I'm trying out a couple more samples from Viet Sun, sent along with ordering a really nice sheng and black tea not long ago. They sent a second "forest origin" type of green tea, which would make a lot more sense to compare with the fishhook / standard Thai Nguyen version range, but this sounds good to me, comparing oolong and green tea experience.
In general it's better to comparison taste as similar teas as you can, not mixing styles or character, because you'll notice more fine differences instead of just that you are trying two types at once. I've been through it lots of times though; it gets easier to sort out with exposure.
I'll brew these using water not so far off boiling, maybe 90 C. I've measured output temperature from a filtration system that also heats water at our house before, but I don't remember that outcome. It's too hot for Western brewing approach optimum for green tea, per most people's opinion, but it's normal in Vietnam to use hot water to brew green tea, and to be ok with the stronger flavor profile and additional astringency that results. I can cool a round and check the difference [or switch to using cooler water across all the rounds, as it turned out, because that tea is really intense].
Related to the Viet Sun black tea and sheng I've been drinking, from Lao Cai and Song La, respectively, I like them more and more as I keep drinking them. It's possible for a novel, complex, and refined good tea version to really stand out when you first try it and then for you to not feel as much connection over time, as you keep drinking it. Sometimes even more basic versions can match what you really like, and can seem better to drink more of. Those teas are pretty good initially, and they also seem well-suited for drinking regularly, which of course relates to my own preference, not some aspects or form of balance that one wouldn't tire of.
The oolong I have no clear expectations of; that makes it more interesting. If the fishhook style green is a good version of a style I've drank a number of examples of that should be good. Those tend to be floral and also vegetal, but not necessarily grassy, intense in character with heavy flavors, and a pronounced mineral base. It's that "heavy flavors" part that makes them seem distinct from other green tea range, which I typically like.
Per usual I'll add more of Viet Sun's description after I try these and make tasting notes. There was no listing for the "Thai Nguyen Fish Hook Green, Autumn 23;" it's either not there yet or already sold out, or maybe never will be listed.
Sunset Oolong, Autumn 22 (edited slightly; the listing is long. It sells for $35 for 100 grams).
A strip style oolong produced from old/ ancient Shan Assamica varietal trees growing in the Hoàng Su Phì area of Hà Giang in Autumn of 2022.
This is a unique tea. Assamica oolongs are typically much harsher than their Sinensis counterparts so processing and storage play a major role in the production of this tea. If you've tried the 2020 version of this tea you'll surely notice how different the 2022 version looks and tastes.
The producer decided to go with a lighter oxidation and drying temperature in order to preserve more of the natural essence of this tea. They also mentioned that they think that this lighter overall processing method requires less of a storage period before the tea starts to come into its prime.
The flavor is complex. I pick up notes of savory warming spices with a peppery floral fragrance and a bit of green freshness. There are notes of medium oxidized oolong, Oriental Beauty and Dian Hong. Thick sweetness with a medium-thick body depending on how strong you brew it. It has this softening effect that spreads and finishes with a bit of a tannic bite.
I like brewing it at 90-100 degrees for shorter and then longer steeps.
Season: Autumn 2022
Picking Standard: 1 bud, 2-3 leaves
Region: Hoàng Su Phì, Hà Giang
Elevation: 1200m
All of that aspect description works; I won't comment on it further later on here. I did already compare this to Oriental Beauty in notes.
Variety Assamica oolongs tend to just be bad, not only a little more harsh, but that's probably related to many examples being experimental, and producers needing time to adjust processing inputs to get it to work. I might've tried two that were good, both from Vietnam, and more decent Indian versions that seemed nothing like oolong, which is something else. Of course until I had tried those I considered whether the plant type range might just not be suitable for that processing approach, if typical leaf compounds didn't match up, but it's not that, it's about not getting them right.
Review:
Sunset Oolong: that's so nice! It's a little too light still, normal for how I usually prepare a first round, but there's a really pleasant sweetness and flavor profile. There's a lot going on; it might taste a bit like fruit cake, that mix of warm, rich flavors, including a bit of spice, along with brighter and complex mixed dried fruit. I'll have more luck with a flavor list next round though.
Thai Nguyen Fish Hook Green: the umami level is insane in this. I can compensate for brewing two kinds of tea by flash brewing this version from here on out. It might work to add a touch of cold water to this too, to try brewing it at a more conventional 70 - 75 C range early on (roughly; I don't weigh or measure anything), before cooking it for too many rounds. Vegetal range is heavy, and intense, not so far off kale. That must sound rougher than this comes across, and adjusting outcome by brewing it using cooler water and faster infusion times would change a lot, or backing off proportion. I don't want that to sound like I'm describing brewing around flaws though; this is more or less how it should be.
If anything this is a much better quality version than I'm accustomed to. You can see that in the finer leaf form, which helps with cranking up intensity, and it's clear in the flavor outcome too. It's vegetal though; it wouldn't be for everyone. Kale is joined by spinach and celery; it's really vegetal. The strong mineral base is nice, and sweetness is good, helping the rest balance. Probably by altering brewing approach you could get more floral range out of it, and just brewing intensity lighter would shift to an experience of lighter flavor range. But it is what it is too; someone not into vegetal green teas shouldn't be drinking this.
In other versions that mineral range can dominate more, not as a base for other flavors, but as a primary input, which wouldn't necessarily be ideal for people looking for more of a black tea or oolong oriented experience, but it balances differently. It lingers so long in aftertaste for this version that I'll need to drink a good bit of water between rounds to get it to clear. I've tried white teas that taste like less than the plain water I drank to clear that aftertaste; a nice sweet flavor aftertaste keeps going, and doesn't clear out fast.
It's my understanding that people in Vietnam value that high intensity and somewhat harsh feel in green tea experience, that over time they come to like being blasted by it. As a sheng drinker I get it; it's never enough until it's a little too much.
Sunset oolong, 2: it's interesting how the first thing you notice drinking this is a "man that's good!" reaction. The sum is greater than the parts; none of the aspects add up to account for how pleasant it comes across. I think feel might be part of that, that there's a richness to it, a way that it coats your whole mouth, that adds depth far beyond the flavor. It's sweet and rich in flavor too, but not necessarily that complex or intense. In terms of a list of all the flavors probably adding together it's probably very complex, but those are all subtle enough that it seems simple when you taste it. Let's get to that list.
Sweetness includes a warmth like a honey range, or maybe that's light caramel instead. There is fruit but it's so non-distinct there's no way to list out what it probably includes; maybe some dried fruit range, could be something like cooked pear (included here as a guess to point towards a range, more than a description). Warmth seems to also include a spice tone, and a rich and deep underlying feel is more similar to sassafras (like one part of root beer), or if that's not familiar leaning a little towards yam.
I bet if I kept drinking this tea I'd change my mind about that whole list, and describe it in completely different terms. That part is interesting, how an overall pleasant effect is clear but what is going into creating that is not.
Thai Nguyen fishhook green: I brewed this quite light, mixing in cold water and brewing it fast. I didn't want to err on the side of saying I should've went further with that adjustment. Character is completely different, of course. Floral range does ramp up; it's probably more dominant than the vegetal range. Or maybe this is really a mix of light and subtle floral tones and completely different vegetal range, like sugar-snap peas (mostly that flavor in particular; not just like that). Sweetness dominates the basic taste effect, the context, where mineral and heavier range had before. There is still some umami in this, plenty of it, but nothing like the earlier level, or the earlier effect from that. Not so many teas are capable of shifting character this much related to brewing approach differences.
So in the end it's sweet, light, bright, including plenty of floral tones, and light and sweet sugar snap pea vegetable. Mineral base still grounds it but in nothing like the earlier form or intensity. If this green tea version hadn't been off the scale in intensity using a hot water and quick brewing approach would've been more practical and appropriate. These really fine leaves seem to extract lots and lots of flavor very quickly, with limited need for exposure to heat to push that along. I'll try it brewed slightly hotter and longer next round and see what it's like more in the middle, but not back at that "just off boiling point" temperature level, still a bit cooler.
Sunset oolong 3: the one sweet and rich range seems to be what is making this so appealing, somewhere along the lines of caramel or molasses. You could push this tea much harder; maybe next time I'll let it brew for over 20 seconds to see what that changes. Then it's odd how the intensity of the other requires being careful about that, limiting it to a range that's still approachable, without someone acclimating to super strong tea instead, and just going for it.
The fruit seems to include an apricot note; it could be that a catchy form of fruit is another part of what makes this so nice. It's quite subtle at the same time, which is interesting, how an overall impression is different than how the individual aspects seem.
Thai Nguyen Fishhook green: that balance is ok, embracing it being more intense, including heavier flavors, and strong underlying mineral tone, but still also including the light, sweet, and fresh range. To be clear I really don't like grassy green teas, and green tea is my least favorite broad category (besides something like flavored teas; those don't count in the same way, and some can be ok).
I like this more than I would expect to based on the flavor range, or that would be true if I hadn't experienced that with fishhook style green teas a few times in the past. The mineral base and savory range, the umami, give it an interesting balance and overall effect. Some Japanese green teas work out like that, and an aspect range I typically don't like so much really works. For them that seems to tie directly to quality too, so that if I'm thinking of heavy umami and seaweed flavor teas I don't like that's more about cheaper and rougher versions where it doesn't all tie together as well.
Oolong 4: I don't think I have the patience today for 6 or 7 rounds of tasting, for describing how these keep evolving. It's mid-afternoon and I've not had lunch yet, which is going to be a single meal covering lunch and dinner for running so late. This will do.
It's hard to place this in relation to other oolong styles, to say what it reminds me of. It's quite oxidized, so maybe along the lines of a "red oolong," which I guess relates to Dong Ding as much as any other more established origin range or style. It's just its own thing though. Pretty much always when you try a one-off style and material input version positive aspects can come up but overall balance is missing something, and it doesn't connect and work perfectly, feel might not be ok, aspect range might not integrate, or it can seem unrefined, etc. But this is good. This really should include an extra flaw or two that it doesn't, or at least some aspect gap or imbalance. They did well.
More aspects and description would come up in a more detailed single version review that pushed the tea harder, bumping infusion time, using full boiling point water, dialing in an optimum timing. I bet with more of that comparison with Oriental Beauty style would make more sense, the way honey sweetness, dried fruit, and spice combine in those. I think that's not occurring to me here as much because it's like that but the comparable range isn't directly one for one. The spice tone and fruit are similar but different. This might be closest to an Oriental Beauty version where they've not pushed the oxidation level all the way to the edge of typical black tea range, or into it, as tends to come up.
Fishhook green: the balance is nice in this, the way heavy umami stands out, with good sweetness mineral base not far beyond that. It's still more vegetal than floral, but using slightly cooler water and a lighter infusion strength pulls that way back from the heavy kale, spinach, and celery range. Anyone entirely opposed to drinking vegetal green tea would still hate this, but it's well balanced. This version is much closer to typical Japanese green tea range than any fishhook style green tea I've tried before. For me that being good or bad depends on the final aspect balance, with quality level tied to that, and to me this works well.
To be clear on that context I wouldn't buy a tea like this, or any Japanese green teas; I love sheng pu'er most, then a limited range of black teas, then oolongs, which come in a broad range, then maybe interesting white tea versions after that. Shu pu'er can be ok, and hei cha can be interesting, but maybe it makes sense to just leave them off the list. I can appreciate what this green tea is, and how good it is, but that range just isn't a close match to what I like most in tea experience, or next most, and so on. This oolong version I could probably drink 500 grams of and probably not get tired of it, but buying their Son La sheng and Lao Cai black tea instead was a better choice for me; those are closer matches to what I like most.
For someone exploring novel and interesting tea range, earlier in a sorting out process, this green tea could take on a different meaning. You could cover related range trying Japanese green teas, but they wouldn't be quite as novel, for fitting into a paradigm slightly better. That's only true in general; at higher quality levels things tend to shift a bit, and range of novelty and higher potential opens up, but you'd need to be open to a higher level of spending to experience that in Japanese teas.
It's generally bad form to mention alternative sources in a review post but let's go there. I think Trident Cafe and Booksellers would be a great source for way above average green teas at very fair prices. They list some really interesting Japanese green teas, and versions from other places, all starting at $10 per ounce (28 grams). That's actually a pretty good price for teas in that high demand at that quality level. I was going to compare that to this tea's listing on the Viet Sun site, but it's not there (sold out for now?). Anyway, the other forest green tea listed, the only green tea, they sell for $7 for 25 grams, or $22 for 100 (or $51 for 250; you get a great deal at volume, but only if you know you like the tea, since having a lot that you don't like isn't helpful). Trident's sales isn't set up like that; you keep paying $10 for 28 more grams, which I think is still fair, but it's up to $40 for 112 grams. It probably should be more, for what they sell.
The general point here, which might already be clear, is that if you can find very interesting and higher quality tea versions from lower demand areas sometimes you can get amazing values for that tea. Not always; some boutique Indian outlets sell the best of the best versions from there for full Western boutique outlet market rates, up around the 40 cents a gram level, which I guess still makes sense. There's very little of that highest end Indian tea demanded or made, so however that balances out is what it is.
This oolong is something else, seemingly a one-off. Teas like that cost whatever they happen to be sold for, and there's no market rate to go by. $35 for 100 grams is fair in relation to what other remotely comparable quality and aspect range teas would sell for, and probably Oriental Beauty versions roughly as good and somewhat similar in style would tend to cost even more, but nothing else would seem exactly like it.
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