I'm reviewing another version of Fu brick hei cha, sent by the Oriental Leaf company for review (many thanks!). It's not easy to place that in relation to the last version I wrote about, but I will add more final thoughts on that in a conclusion section, after taking notes. I'll add a vendor description as an introduction and product identifier, per normal practice after I tried the tea and wrote the review notes.
YXT Golden Fu Tea Individually Wrapped ($30 for 90 grams, sold as 15 six gram samples)
Basic information
Tea type: Fu Tea
Tea shape: Loose
Origin: Shaanxi
Picking year: 2021-2024
Picking Season: Spring
Tea shape: Loose
Fermentation degree: 🟠🟠🟠🟠Post-fermented
The last tea that I reviewed was an YXT Jingyang Fu Tea Classic Yellow Can 300g, selling for $50.
I don't know how these are different, or even if they are. I would imagine that they're different products from the same producer. I'll say more about apparent differences at the end. It's easy enough to reference visual appearance differences just from the earlier sample photo:
 |
| more golden flowers, for sure |
Review:
#1: appearance is a bit broken compared to the more whole version that I've already reviewed. That doesn't necessarily match up with grade in any way; it ties to how it was separated from a brick. Even a bit of stick material doesn't mean much. It's hei cha; it can be like that. There seems to be less "golden flowers" showing in this, than that earlier version, but some.
It has a pleasant warm and yeasty taste. I suppose that not everyone would love it; for some that wouldn't be so pleasant. I would really need to try this along with the other version to make a distinction, to say how they are different, or which is better in what ways. This is probably going to seem a bit generic as a result; it will sound a lot like the other one.
Flavor profile is quite bread-like, along the lines of dark bread, or at least a rye. I'm ok with that; it's pleasant to me. I don't love it so much that I end up buying hei cha, since I'm more into sheng pu'er, for quite awhile now, maybe 5 or 6 years. That makes it hard to place, about liking something but not enough to seek out repeating the experience of it. Do I like it more than the range of different oolongs that I also appreciate, but rarely drink? It's just different.
#2: a bit more fruitiness picks up in this. Of course it's a warm dried fruit range, like dried apricot. I'm brewing it pretty strong, infusing what looks to be about 5 or 6 grams for over 30 seconds. There is no astringency or bitterness to be concerned with, no reason or limitation related to not brewing it much stronger.
Aftertaste experience is interesting, how the warm yeasty tone and some fruit carry over. It has an unusual thick feel, not structured like sheng pu'er, not as round and full as some oolong can be, but not thin at all. Mineral range grounds the rest; I suppose that carries over too.
#3: mineral picks up. That's not a bad transition, but it's also not improving.
This brings to mind what markers or identifying aspects would indicate good quality Fu hei cha (related to specific aspects, beyond tasting good). I really don't know. In a sense from a perspective of a tea enthusiast with very significant background in drinking a lot of other teas it doesn't matter. If people into Fu tea find something in particular highly desirable, and the rest of us have trouble relating to that, it's not as if one perspective or the other is right or wrong.
Then I also bring up an acclimation process in relation to sheng. It's valid for people with more exposure to a type to naturally prefer some range over time, or to see aspects initially experienced as negative as desirable later on. With sheng pu'er this comes up in relation to bitterness and pronounced astringency. Would this mineral input later on be identified as more positive or negative? Or the yeasty bread note? Would transitions over rounds be valued, or positive character after many rounds? Maybe; who knows.
It seems less problematic but I also can't review this "against" the other version 2 or 3 weeks later, whatever it has been. I considered comparison reviewing, drinking two teas at once, but it's a lot to take on given what's going on at home today. I'll spare you that, but it has been a long sequence of reviewing a lot of teas in the last month, and home life just went from a bit busy to overloaded in the last week. The kids will go back to Honolulu in about 4 days, and I'll stay here; it relates to that. I can make some notes about a tea but it's best to keep it limited.
#4: flavor is less integrated and balanced. I suppose that the input of the "golden flowers" has largely worn off, and it's down to what the tea is contributing, at least more so.
I'm noticing a mixed color appearance; what to make of that? Some leaves are greenish and others quite dark. For an oxidized tea that would come from inconsistency to air exposure. I'm not completely familiar with the processing steps for this particular tea, even though I've reviewed related teas in the past. Under different conditions of personal life I'd look into that, but as things stand I won't.
The tea doesn't come across as relatively high in quality level, as unusually appealing in terms of expressed aspects, but it's nice, it's fine. Those limitations seem less severe in relation to this tea type. White tea that is so-so can end up being relatively flavorless, which is a problem for supporting a positive experience. This isn't like that. Sheng that's medium or below average in quality can be harsh, with heavy astringency, or negative flavor inputs. Those can span a lot of range; some might taste vegetal, or musty, smoky, or too woody. Wuyi Yancha of limited quality usually lack some aspect range that should be positive, like full feel, or flavor complexity, and flavors can be a little off.
This isn't like any of that. For being a more basic type having some limitations seems fine; it integrates with the experience in a relatively low impact way. Flavors are still positive, feel is fine, and transition cycle of aspects isn't bad. This could even be above average in quality level; it's hard for me to keep track, again without knowing markers to watch out for that determine that per each type. At a guess it's ordinary in quality level, not above average, and it just so happens to work out that it's relatively pleasant anyway.
#5: it's thinning a bit but still ok, still nice. A mix of leaf material character, evident in the different colored leaves, doesn't throw off final experienced aspects as much as one would ordinarily expect. Sometimes with sheng pu'er this comes up; sometimes some leaves can clearly be more oxidized, and it all can balance nicely anyway, and still integrate together as a consistent, positive experience. More often it wouldn't work well; it just depends.
It's hard to describe how flavor balance has shifted, how the early bread-like yeasty range and fruit largely dropping out has worked out, replaced by heavier mineral tones. I'm describing this as positive because those didn't disappear, they just dropped to a lower level.
This is down to where a 5 or 10 minute soak might still be positive, essentially at the end. This is a good place to leave off making review notes.
Conclusions:
It's not completely reliable but per my memory the other earlier version was quite similar but slightly better. It definitely looked better, much less broken in appearance, and with more golden flowers input (which I take to be a good thing; someone wouldn't drink this at all if they thought the opposite).
The producer is the same, and the style is either similar or the same, so they're not so different. It would be odd if I go back and try both together again, without making notes, and like this version more. And that could happen; I can't really make that clear a mental reference to compare back against weeks later.
It's odd how I really do like this style of hei cha, more than just about any other type version, but then I never get around to buying it, after some early exploration 6 or 7 or so years ago. I've got plenty to keep up with in exploring and drinking sheng pu'er, and I mix in some black tea beyond that, and then keep it simple from there. Samples sent for review pull me in all sorts of directions for experience, maybe too many some of the time. I appreciate the variety and chance to try different things but it can be a bit much, especially taken along with demands to spend time on reviews, then to edit content and share mention of it online.
In theory I could be earning limited revenue from affiliate marketing programs for mentioning teas, but in practice I'm not, none at all. I signed up for one over the past few months but haven't checked if sales volume would relate to any commission yet. It wouldn't; not that many people are reading these posts, under 100 for each, for reviews, and even in those cases few people would click through using a post link to be tracked as related. I should check back though, just out of curiosity.
It's still interesting trying lots of different teas, and I don't mind the time and effort to write about that. I might've liked the other related Fu / hei cha version better, but this one is still pleasant to experience.
In that last post about sheng pu'er, comparing three versions, I talked through how costs work out, how a tea budget might play out given expenses relating to different quality levels. If someone prefers teas that tend to cost a bit more than average (lots of sheng pu'er range, rolled oolongs from Taiwan, higher demand Chinese green teas, etc.), they could alternate in drinking some hei cha or black tea to reduce the overall expense.
Hei cha isn't for everyone, but that's how it goes with every tea type. Exploring this type through market store vendors would also work (Yunnan Sourcing, King Tea Mall), but it might take some exploration to find a version that you like.
No comments:
Post a Comment