An online friend visited from Singapore recently, John Lim, in part to hold a tea tasting event, and passed on a shu pu'er tuocha. So nice! I tend to see all shu as similar more than for most other types, but he said this might be a bit distinctive. That could even be an understatement, given what I've experienced in trying it (writing this during editing).
John is on Instagram here as in a tea business form, or personally here; I suppose those are good contacts for him.
Review:
First infusion: this tastes like marshmallow. That's really unique; I think I might have said that once before in a tasting but this is even more like it. Even though I used a rinse this infusion is still on the light side too, with the tea still not fully dampened. Beyond that it's quite clean in flavor profile; it might include some dried berry, and the earthy tones are very clean. I'll go heavy on the next round timing and infusion strength to see how that changes things but it's quite pleasant brewed a little light. Warm mineral tones fill in a nice base, to give it depth and complexity, but earthiness doesn't extend to the peat range.
I'm tasting this on day three of a fast, which alters sense of taste, but not much. Based on one prior trial doing a tasting, and drinking tea most days for about 20 days of not eating, sweetness level will come across a little different, and that's about it.
It's hard to say if intuition informs that sweetness should seem higher because your body is craving any food input with flavor, or as lower because it will be bitterly disappointed that a food doesn't actually contain carbohydrates. It's more the latter, it seems to me, that somehow the form of sweetness can often seem to include a gap in a normal flavor range experience, that probably relates to that shortfall in actual caloric value. But then this does seem sweet to me; maybe I've adjusted, and my body and sense of taste get it that this will be a few days off any energy source input.
Second infusion: at this proportion 20 seconds brewing would be fine for this tea, of this type, but I'll go just over 30 to taste this on the strong side (not timed, of course). Brewing tea on the light side can actually help with being able to split apart a flavor list, for some reason, but I like shu brewed a little strong, so that's it.
The marshmallow flavor is stronger, as all the taste range is, not shifted so much in terms of the set of aspects. Cacao / cocoa might be picking up a little; it's noticeable, and it hadn't been last round. This is pretty good shu, especially with regards to flavor profile.
As to body or feel it has richness, and some aftertaste extension, but those are more in a normal range, positive as supporting elements, but they don't stand out. The aftertaste experience is more positive for mirroring the interesting set of flavors than for being intense; a hint of the marshmallow carries over, now with cacao heavier than a lighter range dried berry (or cherry?; it seems most like dried blueberry to me, but people would vary on interpretation, since you are talking about how it combines with or adjoins heavier mineral and light earth flavors).
Could this seem even more positive because I'm a little starved? Maybe. I can still not like the taste of things I dislike. I'm not getting a lot of exposure to tasting while fasting but I did try chrysanthemum with rosemary last night, with a touch of stevia for sweetness, and it was good, nice experiencing rich and complex flavors, but not seemingly that much better than it typically would be. Better, for sure, but just a little.
On the last fast I drank a tisane once, on the second day, and maybe I'll keep food exposure beyond a daily round of tea to that again, or maybe I'll brew some butterfly / blue pea at some point. The vine at our house is loaded with flowers, and I don't love that tisane but I hate to waste it, and mixed with chrysanthemum it tastes mostly like chrysanthemum. I think I'll take down some mangoes that aren't quite ready yet to keep them from the squirrel, who gets plenty either way, since those will take a few days to finish ripening. I'm the gardener now, since my wife's mother is in Hawaii with her and the kids, and it's nice to connect with the plants by accepting some of what they offer.
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only part of the flowering vine |
Third infusion: those flavor inputs seem to be more evenly matched now, maybe better balanced, as some would see it, or perhaps not as positive, depending on interpretation or preference. It's a little further into cacao range, with heavier inputs bumped up a little, the warm mineral, and the marshmallow and fruit range dropped back.
It would be natural to interpret this as including more warm earthy tones, to see this as tasting a lot like a black bread. I love black bread; who doesn't? In the US that's pretty much just pumpernickel, the main style available, which this is pretty close to, but I bought a couple nice versions visiting Russia awhile back that just seemed to be normal bread range to them.
Fourth infusion: depth picks up; that's interesting. It's hard to describe what that even means. It all integrates differently, with deeper flavor range picking up, the warm mineral, dark bread tones, and somewhat integrated remaining lighter intensity dried fruit tone. Marshmallow is still present but it would be easy to miss in this experience. To be clear, even though to some extent it might already be, that's a tisane flavor input, a mallow plant flavor contribution.
John filled in what this is. I might skip ahead to a Conclusions section and not say much about the next half dozen rounds, since the transition could take a minor interesting turn but in general it might just start to fade after a few more.
To add to that, on the sixth or seventh infusion (it's easy to lose track) a bit of an aged tangerine peel aspect enters in, which is quite unique. Citrus comes up in teas, all the time, across a lot of version forms, but not necessarily that range of it, and not in late infusion rounds in a shu pu'er. It's still quite clean in effect too, with really nice depth; I suppose that will continue into later rounds. This may not make it to later rounds compared to a sheng count, since I tend to brew those much faster and lighter, but I bet stretching out timing it will brew at least a dozen pleasant infusions.
Conclusion:
This is Jing Mai origin gushu (old plant) 2005 shu pu'er. John said that is more accurately transliterated as shou, which could be true, or may just depend, since both come up and are argued by people who should know.
It's interesting that this is contains so much brighter flavor range, which diminished over just four infusions but was still present, and stood out as most pronounced earlier on. This being so clean in effect, containing no off earthy flavors, no peat and such, does match normal aged shu range, but unless I'm mistaken you often give up that more intense brighter range to aging transition.
It's hard to know what to make of that, and anything I say might be wrong for me working from limited prior experience and exposure. At the risk of making no sense I'll go there anyway. To start John said that he stores this kind of tea fairly well sealed, which may have helped preserve some range, without stopping the transition of anything remotely off in heavier tones, the funkier fermented flavors. Maybe just being made with higher quality gushu material made almost all the difference, and there is little more to it.
Then I also wonder if this wasn't fermented less originally, if they didn't stop short of the fully fermented level form very common now, so that shu versions tend to need a couple of years to clear up a bit but are intense and heavy right away, leaving more potential to develop over this 18 years for not fully transitioning all of those related polyphenol compounds.
As far as this being from Jing Mai that could mean something to others that it doesn't to me. I can't be sure I've even tried enough young / newer Jing Mai range versions to be clear on generalities from that origin area, even though to some extent that seems to be the case to me (a dozen or more; not so many). Memory form comes into play; I don't retain a matrix of origin areas and typical flavor or feel aspects for sheng as well as others seem to, or for shu at all, never mind not placing the "cha qi" theme much at all. I have no idea if this tea has good energy, distinctive in any way.
We talked a little about cost or value in relation to this tea, related to what he sells it for, or what it might sell for. It's hard to place that, isn't it? There's not so much that's similar to this available on a Western market, and that may or may not be different in China. His specific selling price is up towards a dollar a gram, and that may be a good value, depending on it potentially being possible to ask for a lot more. Teas sold as something like this usually wouldn't be what they're described as, or at least quality level and distinctiveness wouldn't match this.
Of course it's one of the best shu versions I've tried. Then it can be hard to place that; do I like the experience that much more than something in the middle of the range for quality level and distinctiveness, back to the "shu is shu" theme I keep bringing up? Yes and no? In the abstract sense related to experiencing something different yes, but related to this matching my own personal preference in a more direct way maybe not as much.
I could probably appreciate a really good Longjing more for aspect match to preference, even though green tea is my least favorite broad type. An exceptional Dong Ding oolong version could match both ways, for novelty and a somewhat closer link to what I like in teas. I'm really a sheng drinker though, at this point. I drank some of a shu brick I own yesterday, that was presented as good tea but selling at a good value (for not much), and it wasn't this good, or this interesting, but just for something to drink with a breakfast they're not so far apart. This tea shouldn't be used for that.
One last tangent I'll cite but mostly just set aside here; I feel less and less inclination to explore new or different ranges of tea experience now, and value keeping it positive, somewhat novel, but also basic, in at least one sense. Young Thai sheng suits me, as something intense, well-balanced, drinkable, and interesting, but not necessarily absolutely or completely novel, or representing the most distinctive, complex, or refined range. I've been going on and on about one version but another just arrived; I'll review that soon.
I just ordered some Vietnamese tea; hopefully it's similar too, pleasant, interesting, and distinctive. This tea I'm reviewing represents the opposite range from a distinctive and intense but basic daily drinker experience. And it's shu, which to me is almost a bit of a contradiction, high quality shu, but that's what it seems like to me. For others this would really check a lot of boxes in relation to their personal preference, and would represent a good value tea even for selling for several times over the cost of those recent SE Asian sheng versions.
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Myra joined me for part of the tasting |
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my nemesis, always eating more than his share of the mango and papaya |
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these could have used a couple more weeks but they'll ripen off the tree |
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