ITea World sent more samples to try. With tea blogging so far out of fashion I've been trying more teas that people send for review lately, I suppose because there aren't many other established blogs.
It's perfect timing, because I'm on a day 4 of a 5 day fast, and can't really have sheng pu'er or black tea, the two main types that I drink. Or green, but I drink less of that anyway, even though I've been messing with iced jasmine green tea lately. Shou pu'er and aged white tea are most gentle on your stomach, and I've only drank water, salt water, and some diet soda in the past 4 days (counting today), so my stomach is a little touchy. Hunger isn't as bad as you'd expect but when I'm around food it becomes an issue again.
To clarify that one point to fast you only need to supplement sodium, potassium, and magnesium (electrolytes), and then it's fairly safe to stop eating for up to a week, if you can dial in appropriate amounts of those. That's not medical advice; definitely try out a day first and see how that goes to assess impact in your own case. Getting electrolyte input right is actually tricky; online recommendations are rare, and what does turn up tends to be expressed as a range, with the high side seemingly impractically high. You definitely need to supplement around a gram a day of both sodium and potassium, which is a lot, and then a recommended daily intake is on the order of double that, or more, which is an awful lot.
I'll fill in what this is in more detail after writing notes, the usual process.
Chinese Shan Ye wild dark tea (listing for 936 baht for 40 grams, $25)
Enjoy our Wild Dark Tea and indulge in a pure and enduring pine smoke aroma. A sip reveals a rich, smooth, and sweet flavor with a complex mouthfeel. The sweetness lingers long after drinking, leaving a memorable and enduringly sweet aftertaste.
There's not much there about what this is. Shan means village, and ye sheng wild tea; there's a good chance this is just presented as rural village hei cha, which doesn't mean much.
It definitely tastes like pine smoke. The quality is pretty good, quite decent, and I do mention aftertaste experience in these notes, and some degree of complexity, but all this is still pretty vague. What is it, what hei cha style? Maybe an interpretation or modified style; maybe it doesn't match the standard origin-oriented categories.
For value for this selling for 50-some cents a gram it would have to be amazing hei cha for that to make sense; more often that range sells for less than most other types, often in more like a 15 cent per gram range. I didn't add much value assessment to the conclusions, not having seen that when writing that, but it's seemingly a negative factor. But for this not comparing to any other standard types it's hard to pin down value; maybe there isn't much other tea out there like it. If someone loves it then relative value changes. I do place it in relation to Liu Bao forms, and describe how I think preference issues would work out.
For good versions of other wild origin tea types the type of outlet you buy it through makes a difference, and of course quality level, and rarity. If you can connect with local producers those can be kind of inexpensive too, but that's not usually easy to sort out. Curator vendors selling more rare versions tend to charge at least around 50 cents a gram for everything, and move up towards $1 / gram quickly.
There's some justification for that rare tea, exceptional quality level range in this capture from the wild tea sample set website info. I'll indirectly cover how I think this stands up to that in the review.
I'd recommend trying it as part of a sampler instead of ordering it individually. Somehow they're selling it as part of a sample set of 5 teas, 5 grams each, for $5. How does that work, that this tea is 60 cents a gram at volume and 20 cents a gram as a sample, in a set? I guess that they're encouraging people to try them, to make additional sales later on.
That set includes oolong (looks like Wuyi Yancha, with that producer info referencing that range), black, green, and white teas, and the last three are most common for wild origin material tea range. Wild origin oolong is interesting; that's not how that usually works.
Review:
#1: I used a rinse, and will use a long first infusion to get this to open up. I tasted the rinse; this is a smoked tea version. I tend to like those, I just don't know what it means in relation to this being a pressed hei cha disk. The first actual infusion still tastes like a rinse; there's no way to describe aspects based on that. After a 30 second infusion the second round will work, even though the disk is still opening up.
#2: this is a bit unusual. Smoke comes across most, along the line of pine smoke, so that part is pleasant. Beyond that this seems like relatively unfermented hei cha, probably wet-pile or age process transitioned some, but not all that much. This should be familiar ground for hei cha drinkers, then for everyone else what that means and how character would end up wouldn't be familiar. I'll try to do justice to describing it, even though it will be fully infused next round.
Warm tones mix with greener tones in an unusual way. Maybe it's in-between related to fermentation? I doubt that it's a mix of material types, but I suppose that is possible. On the green side this tips towards vegetal range, a little like kale, or between that and pine needle. It includes warm mineral as a base. Warm flavor range, the part seeming related to some fermentation, takes on an almost malty flavor, but that's not exactly it.
This contradiction in flavors, or complementary set, depending on interpretation, could be familiar ground for Liu Bao drinkers. One type of that is pre-fermented, like shou pu'er, and another not, like sheng, and at different stages of aging the latter can take on unusual complex character. This should make more sense once it's at least fully wetted, which may be the infusion after next.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out for my unique stomach condition demands. I'm depending on a relatively high degree of fermentation for this to have limited stomach impact; "greener" hei cha would be rough.
If you just eat a bit of food prior to drinking any tea most of that concern drops out, and I always do, even though that offsets ability to feel what people call qi effect in sheng. I suspect that's because compounds enter your system much slower, the ones causing feel effects, and that without that rush from them the gradual transition is much harder to identify. Just a guess, of course. I have no idea how people could tolerate drinking sheng on a relatively empty stomach, even without fasting. I can't.
#3: this is brewed plenty strong; I was writing that last paragraph while I let this brew, so it soaked for something like 45 seconds. Too long, really, far beyond optimum, but at least it will get the tea wetted. One might wonder what I could do if this did start bothering my stomach, on a fast, since eating a bowl of breakfast cereal or a little chocolate is out of the question. Not much. I could try a health care product but those are designed more for other problems. It's better to avoid the problem.
Heavy smoke is interesting with the rest. Brewed so strong the smoke takes on a different heavier character, like creosote. Pine range is a main flavor, now not so vegetal, and more just straight pine. Warmer tones are interesting, including mineral, and then other range that's harder to isolate, given the heavy smoke, pine, and mineral contributions. I suspect that brewing this for a more reasonable 15 seconds will help. I'm brewing it in a 100 ml gaiwan, using water a good bit off boiling point, since it's from a water-purification system heating output, and stored in a thermos, losing a little temp off full boiling at both stages.
#4: much better, brewed lighter, while fully opened up. I probably shouldn't be drinking this on an empty stomach; that's not a complete surprise.
It all balances much better brewed lightly, or at a more reasonable infusion level, really. Smoke didn't drop out but it dropped way back. Pine is a limited range input now too, integrating with the rest. This still tastes a bit like Liu Bao, but without the typical harsh edge for versions that haven't been aged much. I've not mentioned cement block mineral range, or astringency at all, and for younger sheng-style Liu Bao those stand out quite a bit. It's not that such a style variation of Liu Bao needs a decade or two of age transition, since that's a matter of preference, but for many people it might be the case.
I suspect that within tea traditions on that page it's all viewed quite differently, than through Western enthusiast expectations. Many online discussions of tea experience with an older Chinese Malaysian friend covered that, but it all doesn't summarize well.
From a Western perspective I really should be able to extract at least two more flavor descriptions from this, or else it could be interpreted as lacking complexity, which really isn't the case. Let's say that it tastes a bit medicinal, like unfamiliar herbs one smells in a Traditional Chinese Medicine shop. That's not very specific or descriptive but I think it's about right. Per a lot of Western tea preference this wouldn't be very good, especially if someone was looking for the sort of standard dried fruit flavors some hei cha expresses. For Liu Bao drinkers this might really click. I'm in the middle; it's pleasant, and interesting, but I've always been challenged by edgier Liu Bao, even though I can appreciate a lot of tea range.
Related to the wild material origin theme I have no comment; that's familiar ground for sheng, black tea, and white, but not hei cha. It's probably contributing to flavor complexity, and helps offset a tendency towards astringency (this could be a lot harsher; it's digesting fairly well, under worst-case tasting conditions). As far as where flavors end up that's something else.
I should probably try one more round and stop drinking this. After a nice tall glass of salt water and a few more hours I could get back to it. That salt water experience is as off-putting as it sounds, but symptoms from sodium and potassium levels crashing is even worse. I ice-skated for over two hours yesterday, on day 3, and felt fine, even though earlier in the day final transition to ketosis was a bit harsh.
If anyone wants to try fasting don't start with a 5 day version, as I tried to more than a year and a half ago; build up to it. 24 hours is brutal at first, but your body has that capacity "designed" into it (it's adapted for it), so that even most hunger will drop out with exposure (not all; it's both physical and psychological). Main health benefits probably come from internal changes that happen after two days, autophagy, decreased insulin resistance, and so on.
#5: that medicinal herb input is even more pronounced and pleasant. I would guess that the most positive range of this tea is starting only now, and that the next 4 or 5 infusions will keep getting better. I'll try it later and will know, but I may not get back to writing notes. Sweetness picks up a little; that gives it a more pleasant balance. Even though this is brewed quite lightly aftertaste experience is more pronounced. Warm mineral range seems more distinct, even though it's really not stronger. It tastes like rocks, I guess, or like an artesian well water source, when absorbed minerals are at their heaviest. Spring water can express an unusual mineral sweetness and complexity, water filtering through a hill or a mountain, but water settled through a rock base can really be more intense.
The main vegetal aspect is still pine. Medicinal herb is much stronger, then the pine, then mineral base. It would be possible to interpret other flavors in different ways, to see that warm sweetness as relating to a dried fruit, but to me it's more like dried herb. I would guess that my Chinese Malaysian friend would be able to place it better; his descriptions of his experiences and older Chinese culture input, at a flavor level, are very colorful and developed. Probably few younger people in Malaysia, where he lives, can relate to his perspective now, a bit integrated into developed Western culture, as Thais definitely now are.
Conclusions:
This leaves out one type of judgement: how good is it? That style would either ring a bell for people or it wouldn't, and I'd expect that tea enthusiasts with relatively little exposure to a lot of hei cha range wouldn't get it. For someone who already likes that style it's quite pleasant. I'm not sure it would work as well as a bridge to experiencing it.
This kind of theme comes up a lot in sheng reviews. It's almost impossible to not just assume that readers are familiar with and ok with bitterness as an input. I barely mention it in some young / unaged sheng reviews, and that means that the relative level is low, but it's generally still a main experienced aspect. This isn't bitter, at all, or even all that astringent. But the medicinal / herbal flavor range tones I can't really place isn't something everyone would be familiar with. Smoke and pine are; maybe Lapsang Souchong lovers could bridge over to like the rest of the range, even with the sweetness and the typical flavor set from black tea missing. Or maybe that wouldn't work.
To me this is quite suitable as a testing set inclusion, as a way to be introduced to new tea range, even though it's so novel. Few people would probably crave owning more than a sample of it, but people into younger Liu Bao experience might often buy a kilogram of such tea to experience it over and over, as a primary preference.
That Malaysian friend loves Liu Bao, and the edge in some versions is part of the appeal. He would drink it paired with food; it would make a lot more sense fulfilling that role. This could be so nice with barbecue pork steamed buns, which Thais call manapau, which must have different Chinese names. That sweetness and savory flavor depth would be wonderful, paired with this, with the contrast making it so pleasant. Of course I'd have an even sweeter custard filled steamed bun with those, further stretching the experience into what some would see as desert range, or at least typical breakfast food.
Maybe the conventional Western tea enthusiast emphasis on judging and experiencing tea completely alone misses something. It's a great way to fully immerse in tea experience, to really explore it in depth, even venturing into feel range, but not all teas work well that way.
How is the cha qi, since I'm finally in a very sensitive state, related to such an input? A little trippy; colors are especially vivid around me, and I suppose that I feel a little high. I'd probably be laid out if this was wild origin young sheng, if my stomach could handle it, which it can't. I feel fine, related to stomach impact from this. We need to balance all levels of all of the experiences we explore, especially when extreme conditions come up, like fasting.
As far as that relative degree of stomach impact this had, I'd still recommend going with shou pu'er as a main type, and aged white tea as backup. This was ok, and a lot of Fu brick variations would also be, but it's as well to stick with those, since they seem to work out best.
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ice skating with the kids |
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playing with that changed things a little, even though she can skate well |
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