Back in July I mentioned trying a Bing Dao version when visiting my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop, Jip Eu, which I've mentioned many times here. That was in a review of a 2006 Xiaguan 8653 cake, which I bought there. Before hearing any details one might immediately question if any tea offered as Bing Dao really is that, even though some must be, that area must still produce tea. I'm referring to how that origin, and LBZ and others, tends to be overextended in terms of claims, to the extent that anything that's not traceable and definitely that would likely be something else, being mispresented.
Here's the thing, they weren't selling that tea we tried. Or this one they gave me, for free; I visited that day and tried one of his own teas, and this one Kittichai said was from a local producer there who is a friend. That owner was just sharing his own tea. Which I do too, bringing them tea to try whenever I visit, so I guess maybe he feels it's appropriate to return the favor. I'm not giving him tea for that reason, to initiate a swap, it's so he can try it instead, but of course it's great trying pleasant and novel teas, with this one on the higher quality side.
An interesting related aside, I just visited there about a week ago, picking up tea for a Christmas gift exchange, and brought Kittichai--that shop owner--some Thai sheng that I liked. He didn't like it. He said that the style doesn't match Yunnan produced styles, that the flavors and general character are different, and that it wouldn't hold up well to aging. Maybe, about all of that, except that I did like the tea. I reviewed it here, in comparison with another Thai version and a Vietnamese sheng; it's the loose Gaw Khee maocha version.
It was cool that he was so honest about it. We switched to drinking a 20 year old Menghai version of his instead, which he much preferred. It was good, but I like the younger Thai style too. It's often floral and sweet, and relatively approachable, although that version had pronounced bitterness, just not much for astringency. I agree that putting that kind of tea away for 15 years might ruin it, as likely as the results would be great.
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a $20 Christmas exchange gift: a porcelain gaiwan, 100 grams each of Shui Xian and Dan Cong |
One more tangent here before on to tasting: would I be able to tell if this matches a standard Bing Dao character, as much as there is a narrow version of that? Absolutely not. This might be the third Bing Dao version I've tried (tea presented as such), setting aside a huang pian, which to me sort of doesn't count. I'll be able to say if I like it or not, and hopefully describe some aspects, but the rest, speculating about how good it is, or how well it would age, would be unreliable. It's hard to find that next level tea expert, someone who hasn't only tried an order of magnitude more tea than me, but is also a reliable source of judgement and information. It's easy for people to get stuck on what they personally prefer, or to get hung up on aspect patterns tied to back-stories or whatever else. Let's just see how the tea is.
I don't love dragonballs as a presented form, since they don't brew as well as maocha or cake pressed tea, but it's fine, it just makes for inconsistent brewing the first few rounds.
Review:
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this is really the second infusion, after it opened more |
First infusion (light): it's pleasant. There is a nice intense sweetness, kind of towards warm floral range, and nice underlying warm mineral tone. Bitterness is there but not pronounced. This is richer and warmer in tone than I expected; I wonder what year it is? In tiny print the wrapper mentions 2018, so it seems quite possible this is a 4 1/2 year old tea version.
It goes without saying that aging time passes quickly here in Bangkok; teas are not well-preserved, and transition fast instead. That can be good or bad, depending on personal preference, timing, and the tea starting point, but a few years here is perhaps equivalent to more than twice as long in a cooler and drier place.
There is an interesting character to this that'll be hard to describe. One towards-mineral aspect, which is quite positive, almost tastes a little like soap, but in a good sense. It's like how well water can have a mineral range flavor that's really unique, and hard to place, so you end up talking about rocks and how rusted metal smells, and probably not making much sense. This really is in mineral range more than it relates to soap, what I'm talking about. It strikes your mouth in an odd way too, a bit structured and dry, versus being astringent in a more normal sense. Then I think what I'm referring to related to the flavor effect being rich might come across more as dried fruit once this develops. It'll be easier to describe once it gets going though; this infusion is quite light.
Second infusion: much more intense, and it all really starts next round. That soap aspect really seems to link intense floral range with unusual mineral range, and how they overlap is what is reminding me of that. The way this tea coats your mouth, the feel, and the way flavor experience comes from so much tongue sensation is cool. That floral range must be more aromatic, but there is a lot happening with mineral tones, and sweetness. I'll have to brew this next round a bit fast, moving off the longer initial infusions to get it to open up, or I'll have failed this tea related to brewing it appropriately.
Third infusion: even for brewing that quite fast it's very intense, probably near enough to optimum related to getting timing right. That "soap" effect has mostly transitioned to more typical forms of floral and mineral range, a bit deeper and richer now than in the first two infusions. It's good. It's really complex; beyond that floral and mineral range there is a dried fruit tone filling in complexity, along the line of dried Chinese date (which I guess people as often refer to as jujube). There's just a hint of a warmer tone there too, a toffee sort of sweetness, which is somewhat novel (to me).
Mineral tone range is more familiar, just warm. Aftertaste experience is pronounced but in some other cases it can stay really strong for longer. In this expression it just adds some depth, but not a secondary effect to continue to experience for a minute afterwards. Or maybe that's not right, since it does just continually fade, versus dropping out, so a minute later you still do experience a faint echo of it, but again in some other cases aftertaste (finish, whatever) can almost seem stronger than the actual flavor.
I don't usually say much about feel effect but I can tell this is causing that already. It's interesting how it's not really a stimulant or sedative effect, how it's seemingly shifting how I'm grounded in this moment. Not stoney either though, just a bit relaxing. Or all that is in my head, as likely.
I'm hanging out with some plants that I've put a massive amount of effort into taking care of for the past month, so I should feel relaxed and comfortable around them. I've already posted about "brewing tea" for them, of a sort, of trying out making a tisane infusion on a large scale to feed them, from their own fallen leaves. It might be more natural to think of that as a novel composting approach. I've "brewed" a few cubic meters (thousands of liters) worth of infusion of that for them, in two very large clay pots, and they seem to have appreciated the effort and nutrition input.
Fourth infusion: not different than last round, really. That mineral input is interesting, for being so strong in this. Then having so much other intense range join it is novel, and it all balancing nicely. Whatever this is it's quite pleasant tea. My guess is that it is from the Bing Dao area, but I tend to take any such claims as probabilities, regardless of the source, and try to relate to teas as they are. The intensity is nice but it would be too much, for just powering through 8 or 9 infusions of this quickly, as you really can drink very approachable teas (like that Thai sheng). I think just drinking a little water in between rounds to offset the repetition would be enough; I'll try that.
The next infusion was similar, and I suppose this will continue to transition some over the next 3 or 4, and stay positive for a half dozen more. The point here was to pass on an impression, not to document a full account, so I'll probably just add one more round of notes and drop this.
Sixth infusion: it's as pleasant as it's been, or maybe slightly more so, in a really pleasant place. It's hard to communicate that part, how the complex aspect range I've described relates to my own preference. I like it. It's better tea than I'm typically drinking, but I'm not really one to tie my enjoyment of an experience to a perceived quality level, so I can appreciate teas and experiences for different reasons. This has pleasant character, good complexity, great intensity, and nice overall balance. As for limitations or weaknesses someone would just have to not like part of the character for that to even come up. Maybe it could be more astringent; it's strange to me but this being so approachable could be seen as a bad thing.
There's a really catchy lavender sort of floral tone that I've not really described much, heavy and sweet. For some I guess that could be too heavy? Maybe instead of trying a round really light, to see how that changes things, I should try one heavier and see how that goes. I've been keeping that moderate, using infusion times between 10 and 15 seconds, because that was plenty to draw out lots of intensity, but it could be interesting ramping that up.
Seventh infusion: it hits pretty hard, brewed for longer, more like 20 seconds. That lavender sort of floral range is absolutely perfumey this intense, balanced nicely by warm mineral range, and much more subtle other earthier range, or slightly stronger dried fruit. One fruit aspect starts to resemble a citrus edge more, warm in tone, between a tangerine and sweet red grapefruit. Someone inclined towards passing on long and complex tasting notes descriptions would have a lot to talk about, to imagine around. Don Mei could write a short book about this experience. I'll stop taking notes instead; my wife is bugging me about going out for a late lunch.
It's really nice tea, whether or not it is Bing Dao, but I choose to believe that it is that. But then I don't care so much one way or the other, since I value tea experience a lot more than stories. Of course I don't see that as a universal value preference; people could love stories, or other parts I don't get much out of, ceremonial forms, aesthetic input of teaware, and so on. Tea experience can be social or not; body feel can be the central point or quite secondary, or even mostly irrelevant.
I do tend to value meditative effect, how that break to really focus on a beverage experience can really put you in the moment. I enjoyed communing with the plants that I've been tending for about two months now.
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at the other table that looks like this, but this cat didn't join me |
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a jackfruit plant is there, with a local edible plant, and scallions (green onion) |
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