Reviewing two more very pleasant spring maocha Vietnamese sheng versions, "pu'er-style" teas from Viet Sun. The last two were very nice, and these might be even better.
Tasting context is a little unusual; I'm trying them at mid-day on a hot Bangkok afternoon. It must be around 35 C out, or in the upper 90s F. Heat acclimation is one goal, and also getting out of the house, where my kids are playing video games, and shouting a bit. I can turn on the room AC in a different part of the house or use outdoor space to get some distance from the noise.
Steve / Viet Sun's descriptions of these:
Sơn La Wild Tree Spring 2024 ($28 per 100 grams)
A very interesting tea from a newly discovered high mountain tea area west of Tà Xùa, Sơn La.
This tea is made from wild growing non-Sinensis varietal trees growing at 2300-2500m. The leaves and stems are bright green with a light purple hue.
The dry leaf has a nutty, raisin, earthy fragrance and brews up slowly into a rich golden soup. This is a gentle tea with a minimal bitterness and no astringency. I get notes of raisins, nuts, green vegetables, tree resin, forest leaves and honey. Long sweet finish and a relaxing qi.
This varietal has thick, hearty leaves so I like to brew a large amount of leaves and do long steeps at 95-100C. I recommend setting aside at least 30 min to fully enjoy this one as it starts off light and usually starts hitting it's stride around the 3rd or 4th steep for me.
Giàng Pằng "1 Big Tree" Spring 24 (had been $31 per 100 grams, now sold out)
A batch made from one really big tree in Lềnh’s father’s garden processed by Steve.
This tea brews up into a rich green golden soup. Heavily floral and vegetal with the characteristic melon/ plum leathery character that is prevalent in good teas from Giàng Pằng. This is a strong tea that goes many rounds with a deep huigan and energizing qi.
This tea performs best over a longer session with many infusions. Set aside 30-60 minutes to fully enjoy this one!
It's strange that Son La version seemed so conventional to me, and not so different than others I've tried. It's possible that one flavor note in another tea I love also relates to it not being ordinary Assamica. Often wild and atypical plant material versions have an odd sourness to them, as purple leaf versions can, just across different flavor scope, but what I'm talking about relates to deeper fruit tones instead.
In reading those descriptions I'm sure that I didn't get the most out of them in this tasting related to stopping in the middle. My wife insisted on doing an errand on short notice, and I only got back to trying them the next day. Teas don't hold up well here stored at hot and then warm room temperatures overnight; they were ok for drinking a few more rounds, but nothing like the day before.
I have the rest of 100 grams of each to keep drinking, but for others that second version is sold out, understandable since it was just one batch. It was really lovely too; what Steve calls "the characteristic melon/ plum leathery character that is prevalent in good teas from Giàng Pằng" was just like that, and it was very pleasant. Both were; readers might want to consider picking up some of the other, and have a look at the tea cakes too.
And their "Other Category / Uncommon Teas;" I'm not sure what I'll be trying related to which samples Steve sent, or didn't send, but it's worth a look. And of course their black teas. Ordinarily I stop well short of explicit marketing but I've ordered teas three times from Steve over the past year or so for a good reason. It's as well if the word doesn't get out too much, the favorite source gatekeeping theme, but with readership here limited it's fine to talk about it.
Review:
Son La: bright, fresh, sweet, and complex, even for still opening up. I gave both a 20+ second infusion time to speed that along but a rinse step seems to work better, I just don't do that. This flavor profile is familiar, for drinking a lot of Steve's teas. Honey stands out, and what would most likely be interpreted as floral range, but light fruit also kind of works. Floral range is hard for me to break down, but fruit might be in between yellow watermelon and lighter citrus.
There's one deep honey / floral / fruit note that I'm really stuck on now as a personal favorite that's in this, probably a catchy set of flavors, that complement each other. Bitterness and astringency are very moderate, but then these are just getting started.
Giang Pang: deeper, warmer flavors; that's interesting. At first it strikes you as like plum, but then it seems there's more to it than that. Again non-distinct floral tones could work as a description, but I should probably leave off to the next round to guess a longer set of descriptions.
As a reminder I never read the vendor descriptions before writing the review notes; that plum tone Steve also mentioned does really stand out.
Son La #2: some limited bitterness and more fullness of feel joined in, right on schedule. The same set of flavors is present. This isn't so different than the 2023 Son La cake I just bought another version of, a tea that I've drank a half cake of; not the same, but as I remember with some common ground. Re-ordering that is a good sign for expression of preference; it's quite good. This may lean towards that other favorite tea I just ordered in relation to that one flavor set, rich honey, warm floral, and fruit tone that is hard to describe. It's towards dried apricot, but not quite that. I suppose if someone was "looking for" some kind of light herbal edge that might be there too, balancing the rest, something light like lemongrass, or holy basil.
General tone is pretty bright; I guess preference for or against that might determine relation to preference. I think I'm kind of preference-neutral about that; warmer or lighter and brighter tone ranges can be fine for me.
Giang Pang: this has more depth; it has filled in some flavor range. It might be a little more subtle. Both are fine for sweetness, clean nature, intensity, and complexity though. It's definitely warmer in tone / flavor range. Both are pretty sweet, as young sheng goes, or any sheng, really. Bitterness isn't a main factor for either, maybe just a little more for balance in the other.
Breaking this down to flavor aspects could be tricky. It includes sweetness, also like honey, and some non-distinct floral tone, and maybe fruit. Then that's what I said about the other, but they're quite different. A warmer fruit tone here might resemble dried orange peel, shifting to be more complex than the early plum, and a very light spice range input might be like clove. I'll brew both stronger and see if that helps with determination. Often trying infusions quite light works better for that, for some reason, but it's still worth a try.
Son La 3: not transitioning much. Richness of feel stands out even more, and mineral edge almost includes a touch of salt. Those are both positive things, to be clear, at least as I'm taking them. Feel gains depth and body. Aftertaste experience is positive, but it could be even more pronounced. It's odd this isn't more bitter, but then that's also normal for more wild-origin new sheng. [Later edit: not so odd at all if it's either not Assamica or a mix of plants including other range; more strange that this is so close to conventional sheng character instead.]
Giang Pang: greater depth in this stands out, even though that's a subtle higher-level emergent description. The feel is nice and rich, and aftertaste trails slightly stronger. Flavors are less intense and complex, and definitely warmer in tone.
For this being on the subtle side I think a lot of interpretations could work. One might go on about a mineral input; that's there, and is pronounced. Warm honey and floral range stand out the most, to me, but interpretation as a dried fruit is possible, not just dried orange peel, but maybe onto something like dried mango. This does taste like dried mango, now that I think that. Then I think people more oriented towards spice descriptions might go in different directions with interpretation. To me it's a touch of clove, but it could seem like other things.
Son La 4: fruit range might extend a little, along the former lines; I bet that I could describe that differently over a few more infusions. I'm going to have to go though; my wife is going to have me go to the orthodontist with the kids soon. It's funny how that mineral shifts form too; that's kind of novel. Saying it tastes like salt isn't the best description, but there's something novel about what that part contributes.
Giang Pang: this main fruit tone is evolving too, and the general intensity along with it. It's still towards dried mango or dried orange peel, but it's somehow shifted in form or balance. Maybe I can try a few more rounds later in the day and shed more light on these changes.
I didn't get around to trying more rounds until the next day, and as I said teas don't hold up well for that in hot places. I have tried both again since, and as is typical it has shifted my impression of both. I think both are a good bit softer in feel and more moderate in intensity than more typical young sheng. It probably seemed more normal for trying both together.
Pushing the Son La version a little I could draw out more flavor complexity, towards that raisin range Steve described. Both are mild enough that it would work to brew them hotter (although using full boiling point water is normal), at a higher proportion, or longer, to see what input shift changes what outcome. The Giang Pang version expressed even more fruit tones, brewed a bit stronger, some rounds in. These both might be perfect for people who find sheng too bitter, astringent, and aggressive.
Conclusions
Both are relatively great teas, everything I would've hoped that they would be, even the diversity of character. It can be hard to remember back but as I recall I like both more than the earlier two I'd reviewed.
That may not be the most objective conclusion, because this range is what I love most in sheng just now, either bright floral or rich fruit flavors, good complexity and depth, teas being approachable, full in feel, quite sweet, even rich and sweet like honey, and not bitter. For some not including a typical amount of bitterness, a more standard taste mineral base, and astringency would ruin the effect; fair enough.
I've not mentioned that these were probably oxidized more than is typical, which is a recurring discussion theme in describing a lot of South East Asian sheng. Maybe they were, maybe not; probably a little. I get the sense that hot weather tends to make that happen faster, so that even when it's not quite pronounced it's an input. It would cost versions aging potential, and I'm not sure these would be great in another 15 to 20 years.
Someone would be crazy to not just drink them, I think. That cake Huyen gave me in January is down to two sessions worth, a tiny chunk, and I've ordered more from that producer. The 2023 Son La cake I bought from Steve is half gone, and it would be all but drank if I hadn't left it behind during those three months in Honolulu. I re-ordered it anyway; I'll finish it this year.
All of these cakes could pick up depth and even more sweetness over a year or two, so it's not as if the clock is ticking, but I doubt keeping them around for 3 or 4 years would be the best idea. Or maybe it would be, but I might never find that out.
Running related tangent
That heat acclimation seemed to help a lot with running later that day; on my second run back here in the Bangkok heat it was comfortable enough to run 10 km (6 1/2 miles in freedom units). My energy level was great, with no aches and pains, and breathing nice and slow. Even with apparent heat stress showing up in my heart rate it wasn't uncomfortable at all:
I've never experienced any plateau of running at 160 bpm heart rate, and that felt normal. I suspect it became normal during hill climbs in Honolulu, going uphill around Diamondhead, but I wasn't monitoring heart rate then. Oddly that rate dropped sharply when I slowed the pace, but then my splits stayed relatively the same, bumping from 6:30 to 6:45:
Not really my normal pace, which is more like 6:20 / km, or lower for a flat course run, but for running in low-30s C / over 90 F that's fine.
The strange part is that I ran almost as fast a pace at a 160 bpm heart rate as later at 125-130, slowing just a little. In Honolulu I would really be able to relax and run smoother and faster at around 7-8 km, out and back the Ala Wai canal, but even so this seemed extreme. I thought the device might be having problems sensing input through sweat, but it seemed certain of the consistent results.
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ice skating with the kids; that makes more sense here |
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