I'm reviewing a sheng pu'er that I initially knew nothing about, except production date, from an unusual source. Stephen Liu--maybe a nickname of sorts, since he uses two different names in FB?--is the head of the largest Thai Facebook tea group, with 67,000 members, and the founder of a Thai FB tea marketplace group, and he writes a blog about tea background. He is a main authority on tea in Thailand.
I saw him giving a presentation at the recent tea expo in Central Embassy, at the Tea Atlas event. I brought teas for two people to try, who I had met at the event the first time I visited, and didn't see either there, so I passed on some to him. We've crossed paths online for years, so it was an odd real-life intro, sharing tea out of the blue, but it's nice to give tea to people who can appreciate it, even if they don't really like that style best. I've been into Vietnamese teas lately; it was those. He shared back even more tea, which is likely to be better, at least in a sense, this 200 gram cake of sheng pu'er that I'm reviewing.
I could look up more about what he has done, and who he is in relation to tea, but essentially he's a name that comes up whenever local tea themes develop. He sells tea (I think), gets involved with functions, like that one, does some touring, and so on. There must be plenty of academic connection to cover as well. This write-up ran long, looking up related types for area background, and turning up a related version from the year before, so I'll skip looking into more background, on him or the tea, and get back to that later if there is more to say.
I looking up what Da Xue Shan is--which Google lens translation mentions--this listing came up first, for a 2023 Daxueshan Old Tree Pu-erh (Gu Shu Sheng Cha - cake 200 g), selling for 64 Euro for a 200 gram cake, or $70:
Da Xue Shan 大雪山 is a mountain located in Lincang Region of Southwest Yunnan. The peak (3430 m) of the mountain is covered by snow all year round. Hence its name the Big Snow Mountain. Wild tea (Ye Sheng Cha 野生茶, often called as Shan Cha 山茶 by Yunnan farmers, ) grows at the altitude around 2000-2300 m in the mountain. Although growing in the very high altitude, it germinates earlier than other common teas. In the end of March, the tea is well ready for harvesting. The Daxueshan wild tea is famous for its wild orchid flavor and mild mellow taste. Local farmers are of Li Su race which is a rare minority group in Yunnan.
There is at least one review of a version from that local origin in a review here, but they're not much of a standard reference. I'm not sure this version that I'm reviewing is wild origin tea; it could be, or maybe not.
I looked up a Yunnan Sourcing related area listing to get more description of it, and another related tea version, 2015 Spring "Da Xue Shan" Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake:
A powerful first flush of Spring 2015 tea from 50-80 year old trees growing in Da Xue Shan area of Lincang (45 km west of Lincang City).
Da Xue Shan aka "Big Snow Mountain" is a high altitude area and perfect for growing tea. The neighboring "Da Xue Shan Reserve" is home to some of the oldest tea trees in Yunnan as well as Yunnan's own Black snub-nosed monkey.
...The tea is very strong in taste and aroma. It is both bitter and astringent with a lasting huigan and somewhat over-powering cha qi.
That tea was selling for $38.50 per 357 gram cake; it's interesting that the two examples vary so much in price, with both described as wild origin tea.
Another example from there, 2018 Yunnan Sourcing "Big Snow Mountain" Old Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake, sells for $130.
The pricing is going to tie to quality, and to whatever other factors influence producer selling price. I tend to take these "old arbor" / gushu claims with a grain of salt; vendors might tie selling points back to expectations per related areas, or producers might present teas as something they're not. In general I'd trust Yunnan Sourcing more than most sources, but in the end, to me, it's about how the tea comes across when you brew it, what the character is like.
It would be nice if the teas were grown in the forest; there's a lower chance of pesticide use in that context, and less reliance on chemical fertilizers. That second point wouldn't necessarily change much related to risk, I wouldn't expect, but character should be better from more naturally grown teas. There's a harshness to low elevation grown, plantation, mono-culture produced teas that were forced to produce a lot of material, harvested at volumes that are hard for the plants to sustain.
Looking further I found a 2023 example of this same tea, the same producer and formula number (215), through a familiar Western facing China based vendor, Teasenz. It was selling for 29 Euros or $31.50 for a 150 gram cake, and they had also carried a 250 gram cake, which is unusual, the producer making two different sizes:
2023 Oripuerlab Da Xue Shan 215 Raw Pu Erh
This is a typical raw pu erh that has a light and soft taste, yet packed with intense refreshing floral aroma. The mouth-watering honey sweetness and accessible flavour makes it one of the best teas for the beginning raw pu erh tea drinker, while the complex aroma will be loved by advanced drinkers.
Lingcang, Mengku (2250m)
The 215 Da Xue Shan series, has been produced by Oripuerlab since 2013, and due to the popularity, these cakes have become part of the factory's annual production. This cake has consistently sold out for many years in a row, and this year will be no exception.
They forgot to mention strong bitterness and high overall intensity, if the 2023 is like the 2024 (based on trying it before looking up background), but to some extent all that still works. They're from different years, but I can't imagine that they're opposites in terms of general character. This doesn't mention plant age or the wild arbor theme directly, but growing the tea at 2250 meters in elevation implies that it's not from a standard low elevation, high production plantation.
Review:
#1: bitterness is really pronounced; that can happen. Floral range is positive, and promising, but this is brewed a bit too strong. One challenge going into this was that a lot of sheng isn't really ideal for drinking within a few months of being made. Not everything needs a decade and a half of transition, but some is much better for settling for a couple of years. I can brew this lighter in following rounds, and that will offset this intensity, and bitterness, but it's still going to be a bit extreme.
This reminds me of trying a tea from a local shop again, from Ju Jen shop in the Paradise Park mall (in Bangkok), the Lincang version reviewed here. That post said that it was from 2021, so three years old now, and it has settled to a nice aspect balance. Three years ago I would imagine it would've been a bit much, too high in bitterness level, and a little intense. This may follow the same pattern, as clearly possessing some positive aspects and character early on, being of good quality, but not quite ready in terms of an optimum. If someone loves really high intensity and bitterness of course that's just wrong, and it's perfect when young, brand new.
#2: easier to relate to brewed much lighter. This flavor profile seems to remind me of that tea [as it should have, at least being from the same broad area, Lincang]. Pronounced bitterness and floral range are pretty common themes though. It's quite drinkable made this way, brewed light, but a year or two of limited transition would make it more approachable, and enable drinking it at more of a range of infusion strengths.
Quality seems pretty good for this. Intensity is a bit much, and the bitterness is really something, but those aren't flaws. Feel is fine; it has good structure. One part of the flavor is a bright fruit note; that is nice. It's almost lemon citrus, or at least in that range. To me it adds a pleasant complexity, but then I always do love a bit of fruit in sheng.
#3: warmth picks up; that's nice. Mineral is quite strong in this, in a dry mineral range, like limestone, or something such. It could just be my imagination since it's so early in but I swear that I can feel this tea already, the drug-like effect. I mostly had fruit and yogurt for breakfast and that doesn't tend to offset sheng stomach impact or feel (cha qi / drug-like feel), so maybe it is real. I really can't relate to people drinking sheng to get a buzz, but to each their own. I'd be using drugs if I wanted drug-like effect.
Of course aftertaste experience is pronounced in this; that goes along with saying that it's intense, quite bitter, heavy on mineral, and complex in flavor range. It's pleasant, if someone is ok with high degree of bitterness and somewhat heavy astringency, and wants intensity to be dialed way up. Per my own preferences I think I'd love this more in about two years, after it has mellowed out a bit. In really dry storage maybe in 4 or 5 more years, but here in Bangkok sheng changes fast.
#4: fruit continues to evolve, with most of the flavor range in this still relating more to bitterness, mineral, and floral range. That catchy set of bitterness, sweetness, floral flavor, and a hint of fruit is familiar enough; that works. Aftertaste switching from bitterness to sweetness is a common theme, hui gan. I was just thinking that it was a shame that the Ju Jen cake was so small, and almost finished, produced at half this size (100 grams, where this is 200). That's more of a sample.
This sheng version will probably only get better over the next few years, and I probably wouldn't hold onto more for longer, to check how it is in a decade or longer. I suppose if it doesn't cost too much setting aside a cake would probably give good results, in another 15 years. Or maybe it would make sense at an intermediate transition point, between 5 and 10 years, but that's hard to judge.
#5: astringency and mineral eases up a little; the balance is more approachable. This is still on the edgy side, a bit dry in feel, and quite bitter, so only people well acclimated to that range would like it at this stage. Again in a couple of years that may shift; intensity will still be fine, but tones could warm a little and that challenging bitterness and feel could smooth back out.
#6: it continues to settle well. Over more infusions it should carry on with a slow transition to warmer tones, maybe expressing just a little more fruit, and easing up on bitterness and astringency. It won't make it to an especially drinkable when young range, so all that is relative.
Conclusions, additional background:
Really nice tea; I like it. It's a bit intense at this young age, but it should mellow and be more approachable fast, over the next year or two. For people into sky-high intensity, pronounced sweetness and bitterness, and heavy floral range this is perfect right now.
I asked Stephen if he sells this and he said that he doesn't, that it's a version he likes that he owns a lot of. That's so nice! This would be an ideal tea to own many cakes of; I can't imagine that it wouldn't be better and better over any length of time, even 25 more years. And it should drink quite well over the next few years, as a younger version that doesn't need more complete aging to be pleasant.
Many thanks again to Stephen for sharing this!
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