An online friend sent some teas to review, not exactly in the role of a tea vendor, but he does operate a cafe that sells tea in Chiang Mai, Thailand, along with his wife. That's the Iris café Nimman, so if you wanted to talk to him about local teas that would work. I'll include what producer this is from, but I'll review others he sent later, and probably won't express that for all of them. He's holding a tea tasting soon, on Feb. 5, so if you are in Chiang Mai that's a good opportunity to check in with him and compare notes about Thai teas (or this Insta profile covers that CM tastings theme).
This is a sheng version from Wawee, which is a village and tea producing area, that specializes in sheng as much as anything. In this case the producer name is also Wawee Tea, after the area they're in. It's not necessarily "pu'er," since China prefers that designation be regionally restricted to Yunnan, but it's the exact same tea, made from the same genetic range of plants--per my take anyway. This tea type was probably being produced in a related form a couple of hundred years before that legal designation came to be, or maybe even before the Yunnan village-name type designation evolved.
I had a feeling that this tea was probably sold out already, that word has long since been out, and production of this product version is limited, and that's the case, it's not available. Other loose tea is available from them, and time passes quickly, so spring harvest will come soon.
Review:
First infusion: there's a distinctive smell that good Thai sheng often has that even the initial wet leaves of this gives off. It's like smelling a blackberry bush, a sweet and rich smell, with some limited wood tone component, maybe pulled just a little towards rich leather scent. This is going to be nice.
As expected this first round is subtle; I skipped the rinse since it doesn't change much, and you end up experiencing a subtle first round either way. Warm sweet tones stand out, with bitterness not yet extracting, but it will. Sometimes naturally grown older plants can be milder in form, trading out typical rough edges for intensity and depth across some other range, but that really also depends on the plant types and processing inputs. Next rounds' flavor list will show more of where this is going.
Second infusion: there's that bitterness, and all the rest, plenty of flavor intensity, and a unique and full feel. Aromatic flavor range is amazing, as I would've expected. Breaking that down: related to taste it's so complex that a set of flavors stands out more than any one or two. There is definitely floral range as a main component, and the bitterness, with a rich citrusy aspect joining those as also primary. There's the standard mineral tone, here not bright and flinty or warm and on the deep side, but complex, and balanced towards the lighter range.
This flavor set overlaps a lot with a Thai forest origin tea version that included a very catchy flavor element, which this also includes, a personal favorite. To me it seems like a heavy and rich floral tone, along the line of lavender, mixed with a similar or matching fruit aspect, which is a bit harder to place. Citrus is included, so maybe it's only that, that a set of lavender and rich warm and sweet orange or tangerine seems to combine. I just revisited a really nice wild forest origin Thai sheng from elsewhere, a Moychay initiative based out of the Maetang mountains area (reviewed here), and it's slightly different, overlapping some, but with heavier and deeper flavors and a bit more mineral base.
As to bitterness level, sweetness, and feel it's all in very positive range. Bitterness isn't heavy but there's enough to balance the rest, sweetness is definitely pronounced, and feel is rich and full. Feel isn't heavy, structured, or dry, but just full, a little towards how lighter oolongs come across compared to the standard range of harsher and drier young sheng. Aftertaste experience is nice; the bitterness, sweetness, and floral mixed with fruit tones linger on and on. Next one might wonder if atypical, slightly extended oxidation level processing didn't help lead to these positive flavor aspects, and moderate bitterness and astringency, which I'll try to sort out a bit as I go [later edit: I never do revisit the processing theme in these notes, saying only a little about oxidation level, but there's not much novel insight I would've added if I had].
Third infusion: a first impression of drinking each round is of how good this is, how it's complex and positive across so much range, so many levels. The aspect listing form may not do it justice but flavor range, feel, balance, intensity, and refinement are all great.
Then it's essentially the same list as before, mostly floral tone that seems to include a fruit edge that I can't isolate, beyond part of that relating to citrus. There's also good mineral depth, a wood tone or spice range that's not woody in a conventional sense, but a deeper and more subtle experience of the forest itself, maybe not so far off the scent of a blackberry patch, as I'd mentioned. The wood tone seems to span a brighter and lighter range, like blackberry briar stem, conventional green wood tone (light in effect, combining with the rest), and also a richer and deeper component, linking with warm mineral range, like some sort of lacquer.
Permit me an aside: when I was 13 I helped my parents build a house, which really took some doing, and they sided it with wood processed by local Amish people, and stained that a dark color. This reminds me a bit of that heavy scent of so much cured wood mixed with heavy and rich chemicals, not so much those that seemed more volatile and harsh, but instead the other (probably natural?) aromatic oils designed to preserve the wood, to integrate with it and change it.
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all great memories from that place |
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the kids' first snowmen, in the back yard, on a visit awhile back |
I'm already feeling this tea; a heady buzz is kicking in. I'll often eat a substantial breakfast, including both carbs and some fat, to prepare my stomach and in part to offset that effect, probably mostly slowing how fast it kicks in. So far today I've only eaten fruit, papaya from the house mixed with orange. I'll eat a couple of cookies to make sure my stomach stays settled and keep going. And will make more notes and transitions next round. For offsetting palate effect from eating foods between rounds, even mild foods, drinking water helps; no need to make a resolution step more complicated than it needs to be.
Fourth infusion: the balance of what I've already described just keeps shifting. Warmer tones pick up, and lighter floral range and the light woody edge give way. It's not as bright in citrus range but one part still seems related, filling in that effect of complexity. Again bitterness is at a great level in this, substantial but not dominant. And feel is a very positive input, lending it structure and rich complexity, but not venturing into harsher and drier range, not challenging at all.
A warm and sweet tone is emerging from within range I had described in other ways, tied to the lavender floral aspect, but also a little towards flavor I tend to describe as resinous, or aromatic in a similar way as perfume. It could seem like I'm splitting hairs now, letting imagination wander to provide justification of an effect of complexity, but there really is something interesting there. It's drawing on aromatic spice or even cacao range.
Fifth infusion: this isn't evolving / changing enough to describe that, but I can compare the experience to the other Thai tea I'm saying overlaps with it. Maybe I could've done so more directly in combined tasting, since I have more of that tea, but I'll go on memory instead. This shares that really appealing and intense floral range that has lots of adjoined complexity, but this seems to add depth beyond that. It's not just warmer tone range and more mineral, although there is that, there's a much greater experience of complexity, and the balance is different, the sense of refinement that comes across. I suspect that both were made from really good material, and then marginal differences in that input and processing lends this slightly greater refinement and range.
Maybe there is something to that gushu theme people go on and on about. I've tried dozens of teas presented as such but it can be hard sorting out input differences, or knowing if that really means anything or not. I asked one vendor, who sells a lot of versions as gushu, how it would work out that they're using old plant material without mixing versions from differing plant ages, since even in a stand of hundreds of years old trees there would be plants of different ages. He said that they typically clear other smaller plants from older ones, so they grow more alone.
Then at some point you get a sense it's just stories being passed on, and actual background details are probably something else. Of course plants could grow in different environments and producers could harvest in any way they choose to, even producing tea versions only from individual plants, and they do in some cases, but I'm still not much for stories. Later the experience speaks for itself.
Sixth infusion: again that balance of aspects is just a marvel, the way rich floral tones combine with what I'm interpreting as citrus, warm mineral tones, one range a bit towards wood or spice, and a light resinous edge that is very positive. This tea may or may not really improve with age but I would have to own more than I tend to ever buy to keep some beyond the intermediate 3 or 4 year range to see how it starts shifting.
Seventh infusion: I might've mentioned that I'm preparing this as a maxed-out proportion, my usual approach, brewed for just under 10 seconds still. I had two thirds this much leaf in the gaiwan, ready to start, and couldn't pull the trigger on changing form. Recently I did drink a some decade old Xiaguan tuo (11 years old, it was) prepared at two thirds this proportion, which was hard to prep, making myself back off. That paid off because I could drink a full round brewed for longer time, so I didn't need to come back in the afternoon to the same tea again.
Range of what I'm experiencing could've narrowed ever so slightly, but it's as likely that brewed intensity is finally dropping off, requiring a full dozen seconds to match earlier results. Or it's nice like this, lighter. Positive feel, the way it coats your mouth, and a very pleasant aftertaste rush help contribute to an impression of complexity.
I think with absolutely no acclimation to the experience of bitterness in sheng this tea could seem slightly disagreeable, but in comparison to versions like that Xiaguan tuo (not yet really aged to where it should be) this is a lot like an oolong: mild, sweet, and approachable. Too much like an oolong? Absolutely not, per my judgement, because the tea experience is fantastic, but I suppose preferences vary.
Eighth infusion: I brewed this slightly longer, to get intensity back up, and that resinous edge is the strongest it has been yet. It's a bit on towards pine sap, which one never tastes, so I mean related to that scent. That flavor range alone probably wouldn't be positive, but integrated and matched to the rest it's novel and very pleasant in this. That minor shift in intensity really comes through in feel too, an effect across your entire mouth, versus some sheng experience settling on one place more. A minute after drinking the tea the echo of all of it persists, flavor and feel, with mouthfeel lingering a lot more than is typical.
Ninth infusion: probably this is narrowing in range and complexity a little, but the parts that are evolving are quite pleasant, and that great feel and aftertaste keep it from seeming simple, or even average in level of complexity. It's the same fantastic balance, between warm floral tone, citrus input, resinous pine edge, and warm underlying mineral range, with some degree of other spice and fruit range there to be interpreted in different ways. This experience didn't disappoint; it was exactly what I expected, except a little better.
Conclusions:
The tea wasn't finished at that point but it did fade a good bit over a few more rounds, then I brewed it a few more after that anyway. It was only that fantastic for those first 9 rounds, maybe not quite as nice the last one or two, but all of a dozen were very good.
I've been considering how different types of tea would age for a number of years, but I wasn't really trying aged versions and starting to own teas to try over time until about 4 or 5 years ago, so in a sense I'm new to this (yep, that's how sheng pu'er exploration goes). I first owned a version of a sheng cake about a decade ago, but not really having early exploration well-informed and dialed in led to sorting through oolongs and whatever else more for that first half dozen years. Which is fine; it's a good base for experiencing pu'er, and it takes time and exposure to appreciate the bitterness input.
It might sound like there was very little bitterness in this, since I explicitly described it as a main early flavor but then kept downplaying that as a main factor, and dropped it out of descriptions a few rounds in. To me it wasn't bitter, but that's in comparison with other young sheng range. 8 or 9 months of aging is negligible, related to how this tea might have already transitioned, even though brand new maocha isn't exactly the same after the first couple of months. That's a similar contradiction as saying that the tea had bitterness as a primary flavor input but that it was very moderate for the type, so not really an interesting or relevant factor, beyond how well it balanced with the rest (well, this time). Character could and would change some over 8 or 9 months but compared to a more significant 2 or 3 years of early transition phase the tea is not so different yet.
But would this age well; is it suitable for storing for 15 to 20 years, to enjoy as a completely different thing then? Did a higher level of oxidation cause this to be approachable within one year, versus other inputs that could lead to that effect (plant type, age, growing conditions input, other processing variations...)? I don't know, really. I could guess but it wouldn't be based on much, and not reliable. Oxidation level you can kind of see in wet plant leaf and brewed liquid color, but I don't want to make too much of that judgement. This isn't a step towards black tea, as some more oxidized sheng can be, but it's hard for me to judge how variations in wilting time changes versions.
For me this tea is so positive now that it's a strange question to be asking, about long term aging potential; why would you really want to experience a lot of this aged to be completely different, waiting 15 years for that, when it's great now? I could see stocking up a half dozen small cakes, burning through a couple, and then seeing what this is like in 3 or 4 years, maybe holding off on touching one or two for that decade of time. But if I owned two I'd drink one now and another within that shorter time-frame, in some years, as occurred with the tea I've tried that's most similar to this, and I would never know about long term potential.
To me it's something of a myth that sheng pu'er always improves with age (and again this isn't pu'er, unless you think it is, that the Chinese have overstepped naming conventions assignment, but even then you have to sort through variations in styles that can correspond to areas, to be clear on what changes you should expect over time). Sheng always changes, but preference is what dictates optimum forms. A tea friend once mentioned that different sheng versions would have a different sweet spot for optimum transition, and that makes sense to me. It would be atypical for that optimum to be in the middle age range, from 6 to 10 years, or however one sees that, but some being better new or after limited aging, 3 or 4 years, makes sense to me. And it would be fine if others completely reject that, and don't like the same types of sheng that I do, or the same aspect profiles.
What about more grounded, shared-perspective, Western tea circle optimums, what other types of tea bloggers who lean into group input more (and spending / tea budget) settle on? Beyond being too broad a theme to add a couple of sentences on there definitely are a range of sheng starting points that many see as optimum only after 20 or so years, and then only coupled with carefully optimized (and potentially type-matched) storage conditions inputs. I've been exploring aged sheng more over the past year or so, with a dozen or so posts here about that theme, but it seems reasonable to point out that I've not really tried to seek out a relative optimum. Spending a lot, drawing on experienced group input, and exploring varying sources would work better for that than trying a bit of this or that, whatever comes up, with budget as a main limitation.
I don't see that limitation as a problem, for appreciating and to an extent evaluating a broad range of other tea. Here I discuss what I experience and like, and it's too long a theme to treat here but saying that I love a tea isn't necessarily a claim that it's located at some objective quality level, or in a clear type positioning. This compares really well to every Thai sheng that I've ever tried, not really a large set, maybe only a dozen versions.
On a completely unrelated personal note I plan to fast again starting tomorrow, so I'm not sure how tea experience will work out over the next week, and I'll finish editing this working through that initial hunger. Maybe I'll go 7 days; I'll play it by ear, seeing how I feel after 5. This time I plan to include tea and tisanes, to the extent those sound good to me, seeing how that changes the experience. Just no calories of any kind, beyond what happens to be in tea and tisanes, so essentially none. I think I'll try running too, to use this trial to test out a few changes in approach, but I'll let the initial hunger phase mostly work through first, which took three days last time.
I'm not advocating fasting, just exploring it, with more on how that went the last time here. Eating every day seems normal, and I'm not sure which of the potential health benefits actually work out. I don't think I lost any weight, and the main difference might have been that it seemed to help with energy level while running later on.
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perfect timing for the squirrel to eat part of one papaya; I switched to more opaque bags |
[Later edit] I'm on day 4 of that fast, and it has went really well. Drinking tea hasn't caused stomach problems, or seemingly changed the experience that much, but I feel more comfortable and less hungry than in two earlier trials. Running once, only 4 km, felt kind of normal, which is odd. I'll probably still stop after day 5, because we have two ripe papaya and a bunch of bananas at the house, and I don't want to eat those mushy or freeze them.
I'm not really trying to lose weight, just experimenting, and if there were any health benefits (weight loss, clearer mind, improve organ health, or reduce cancer risk) 5 days worth of effect will be fine. The main benefit of fasting, I think, is a reset in eating habits, but since it's not been that long since doing a couple of fasts my habits are fine.
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