I met Peter of Tea Mania recently, visiting Bangkok, and he passed on some samples (thanks much for that!). I've already reviewed two very nice Baozhong (light Taiwanese oolongs). These should be just great.
Tea Mania was the main outlet I bought tea from for a few years, but I tend to cycle through sources, as much about transitioning what I like as moving up in some sense. It's not as if I've mastered Chinese sheng, or that Thai and Vietnamese versions are better (what I've been on since), just routine exploration.
These are large coins; it will take some doing getting them started brewing. To me this shape works better than dragonballs, which are still coming unfurled 3 or 4 infusions in, even if you pull them apart. Tea separated from a cake tends to infuse more evenly, and get wet faster, but these will be fine.
A problem came up in checking on the vendor's descriptions of them, adding whatever background that does, because the Jing Mai seems to be sold out.
Jing Mai arbor 2021 is listed for CHF 56 ($63 USD), for a 200 gram cake, but it's probably not that, since the site seems to be using gushu and arbor as two different type designations.
Jing Mai 2017 gushu lists for 85 CHF ($96) for a 250 gram cake, but that's four years older.
Citing background from those wouldn't be relevant, and it's hard to use them to get a feel for likely price range. The first works out to 31 cents per gram, and the second 38. 7 years old is kind of an odd range, not at all young and far from fully aged, but some teas could be exceptional right in the middle, and if it seems better to wait out a half-dozen years to more full transition you're already halfway there.
Review notes here will add a bit more implied background on aging patterns, but it really depends on the tea, the age, and the storage conditions, how it all matches together.
MANSA GUSHU SPRING 2021 (70 CHF for 100 grams, $79, 80 cents a gram)
Together with our friends, the Tea Masters Yang Ming and Panda, we went to the search for the ideal Mansa Gushu tea leaves. These leaves have been processed in Yang Mings tea manufactory to 100g Bingcha...
For Mansa Gushu Spring 2021 used tea leaves from up to 300 years old tea trees in Mansa. We were already very pleased with this tea a few years ago but we were unable to produce them at that time... The tea trees in Mansa are partly shaded and partly at the blazing sun. This special condition results in a particularly balanced aroma. The shaded tea leaves are particularly flowery in the aroma, while the sun-kissed tea leaves provide a strong Cha Qi.
This description references them drawing on local expert help for sourcing and processing. There is an interview with Panda on their site, as additional background.
Review:
Jing Mai and Mansa, round 1: still almost too light to say much about. It's fine; more notes when infusion strength picks up. These are going to take a couple of more rounds for the tea to get separated; I'll give them over 30 seconds to keep that part moving.
Jing Mai, Mansa #2: better, just not there yet. You can pull these kinds of pressed shapes apart, once slightly wetted. Maybe that will help. I could add a little about the character but not that much is coming through yet; only the outer layer of them is brewing. These seem warmer in range than I'd expected, but then 3 years is a good bit of initial transition time.
Jing Mai #3: good intensity, maybe a little too much; that's how this would go, that I would brew them too long once they get started. It's odd these will be on the fourth round before I get standard infusion strength notes. Tones are definitely warm; these have transitioned through the entire early round of shift, as I see it. They're not in a bad place; this is a decent transition / fermentation level for drinking lots of sheng, really before a standard medium aged range starts, or on the early side of that, depending on how one sees it. I've tried really dry stored sheng that were like this after 5 to 7 years, or longer; they've already changed.
Floral range stands out, but it's deeper and warmer than it would've been over the first couple of years. Sometimes there's a pine note in Jing Mai, but I'm not placing that in this. Warmth stands out, warm mineral, and warm wood or aromatic spice, maybe closer to sandalwood than any typical cured wood range. One part leans towards fruit, maybe Chinese date, dried jujube. To be clear this is nothing like the earthy, woody, leathery range you sometimes run across. It's warm in tone but floral range and a hint of fruit and spice fill in complexity, not wood tones.
Mansa: because the aging input had a similar effect on them these share a lot of common ground, which is interesting. The warmth is the same, even some of the related flavor range. They're not identical but the same description would work for this one, it would just apply in a different way. The next round should support making more distinctions.
Bitterness and astringency edge has faded in these, although it still supports effect of complexity. That's the positive part and trade-off of drinking sheng aged a few years; it mellows and deepens, but some of the bright, intense, fresh tones are positive, and those fade to warmer range, along with more challenging aspects dropping back. I just reviewed a Da Xue Shan (Lincang) version that's all but brand new yesterday, experiencing the opposite, just getting blasted by intensity and fresh floral range, and a high degree of bitterness.
The question here is about an optimum, about when these showed the best character, but there are two problems with assessing that. It depends on preference; there is no one level. And I'm only trying them now, so I don't know exactly what they were like 1 to 3 years ago. Of course I'd only be projecting about how they'll continue to change, but I can guess at that.
Jing Mai #4: a really pleasant fruitiness stands out more now, not really like the dried fruit tone before, but it connects with that, extending it. It's like a more natural and better version of Froot Loops. Warmth shifts from woody aromatic spice tones to root spice.
It's all better; no wonder, for the tea finally brewing normally, at a conventional infusion strength. Feel works; it has decent structure, but it's not too much. Aftertaste isn't as pronounced as it might be but it supports complexity.
Mansa: it's strange how this is quite similar to the other tea, but not exactly the same. There is some fruit present, it just didn't ramp up as much, so warm floral tones seem to fill in more. The warm range seems to still relate more to an aromatic spice input, not moving to root spice. Feel is a little more structured, maybe even a little dryer. It's probably not that much less sweet but the different flavor range supports that interpretation less, so it seems so.
The time has passed for appreciating these as young sheng, but they're both nice like this.
Jing Mai #5: bitterness picks up; interesting. It had really been moderate up until this point.
Mansa: depth and complexity picks up for this version. It deserves more of a flavor list than I'm going to be able to pass on. Spice notes escalate, and warm tones not far off fruit range also increase. There's still a pronounced floral base, and plenty of mineral.
Jing Mai #6: this is really hitting its stride, and it was already pretty nice the last couple of rounds. I suppose interpretations would vary related to flavor aspects, but to me this nicely combines floral range, root spice, and fruit range that's actually complex, more than one input. The warmth is at a nice level, and bitterness is quite moderate, which works in that balance. Sweetness is fine; I'm not mentioning it much since the warm tones emphasize other complexity, where lighter floral range would come across as sweeter.
Mansa: the feel of this is a bit richer; it's hard to completely place what that contributes. Overall effect is that it's slightly more refined. Rather than flavors standing out as a few interesting notes this integrates it better, making it harder to break down. It also includes some warm floral range, other warm spice tone, and some degree of fruit, but it's all a bit different. Fruit is really secondary, as a limited dried fruit input; it would be natural to leave that off the list. But to me it plays a role in how it comes across. It might along the line of dried pear, rich and deep, but a bit subtle in form.
Jing Mai #7: it's still transitioning a bit, onto more of a liqueur-like range. I'm not sure that it's more positive but it's at least exceptional in a different way. Most of the Jing Mai tea I've ever tried was pretty good but in between refined and high quality and a bit rougher and basic, and this at least leans towards the former, or maybe it is that.
Maybe there's something to all that "gushu" nonsense. Or just as likely better quality tea is just better quality tea, grown under more favorable conditions, using appropriate plant types, processed well, and so on. Of course if someone transplants large fields of this same plant to low elevation, monoculture growing conditions, and boosts production using lots of chemical fertilizers, and pesticides to protect the material, then makes it in a high volume factory, it wouldn't be as good.
There's a catchy flavor range to this, mostly related to a root spice aspect. That alone makes it positive and distinctive, but the quality across the other aspect range really balances that.
Mansa: warmth, balance, and structure come across more in this, the way layers of the inputs combine in a well-integrated way. I suppose the first appeals to me just a little more (the Jing Mai version); it's easy to get hooked by a couple of positive aspects supported by positive character across the whole range. It might be that these other aspects or character relate to quality markers, that in some abstract sense this is actually better tea.
It's tempting to say that the extra structure and depth of this might enable it to continue to age better, but I really don't know. For as approachable and positive as this is holding onto it for another decade might not make sense. A little more complexity across feel range helps it come across better in one way. A touch of dryness to that structure could seem positive or off-putting to people, depending on preference.
It's probably as well to drop the note-taking here. I'm sure there are a couple of extra changes to follow; these have been evolving positively, and will probably hold up well in late rounds. It's just a lot to type out and read, and most of the story was covered in the first seven rounds. It's interesting and novel when a new aspect shows up late, or balance really holds up well, but teas don't tend to improve a lot in the last half of an infusion sequence, they might just change some.
Conclusions:
All in all these were quite good. But how good? Is the now-standard $100 per cake range justified, applied to higher end in-house versions (so right at 28 cents a gram), or are they even better than that? That mixes a few different themes, about quality in relation to style, aspects, and value, which ties back to different things, including demand for teas from local areas. These probably are better than a lot of teas selling in that range, and standard outlets like Yunnan Sourcing and Farmerleaf have probably pushed standard pricing above $100 since I've been paying attention to them.
I could never relate to any pricing anywhere near $1 a gram, but then others are out there appreciating better teas than I ever get to, subtle differences that I probably wouldn't pick up on. I'm not even caught up on making distinctions between teas (standard quality levels) ranging between 25 cents a gram and then up to more like 40 (which equates to $143 a 357 gram cake). It will be interesting seeing pricing for these, and reading the vendor description, while editing these post notes.
So of course I did see that, and added the details earlier; these might've sold for just under 40 cents a gram (for the Jing Mai, which is not currently listed) and 79 cents a gram for the Mansa, getting up there. People buying sheng know where they stand on their own budget and spending, which is kind of more directly related than the quality in relation to price. I think the quality is fine for these, although to me approaching $1 a gram would be out in relation to my own spending, no matter what I thought of any tea.
I feel like I'm not really committing to much of a judgement here, saying that "quality is fine," and style matches Yunnan standard forms, which isn't always the case for South-East Asian versions, or even usually how that goes. These aren't really one-dimensional levels of one theme that are easy to evaluate and summarize. The described aspects imply a broader story, but there are lots of parts to that story.
It complicates things that these are partly aged sheng, and it complicates things even more buying older versions, like the 2017 Jing Mai listed. Storage input seems fine, not wet or dry, more kind of medium, but if you buy relatively new sheng you know what you are getting for transition level; they're not transitioned yet. It's positive that these are ready to drink right now, and potentially negative that someone might've liked them more younger, edgier, and more intense, with brighter floral range instead of these warmer tones.
There are 2012 versions listed; that changes things even more. This JING MAI GUSHU 2012, a 357 gram cake, lists for $169. Given how much these samples have transitioned a dozen years would be pretty far along for these teas.
It's a concern that they don't sell samples of these, so that relates to risking the better part of $200 on 50 cent a gram tea that you probably would like, but may not love. Their slogan "tea for nerds from nerds" comes to mind; it would help to work at a $150k per year IT job to be out buying $200 cakes that you may not love, or $100 150 gram versions. Something like this would help with that:
PUER SAMPLER PANDA MANIA (8 grams each of 7 teas, 56 grams, for $34)
Jing Mai Gushu
Mansa Gushu
Mengsong Dragon Balls
Bulang Gushu
Yiwu Gushu
Yiwu Lucky Bee
Bangwai Gushu
It would be hard to stop there, to order just that. I looked up the free shipping threshold and it's at 100 CHF, $112. Those Lucky Bee (Yiwu) cakes were always really nice, and a great value, and they're 45 CHF ($51).
This is why it's as well to not hear too much about too many sources; it's always one more $100+ order to try something that sounds good. At least with conventional quality level sheng if it's pretty good then value is fine, and you'll have tea around to drink that ages well, but at "gushu" pricing of 40 to 50 cents a gram, or more, purchases run through more of your tea budget.
These teas were good, and this is where I'd be ordering from to get this style range, since quality, consistency, and value have always been good through them. I wouldn't be ordering anything priced at 90 cents per gram, but in general based on what I've tried it's mostly all safe bets. Complete match to local origin standard flavor profile is something else; I don't keep up well with tracking that. I just blind-tasted a Lincang (more broad area) version and commented that it tasted like Lincang, but that's an exception.
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family outing in the Bangkok Chinatown |
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meditation practice |
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