This is a second review of teas sent by Dylan Conroy for me to try (after reviewing a white tea here), as much sharing experience as for review exposure, but both. These are Qimen, a main black tea type he has been focusing on.
That type should be familiar as an older tea type, more original, often now sold as high volume production and moderate quality versions. Of course there are exceptional versions out there, but they don't make it to the West so often. People might demand Lapsang Souchong, Jin Jun Mei, or Dian Hong more, as Chinese black teas go, then onto Golden Monkey or whatever else.
These two tea versions were amazing. I'll let the review description go on more about that, not really even doing much with conclusions beyond that account. He sent a third to try, but I tend to avoid doing three way comparison reviews these days, so I'll get back to that. It's too much tea to try, and I don't brew tea without actually drinking it. I'll let his Sweetest Dew vending page description of both types serve as an introduction:
Old Style Qimen (listing for a bit under $30 per 50 grams, I think, 911 baht, although I'm not seeing that volume clearly defined)
Qimens originally were picked around Gu Yu, late April, underwent no shape making step and Then were then baked using charcoal. The maker of this tea is replicating the original Qimen.
Because the tea is a late pick, it is mostly leaves. And while you may expect a dark bitter brew, what you get instead is a medium-light brew that is very clean and has notes of natural honey and nuts. The profile isn't very complex but the flavor is simply enjoyable.
Qimen Mao Feng (the same price, 911 baht, or under $30 for 50 grams)
Qimen Mao Feng is the smoothest out of all the Qimens.
Contary to popular belief Qimen Mao Fengs are not made with the mao feng cultivar or use the Mao Feng picking standard. Mao Feng simply means there is no shape making step, the leaves hold the natural shape they took on during the making.
Qimen Mao Fengs, the original Qimen black tea, is the smoothest of all the styles. It also boasts the the most savory body. This particular one is rich and deep with a whismical floral aroma to it. While boasting no loud flavor notes or aromas, this Qimen will sooth you with a calm but rich body that is reminisent of Mao Feng green tea.
I looked for a picture of Dylan on his sales site but didn't find one. Maybe I'll show what he looks like in one last review post. I did see a cool looking travel set there, a small gaiwan and four cups, for about $20. That might be worth looking into if someone is going to order tea, since shipping works out better if get more stuff, since the value gets better and better, the ratio of what you buy to cost of sending it, if the selling price is good to begin with.
Review:
Old Style Qimen: I've not had even a basic version of qimen in so long I can't place how this relates to that. I remember it as basic black tea, maybe a bit inky as flavor ranges go, but then I never tried anything presented as exceptional.
This is exceptional. It's inky too, with good sweetness, good flavor complexity, great balance and depth. Flavor might center on something along the lines of roasted sweet potato. Mineral depth really stands out; it's complex. Feel is nice and rich, especially for this being a first relatively light round. I tend to go back to Dian Hong range as a baseline, for style, aspects, and match to preference, and this doesn't overlap that much with that typical range. It's more refined, which is good, with a lot of depth and complexity, but it's not as basic in a sense that's both good and also limiting. Depth comes across as much as the flavor, at this point, it's not as flavor-forward, which really could relate to it being a first round. It's too early for those kind of conclusions anyway.
Qimen Mao Feng: before that fully registered it stood out that it's good. This has pretty good depth too but there's a range of intense flavor that really stands out. This reminds me a little of the more oxidized style of Jin Jun Mei, the warmer, honey-toned versions of those. Not a little either, an awful lot. I mean like this version. The strong honey note is common with those, ranging from honey taste into beeswax. There is some general roasted sweet potato / yam range too; let's just say it's more yam in this version, even though at some point these interpretations tend to be guesswork. Warm mineral tone also stands out. Not like in the other, exactly, where that base layer and depth is a good half of the overall experience, but it supports the rest.
Both of these are very complex and refined. This is a quality range in black teas that doesn't come up that often. To say that neither includes any flaws is technically correct, but it's discussing a range of concerns that doesn't even come to mind. These are carefully and well made teas, the product of a long tradition, for sure. It is also interesting trying versions from new places, people originating new styles, or borrowing from other areas, and this doesn't seem to be that.
Maybe "Qimen Mao Feng" is a reference to exactly what I'm describing [later edit: it's not], but even if so it's not a case of a new tea maker sorting out processing. It couldn't be. I can love the results from such a set of inputs, or possibly even prefer a version to these, but it never results in tea this refined. The unusually fine leaf and bud material is surely a related input; that's not typical of almost any black tea types. It's normal for Jin Jun Mei, and that's about it, of what I've tried.
I'm curious how this version can brew darker liquid when the leaf oxidation level seems much lighter (the color), and this includes a lot of fine bud content. Intuitively both would seem to lead towards the opposite outcome. For once no speculation goes with that observation; I just don't know.
Old Style Qimen #2: intensity picks up in this, not that it was overly subtle the first round. I'm not going to do justice to unpacking this complex flavor. Warm mineral is definitely the base; that part is easy. Roasted sweet potato is still dominant, but there's a lot more going on this round. It seems like floral range joined that, a very rich, deep, and heavy floral range, like rose petals. Dried fruit might relate to some of the rest, in a type range that's hard to pin down, along the line of dried tamarind, but that's not it. It's so intense that it seems like there's more to it yet, maybe something like caraway seed spice, tying this to how a dark rye bread might come across.
It's pleasant; it all really integrates. It comes across as all one thing, but then when you try to describe what that is it seems like there's a lot to it. Feel is rich and some aftertaste experience adds depth. I would expect the other to be considerably different too; this will be a lot to experience in just two rounds.
Mao Feng Qimen: it's more that the balance of the flavors from the last round changed, but something is fundamentally different in how it comes across. It tastes like brandy; it has that richness, intensity, and depth. Teas taking on a liqueur- like quality isn't new, but this form of that isn't familiar. A high quality Wuyi Yancha oolong might start into that range, but not like this, in a lighter range form, like a touch of cognac versus this resembling brandy.
Intensity, refinement, and complexity for this tea version are all off the charts. There's a "wow!" effect, a simple response of appreciation, that goes beyond the attempt to evaluate aspects or describe it in terms of liking it to a certain degree. This is better tea than I would tend to try to drink on a regular basis, even cost aside; tea just doesn't need to be like this. Versions that are more basic, with simpler character and more rough edges, essentially almost all black teas, compared to this, can be appealing for being approachable, for not requiring or implying that you should fully experience and appreciate them.
It would seem absurd to drink this tea along with toast and jam. It would be good though, once you moved past that set of expectations. I just never would have this tea with a rushed breakfast, which to me isn't necessarily the core of tea drinking and appreciation, that role as a mundane beverage, but somehow that helps me connect with teas, in a sense.
Anyone who has tried a very exceptional, refined, complex, and unique Jin Jun Mei knows what I'm talking about. I want to stop short of saying that some teas can be too high in quality, since I don't mean that, but moving past all "basicness" in style can almost seem to come with some limitation. Very refined Wuyi Yancha can be similar; it calls for a different kind of experiential approach to really take it in. I'm not an aesthetic setting / ceremonial approach / mystical tea experience kind of guy; for people on that page this could take black tea experience to another level.
Old Style Qimen #3: brewed lighter it comes across as less intense, but not so different otherwise. The depth and refinement are really nice. Complexity would stand out more if this wasn't compared to the other version. This is definitely nothing at all like the low-medium quality commercial versions of Qimen I've tried before.
Mao Feng Qimen: the way the balance of the aspects I described shift is really novel and appealing, but hard to describe. Different parts stand out more brewed at different intensity, or else it's just evolving through rounds, or both. That beeswax note is really catchy, and the overall effect, the balance of complex flavors, is very appealing. Higher end and forward flavor range balances so well with depth and a mineral base.
Refinement is exceptional, not just a lack of flaws, but the opposite. That last set of comments is the closest I've ever came to complaining that the quality level is too high.
Old Style Qimen #4: a dark wood tone base picks up. It's not like when teas get brewed out, and become woody, more that aromatic / aged furniture range that can come up, in between the flavor of rich dark tropical wood and aromatic oil that might be used as a preservative. The thickness and richness of this tea is really something. After you swallow it the aftertaste experience almost seems stronger than the taste while drinking it. Rich mineral base seems to connect with a warm spice aspect, an aromatic incense range of spice, which of course is not separate from what I'm describing as aged furniture / tropical dark wood / essential oil that I can't place. It's closest to an aromatic bark spice range but it also includes root spice sort of depth. It's all quite nice.
I doubt this tea is close to finished but I'll need to stop taking notes to go run an errand, and drinking 8 fast cups of hot tea on a ridiculously hot Bangkok afternoon is pushing it. I ran 10k this morning, up early anyway to take our cat to get a bandage changed, an outcome from fighting a street cat, and experienced some mild heat stroke even at 10 AM.
It's nice being able to see that on a heart rate graph now. I don't need to, I can feel it internally, but there it is in stats, that I was running a slow pace (6:30 km or so) at 160 bpm heart rate, for the last 6 km. The actual experience had more immediacy and depth than the stats; I felt a lot like walking instead. But I didn't; I kept running "slow," and toughed it out.
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for me doing 5k at 150 bpm is a rough go |
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what struggling looks like (note device distances don't match--strange) |
Mao Feng Qimen: floral range picked up a lot. The earlier flavors are still there, but this continued that trend of the balance completely shifting round to round. That's pleasant, and novel. Transitions across infusions is normal but it's usually not that extreme. New flavors can join, or some from the earlier set can drop out, but that kind of thing is more common for sheng pu'er than for black tea.
I don't feel like this version is completely eclipsing the other but I do like it more, and it's more unique, complex, and novel.
From drinking upper-medium level quality oolong I've gotten into the habit of guessing what a normal price range would be for tea versions, for a style and quality level, and for this tea being so unique that really doesn't work. For this version it's more about if the higher end of pricing can still make sense. If this sold for much under $1 a gram it would be underpriced, but in general I just wouldn't consider buying much of anything for $1 a gram. Most of what self-styled "curator vendors" are presenting as high quality, unique, exceptional, refined teas surely aren't on this level.
Let's consider a reference: that "honey style" Jin Jun Mei from Wuyi Origin, that I mentioned earlier, somehow sells for $40 for 100 grams (that seems low). Their "wild Jin Jun Mei" sells for $74.60 per 100 grams, that might be even better. I can't place this tea version in relation to those two, although it's tempting to try, but it's exceptional enough that the second typically unheard of higher price range--high for black teas--might be about right. Or if a tea style and version barely exists at all, which is probably true of that wild Jin Jun Mei too, then market rate is whatever a source says it is, because there is no second option out there.
If smaller vendors tip towards a $1 / gram price range because their mark-up practices are different that's not necessarily unjustified. Competing on value with a direct-from-producer outlet isn't practical. Larger outlet vendors will sometimes describe not quite as novel and high quality teas in similar ways and sell them for that just under $1 / gram range. Maybe that's fair too; not everyone is combing the internet for the best value for unrealistic novelty and quality level teas.
Only a limited subset of tea drinkers could even appreciate what these are, really. And I don't see that as a bad thing; I personally don't need for the teas I experience and enjoy to be anywhere near this good. When I drink Wuyi Origin teas I have a similar experience, that I can tell they're that much better than everything else I ever drink, but that in some limited sense that must still be wasted on me.
Conclusions:
There doesn't seem to be much more to cover, really, since I wrote some conclusions into the notes. The Old Style version was quite good, only seeming less interesting for the Mao Feng version being that extra bit better. I really didn't expect these teas to hold their own with Wuyi Origin's (Cindy's) Jin Jun Mei versions. Maybe only the one did, but quality level, complexity, refinement, and novel style were all really far up the scale for that tea version. It holds its own with anything else.
For people considering ordering this that might pose a dilemma: it's quite interesting to compare different styles or versions of novel tea types together, but for sure the Mao Feng version is better. It would help shift the psychology of that decision a little if they weren't priced the same.
They were both pleasant to try; Dylan sharing these samples was much appreciated.
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