A vendor recently contacted me about trying their teas for review, ITeaWorld (or itworld), which they sent to me at no cost. This comes up as a tea blogger, just not so much recently.
In an interesting twist they've apparently used this form as a marketing drive, with some mentioning on the r/tea Reddit tea sub that they're sick of seeing posts about their teas. The consensus opinion there was that as long as reviewers mention that the tea was provided free for review that there's no ethical problem, and no issue with posts about that conflicting with r/tea rules.
My own "policy" is that I do mention the teas being sent for free, and will only review teas that I like. The idea is that not liking a tea isn't much of a story to tell; there's plenty of mediocre quality tea out there. I suppose if it was just a mismatch to my style preference, and something interesting came up, I might post it anyway. I will sometimes offer vendors a chance to review a draft, if there seems to be an issue with some of the ideas, and will offer to not post a review that I see as positive but not entirely so. Again my justification is that if I like a tea but it's not exceptional it's still not that much of a story.
In this particular case it's a little different, because if half of these samples (they sent a good number of them) are quite good and the rest are mediocre or flawed there's a broader story to tell about their inconsistent sourcing approach. Or actually they're also involved with production, which I'll probably write more about later, separately. There aren't very many cases of large vendors, or those of any size, moving from resales onto production and processing; Moychay comes to mind, and that's about it. Companies like Yunnan Sourcing and White2Tea commission a lot of teas for production, having things pressed, maybe even branching into having sheng wet-piled to become shu, but it's different moving down to the level of growing and processing tea.
I'm trying two black teas, even though in a sense oolongs will make or break results even more, which I see as more of a flagship, quality-dependent offering. I love black tea though, and it can either be average, good, or exceptional, and I'm probably a decent judge of that for trying an awful lot over a long time. One is from Yunnan (so Dian Hong, by definition, I guess, since that means Yunnan black), and the other from Yingde, which is less familiar. I could look up a most typical type and style range from there but won't to keep this post more basic and readable. The tea is what it is, with or without match to some other normal style range. I'll have to compare the Yunnan version to other Dian Hong range, since that's really my favorite black tea type range.
I highly doubt that all this will never see the light of day because I don't like the teas, but that is possible. To adjust for that I can mention trying versions I don't review in other posts; I don't offer vendors the chance to make any changes at all to content, unless I've included mistakes, which comes up once in a long while, but not often.
I'll brew these Gongfu style, using a higher proportion than for Western brewing. Backed off my normal Gongfu proportion, in relation to individual samples weighing 3.5 grams, when I'd usually brew about twice that much, over a dozen times, in short infusions, most between 10 and 15 seconds, depending on results for the prior round. For oolong that requires a good bit of careful adjustment, to get equivalent results, but black tea is pretty flexible about giving good results from different approaches, and at different intensity levels, so I'm not concerned about the variation.
I don't tend to review dry tea scent but based on that and appearance of the leaves these teas will be good. Real evaluation requires brewing it, but you can get a sense.
Their back-story, according to them, which I may review in more detail later on:
Probably this is the other kind of backstory; tea has been around a long time in China, and plants would be around in different places. Tea plants turn up essentially growing in the wild in lots of local SE Asian countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar, because the history of tea is long and diverse.
Review:
Yunnan black tea: I went with the 15-20 second or so time, not so different than what they advised, just longer, and this is still a bit light. Using a rinse would make their 10-15 second first infusion time make more sense, since that speeds up infusion process more than one would expect later on, but I don't want to drink or throw away a rinse infusion.
That "porcelain teacup" is surely a gaiwan, which translates as lidded cup. All of this works ok for brewing advice, following one of two opposing lines of thought about drinking either tea brewed relatively lightly (what this would result in) or on the more intense side, which would emphasize mouth-feel and aftertaste aspects. In a sense it's easier to separate out finer flavor aspects brewing a tea light, unless you don't normally prepare tea that way (as I don't), then the lack of familiarity would offset that quite a bit.
The tea is nice. Cacoa notes come across, even brewed on the light side. Complexity is ok, even though intensity isn't just yet, and there's good sweetness and depth. I could guess further about aspects but a better flavor-list description will be possible next round.
Yingde black: I'm "getting" less from this; at the lower intensity the other already showed good positive character and some clear aspects but this is more neutral. I'll need to go with a full 30 second infusion time to make sure these show what's present, even though drinking them lighter would work as well without trying to breakdown flavor inclusions. I think brewing while maxing out proportion, using 7 to 9 grams, probably (not that I weigh that, although I could, my wife has a kitchen scale) probably has me drinking relatively strong-brewed tea, even though an average infusion time might be only 10 seconds.
This might include a little more astringency structure, a faint hint of dryness, but I like the rich and soft feel of the other, typical of Yunnan Dian Hong versions. It's definitely not astringent; nothing like broken leaf black teas.
Yunnan black, second infusion (brewed for closer to 30 seconds): brewing this lighter would've also worked, but brewing this a little strong sheds light on the rest of the flavor list. It causes warmer mineral tones to stand out a lot more too, to become a more intense part of the experience, so it might not be a match to my optimum experience.
Cacao is still nice in this, with warm and rich fruity tones along the lines of dried Chinese date, with a good bit of roasted yam. That warm mineral tone works as a nice base, filling in a role astringency can often play instead. This has a nice rich and full feel, but it's not astringent at all. Sweetness level is good; right where it should be. Aftertaste experience is nice, not really extended, but it does fill in the experience further.
All of this is a description of pretty good Dian Hong; it's just not unusual, or representative of unusually high quality level. It's good, probably a well above average quality version, per standard experience, if someone doesn't have sourcing dialed in, or I suppose for someone accustomed to drinking exceptional versions it might just be normal.
This is my favorite black tea style; I completely get it why a lot of tea enthusiasts value this type of tea, since I do. Even higher quality versions might include a bit more novel flavor range, but it's really intensity and balance than can improve from here, with feel and aftertaste range potentially a little more positive (even richer and lasting longer). I value that character (aspects) are a good match to a standard range in this version; I see that as positive.
Yingde black: sweetness and complex flavor range doesn't match the Yunnan version, but the tea quality is obviously pretty good, at least in relation to it lacking flaws. A different kind of inky mineral range fills in, while the other Yunnan example relates more to earthy inclined mineral, like old tree bark decomposing, with this a little closer to slate range. I miss the sweetness level from the other, the overall complexity, and the style that is my own favorite (which wouldn't apply in the same way to everyone). This is still pretty good tea, but I'd be happier to own 100 grams of the other, valuing that experience as something special, and I would probably just drink this as a food companion tea.
Make no mistake, this is miles beyond blended tin-version black tea quality level, although also just different in style. To me the flavor range is limited though, the complexity, limiting the range of the experience.
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lighting variations will throw off camera setting inputs, shifting apparent infusion strength |
Yunnan black, third infusion (brewed a little faster but essentially the same, not so much over 20 seconds): evolving a little instead of fading; a good sign. For pushing the teas this hard for brewing time that wouldn't last; they'll fade soon enough. Drinking six cups at this size (90 ml or so) it's already plenty of tea, and I won't describe a longer cycle of more infusions, this will do. Roasted yam seems to be standing out a good bit more than cacao or dried Chinese date at this point; whether that's positive, negative, or neutral would depend on preference, but to me those early flavors might've been a slightly better mix. Only the balance changed; the same range is present, just shifting in level. It's good.
Yingde black: also positive, but again this is suffering in comparison. It lacks the same intensity, and the flavors present aren't as interesting. I suppose this is at the cut-off for where I might not publish a post, if I was only reviewing this version, because there's just not as much of an interesting story to tell. It's good tea, but not distinctive, complex, or intense, so it's not good in the same sense as the other. It lacks flaws, the overall character is pleasant, and I think pushing it by adjusting brewing technique might draw a little more out of it, so it has potential.
Using full boiling point water might help; I use a filtering and heating system to brew water, and end up brewing using water temps a decent amount below full boiling point, after losing a little more to keeping it in a thermos. For whatever reason my thermos (now still in Honolulu) retains heat a little better than one that belongs to my son (which I'm using now), so this is probably brewing in the 90 C range, some way through the infusion cycle now, at the bottom of what they recommend. Close to 100 might work better, for this tea version.
As an aside close to 100 might work better for lots of tea types; those tea temperature tables you see in different places apply much better to Western brewing (in my opinion), and relate to getting the best out of lower quality, slightly flawed tea versions than these are. There is no astringency or other negative range to "brew around" in these; it's about stripping out the most flavor you can extract from them instead. Brewing for longer, the other approach for maxing out intensity, will weight heavier flavors in the tasting experience, the mineral base, or astringency, when that's more of an input.
Conclusions:
I probably wouldn't have mentioned the Yingde tea in a post if I'd reviewed it separately, because there wasn't much story to tell. That tea is ok, lacking flaws, with decent basic character, but I never did get around to a clear flavor aspects list. It would've been simple enough to make one up, to use imagination and extend what I experienced just a little, but it just tasted like mild and reasonably balanced black tea, covering that typical mineral base, towards dark wood or spice main range, hinting a little towards dried fruit but without anything clearly defined emerging.
I liked the Yunnan version better, both in relation to matching my preference for style better, and for it seeming like a better, more intense, distinctive, and balanced tea version. To an extent how good it seemed ties to how good it was supposed to be, how it was presented, and which kind of pricing range it falls into. Standard black tea selling for $10 per 100 grams can be nice, but something billed as an exceptional version selling for 50 cents a gram needs to be much better just to fall in the range of normal expectations.
Per their listing the Dian Hong (Yunnan version; I think of them as that, the Chinese term) lists for $10 per 100 grams, so it's being sold as good tea selling at a good value. It's pretty good for that.
I just looked up the first version Yunnan Sourcing sells listed as Dian Hong, here, probably the main US online vendor in terms of sales volume and general awareness, listing for $11.50 for 100 grams. That's from Feng Qing, the same origin cited as this iteaworld version. $10 probably is right at the bottom end pricing range of anything similar they sell (but don't take my word for that, look around some if you want). The advantage of buying a tea from them is the ability to buy 3 or 4 similar versions, to pick the one you like most, then you can buy more later. If you like a version from another vendor just as much that benefit essentially drops out, and you don't need to go through drinking the others that you don't like as well.
This sort of "curator" source theme, where a vendor sells one of each kind, puts pressure on a vendor to source very good versions every time, where the market vendors (YS and others) can be hit and miss. For either using some form of reviews or online comments would help people sort through best options. It comes up in online discussion that Yunnan Sourcing deletes any negative comments from their site, so you have to be careful about how you evaluate online input. Interpreting reviews can be tricky too; until a reviewer tries exactly the same tea you've already experienced yourself it's all but impossible to place their judgment, and even that input would only go so far, related to how they're going to interpret anything else.
The "vendor as producer" theme offsets this vendor's ability to curate what they sell on their end; they could distribute versions that don't turn out so well in other ways, but for being involved in production their sourcing would have to be more fixed.
I can't really evaluate any other claims or input about the tea versions, with only the high mountain origin and a source area listed, beyond a spiderweb style graphic describing oxidation level, sweetness level, and such. Some people might think they can taste their way to confirming inputs, but I tend to not value or overthink claims that teas are from a certain elevation, a natural growth area, from plants of a certain age, or even organic. Hopefully that last claim is accurate, when it comes up, but who knows.
The teas were good, especially the Yunnan version. It will be easier to zero in more on quality issues and a match of claims of aspect character to experience with the oolongs, which I'll probably cover next.
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the outdoor tasting space at home, which I've shown before |
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