This should be familiar ground, even though I'm not really familiar with the "Bo Ya" reference. I last tried an old-tree locally produced Vietnamese sheng the day before yesterday, and I've tried a half dozen versions of Laos sheng in the past half a year or so. These samples were provided by John of King Tea Mall for review; many thanks for that.
Editing note: these notes stayed a draft for over a week due to travel, but that doesn't change much, except the timing in that one statement is now relative.
The Bo Ya product description follows, along with an explanation of that name:
Tea Name: BoYa written as 伯牙 in Chinese Character which belongs to 1st one as below:
1) 伯牙 (BoYa)，sheng cha
2) 子期 (ZiQi)， sheng cha
3) 桐琴 (TongQin)，Shou cha.
高山流水遇知音(GaoShanLiuShuiYuZhiYin) is a well known story happened more than 2000 years ago in China. When BoYa was playing zither, occasionally ZiQi came by and attracted by the melody and directly pointed out when the melody was describing towering mountain or babbling stream. So ZhiYin(知音, understanding melody) is used for describing bosom friends from then on.
This tea was made from spring tea materials of GuShu(old tree) and wild tea both from BanPen (班盆 where belongs to BanZhang tea area, also called one of five BanZhang villages) . Unique aroma from dry tea leaves from ancient tea tree with refreshing mountain flavor and wild tea floral flavor...
So it's a blend of different materials--different, but not that unusual. Some might be put off by the idea that old-tree sourced tea really would be used in a blend, but I take all the origin accounts with a grain of salt anyway. The tea is what it is in final character, and either that's a good thing or not, and the story-line or actual background seems less relevant, in terms of it being normal for marketing exaggerations to change details a little along the way. To the extent that older plant sources or more natural growing conditions ("wilder" teas) change aspects and outcomes those are completely relevant, as the origin location is, but as soon as you try the tea it all becomes academic since it is what it is in terms of characteristics.
That listing goes on to describe it further in terms of character, which I'll leave out here. Related to cost this sells for $38.99 for 100 gram cake, so out towards the top of an upper middle price range for sheng, at least given my bias towards seeing a moderately priced range as typical. For some people versions that tend to interest them might typically start at $1 a gram and go on from there. It's simple enough math to sort out that this would relate to around a $140 357 gram cake, which is more than standard sized new sheng often tends to cost, except for those $200 per 200 gram cake versions, which are presented as relating to a different quality level and in-demand type.
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Xishubangbanna prefecture, from the King Tea Mall site, image credited to this site, more info |
May as well reference the other tea description while I'm at it:
Made from tea leaves of Gushu (old trees ) in MAN KA village located in Laos near the border of Laos and Myanmar.
Tea leaves were picked and processed in the Spring of 2018 year...
That is a flavor I have never tasted before. Though there is near the south border of YI WU tea region in China, but the taste is far different. Also different from teas from other regions in Yunnan.
This tea is selling for $24.99 per 100 gram cake, so at least in a comparable range for quality as implied by the pricing. It would equate to just under $100 for a 357 gram cake, so really more in a standard upper medium range, with the other in a less common middle ground just beyond that. Demand for teas varies quite a bit by origin location though, and for all I know that's on the low side as Ban Pen versions go, since it's an origin that comes up.
The main detail listed is that it tastes different than Yunnan sheng; that kind of works. I can't imagine that I would ever feel like I have any baseline at all for all the sheng from Yunnan but there's no need to state that as a criticism, or imply one, just pointing out the obvious, that it's an unusual point to make.
In terms of process I'm switching form here and using a light proportion of these sample amounts versus the whole sample to result in tasting a packed gaiwan (the other choice I more or less always make, given an option to brew a high proportion or low one). I'll need to extend infusion times a little beyond what I usually go with and the transition cycle will run faster, but this will probably allow me to go beyond 6 or so infusions I normally taste in one go and see the teas through until a relative end.
Since I like sheng brewed on the light side compared to almost all other tea types it might've made more sense to be using a related approach all along, and maybe it is time to alternate and experiment with that.
Review
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Laotian Man Ka left, Ban Pen version right |
"Man Ka" Laotian: that's really nice right out of the gate, not even fully saturated yet. There's a novel buttery quality to it that stands out right away, in terms of sweetness, softness, rich feel, and even flavor. Everything else balances really nicely, that sweetness, the subtle richness, a mild level of bitterness, and subdued mineral undertone. Other flavor range is more towards wood and floral range that hints towards fruit. I cut a part from the description that works better cited here:
Since local people are not good at process puerh tea, my supplier brought workers from Yunnan to there and taken sun dried completed Mao Cha back to Menghai, Yunnan.
Of course I believe that was accurate related to production process (what really happened). I've mentioned lots here from suppliers and review assessments that Laos sheng (and from SE Asia in particular) are quite inconsistent, but it's going too far to say that no local producer in Laos can make decent sheng. I've tried versions that would contradict that myself. To be fair they weren't as close to the style of better Yunnan versions, in general, or maybe even as a whole, across all of them, so this discussion is about relative consistency and variation as well as trueness to type.
I see this more as another case of not being careful with language use rather than as an inaccurate or biased statement. I've cited a video before from William of Farmerleaf, who worked with Anna of Kinnari Tea and other parties to do processing training in Laos (covered further in this review post), and in general small farmers there were said to typically benefit from improving prior levels of processing skills.
This tea is good; that's the main thing. It will shift as it fully infuses and might transition a good bit beyond that, given the other quality markers standing out early on.
"Bo Ya" Ban Pen sheng: that flavor is really catchy. I tried a tea presented as a Lao Ban Zhang some months ago that had a really interesting fruit-like flavor (or maybe floral, but in an unusual form) that this may or may not resemble. I don't recall that I wrote about that since I tried it in that one local shop here, in Jip Eu, sold as coins (or "flapjacks," as White 2 Tea markets at least one related product shape). After trying it again I'd go with complex floral as a main flavor range, as a good bit of floral flavor scope collected together. Bitterness is quite moderate but it is just getting started; the final character, the early version of it, will show up more in the next round.
It's hard to keep track of inputs but I've notice that more "wild" tree sourced material (or teas presented as such; who knows which claims are most accurate) tends to be flavorful in distinctive ways and more mild, related to bitterness and astringency. Then older tree material, versions sold as gushu, tend to be on the intense side, often with significant bitterness and pronounced mineral input, often with pronounced aftertaste as an aspect. Of course teas vary by so many inputs and I'm so far from sorting it out those observed patterns may be of little value, along the line of guesses about generalities. At any rate I'll do more with the experienced aspects description for both in the next round.
Second infusion
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Laotian version left, Ban Pen right (still unfolding) |
Laotian: the flavor transitioned quite a bit, and it may have one more round to go to get to its normal aspect range in the early cycle. It's hard to describe. It's still smooth, sweet, floral (in part), and a bit buttery but the vegetal range shifted some. It might be closest to wood but I would mean something relatively completely different by that than I usually do, and it always relates to different things anyway. It's nice the way the tea is soft in feel but has some fullness to it, but a really pleasant aftertaste carries over anyway, an increase in sweetness right after you drink it. Most often that would pair with an experience of bitterness but somehow something comparable happens with this tea with very little of that first scope; experience of sweetness bumps up then without much bitterness as a prelude.
It's different, in a good way, and obviously a quite pleasant version. I kind of want to say it's "good tea" but that's almost too loaded a term to use in most cases. Oddly it gives up a little, to me, for being this refined and subtle, since more local Laotian teas often express more flaws or style inconsistencies but they gain back something in truly novel character to compensate, as distinctive types of flavor intensity. This is unusual but it's similar in style to Yunnan versions, just the end effect and flavor profile shifts a little, but not much.
Ban Pen: I won't really be doing this justice in describing it; what's appealing about it is subtle. Both of these are on the light and soft side related in part to me brewing them so lightly; cutting proportion enables moderating intensity. Complex floral still works as a description but an unusual edge of mild bitterness and feel complexity has kicked in, completely changing the tea. Aftertaste effect was interesting in the first version but really pronounced in this tea, even for drinking it quite light so far. I'll let both run a little longer for infusion time to say more about feel, aftertaste, and flavor aspects next round.
Third infusion
Laotian: gaining a little more infusion strength bumped up the input of bitterness and altered the feel a little. This works well across the range, from what I'd consider to be very light earlier to what is normal for me now, or I suppose what others could still consider to be a light infusion (although their impression of an optimum I'd have trouble relating to). The aspect range is well-balanced, refined, and catchy. A little more bitterness might still work just as well but given the unusually positive flavor it's nice with that limited too. And it's nice that the feel is full in a different way than normal, and that a reasonably long and complex aftertaste experience works out with minimal bitterness included. The other tea is probably what a lot of sheng drinkers are shooting for as more of a better-case range but this works well for me.
Ban Pen: I don't see this as completely unrelated to the other in character, just different. They're both sweet and floral, both mild, both working well for being grounded by very limited mineral ranges, which might play more of a role in overall effect than is apparent. Mineral range is less limited in this tea's case, but the floral tones stand out more, and a trace of integrated bitterness contributes a lot, on the low-medium overall level. The feel isn't as structured as for a lot of sheng but it still works as significant; the overall balance is good.
Back to that "presented as LBZ" version I had mentioned, I was struck by how a really catchy flavor range paired in an interesting way with other character that was mild in nature. It's easy to see types of intensity as a marker for really good tea, more flavor intensity, more bitterness or mineral, aftertaste, etc., and those being moderate but balancing well makes for a different effect. More isn't always better, even for aspects regarded as positive.
I feel like I should say something about "floral" flavor range, in either of these teas' cases, but I won't, leaving off trying to describe that. For someone more on that page, for floral scent awareness, that would probably be the main story to these and a natural place to add the most description but I'm just not there.
Fourth infusion
Both of these are transitioning a little, and will continue to, but for as vague as these descriptions are coming across I'm thinking of shutting the tasting notes down and just enjoying the teas. They're both more similar than ever in this round, coming from different places and working towards not being all that different. The butteriness in the first isn't in the second, and the way bitterness plays an interesting role in integrating with a complex floral tone is missing in the first, or at least a similar form of bitterness at a comparable but moderate level.
The flavor profiles aren't as far off as I would've expected though, the "complex floral" ranges found in both. The bitterness in the second couples with an extension into a mild wood tone, give or take, giving it more complexity, and the aftertaste experience is more pronounced.
Conclusion
I don't have more to add since I'm finishing this post from notes form over a week after I actually tasted them, due to traveling some last week (to Udon province in Isaan in Thailand, if that rings a bell). To me they seemed to represent good examples of middle-range sheng versions, of teas a good bit better than better-version factory teas or higher quality but still inexpensive blends, which themselves are better than the random low-cost sheng I've been running across in travels and reviewing.
I can sort of get why sheng versions billed as a good bit higher in quality (often pegged around the $1 per gram price level) are different and really better, but these teas are probably about as good as I tend to appreciate as different, with others just standing out for markers for higher quality level being present as much as them matching my preference better. Some sheng enthusiasts might automatically react that I've just not tried enough of a better tea version range, versus only developing preference, and I can't reject that as a possibility. Surely that's part of it. It's not exactly how I see the themes and types as mapping out but I have another dozen or so versions to try at home now, between samples and new cakes stacking up, so maybe I'll know better where I now stand in terms of different variations in another two months or so.
As I keep re-trying the same teas I've been writing about a theme I've mentioned lots of times in this blog comes up: a review based on only one tasting is just something of a first impression. It's hard to gauge if any number of different factors might not throw off how I interpret any given tea on a certain day. I was tasting a lot of them in upper 30s C / around 100 F temperatures lately, and I'm not sure if that couldn't affect either taste sensation, or just re-frame of internal reference enough to change things. Acclimating to a slightly new range of aspects by trying a tea version a few times helps, and working through variations in parameters used. Just changing expectations that vary according to what I've tried in the recent past can change impression.
These aren't intended as excuses for being inconsistent in descriptions; it really does seem like the experience of the same teas varies a little across different sessions, or in some cases more than a little. I think interpretation has more to do with it than any "raw experience" input, and at a guess I'd expect everyone to experience varying degrees of being inconsistent in how they interpret the exact same experiences over time. Teas sitting around longer, acclimating to local conditions over more than a month versus just two or three weeks, might well make a lot of difference too.
Per usual none of this is heading towards any tidy summary; just rambling a bit about context. I might get around to doing a re-tasting of some sheng versions I've been drinking regularly to see if it bears all that out or contradicts it.
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the main new thing has been rejoing my kids after their 6 weeks in the States |
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supposedly a Naga (dragon spirit) resides here. I should write about that. |
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3000 year old human remains, from a 5000 year local history |
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all of this might be 3-4000 years old; it makes you think |
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