more original source areas inside the park area outside Wuyishan, from a location that Chinatown shop owner described as near Horsehead rock.

last year, but he and I are holding up ok and look about the same

It is strange, holding onto a tea that interesting for a month without trying it.  Things have been busy; our cat was injured, and an uncle here also was, and I was sick (bad for tasting), and side-tracked by some tea samples from Vietnam, and some pu'er.  We're planning a trip to Russia that's coming up pretty soon, in two weeks now, which adds demands.


This really is an ideal opportunity for a tea blog post to go through what cultivars go into making Da Hong Pao, what original versions are (like this one, earlier this year, about Qi Dan, or an earlier one comparing two Bei Dou versions).  Or to show pictures or maps of the Wuyishan park area.  Global Tea Hut did an issue on that area and the teas once, and different vendors add a bit of description, like this Seven Cups Da Hong Pao page.  I checked the "Juan Yian Hong" reference through a quick Google search, which I think relates to a location origin, but didn't really pursue it.  I'm going to skip all that this time and just write about the tea.

original Da Hong Pao bushes (credit Teavivre vendor page)

These shop owners have family in the Wuyishan area, so there's a good chance the tea is a relatively original version, a type that's not so easy to find.  Kittichai (the owner) showed me a picture of him at his small family tea factory that had been inside the park reserve area but was removed when the Chinese government set restrictions for that natural area (in the 70s, maybe that was?).



Regardless of the source history of this tea the quality relates to what experiencing it is like, and not so much about some mystical forces based in a growing area.  There are more or less ideal places to grow the tea, so all that isn't nonsense, but processing is an equal consideration, and final outcome is the main thing.



Just a little more on subjective factors, before moving on to tasting.  One might think that having very high expectations--relating to having been told a story about the tea, paying a lot for it, or whatever else--means that you will interpret a tea more critically, that it really would have to be exceptional to live up to the hype.  In my experience the hype becomes part of the experience, and expecting a very positive, high quality tea makes you judge the aspects that are positive even more favorably, rather than the reverse, being more critical about limitations.

In short, we believe what we want to believe, and it's not as hard as it might seem to get an interpretation of experienced reality to match up with preconceptions.  If you try the exact same tea out in some picturesque remote mountain glade in China and in a small fluorescent-lit plain-themed strip mall shop you'd have two completely different experiences.  You might well accept an average grade Da Hong Pao as something special in the former setting (or even a Shui Xian as a DHP), and it could be easy to miss that you've stumbled onto something exceptional in the latter (not that it would tend to come up often in such a setting).  As a tea reviewer I could claim that I'm beyond all that, that more depth of experience in trying Wuyi Yancha has shifted my perspective to be more objective, but it's hard to pin down the limits of that.  I can sort of tell what I'm drinking, to some extent.

like me drinking tea, but with kids fighting over a Lego batman in the background (credit)

Review

The dry tea scent is really warm and rich, dark-toffee-like, maybe with so much caramel I was concerned about the level of roast balancing.  It's a matter of preference how much is just right or too much but some teas go too far with that roast step.  Tasting tells that story.

On the first infusion the tea is quite nice (brewed lightly, more a rinse I'm not throwing away, using boiling point water, related to all that discussion).  This tea isn't exactly light roasted but the char effect blends right into the rest of the tea, and gives it sweetness, complexity, and depth.  It's so smooth at the same time it's intense that I wouldn't be surprised if this tea wasn't from this year, if aging had let it mellow to where it is.  Not that I've got that completely sorted out, how all of the range of aspects changes over that first year or two, or beyond that.

After opening up a bit the next round the tea is even better.  This is clearly a really exceptional version of a Wuyi Yancha.  They come in different character ranges, with different taste aspects, different feels, and emphasis on flavors or more subtle range, as more aromatic.  Da Hong Pao can refer to a blended tea, but in original versions it's a full flavored tea that's also aromatic, a tea with intensity, complexity, and range.  I can mention aspects into filling out a long list but those wouldn't do this tea any justice, or the experience.  But I will.

The roast effect is well-integrated and balanced but it does stand out, mainly as a sort of dark toffee tone.  That extends into a rich complexity of earthiness that's almost like a light-roasted coffee, adding a layer of flavors instead of one simple aspect.  In other tea versions that would seem like a dark wood tone, meaning that it's in that same place in the rang of experience, but in this one more towards coffee.  That also integrates with a pronounced mineral tone (it all integrates, really), that reminds me a bit of pen ink.  It probably sounds awful, to drink something that's like coffee with ink in it, with a bit of toffee for sweetness, but that's really more a failure to bring across these flavors as aspects through individual description.  It doesn't taste anything like sweetened coffee mixed with ink, but the range of individual flavors overlaps with those flavor components.

On the next infusion the flavors deepen even more, and shift in nature just a little.  The character of the earthiness, which was almost like coffee initially, softened and became richer in range.  It now reminds me a lot of that Rou Gui version of cinnamon, a taste range much richer, earthier, and darker than in the cinnamon we use in cinnamon rolls and other baking.

Cinnamon is really the name for one specific spice version of tree bark, although per prior reading the one we usually get in a grocery store isn't really "true cinnamon," and there is a range beyond the two.  I've been focusing on the taste range, since it's so novel (interestingly novel, for being roughly in the same range as a tea type that's so familiar, but a bit different), but the other aspect range in this tea is cool too.  The feel is nice and rich, and the tea doesn't just drop out of your mouth after you drink it, part of the experience trails off slowly.  That happens more with young sheng but then there's also that bitterness and other mineral range, not necessarily my favorites.  The part I interpret as "hui gan," a lingering sweetness, is an interesting effect but not necessarily more positive than the rest.

Since I've tried a few "Bei Dou" versions I'm trying to place this related to that.  That type is also said to be from more original plant types, closer to the original strain genetics, and also a reference to an area in the park area (not that I remember those versions I tried as referenced by growing location; it's both a plant strain and an area, as I understand it).  Those teas were on the subtle side, emphasizing aromatic traits over intense flavors (for Wuyi Yancha, I mean, since "subtle" comes in degrees; it's not like I'm talking about silver needle).  This tea comes across as complex; it's expressing a lot of range.  The flavor seems most pronounced, to me.  A level of roast difference would shift that, I'd expect, and although this definitely wasn't over-roasted in a way that ruined it going slightly lighter might have brought out a different balance of aspects.

This tea is all about balance and complexity, on the intense side, but it's in no way challenging.  It does still taste like rocks, as those tend to, but in a way that completely works, nothing like cardboard as lower quality versions might.  As much as I've been talking about different flavors I'm not really doing that complete justice, not for effect but also range.  There is more depth to it that could relate to some sort of different aromatic spice too, maybe a root version instead.

It's not really fading much yet (5 or 6 infusions in, but I went with a high proportion, so these are fast steeps), but I'll let it go a little longer to experience a more intense version, a bit over 30 seconds instead of more like 15.  Even though the flavor intensity isn't greater in overall effect that does shift the proportion quite a bit.  The more intense mineral tone that reminded me of ink picks back up at this brewed strength.  That is not a negative experience; it's really catchy.

I think the flavor range is dropping off a little, along with the intensity, so that although the tea is far from done that overall effect of a high level of complexity has diminished.  I would expect the tea to still make another really nice half-dozen infusions, but the pace of transition would normally pick up from here.  Lower quality teas will just start tasting like wood, or towards cork, something like that, and better teas seem to maintain some of that original range better.

Of course it also depends on how you brew the tea.  I'll skip over talking about temperature much, given I just did in this post about oolong brewing temperature, but going with slightly lower temperature (90 instead of boiling point, as I used) would change not just the initial aspects but also the transition pattern.  This tea would work well using flash infusions, and you can actually separate out flavors better that way, brewed very lightly, and still experience the other aspect range.  To me it's nice going a little longer, not brewing it "strong" but letting that intensity accumulate a little, using 15 or 20 second infusion times, based on using a relatively full gaiwan.  The brewed tea liquid in that picture image above would've been a lighter amber-gold instead of reddish if I'd brewed it much lighter.  I'll make this in a clay pot dedicated to Wuyi Yancha next time and see if that changes things.

I made another nice infusion of this, and then accidentally let another one go for over a minute due to paying attention to something online.  It can still produce plenty of intensity, the range just does narrow, down to bringing back a strong version of the char effect, the mineral, and consistent spice range.  It's still not exactly identical to that dark cinnamon tone in Rou Gui but pretty close to it.  Per my experience these teas (medium roasted Wuyi Yancha oolongs) don't hold up to quite as many infusions as lighter versions of oolongs (less roasted teas, TKY or Taiwanese teas), less than ten in the same character range, but that intensity is unique when the aspects balance well, a more than fair compensation.  It would go over ten infusions in same general character range if someone preferred brewing closer to flash infusions, which would still be very good, and it just comes down to preference.

Second try, in a clay pot

trying it at different infusion strengths

I tried the tea again, this time in a pot dedicated for Wuyi Yancha.  It didn't really change much.  I tried a slightly lower proportion, since going with a completely full gaiwan (full after the leaves became soaked) had been on the one extreme.  This would likely involve extending infusion times beyond the 15 to 20 seconds, at least to maintain that same level of intensity, a bit higher than I drink some teas, closer to how I usually like black tea, just backed off a little.

Not that much changed.  I think pushing the proportion to that higher level had worked out better, going with very short infusions designed to bring out a lot of infusion strength in that time-frame instead of letting the process run a little longer at slightly reduced proportion.  I didn't notice the pot as a factor.  It's nice aesthetically using those, it looks cool, and I suppose it's conceivable that tasting side by side with a gaiwan using identical parameters it may really make a slight difference.

Some people talk about certain pots matching certain tea uses better, but then others say instead that the input due to the fired clay being porous tends to be overstated, that even though a waxy coating of tea component oils will build up the input of the clay type and that layer tend to be overstated.  People don't tend to discuss it as a factor but it would seem like the quality of other teas you are brewing in the same pot would relate, that any carry-over to flavor input would tie back to that.  I don't drink much "bad" Wuyi Yancha but this version is above average per what I do drink.

I'm reminded of a tea shop owner once suggesting using a yixing pot makes a big difference, and offering to demonstrate that by pouring the leaves into a gaiwan for an infusion.  She did, and I could taste no difference, even though it was one infusion immediately after another.  That was before this blog was even started (brewing sheng, I think it was), and my palate really should be a little more developed since then, so maybe the error was really in what I couldn't pick up.  I'm not necessarily claiming that my sense of taste and judgement has changed much; I'm saying that it should have.

This tea was still very nice, exceptional even, but I liked it slightly better prepared using a really high proportion.  Or I suppose it could be that it seemed really novel that first time, something slightly different than I'd been experiencing for awhile, and that wasn't true the second time.  Or I tend to vary a little day to day, really; I'm not a morning person, at all, and I mostly try teas in the morning.  It helps letting that go until late morning on the weekends but my sensitivity might related to how many times kids woke me up in the night.  The day after I wrote this as an early draft it was a few, last night none, for some reason.

Conclusions

One might wonder, what is really high-quality Da Hong Pao supposed to taste like?  I'll start with a couple of references I've already mentioned and then give my own thoughts on that.  Let's start with that Global Tea hut description (from page 19 in that reference):

Maybe that.  I've noticed differing degrees of floral aspects and aromatic elements that could sort of be interpreted as citrus, but not so much citrus peel or the zest spray as a flavor aspect.  That doesn't seem to exactly match my understanding of the concept of "hui gan," but that's a long story I'll just skip over here.  Sometimes an aspect in Wuyi Yancha versions is closer to perfume or liquor, in a way that overlaps a little with that citrus spray more than it sounds like it would.  Seven Cups' description doesn't go into that much detail:

Da Hong Pao is a tea made to represent the essential character of Wuyi Mountain rock wulong: a bold red infusion with layered mineral body with a sweet, enduring finish.


A tea blog I tend to mention, Steep Stories, reviewed a version from them, adding more detail to that:

There was a bit of tartness on introduction, a stone-fruity middle and top note, and a gradual, downward spiral into roasty-toasty madness.  Further gongfoolish infusions alternated between sweet, floral, roasty, or—in the case of the last one—some combination or all of the above. Through it all, though, the fruity lean still remained ever-present...


I was really looking for a reference to the aroma aspect, but I must have been remembering that from another Wuyi Yancha version review (also from Seven Cups, if I've got that part right).  Anyway, DHP can vary.  A mineral base is consistent, some degree of roast-related contribution is kind of a given, and from there floral and fruit can occur and can be interpreted differently.


For my own conclusions for this tea, it seemed like a very good version of a Da Hong Pao, well-balanced and complex, with a well-integrated medium level of roast leading to that final character.  It seemed a bit straightforward for emphasizing taste / flavor aspects instead of more subtle aromatic components (a distinction I talk through so often I'll skip doing that here), which someone may or may not regard as the most traditional theme for original DHP.  Complexity and balance stood out as most positive, with mouth-feel and aftertaste in the right range, even if those can be even more pronounced than they were.

You don't tend to find teas like this walking into random tea shops.  It might not be so unusual for someone to love Da Hong Pao, having tried a broad range of versions, without ever trying one on this level.  Of course you never try the best possible version, and personal preference shifts which preparation and aspects are best (eg. related to level of roast), but this one was pretty good.

2017 Yiwu sheng and autumn Naka from Bokuryo (King Tea Mall)

2017 Yiwu (early spring high mountain) from King Tea (Bokuryo)

Naka 2017 gushu autum flavor sheng

Per talking about tea online a chance vendor contact sent some tea to try; normal enough stuff.  This business is slightly familiar by reputation, the King Tea Mall, an online business that moved from one of the main distribution sites / channels to become more independent.

That choice was externally influenced since Ebay--if I've got that part right--discontinued sales of foods there.  The hearsay about the vendor had been good, the little I'd heard of it, but then it works better to evaluate feedback directly related to knowing how a person evaluates different types of teas and sources.  Online marketplaces like Ebay, Amazon, and Taobao (the Chinese version) are best known for being a lottery of sorts, a place to buy inexpensive tea that could be anything.  Depending on the product and source there could be a likelihood of something being a much lower quality of tea than described.  Vendors who are more consistent and reliable tend to be mentioned in discussions, since that's one way to work around completely random sourcing choices.

I'll just describe a few teas as I review them, starting with two here.  He sent a Yiwu (2017; all but one of these are 2017), a 2017 Naka, 2017 Lao Bang Zang (that should be interesting), and a 2015 Bulang.  These teas are presented under a "Bokuryo" brand, but I'm not seeing exactly what that refers to, seemingly related to developing an in-house brand.  A blog section on the King Tea Mall site talks about sources a little but not that detail, about branding.   First I'll do a bit with framing where I stand on pu'er and young pu'er, a section that regular readers can probably just skip past, since it tends to repeat.

Framing; on exploring pu'er and drinking young sheng

I'll keep this short since I keep mentioning it: I'm just getting into pu'er.  I've reviewed over a dozen sheng (more than a half dozen this year, I'd guess), and have tried more than that I've not mentioned, but all that is barely getting started for this tea type.  Of course I'm not really able to judge trueness to type down to a sub-region, a specific village area, and not even well suited for judging past other variations and identifying the broader region character.  It's a work in progress. 

I can describe the aspects related experience of teas, so this will mostly be limited to that.  Of course I'd expect a good bit of astringency and some bitterness from the tea for being so young, even though per my limited understanding Yiwu region teas are said to be more approachable related to such aspects.  I just attended a Yiwu vertical tasting a month or so ago but I'm certainly not claiming that drinking a half dozen teas in one sitting is solid grounding for taste and aspect memory.  It's not; these teas become familiar over time.

It's odd how this concern is relatively unique to pu'er.  A dozen black teas or oolongs coming out of Indonesia is a pretty broad sample of all of it, I'd expect, and it would clear through most of the better tea type-range of one narrow category in Nepal.  Even for Wuyi Yancha, Dan Cong, or Taiwanese oolongs trying a half dozen good examples would go pretty far in exploring the type.  Maybe that's part of the problem; you could drink a lot of those teas without making it to a single good example too, if you were going about sourcing wrong, or were averse to paying market rates for upper-medium level quality teas.

As I tried these teas I kept coming back to how I relate to bitterness that is typical in young sheng, especially brand-new tea, as these are.  I don't love it.  It's much easier to review a tea type that matches natural preference, that you do love, because then personal taste works well as a yardstick.  The same keeps coming up for green teas, which I've eventually just moved away from reviewing (except for Longjing; funny how I do like that, but obvious enough why based on comparing it to most other green tea types).  I do like the brightness and freshness in young sheng, and can appreciate the complexity, so the range is more to my liking, but to some extent those mixed feelings will come across in the review notes.

2017 Bokuryo Yiwu sheng

The tea (listed on a website with more details here) is described fully there:  2017 BOKURYO YIWU HIGH MOUNTAIN ARBOR TREE SPRING MAOCHA ORGANIC CHINESE PUER PUERH RAW TEA SHENG CHA MENGLA XISHUANGBANNA YUNNAN CHINA.

I think that relates to category tagging, the hashtag idea.  The village name is Gao Shan Zhai, with tree source ages described as around 100 years old (so not gushu, as he defines it, at least 300 years old).  I'll get back to saying more about how it matches up with expectations in conclusions..

The scent is sweet and rich, and the dry leaf appearance is interesting, long and twisted, and colorful.  This tea was never compressed, it's maocha, but per my understanding that doesn't change so much.  Maybe it does, a little, since although it's not so unusual to press the teas later re-steaming them to enable that might shift aspects a little.  What I've heard about that it too limited tot work as any sort of guide.  The teas I've tried as sheng moacha did seem different as a category; it did seem to shift the range of aspects overall in common ways, but that could only be a coincidence since I've only tried a few (three others come to mind, and one loose pu'er with a different appearance, including a really interesting version from Laos and a from Myanmar).

that Laos sheng Maocha (from Kinnaritea)

The initial light infusion is nice, and of course there is some astringency and bitterness to it.  It's also fragrant and floral, sweet and complex, at least related to how a tea that's barely getting started on infusing might be.

On the next infusion even more complexity and richness comes out, although the tea is still not really fully "opened up."  It's quite approachable.  I always did have this tension in young sheng between appreciating or even craving that aspect range (the freshness and intensity) and preferring other tea types' more, the richness, sweetness, other complexity, and lack of astringency and bitterness in better black teas or oolongs, for example.  It's nice for the type, and it tastes quite different than taking an aspirin.  Actually that recent Vietnamese snow tea did have some aspect overlap related to that general aspect range, but that's an exception, since it was an unusual version of a green tea made from similar plants not all that far from Yunnan.

With the experience only partly about flavor, and perhaps not mostly about flavor, it seems odd focusing on that.  Related to feel the tea expresses a fullness across your mouth, most pronounced in the sides and the rear, and some on the roof of the mouth, with that and a trailing flavor range and light sweetness continuing well after drinking it.  I don't love that range of experiences nearly as much as expressed by some pu'er drinkers but it is interesting.

On the next infusion the tea must be roughly where it will be for the middle of an infusion cycle, with some room for transition remaining.  Related to flavor I guess it's still mostly floral, but with some light warmer tones filling in some complexity, and of course with a mineral base.  

I get a sense it could be dialed up just a little more, the full feel and aftertaste ranges, that what I've experienced of some teas presented as "gushu" (older plants) were just that extra bit more intense.  To put that "hui gan" range in perspective, I am tasting this tea two or three minutes after drinking it; the sensation remains as a sweetness in the tongue, especially in the rear of the throat.  That comes in degrees though; for some teas it's almost stronger than when you actually drink the tea, and it takes time for it to level off to the intensity of while you were actually tasting it over a couple of minutes.

In that Yiwu tasting session one tea stood out as being different than the others in that respect (the second in the series, I think it was).  It wasn't a 2017 tea, but it was young, within 2 or 3 years of that, as I recall.  This tea seems quite reasonable related to that series, although the range of aging in those complicates comparison.  

For a tea intended to be drank on the younger side it seems fine, striking a good balance for that, and it all works well enough as it is.  As aging potential goes I'd be the wrong person to judge.  One general idea one encounters is that a tea that is very well suited for maximum potential at full aging (15 to 20 years in suitable environment) shouldn't be pleasant and drinkable initially, so I guess related to that it should be more astringent and bitter.  Surely as with lots of factors there would be some room in that for personal preference. 

I went a little longer to check on keeping intensity up (it's not fading, although a number of infusions in,  but the last infusion seemed a little more subtle, perhaps also related to not minding timing), and it's plenty intense at a 40 second-or-so infusion.  That actually ramps up the feel and aftertaste experience at the cost of the flavor; it comes across as more bitter.

To place all that related to my own impression the feel of the tea could be a bit fuller but the general range of flavor is nice, and the aftertaste effect is positive and interesting.  I suspect I'd like the tea better in about two years, once the aspects themselves had shifted slightly in type and balance, but before that freshness had a chance to fade, but it seems reasonably well-suited to being drank right now.  Maybe if I did try it later that pleasant brightness could fade, and I'd change my mind.  It's not as if it's hard to drink, as if it's unapproachable, but the concern is liking the mix of aspects with bitterness as a main element.

2017 Bokuryo Autumn Naka

This wasn't really a comparison review, tastings in two successive days, but I'll list them together.  This tea is a 2017 autumn Naka sheng, so on the quite young side.  It's listed as "gushu," so per his version of tea definition made from tea plants at least 300 years old.  I was originally thinking of tasting the LBZ second but I'll only have around an hour for tasting, with kids in the house adding to a considerable level of background noise, so as well to hold off on checking that out until I've got more time and space.

The dry leaves are darker than I would expect they'd be for brand-new sheng, with interesting coloring.  I'll start a review with tasting after the rinse though, since interesting scent range doesn't always carry over directly to brewed tea aspects.

It's young sheng alright, but as with the last version more approachable than I'd have expected.  Maybe I'm overdoing it with expecting these teas to be really bitter and undrinkable.  It's bitter, for sure, but I'll be able to talk about aspects beyond that, and it will loosen up after a couple of infusions.

Beyond that it tastes like sheng.  That's probably going to be most of the review, it has mineral undertones, some range may seem floral, but more detail about that range is hard to pin down.  Some warmer range could be still more like a different mineral, or more likely a fresh wood, but seems like it's possibly something else.  But I'll keep going; this tea is hardly even opened up.

On the next round it's even more like biting a slighlty bitter version of a tree bud.  The taste is fine, and complex, but it'll be hard to do it justice with clear description; closest to wood, really.  There is something to the feel, and aftertaste, but it's odd going on about those aspects too.  To me those can add complexity to an experience but individually they're hardly even positive.

It's odd considering that it could be seen as either a strength or a weakness of this tea that it's drinkable.  The Yiwu yesterday was probably slightly more bitter, maybe with a slightly longer aftertaste, although that's hard to keep track of.  Neither seems as full in feel as they might be, in a good range for what I like, definitely not thin, but I expected them to be more challenging related to both flavor and feel.

Comparing the two teas is tricky.  This has just a trace of smoke, so little that it would be easy to miss, and instead of mostly floral with a trace of wood this is mostly woody with a trace of floral.  The "warmer" range in both isn't pronounced, but to me it gives both a depth and complexity that really balances the rest.  The mineral tone in this tea also runs a bit to metal (which is not as negative as that might sound).  It's conceivable that it's a different metal range for both; I never thought about it much but as with floral I'm probably not great with separating individual range for that.  Food related tastes are a lot more familiar; fruits, vegetable, spice and such, and metals not so much.

On the next infusion it softens a bit more and picks up complexity; it's improving.  The bitterness and mineral / metal is easing up, and fresh wood tones dominate, with more warm tones trailing towards spice range.


The sweetness that remains after drinking this tea is different than the Yiwu version, at least in part due to the flavor being different.  I suppose that effect seems moderate to me, although it's all quite relative; it's also quite pronounced.  There is just another type of experience out there where that's really intense, where the tea tastes stronger after you drink it, and you taste more two minutes later than when it's in your mouth.  This just trails off, in a manner and level that seem moderate to me.


I brewed it a little longer, per usual due to not focusing rather than as an experiment (up around  a minute, a reasonably long soak, longer than I'd have intentionally let it go).  It does bring out that aftertaste quite a bit; even while you drink it that range impacts your mouth, and remains pronounced after.  The mouthfeel of this tea is light compared to the flavor range and the aftertaste experience; interesting how that goes.  It's not a bad thing for me, that it could be a lot more structured, and together with that flavor both remain as a lingering taste and feel on the back of the tongue and rear sides of your mouth, with some on the top of the mouth in the front, it's just not as present across all of it.  Brewed strong the light metal flavor really stands out; that is better balanced in a lighter version.

For contrast I went back to a light infusion next time, around 15 seconds.  The feel is much lighter brewed this way, of course, but to me it's a more natural experience.  There's plenty of flavor, and it doesn't feel thin, and the aftertaste still remains, it's just less intense.  It shifts flavor experience more towards that warmer range, still with some bitterness, mineral, and a bit of metal, but it balances with a warmer floral-like range, just a little towards a spice.

Even though I'm 7 or 8 infusions in (or maybe more) this tea isn't going anywhere; transition is moderate, and it's definitely not fading.  The warmth and complexity might be very slowly increasing, or really I think it could be that bitterness and mineral are slowly fading out, letting the other range stand out.

I'll have to leave off describing more though since I have to go.  I liked the tea.  It's hard to place related to how much I liked the one yesterday; they're just different, although they do share some common ground.

Conclusions

These both seemed like nice teas.  I'd need to drink both over time, to get used to them, or compare directly to each other or others, in order to really get a better feel for differences and which I liked best.

Per usual the main issues were related to drinking very young sheng in the first place.  Neither was as bitter or astringent as I expected but that range stands out for both.  In both cases brightness, freshness, and complexity beyond taste range was positive.  In the past I've not tried many versions of tea presented as "gushu," and few really stood out related to overall intensity, particularly in relation to aftertaste (hui gan), and also complex feel.  These two teas were positive related to that compared to other range of sheng, well above average but not as exceptional related to the most pronounced examples I've experienced (for example, one tea in that Yiwu tasting session, and a Golding KL boutique shop version of a Jing Mai sheng in this post, where it's compared to a similar Farmerleaf version).  I didn't notice much difference in the two versions related to one being "gushu"--from older tea plants--and the other not.

I suspect I'd like both better in another two years, but then I'd imagine that would relate to personal preference about how aspects tend to change as much as that being the case for everyone.

In a sense it doesn't work to judge teas completely separate from quality level claims, which also relates to tea pricing.  If one of these teas was selling for double the price of the other that would change how they were being presented (and in this case the lower cost version would seem a better value, since they were more just different than one being better).  That's not the case; both are sold for around $25 for 100 grams (one is loose tea, so varying quantity is easy, and the other is a small cake).  Since there is a broad range of commercial teas available in the $40-50 per 357 gram range this also places them as higher quality teas than those, related to that pricing working out to around double that.  They did seem like better tea than a 2014 7542 I tried not so long ago, but it's a different thing comparing chopped up tea to maocha or compressed tea made from whole leaves. 

Normally I don't get stuck on that theme, about value, moving beyond expressing an opinion about aspects and a general impression, into trying to place a tea, but somehow that personal project and vendor context seemed to lead towards that.  I checked Steepster for input, and a few are listed there, but neither of these.  I'll try a couple more samples and consider it further.  One is from Lao Ban Zhang; that should be interesting.