Tea fossils (cha hua shi) compared to cha gao (instant tea / resin)

 

cha gao left, tea fossils right

Some months back a friend passed on some tea samples, which included tea fossils, lumps of what looked a bit similar to cha gao, instant tea / tea resin, but not really the same.  I never tried them; somehow as I worked through the most interesting samples I never got to those.  I really thought it was a version of cha gao, which I've not had great results with in the past, but then I've not tried much of it.  

It turns out it's something else altogether, a variation of cha tou, or tea heads, the clumps that form when fermenting shou pu'er.  Or that's the claim in a Reddit discussion comment, here:

Cha Hua Shi (茶化石) literally means tea fossil. It, along with another similar product Sui Yi Zi (碎银子, lit: silver loose change) are members of this family of product known as Lao Cha Tou (老茶头, lit: old tea head). Supposedly these are produced during the wodui process to make ripe puer, where some tea dusts, gum (pectin?) coalesces into hard lumps that can't be disentangled. So it's basically ripe puer lumps.

However, the market is also full of fake ones that are produced from cheap ripe puer dust and artificially added gum to bind them into this form. I've heard a few opinions from Chinese tea circles to avoid these products due to the difficulty of differentiating real and fake ones. Nevertheless, I personally don't think it's any concern, it's more like a novelty product, and has lower value for money than legit ripe puer if you end up liking the taste.

Interesting!  I've had good experiences with the more standard, larger clumps that are presented as cha tou, tea heads, clumps formed in shou pu'er.  I've reviewed a few versions here; they tend to be similar to shou pu'er material, because they are that.  They might be a bit sweeter, maybe fruitier, in an odd malty sort of range, with an interesting flavor.  I would expect many readers here to be familiar with that, but here's a category description as part of a Yunnan Sourcing cha tou sampler listing:

Cha Tou is a kind of tea nugget that forms naturally from the pressures of compression and heat that occurs during the fermentation process. Typically during fermentation process to make ripe pu-erh there is a pile of tea about 1 meter high. It is kept wet to allow the fermentation process and the pile is turned every few days to allow for an even degree of fermentation, moving the tea from the bottom of the pile (where it is hotter and wetter) to the top of the pile where it is cooler and drier. The "cha tou" are the leaves that ball up and get stuck together. The best cha tou are ones that have not been over-fermented and are smaller in size.

The next thing would be to try the tea fossils example I have on hand, and to communicate how that goes.  

I'm comparing these to cha gao; I had a version to try passed on by Peter, the Tea Mania owner, in a visit here awhile back.  It would've been nice to reference a listing for the Tea Mania cha gao, instant tea, especially since it was labeled as being Jing Mai origin gushu material, from 2015.  Made into cha gao?  Strange.

It will work just to describe how it is (both, but I mean the cha gao, which I'm using for comparison).  They don't sell anything like it now, so there's no other background from their site to reference.

Review:

both black as ink; the tea fossil infusion looked lighter in the pan

cha gao (instant tea from Tea Mania):  way, way too strong.  I expected it to be too strong, just not to this level.  I can adjust that; I'll dilute it by a little more than half now.  

It's ok, but maybe keeping on diluting it would make sense.  I had used a cup of water for two good-sized chunks, which I kind of expected might be single-serving amounts, but didn't know.  It reduced some while simmering and stirring it to make it dissolve, so it's down to 3/4 cup now, with half expanded back up to a full cup by the end of the second dilution (8 ounces, 250 ml).  That's about right.

I can't say that I like it.  There are redeeming characteristics, but it's rough, harsh.  Of course very heavy mineral dominates it; one might expect that.  It tastes like drinking rainwater condensed down to a brown liquid after sitting out in a plant pot, reducing there.  A pine note isn't bad though, and it lacks a lot of the disagreeable character of cheap shou.  It's not a lot like peat, it doesn't include off earthy flavors, or fishiness, and so on.

I diluted it again, and it's slightly better, but it's still going to taste like that, so heavy on mineral tones.  It's not so close to the flavor range of shou pu'er, but of course it is closest to that.  I overbrewed some Fu brick tea recently and this also reminds me of that.

tea fossils:  it's better, but only in comparison with the other tea.  I wouldn't drink this.  I will drink these cups; I tend to not waste tea, but I mean there's no way I would purchase this, or repeat this trial to check if other versions are better.  Related to the experience being novel it is quite interesting though.

It has a tapioca sort of flavor, not far off that one flavor aspect that comes out in bubble tea.  Beyond that it may share a little ground with barley tea.  It's actually not that bad.  Warm mineral is there, but in very moderate proportion compared to in the other tea.  It also doesn't taste all that much like shou.  A little, but not much.  

Shou is a broader category than just a little sampling might indicate, so I should qualify that by saying that if we consider the atypical edges of shou experience these may be similar to different ranges of those.  What I see as good shou is a narrower range, or versions that are type-typical.

second impressions, drinking back and forth between the two:  the usual round-by-round, divided format doesn't work for this, where I'm drinking one version of each.  I'll add thoughts and impressions related to drinking these for awhile, while trying more.

The cha gao has an intensity and dominant warm mineral flavor range that some people might like more than I do.  It's not "off," to the extent that it could easily be.  Probably drinking this quite light would make sense.  I've diluted it a lot, related to the original starting point, but I can keep going.  

It is better diluted more, for a third time.  It's interesting how that warm mineral and then earthiness, not completely unlike a heavy French roast coffee, all come together, with a lot of other typical tea / shou range just missing.  Sweetness isn't bad; that helps.  This might be ok sweetened, with milk added, turning it into something really unusual, an instant tea latte.  

That heavy mineral really coats your mouth and tongue, relating to a strong aftertaste experience.  Often that's a sign of quality in tea, a marker for it, but in this case it just seems to be how this instant tea experience works out.  It's not negative, the aftertaste experience, but it's not positive either.  It's a little like when you can taste a metal spoon (not how that's supposed to work), just without clear placement of that being good or bad.

The tea fossils are in a somewhat opposite place, related to them being light in this brewed form, probably with a capacity to take on a much different character brewed strongly.  I simmered them for nearly 10 minutes (probably 7 or 8), but there isn't a clear limit on timing for that, and higher proportion changes intensity too.

I can't really guess if this is how tea fossils are supposed to be.  Per input from a Reddit thread comment they are a lot like cha tou, really a version of those, "tea heads," clumps of shou pu'er that form naturally during wet-pile fermentation.  Or they could be made to look like that from other material, shou dust clumped together using some sort of starch, like tapioca.  

Why would someone do that?  If they could sell cheap shou for a lot more by putting it in a coffee grinder and then mixing it with starch why wouldn't they?  You could buy a cake of very cheap shou for $10, and make half a kilogram of these lumps.

This version being as clean as it seems would lead me to guess that it's "real."  Cha tou, the normal version, the larger lumps that you see more often, have a distinctive sweet, towards fruity, almost berry-like, malty kind of flavor, and this isn't far from that.  Cheap shou just tastes like cheap shou; earthy and rough.  

It sounds pleasant, when I describe it that way, and I do like cha tou, the versions that I've tried.  I'd rather just drink cha tou though; if this is a very typical experience then it's a little thin on some of the other shou character that makes cha tou pleasant, mixing lighter, sweeter, maltier character with the earthiness and depth of shou range.  I suppose to close out all those ideas these tea fossils taste a bit like dark rye bread.  That's not bad; in a slightly different presentation it could be really nice.

The cha gao also isn't bad, in one sense, but it's also not really pleasant.  Someone accustomed to drinking strong black coffee might actually like it, relating to the heavy mineral range differently than I do.  Pleasantness is a subjective determination.

I did try it mixed with milk and sugar, prepared like tea-bag tea or coffee; that is interesting.  It's actually good.  It's hard to describe.  The earthiness drops out, and stronger mineral tone scales way back.  That touch of pine you can still make out.  There's almost a fruity character to it, which is odd, because there's nothing like that in the unaltered version, that I can notice.  I don't know if I would drink that regularly or not but it's better than instant coffee.  There may be potential in this for people trying to switch off coffee.

I brewed the tea fossils again, simmering them for another 10 minutes or so.  Results were similar; not bad.  Maybe really better than that for being novel and interesting, but only so-so as the experience itself went.