my favorite sheng again! a Thai version from Aphiwat.

 

I skipped buying new Thai sheng from my favorite source this year, back closer to spring.  I'd stocked up early in the year, on Vietnamese teas instead, and had bought quite a bit of this version last year, and was limiting tea purchasing to essentially none.

But I just made an exception, and bought some of the 2024 version again, and a Dian Hong-style black tea, again from Aphiwat.  It's more or less my favorite overall sheng version right now, and has been for a year or two.  There is no Western facing vending outlet for this tea, but Aphiwat can be contacted here.

An online group question about the best sheng version I've ever tried (that anyone in the group had) reminded me of the difference between versions seeming exceptional in that way, as a high-water mark, and just being favorites, more within the ordinary range, but special.  I won't shed much light on that difference.  I suppose some LBZ or Bing Dao versions that I've tried were better than this, more interesting, more refined, with more unique and noteworthy sets of aspects.  Many teas have more aging potential; I think this is best for drinking within the first year or two.  

But beyond all that this really clicks for me.  Maybe why will come across in the review, or maybe I'll just not make sense in voicing this divide.

Breaking usual form I've already tried this tea so I know what I think of it.  It's quite good, and relatively similar to last year's version.

Review:

that extra color is probably from some oxidation, not aging effect

1:  I let this brew a little long to get it started; it might be a little rough due to that, and it's definitely slightly overbrewed.  It's on the bitter and intense side, but that's part of what I'm signed up for, what I like about it.  Sweetness is good, and flavor complexity.  Astringency is definitely there but it's not harsh.  Bitterness is pronounced, and a little intense, but not bad, at a decent level.  I'll do more of a flavor list next round.

2:  for flavor breakdown this is mostly floral, and it's always hard for me to describe the level beyond that, which flowers.  One part tastes a little like plant stem, coupled with the bitterness.  Some warmth seems to connect with mineral that's in between light and warm.  For a tea from 2024 that's a lot of transition already, to shift over to not being very light in mineral tone, and other flavor, but that's Thai storage for you, hot and humid, with changes happening fast.  Sweetness level is good; it matches the rest.  Feel is full, with good structure.  Aftertaste is pleasant; it's all the sweeter after you swallow.

Now I'm having trouble explaining why this is so pleasant.  It sounds like lots of other sheng experiences, doesn't it?  It really is, I suppose.  The material seems good, making the balance work.  The intensity is great.  Me liking this style helps a lot, and I really didn't love it as much, before years of trying versions like this.  It evolved to be a favorite.

3:  rich feel is evolving a bit more; I think that's another part of why this works so well for me.  And aftertaste experience; sweetness and some bitterness trails after, and the floral range.  And it's really clean in effect, without much of a hint of a flaw, or off aspect.  I suppose that plant-stem vegetal range tying to the bitterness not everyone would love, but I see that as just as positive as it is negative or neutral.  It works with the rest.

4:  honey-like flavor picks up a little.  It makes the floral range seem to draw closer to tones that align with that, like one would a sunflower to smell, although maybe they don't, really.  My wife and I visited a sunflower farm a couple of years ago, but I don't remember that I tried smelling them.

Related to style, it seems like this might be a little more oxidized than conventional sheng, which is why it's so approachable as such a young version (about 8 or 9 months old, I think; spring can run early here).  That's why the mineral includes warm tones, and why the honey input matches warm floral range.  It all tips just a little towards dried fruit, but that can be hard to place.  Like dried longan, maybe, a personal favorite of mine, or not so far off dried mango, if that's more familiar.  

5:  bitterness and astringency are easing up, but it always was relatively approachable.  It's just pleasant now, well balanced, intense, warmer in tone, quite nice.  

I could say more about minor transitions over another half dozen rounds but that's a main part of the story.  And I have to go; I have other things to do.

later rounds:  I drank another 8 or so infusions the next day; this tea really hangs in there for intensity, and related to staying pleasant.  That's not really even stretching it.  Between the 5th and 9th or so it's at its best; warm honey and fruit flavors really dominate, then bitterness picks up a bit later on.

Christmas

I tried this on Christmas day; odd I hadn't mentioned that.  Kalani was sick, just as Keoni was getting over being sick, so we did kind of a relaxed day, before going out later on.  Shopping for gifts never really came together; at best they got a few token gifts from us, and not much for that.  We spent some of the time planned for that on a doctor visit.  As usual Eye ran late catching up on errands, only back here in Bangkok for the last two days, after spending the fall in the US, where the kids go to school.

I hope everyone reading this is having a great holiday season, and no matter how well or badly gift giving works out that some personal connections make it feel special.

a long nap on Christmas day, after waking up early

doing math assignments on Christmas break; that's not ideal

Christmas Eve outlet outing.  it's great to see them again.

Akha (indigenous group) produced Thai white tea, from Chiang Rai

 

A friend just sent me some very interesting Thai white tea, produced by an Akha indigenous group in the Chiang Rai area.  His name is Tóth Tamas.  I guess that he wouldn't be Google proof, so anyone really interested could look him up to talk about details related to local teas.

And that's pretty much it for background.  This almost has to be a case of wild-origin material use, with this being from variety Assamica plants; that's how this kind of thing tends to go.  There are a broad range of tea plant types grown in the Chiang Rai area, but one sub-theme of that is old, seemingly pre-existing Assamica plants being used to make versions of pu'er (pu'er-like teas; if it was made over the Chinese border, on the other side of the Golden Triangle, then it would be pu'er, but that's a region-specific name).  Or it could be made into white tea.

There are other plant types growing wild, variations of Taliensis, or whatever else happens to be out there.  Sometimes versions that aren't from more standard plant types can be great, or sometimes odd.  Then if they seem off you can't really know if that's from plant genetics or errors in processing steps.  We'll see how this goes.

I should add that teas like this, wild origin white tea, if it is that, you should experiment with brewing in different ways, because it sometimes can give quite different results brewed differently.  If your silver needle or bai mu dan lacks intensity adjusting brewing relates to trying to bump that up, but in other cases even basic flavors can vary.  I will try this brewed Western style, maybe eventually even grandpa style, but I may not get back to mentioning it here, unless results are quite novel.

Of course I'll use a standard Gongfu approach; put as much in the gaiwan as can fit (probably less than normal for me, for as open as these leaves are, probably 5 or 6 grams in a 100 ml gaiwan instead of 8 or so), brew it using water not far off boiling point, using infusion timing that seems to work out, adjusting each round based on the last.

Review:

first infusion:  interesting!  A few flavors stand out right away, versus just one seeming dominant.  There is pleasant sweetness and light floral range.  It's almost perfume-like, in the way that an extra aromatic component can seem a bit like the solvent or carrier part of those, a little towards liqueur-like.   

Mineral shows through; that should pick up more as it gets fully wetted.  Some of the mineral extends into an unusual direction, almost to a light soapiness, tasting a little like soap.  That's not as dramatic or negative as it sounds; expressed as saying that it tastes like an unusual salt compound or mineral is more neutral, and that also kind of works.  I suspect that in the way that versions of astringency edge or flavor can kind of "burn off" from young sheng in the first two rounds, or smoke flavor might, this will drop out.

second infusion:  it's pleasant again, not so different than the first round, maybe just slightly stronger.  That unusual mineral flavor, that I've described as similar to soap, isn't going away.  I don't see it as negative as it must sound.  Because it brings up that association for me the way it combines with sweet floral range makes it taste a little like a dryer fabric softener sheet.  Maybe that's not a helpful description.

The overall impression is that it's floral, sweet, bright, and clean.  I suspect that a unique plant type input may be causing this one unusual flavor component.  The Assamica plants in the north of Thailand have been around for awhile, maybe a few hundred years, and genetics could have drifted, or related but slightly different plants could be around.  Then you also hear about another kind of input that's quite hard to place, of plants picking up local flavors from other plant types growing near them.  Intuitively that might not make a lot of sense, but it seems to really happen, that wild-origin material teas are complex in flavor in unique ways that can be unusually unique.

Intensity is pretty good for this.  I'm not brewing it too long, on the order of 20 seconds, and infusion strength is fine.  To be clear I like it.  That one flavor input isn't necessarily coming across as a flaw, more just an unusual character.

third infusion:  it's pleasant.  It is transitioning some; I'm getting too hung up on that one input to really do justice to describe the rest.  It's very clean, bright, and sweet in overall effect, so it doesn't taste like a flawed tea version.  Light mineral supports that other range nicely, and the one part I'm mentioning seems to link in between floral and mineral range.  Warmer depth is harder to place; it might have a touch of vanilla.  The brightness is mostly in floral range but it tips towards lemon, it's just not completely there, not actually citrusy.

It probably sounds like I'm describing this as one flaw or aspect away from being a truly amazing experience.  Maybe someone could take it that way.  I don't, necessarily; it's pretty good.  

I own a cake--or over a cake really, since I bought a second--of a truly unusual local Northern Thai sheng version, that's sour instead of including a trace of odd flavor input.  That's probably from being made from unusual material, or that could be from less than optimum processing.  Every time I drink that I have to re-adjust to decide if I like it or not, and then in the end I decide that I do.  I haven't re-tried that in awhile.  This is much more conventional and approachable; I'm talking about one possible interpretation of a minor flavor aspect.  If you interpret it as atypical mineral it's back to being quite normal.  If it reminds you too much of soap or a drier sheet then it could be quite off-putting; that would seem reasonable.

fourth infusion:  brewed slightly stronger warm tones really come out.  Lots of floral range is still dominant.  Rich feel and aftertaste add depth to the experience.  

Then I suppose one part reminding me of a fabric softener dryer sheet people would be divided on.  It just seems to be unusual mineral tone linking with the floral range causing that effect.  If this had been stored in a laundry room that would also add up, but my guess is that's it's just a natural flavor inclusion, triggering my imagination in an unusual way.  Probably the whole story has been told already, but I'll go one more round to see.

fifth infusion:  that really is pleasant.  White tea isn't usually this rich, complex, and intense.  The feel is full, and warmth covers a nice range, given so much of the character is light and bright.  I guess one part of that flavor profile would divide people.  Overall I like it.  But swap out that one aspect and add in just a touch of dried fruit or honey tone and this would be one of the more exceptional white tea versions I've ever tried.  As it is it's still pretty good.

Right at the end a strange thought occurred to me:  would I necessarily know if one of my neighbors was doing laundry?  I've never smelled that before, and it has never seemed to impact a tea tasting session, but it's an interesting thought.  I am trying this tea outside, and it's also quite normal for flowering vines to give off strong scents at random times, usually in the evening.  The only thing I've ever smelled from my neighbors is food cooking.  I typically don't notice that, but when I fast I'm unusually sensitive to food scents (I'm not fasting now).  

One tree, not so far from me, is shedding an unusual volume of flowers just now, a massive amount of them.  It's possible that I've been going on about a contaminant from the environment.  I doubt it, but maybe.  There's just something odd about the tea, most likely.

the flowers are on this tree

you can sort of see them in the yard, below the tree

2004 HTC shou pu'er and 2011 Xishuangbanna

 

A friend and I just did a tea swap, and I sent some of whatever was around in exchange for aged shou and hei cha.  So nice!  He is Bruce, living in Chiang Mai; maybe you know him.

One is a 2004 Hong Tai Chang shou, which is probably tea from a Chinese producer made in Thailand, since I've tried a good bit of that.  I own a 2006 sheng cake, or what is left of one.  Tea Side sells those here, an online vendor (where I bought that).  Looking back I tried that as a sample in 2015, and a 2006 shou version also from 2006, and bought that sheng then.  Nine years ago I was not a very good judge of pu'er, and my reviewing and blog writing was a bit rough.  Maybe it still is, but at least in a different sense. 

The other is a 2011 Xishuangbanna version, from Yunnan (so "true pu'er").  Bruce wrote on the label that the 2011 represents a version and style he doesn't like as much, sent for comparison, so we'll see.

Review:

2004 HTC:  it's smooth, rich, and mellow, with decent complexity and depth.  My problem with shou has always been that it all covers too narrow a range; this and the best and worst shou versions I've ever tried are all not so different.  Ok, maybe bad shou really is something else, but it's still a lot closer than for other types, nothing like bad sheng or bad Wuyi Yancha oolong.

There's a hint of fruitiness in this, like a dried berry or cherry.  I'd bet that and going on more about mineral will be the story of this shou.  If you use your imagination it could seem a little like spice, I guess, and that familiar dark earthiness does vary slightly.  This is clean in flavor effect; there's that.  Feel is rich and velvety.  It's good.

2011 Xishuangbanna:  there is something a little off about this.  It has that barnyard sort of flavor, like a scent literally from a horse's stable.  At a minimum it takes me back to experiences with country life from my youth; we had a horse at one point, and lots of other animals were around.  I would go help an uncle bale hay in the fall; there is nothing like that experience, for work seeming like a workout.  A tractor and machine does the baling; the workers' part is throwing it into a wagon, then taking it out and stacking it in a barn.  Those must weigh something like 50 pounds?

This will clean up a little over the next two rounds, I think, and it's not as bad as I'm implying.  It's not good either, not like that really dicey Honolulu Chinatown shou I bought a couple years ago, to fill a gap for not bringing enough tea.  In bad shou you end up talking about fishy range, or petroleum-like character, not just a bit of barn smell.

HTC, #2:  it picks up complexity; that's nice.  This expresses a cool marshmallow flavor aspect that I've ran across before, really a nice flavor in shou, for how it integrates with other earthy range.  Sweetness is good in this, and rich feel, and also complexity, depth, and refinement.  This is roughly as good as shou gets, per my experience.  Then again it's not that far off above average shou either, so if a vendor was charging 60 to 80 cents a gram for this, as they would, there's absolutely no way I would buy it.  But then preferences and judgment does vary.

The rest of the description still applies, pleasant earthy range, of course mineral, and probably some spice, maybe some strange dried Chinese medicinal herb I'm not familiar with.  It's good.

2011 X:  rough!  On the one hand this is pretty good, related to the positive range, and on the other it tastes like the smell of dried horseshit.  I get it why Bruce sent it as an example of what might not be ideal, or even further toward the opposite side than that.  It's interesting.  After the initial taste the shock of that one aspect being so oddly placed in that range settles out, and it's really not so bad.  The rest seems to pick up intensity as you keep drinking it, conventional warm mineral and earthy tones.

I haven't mentioned a brewed liquid color difference; the first is inky, and this is lighter, more reddish brown.  These are both pretty far along for aging; 13 to 20 years shouldn't make that much difference for shou, unless one was not very completely fermented to begin with, then I guess maybe.  I actually like this, once I drink a little more.  I don't think I'd be reaching for it often if I owned a cake of it though.

I drink shou when I fast; I've mentioned that here before.  I've fasted for about 60 days in the past two years, I think it is.  It's a long story as to why; to gain supposed health benefits, to offset disease risk, to increase mental clarity, to adjust for insulin resistance, to clear whatever is stored in my tissues that shouldn't be there, maybe even to offset aging effect.  I think it helps.  Shou is the easiest on your stomach, as teas go, and I pretty much only drink that and some aged white mixed in.

HTC, #3:   these will keep brewing, up to at least 10 rounds, even though I'm pushing them (brewing them strong).  But I'll stop taking notes here.  They won't transition that much more, and I have things to do.  

Actually this is pretty much the same as last round.  Which is good; it was really nice.  I love that marshmallow flavor inclusion, and the rest balances well, the depth, intensity, feel, etc.

X:  that more objectionable barn flavor did mostly fade already.  This isn't bad at all.  Maybe not great either, but it's pretty good shou.  If I used my imagination I could come up with a list of ten different flavors in this, but it's also just kind of earthy.

Later:  trying both again later a dark bread like flavor range stands out in the HTC version, like very dark rye.  It's nice; it complements the other earthiness and fullness well.  

The Xishuangbanna version has lost essentially all of that barnyard note, and a mineral aspect like slate stands out.  It reminds me a little of Liu Bao character, how that can be similar in those.  It's so heavy on mineral in a dark range that it's almost like smoke, but it's not that.

Conclusions:

These will keep shifting, a little; another few rounds would turn up another aspect or two.  I just won't write about that.

I ended up liking the second more than I expected; it cleaned up nicely.  The HTC version was better.  I didn't go on much about age issues in this writing.  Shou mellows and deepens in character some over a longish time, but I'm not sure the Xishuangbanna version will be all that different in 7 more years, matching the current age of the other.

I looked to see if Tea Side lists this, and they don't.  A loose 2006 HTC shou version sells for $18.50 for 50 grams there; not as bad as I thought.  Teas like these can vary quite a bit though, since beyond variations in original character storage conditions can change a lot.  That may or may not be a lot like this tea.

Taiwanese oolongs from a visiting friend

 

I recently had a couple of friends visit our house to have some teas, a theme that doesn't come up very often.  One of them has been exploring teas living in Taiwan, a local Thai guy I met in a shop outing here in Bangkok, Gawin.  Gawin was even hosting ceremonial tea drinking sessions there, into different dimensions of the experience.  

first meeting Gawin in Ju Jen, a Bangkok shop in the Paradise Park mall

He passed on some "wild Tie Guan Yin" and what looks to be more oxidized rolled oolong, also called red oolong.  This is a well-known style among more experienced tea enthusiasts, but to me it doesn't get enough attention and credit among people newer to exploration.  It's a much more natural starting point, and type of tea that anyone can appreciate, than many other types of teas that tend to get talked about more.

This red oolong is identified as produced by the Buo-Ya Pavilion Natural Tea Company (on the packaging), sold by the Buo Ya tea shop in Taitung County.  Taitung Luya might be the branding name.

The wild TGY is identified (written on the sample pack) as from the Guide Tearoom, which is probably the business name for the ceremonial session business.  That also lists two Instagram contacts, TEATIANTIAN and JACK_DAILYTEA.  Those profiles are very aesthetic; I recommend checking them out.

Review:  

wild Tie Guan Yin:  this is not a rolled oolong style tea.  For sure Gavin mentioned that, and processing background, but things don't stick with me a lot of the time.  This could be white tea, since that's often how more simply dried versions are intended for type, but I'd guess they made oolong without doing that shaping step (the leaves show oxidation; they're darkened).  

We tried a tea that Gavin actually made, during his visit, but I'm guessing that this is a commercially produced tea, along the line of a small-batch artisan production theme.  I can ask and edit this to include that.

Of course the color of the brewed liquid is much lighter; red oolong is typically oxidized into a more conventional black tea range.  The flavor of this is nice.  It tastes a bit like Tie Guan Yin, as TGY would.  The tones are a bit warm; this has been oxidized a little more than the light style versions, which is suitable, an improvement.  It'll be interesting hearing about other processing, about a potential roast step.  This may not have been roasted; I'm out of practice for identifying how those two inputs map across to each other.  Or then again it probably was; there's a lot of caramel warmth and sweetness to this.  [later edit:  it was roasted, but not a lot, and not over charcoal].

A base flavor is floral, a common main aspect.  Then the warmth and caramel stand out next after that.  Mineral undertone isn't missing but it's not as pronounced as that can get.  We talked when Gavin visited about how some Taiwanese oolong high intensity of flavor might come from heavy fertilization, pushing into something like a new car smell, and this isn't unusually intense like that, but it has decent intensity, good complexity, and nice depth.  It's good.

red oolong:  tartness stands out most, right away.  I'm ok with black teas being tart, or in this case oolong oxidized to the point of essentially being a black tea, but it's not a favorite aspect range for me.  To me it's not really a flaw but it also isn't favorable.  It would be nice if that would fade quite a bit but it's usually not how that goes.  It's like black tea tasting like cacao, not like sheng exhibiting astringency edge that can fade; it's just part of that tea.

Savory range is interesting, like sun-dried tomato.  Sweetness level is pretty significant, or else those other two aspects wouldn't tie together well at all.  It's complex; there is more to it than these main notes.  Cacao and berry-like fruit might stand out beyond that, or rose-like floral range.  I gave this extra brewing time to get started, to open up, and it will be easier to identify flavors brewed lighter, since it's so intense.  It's also good, it just doesn't match to my personal preference as well as the other, mostly related to the tartness.  I don't see why someone else couldn't love that; it seems to just be an individual preference thing.

TGY 2:  the same as last round; not transitioning yet.  This is a little light; I brewed both quite fast, to see what that changed.  The other proportion is higher, even though it looked like very little tea at the bottom of the gaiwan.

Creaminess is nice in this.  Jin Xuan has a reputation for being creamy but of course other plant types can express that too, especially related style oolongs.  The rest of the flavor matches the last description still, rich, sweet, floral, with nice warm caramel tones, and some mineral undertone, just not a lot.

A hummingbird dropped by; that's nice.  Myra was here earlier, my favorite of the cats, since I'm tasting outside, where we met with Gawin and his friend.  Now also a squirrel and crow, with a songbird in the background; kind of busy out here.

red oolong:  it evolves to balance slightly better, or maybe works out well at such a light infusion strength.  At this high a proportion even a 10 second infusion isn't really light.  Fruit is nice in this.  It's complex; one part reminds me of cranberry, then also dried tamarind.  The flavor seems to cover floral range too, but that's well-integrated with the fruit.  

I'm often saying "wow, these teas are strong!" right around this point drinking sheng pu'er, and I can feel these two already, finishing a third and fourth small cup.  I just ate a heavy late breakfast too, oatmeal with goji berry and extra banana, and two fried eggs.  I'll push these a little further, and will probably keep this review short, not describing the transitions deep into a count, or even to a mid-point.  I'm late to call the kids, who finally arrive back for a Christmas break visit in one week, and that's a priority over everything else.

TGY #3:  this longer infusion was still probably 20 seconds or just under, not so long.  

A bird is talking to the squirrels, and that crow is going on, adding extra sounds beyond the caw, unless that's a conversation he's having.  It would be nice to know what they go on about.  Two other birds seem to have a nest in a different area; you can tell when they are warning someone off.

Warmth and depth really pick up in this.  It's still going to describe as warm caramel in summary, but it's stronger, and not the same.  

red oolong:  even a slight bump in infusion strength made that tartness shift from somewhat more balanced back to dominant.  I'll keep trying it light.  This is pleasant, the way those different parts come together, it's just a shame that I don't love tartness in oxidized tea range as much as most other possible flavors.

Fourth round, transitions:  the TGY is staying consistent.  That's nice, given how pleasant and complex it had been, with such nice depth.  

The red oolong might be evolving a little, trading out some of that tartness for the beginnings of a cinnamon note.  That's an improvement.  

I might also mention that it's normal for red oolong to be produced in a black tea range, as I said, but this is pretty far up the oxidation level scale.  It is really just a black tea at this point, perhaps borrowing from some oolong processing or other input range (the tea plant type, the rolled shape, and so on).  To me that's essentially a good thing, since somewhat hybrid forms can create something novel and pleasant in a new way, but I guess that part is a judgement call.

I really don't have additional conclusions this time; the teas were good, it was nice of Gawin to share those.  Of course I drank more rounds of them, and they stayed just as pleasant.

Pig butchering scams

 

There are already plenty of Youtube video posts about this topic, which is an easier way to digest summary information, but I wanted to cover a few interesting points here anyway.

The general theme is an online scam, relating to someone using social media contact to get someone to trust them enough to make crypto-currency trading transactions as an investment, which turn out to be fake.  Sounds pretty improbable, doesn't it?  It is, but the build-up is the crux of it, how they approach it.  I received this Line message not so long ago; this works as a good example:

A common intro is a wrong-number sort of message, like this.  You wouldn't necessarily talk to someone sending a message to the wrong Line account, but you might message them to tell them they've got the wrong number.  Often the picture will be that of an attractive woman, which may increase the chances that someone might want to be helpful, to explain the "mistake," or to talk further beyond that.  That one was a bit moderate (in emphasizing attractiveness); this might be a better example:

Then whatever the starting point is doesn't matter, because the scam would relate to making small-talk next.  This particular intro opens up asking questions about travel themes, and sharing travel preferences, a good lead-in for social discussion, even with a "wrong number."  They would probably tentatively offer to pay for guide services; there would different ways to bait the hook.

Later it would switch to advice about crypto trading, which becomes kind of a stretch.  They use a script to help people running the scam bridge the gap in between topics, cutting and pasting a number of discussion messages that lead to that.  It's not supposed to make complete sense.  This is an interesting Youtube channel summary of how it all works; I'll draw more details here from this, about who is doing this, and from where.

I've talked to one person online before attempting this scam, curious about why an online stranger was talking to me (maybe from a social media contact; I don't remember that starting point).  The transition was pretty clumsy in that example; I would imagine that approach and the message steps get a bit better dialed in over time.  Another source covers a reason why you shouldn't talk to these people, to intentionally waste their time out of curiosity or malice, more or less what I was doing.  

Per that Youtube reference, and at least one other I've watched on this theme, these scams are typically conducted by Chinese criminals, set up and ran by enlisting workers in isolated residence spaces, some of whom are pretty much captives there, victims of human trafficking.  In that sense two crimes are really occurring, the scam, and a forced-labor theme supporting it, hosted out of places like Myanmar, or Poi Pet, Cambodia.  The scam employees / captives might be expected to generate a certain amount of return, and might be punished for low conversion rates, for example beaten, so it might be a mistake to try to tie up their time in order to cause others to not get scammed.

Jumping the track a bit for a tangent, I've been to one of those places, to Poi Pet, two years ago.

Poi Pet looks a bit like Thailand, but rougher

development isn't consistent, but they had built out casinos and housing

Poi Pet felt a little off; there were literally shut-down casinos there, part of boom and bust phase of them attempting to become the next Macau, and that not working out.  Surely the reasons for that were complex.  Development seemed inconsistent; there were plenty of large-scale apartment and office buildings here and there, but then also those closed casinos, and roads in between developed areas that weren't finished, at some stage in between dirt and pavement.  Apparently that business failure and connection to Chinese interests, and limitations of local law enforcement / openness to corruption, all combined to make this a viable new criminal industry there.

One video reference on this theme, not that one I've cited, here instead about a Dubai-based operation, showed how they can work around using an attractive woman's photo, when it's really more often some Chinese guy being held captive.  Instead of pulling down online photos, which would make it possible to reverse-search the images, a more sophisticated operation can employ someone to play that role, to be the photo model, and even to be able to video chat with scam victims.

That's not a job that anyone would seek out, but they could enlist such help the same way they could turn up the other workers:  make false promises about a much more valid work position, and then set it all up as a difficult situation to get back out of once someone gets started.

It's still unbelievable that this could work at this time, isn't it, decades into people running all sorts of online scams?  Even if you somehow thought that you were talking to an attractive woman, who had become something of an online friend, would you really get started on investing in crypto-currency, which typically is a scam no matter the starting point?  Hopefully not.  

But they build up to that sort of thing, using complicated deception.  The videos describe how they have people start by investing very little money, $100, and then witness how easy it is to do the trading to apparently earn returns.  It just turns out that those are fake, based on using an app created for this deception, that mirrors the look and feel of real trading apps.  If you would see the person you are talking to on a video call, supposedly, and then see how you could rapidly generate profits on a small investment (seemingly), then it might make more sense to go further.  Not for someone sensible, but one part of this is the victim believing what they already want to believe, partly tied to the attractive image part.

Back to the message starting points, the messages that I never responded to, those were identified ordinary, attractive women, just planning a trip, per the shared context.  Supposedly organic discussion would lead to the topic of crypto trading, following a script, with plenty of allowance for variation for responses, all making it seem more believable.  The context built in some cover for rough English use and slight inconsistency; from the looks of it those women would be supposedly visiting from China.

This kind of thing might work out well using a dating site or online penpals themed site to initiate it, right?  I explored an example of the latter at one point, "Interpals," but lost interest relatively quickly, in part because of drawing more contact from scammers than genuine users.  I did make one online friend there, an older Chinese guy in Malaysia, and we talked about local culture issues and changes in modern society over a number of years.  Some other contacts were at least real people, but it all went nowhere.

Someone commented on a discussion once that they could tell if a woman was a scammer online, because any female talking to them would have to be that.  Unfortunately that's kind of how you could tell who was who on that penpals sort of site.  If a random woman starts a conversation, that looks like a model in her profile photo, with very little personal background in it, that's a scam.

I'm an admin for a large Facebook tea group and Facebook is being populated by these sorts of profiles now; they're joining groups to look more legitimate.  They're easy to spot for a similar reason; the photos are almost all attractive women, and the limited details don't add up, even within the two or three background items shown for group approval.  Most go to a university like Harvard, often work for Facebook, and come from places like California City, which is a real place, but drawing on minimal knowledge of the US that would be LA instead.  Somehow more sophisticated fake profiles draw on use of obsolete or inactive and older real profiles.  That way a lot of it can actually be real, and consistent, it just wouldn't show years of recent activity, which is also the case for many real Facebook users.

There's not much conclusion here.  It goes without saying that you shouldn't send money or get started on investments based on advice from a random online contact.  These scams will keep changing form too; they'll figure out a next way to extract money from a stranger based on limited conversation under a set of false premises.  Later on chat-bots will be doing this, not human-trafficking captives.  Eventually they'll even be able to video chat.

Is specialty tea interest now pay to win?

 

This will take some unpacking.  Of course every hobby interest involves expense, and contributing more towards that enables having a broader range of experiences.

Let's back up a little.  Familiar to many, "pay to win" is a reference to online games being free to play, but then being set up so that you can buy the extra characters or functions enabling success at the games.  Set up one way it just short-cuts a lot of extra "grinding," earning those characters and functions through play, and extended further only people paying the game developers can win.  

My son extended this reference not so long ago, when we were viewing the aurora borealis (northern lights) in Western PA.  Faint versions of those look like a wispy luminous cloud, with no color, while photos look green or pink.  My sister's relatively new IPhone version took fantastic photos, that looked completely different, vibrant and layered in textures; northern lights experience became "pay to win," without spending $1000 on a better, more modern phone your pictures and impression was hazy.

Nothern Lights in PA, borrowed from a family member's FB post

the low-res version

Right away people long into tea will see where this is going, and conclude that tea has always been like this, that the basic experience is open to people who aren't spending a lot, and then other levels were always reserved for others.  That works.  In commenting on a Reddit thread about sheng pu'er sources I summarized how I was framing these ideas:

Farmerleaf is fine, based on comment input here, but the last cake I bought from them, a few years ago, was in the $80 to 90 range, so quality needs to be quite high for that to be a good value. it was ok, that cake, but I also stopped ordering from them then, because of that price range.

I've been buying sheng from Viet Sun most recently, and their pricing just climbed to that range too. It's a normal pattern; vendors build up demand, keep sourcing slightly better material products, then max out on pricing at the industry standard level, around $100 per standard cake now [357 gram size], with more interesting sounding versions at $120. Yunnan Sourcing did the same.

Tea Mania is a good source for finding an exception; their Lucky Bee Yiwu line costs less (not gushu material, which is as well, if that requires spending over 50 cents a gram on sheng). Rishi is worth a look, and they'll never get mentioned in a place like this. they've been collecting SE Asian sheng for awhile, and sell cakes for much less than that near $100 range. Style and quality can be inconsistent outside Yunnan, but that's true in Yunnan too, and plenty of tea moves from places like Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos to become Yunnan sheng.

Factory tea is the other less expensive option, but that's a lot of gambling, since quality will vary, and typical style range often requires more aging to be approachable. Chawang Shop had been a good source for that, and for good value in-house range, and King Tea Mall might be a good example of a market-style outlet now.

That was downvoted, of course; sheng pu'er drinkers are supposed to be open to paying to explore teas.  Now subscription models provide another main channel for this; you are either in or out of the in-group if you opt to try the same teas monthly, for $40 or so monthly, or whatever that is now, surely varying.

Lots of tea experience, shared through social media group participation, is framed as discussing a lot of what one vendor sells.  Discord servers about tea are mainly about that, per my experience.  You ante up to buy a good bit of that vendor's range or else you wouldn't have much to discuss.

To some extent this was always the case.  A decade ago people discussed tea experiences on Steepster and Tea Chat, and you either tried the teas people were talking about or else you weren't a part of that particular discussion.  Comments on text based blogs were similar.  So it was all always pay to win?

The amounts have increased.  Some of that is inflation; everything costs more than a decade ago.  It can be hard to map cost to type and quality level, to see if it evens out.  A decade ago people drank factory sheng, which would tend to cost $25 to 40 then (per 357 gram cake), but then "white label" gushu, more exclusive, higher quality, different style versions were already well on towards $1 a gram.  If anything those aren't matching inflation for increase in cost; that has leveled off, or stayed the same.

There is a common range of $100-120 better-quality, more naturally grown products (supposedly) available now, often specified as from a narrow area origin source, or at times they're just blends.  It's not the same tea that the factory versions were, so you can't say that pricing inflation marked up the same product range by 2 1/2 times.  Main changes relate to quality expectations, and type preference, and to the new forms of these groups.  

more on this shift in a TeaDB summary post (also mentioning quality and style have changed)

There aren't many other new online group forms; one tea app seems to have pushed through to create something of a community, based around experiencing teas the app owners sell, and other functions, but that's an anomaly.  Facebook groups have went dead, for the most part.  Discussion of Tik Tok promoting tea interest and information narrows down to Jesse's Teahouse, which is for people new to tea, who would probably seek out better value later.  

Youtube never became the information source or social collection point it could have.  A few hundred channels must relate to tea there, but the Tea DB blog and Mei Leaf vendor site are examples of how much of an exception well-followed groups are.  Farmerleaf produces good information content; that and a Discord server support them cultivating a group following, along with the tea being good.

To be clear Reddit subs (groups) aren't supporting this social grouping by purchasing pattern theme well.  There is r/tea and r/puer, and one gongfu oriented alternative is more or less just getting started, and a tea pictures group.

It might seem that I'm implying that this is a bad thing, that I'd want to return to the good old days when drinking $30-40 factory tea cakes was a norm, or just trying Dan Cong / Wuyi Yancha oolong range was, versus bragging online about getting into more rare versions.  But you can still do that (adjusting some for inflation).  The main downside, related to that factory sheng category, is that most of those teas are better after 20 years of aging transition, and newer styles drink better when younger.  It might also seem that I'm promoting the ongoing experience of lack, FOMO, by reviewing teas that vendors send, or what I buy, which is more limited.  It could seem like I'm advocating trying ever-higher quality levels, or every rare type or origin area of tea out there.  I don't see it that way, but it's a natural interpretation.  

It was a nice theme having so many people not necessarily brand new to tea, but new, discussing it on Steepster and Tea Chat, or later on Facebook groups.  A mixed-author, general information source like TChing showed how this exploration was mainstream then, as Cha Dao did before that (both of which are essentially dead now).  Many people's tea interest seemed to mature to them just drinking what they like, not discussing or learning so much.

I think part of the reason I dislike this general trend, interest form and exposure separating into more or less complete by expense level, is because it's such a dominant trend in consumption-based modern societies.  Everything we do separates out by what you spend, as much as by any other filter (exposure, expertise, etc.).

I also run, and people with that interest separate into the groups of people who do or don't own a lot of gear, and pay for extra types of group inclusions.  Races can cost well over $100 to run in, but someone might spend thousands by the time they gear up and travel, or at least $1000.  Owning 2 or 3 pair of running shoes isn't remotely enough for normal-form participation buy-in, never mind what is most functional.  To actually be competitive one might hire a coach, and take up extensive "supplementation" strategies.  Stopping short of PED use one might still buy all sorts of electrolyte gels, protein products, sports drinks, and whatever else.

three different categories of running shoes you need to buy, it seems

People could still dabble in tea and not spend all that much, or compete through spending, and someone could go out and buy one decent pair of shoes and run.

To be completely clear and open I've been influenced quite a bit by Buddhism.  That's a story for another time, with more about that on the way, but the short version is that we can emphasize simple experiences and basic social connections, and reduce rather than expand frameworks for defining ourselves, and limit emphasis on consumption, and other status markers.  This reduction of emphasis on consumption and status can work better; instead of living with even more of an experience of lack you actually get rid of the framework that grounds that, and experience more contentment and fulfillment.

I think a lot of those older tea enthusiasts, discussing interest in Tea Chat and FB groups, have simply moved on to the next interests (and then the ones after that).  But maybe some landed on this conclusion, that keeping it simpler could work better, not competing with others related to what they routinely consume.  

On the opposing side discussion about tea works well centered around common experiences, versus abstract background knowledge, so people drinking the same teas is functional.  Of course there is still a completely different opposing side, about not needing that commonality or social positioning.

The other side of this

Thinking it through further, most of this is about issues related to sheng pu'er, which has been changing form related to what is available, and to keeping up with what people discuss on Discord servers.  Or on Instagram, or wherever.  That's not what most people probably experience.

I looked up the Steepster posts on what people spend on tea in a year (which oddly still get posted annually, even though Steepster discussions are good and dead now), and it has been staying the same.  People posting there average $600 to 1000 per year, over the last half dozen years, even though inflation has spiked the cost of most things over the past 2 or 3 years.  They must be holding it at that level, seeing that as reasonable, and making adjustments to keep it in check, or maybe belt-tightening reduces the annual adjusted spending a little.

That's still $50 to $80+ per month on tea; a good bit.  Of course people discussing trying the latest new thing, buying $100+ sheng cakes regularly, or participating in more than one monthly subscription, are probably spending well beyond that.

I don't really blame vendors for using "fear of missing out" as a marketing tactic, encouraging this kind of group-think, setting up social media channels where it evolves naturally, and promoting the latest thing as something you really need to try, or you are left out.  It's just marketing; of course they are continually trying to sell you something.  People choose to respond to it or else they don't.

It's hard to generalize if an average in the Steepster-report on annual spending is a suitable norm, something like $70 a month for tea.  $2.50 a day?  If you are living on a $10 an hour salary (in the US) that's a good bit, or if pressures from demands keep your free spending limited, but for many that's trivial enough.

It's the "winning" concept that's problematic; it implies a social aspect of self-identification and also competition.  You can figure out how to buy a kilogram of tea for less than $100, or maybe a bit over if it's better tea, and shipping enters in, but it's not impressive to anyone to bring up drinking the same tea over and over in online discussion.  I bought a kg of tea for the first time earlier this year (1 1/2, really), but ended up using most of it for gifts, since flavorful, interesting, approachable black tea makes for a great gift.

I suppose you do have to spend an average amount to compete with others in terms of your own routine exposure to better tea, but just drinking decent versions of it is something else.  I've written plenty on how to do that for relatively low expense here; maybe I'll get around to making up another post covering it again, in a more concise form.

Running shoe review: New Balance 880 and Fuel Cell Propel

 

I just bought two new running shoes, the New Balance 880s and their Fuel Cell Propel model (versions 14 and 4; Propel seems to be on 5 now, and the other is the most recent).  I've liked the other New Balance shoes I've been running in, an earlier 880 model, and multiple versions of a now-dated 1080 model.  

I tend to buy closing out versions of the old model, to keep cost low, so this won't work as a guide for what to buy of what just released.  There probably isn't much of a potential audience at all, since there wouldn't tend to be for shoe models that have been around, and this is a tea blog, and I'm not a running authority, of any kind.  Maybe some others will wonder what's up with running shoes now, which could be more relevant if they already run, in which case they'd probably have a pretty good idea.

For awhile I was into watching some channels that do shoe reviews.  Which was odd, because I couldn't afford to buy essentially everything they described, so that didn't last.  My favorites were Kofuzi's channel (some guy who reviews shoes, who is personable and relatable), and Believe in the Run, a whole channel of different people who are also like that.

It was interesting hearing the theory, what people are looking for in better shoes, and a more diverse range of them than I'll ever experience.  It covered foam types, and thickness, and plenty of other design aspects, about the soles, the upper (fabric part), and parts you normally wouldn't think about, like types of laces, the tongue, and the cuff padding, the opening part.  If you just happen to own a couple of decent pairs of shoes all of that isn't all that relevant, until you want to replace them, but someone might find it interesting anyway.  I did, for a limited time.

How that relates to these shoes

The 880s seem like basic, traditional design running shoes.  Maybe I should start further back than that though, about themes related to different companies.  I've only owned one other pair of Asics (Novablast), in the last few years of running, and I've only ramped up distance and intensity in the last 2 1/2 years or so.  I might run 20 miles a week now, and more typically not quite that; not so much.  

It's my impression that New Balance is well-regarded as shoe producers go, making a range of different kinds of versions.  That part runs long, how many categories of running shoes there are now.  There are racing-oriented models, a range of those, trail shoes, and then a broad range of different training versions, designed for running at different speeds, or for feeling different in different ways.  Amount of support is another variable, but that kind of simplifies down to some people needing additional support for a tendency to not run "neutrally," for their foot to roll or to contact more on the outside or inside.  

Amount and type of cushion is more of a main factor.  Lots of versions are designed with a lot of midsole, quite well-cushioned, a trend Hoka was instrumental in making quite mainstream some years back.  Now shoe designers would work around following that theme, or else going against it, in different models.  Use of carbon fiber plates has been big for awhile, mostly in racing shoe versions, to return energy in a vaguely spring-like function, but now as a part of expensive training shoes too.  By expensive I mean that lots of running shoe range costs $150 to 200 now, with most of the range under $250.  Maybe that sounds like a lot, or maybe it doesn't, given that fairly ordinary versions tend to start at $140 anyway (on the New Balance website Black Friday sale the 880 is discounted from $140 to $110).  

People cutting corners buying older versions, like me, might try to spend around or under $100, making it a challenge to buy what they actually like most and still spend very little.  $110 isn't too bad, but on a clearance sale in Bangkok I paid less.  

One might wonder if shoe technology isn't mature now anyway, related to the model-year issue.  Running became popular in the late 1970s, and I owned what seemed like well-developed but basic Nike running shoes in the early 80s (an early Pegasus version, a line that's on something like the 41st or 42nd version now).  They keep updating foam technology, and the plate thing is new, and beyond that maybe they are just changing things around as much as improving them.  

To hear shoe reviewers describe it all the new shoes are always new and different, year after year.  They have to use more and more refined, altered language to describe that, and they're working from a shared knowledge base relating to the last 100 popular shoe versions.  It gets a little silly, people commenting to online content posts about comparing the half dozen closely related shoes that they own, or sets of shoes that go together well.  There's nothing inherently wrong with owning a dozen pair of running shoes, that you currently wear, but it seems to me that at this point it's mostly about owning stuff, not running.

Getting back to it, New Balance makes basic, well-designed, high quality shoes, and plenty of range that's not so basic.  Of course Nike didn't disappear, and Asics is another main player, and there are plenty of others.  It's funny how the general style of those shoes I'd been using is so different, their older Novablast version (they're two more models along now; maybe they're much better), and the two older New Balance shoes I had used, and these two newer versions.  Those Novablast were quite light, made from very light foam and cloth material, with a thick foam sole, designed to emphasize a sort of trampoline-like function.  

I guess in a sense the whole theme of the Propel shoe is taking the next step; a plate--a plastic one, not carbon fiber based--uses that plate and other foam to more literally create a spring and lever mechanism.  Does it actually propel you, and "return energy?"  Maybe a little.  Maybe not in the sense of the mechanics emulating a spring, which sort of would occur in those higher end racing shoes, but to a very limited extent it probably does catch and return a very limited amount of that energy.  The feel would be the thing though, not a mechanical advantage.  If it feels comfortable, and lively, and seems to encourage a smoother or faster running stride then that's great.  I suppose it sort of does?

The 880s feel softer; it's as if there is more foam catching your weight, dampening that impact.  I'm not sure if it's just my subjective impression but it feels more pronounced in the front of the foot.  It's at least possible that there is more foam there.  The 1080s I run in--an older version, mind you, so I'm not describing their state of the art newest version--have a much different form construction, with more emphasized "rocker" design, built to emphasize your foot's rolling motion as you catch your weight and roll of the front part.  

Is that good?  It might be that any one design, which emphasizes any running mechanics, might work well or badly for people depending on how they happen to run, or how their foot is shaped.  Permit me another tangent.

Long, long ago when I first ran I competed in cross country, back in the 80s.  I wasn't good; this isn't going there.  I thought since I wasn't that good I could duplicate my old race times now with sufficient practice, if I ran consistently for years now, but it turns out that I was fast enough that it's hard to do that.  I could run 5k trail races in around 19 minutes.  Under 18 minutes might place in a race back then, if the field was weak enough, so nowhere near that, but it's hard to run 5k in 20 minutes in your 50s, apparently, unless you train directed towards doing that, and I really don't.

Back to the point, the conventional running stride looks like people normally think of one, a loping sort of affair, and back then that was more or less how people seemed to run.  Then as an option people could use more of a shuffling gait, which was known of then, but didn't appeal to many people yet, and didn't have obvious advantages.  Later it seemed to turn out that for recreational runners, as I now am, even for those who are much more serious about it than I am, variations of a shuffling form seemed to convey some mechanical advantage, at some paces; it could be quite efficient.  Someone could easily bang into the ground a bit hard using a more conventional form, maybe in a formerly conventional heel-strike motion.  As you train more, adding volume and intensity, that brings up wear problems for your joints.

It seems like this is heading towards me drawing broad conclusions about ideal running forms, or more ideal patterns, but it's really not.  The point here is that people run in completely different ways; mechanics vary a lot.  The same person probably runs using very different mechanics at different speeds, typically, but even beyond that there is plenty of variation.  So it's back to different shoes working well for different people.

Skipping ahead, to which shoes work well for me, the 880s, which I've described as a supporting, basic, stable, old-school sort of form, or the Propel is designed to try to catch your weight and use some of that energy, if that's even possible.  Or at least they pass on a feel that could be interpreted as such, "lively."  Generally all running shoes are on the light side now; there are lots of minor differences, but producers have been changing around design features and materials for awhile, with an eye towards that.

They're both fine.  I always did like the older 1080s version I used because that odd design form, that really seems to try to work along with your running mechanics, maybe even to alter them, seemed comfortable to me.  The older and newer 880s weren't so far off that, they just seem to interact less with how you are running, just catching and supporting your foot.  The beat-up older version I use to walk in now work really well for that purpose, for that reason; it's as if the ground itself was well structured for walking.  But then the old Asics Novablast always felt like walking on a wrestling mat instead; I suppose that's nice.

It may be that if I ran at different paces, faster, I'd see more of a difference, and preference would shift by varying speed and mechanics patterns.  I've not had great luck with that.  I change how I run all the time, and how I train, and at one point I was pushing a lot harder for faster one-km sections at the ends of runs, getting down to 5:45 being normal for 1 or 2 (so still not very fast).  Now I tend to not do that, and I'm back to running most at 6 1/2 minute kilometer pace.  

I just broke 6 minutes for one km on a recent outing, and ran two consecutive one right at that pace.  Those are exceptions, but I'm probably due for shift in pacing.  My running mechanics still won't change much; shifting from 6 1/2 minutes to 5:45 still isn't bumping the pace enough for that.

It's not much of a testimonial, is it?  NB 880s or Fuel Cell Propel are both fine, but their 1080s or a lot of the Asics line probably also are.  

Kofuzi or the Believe in the Run reviews would fill in the next 2 or 3 levels of details, and offer 100 different shoe alternatives, including a few that are most comparable.  It's interesting that they're all made of different types of foam, designed at different heel and forefoot heights, I just haven't looked that up for these, even though ostensibly this is a shoe review.  The NB site listing, that I checked price on, only mentioned "the drop," the difference between heel and forefoot, but one was for Propel v5 (8 and 9 mm; doesn't mean that much to me).

I do love the shoes.  The 880s feel that little bit more stable on your foot, but I'm not concerned about turning an ankle in the other ones, the Propel version.  They feel like you might be able to run 15 or 20k in them, or walk around in them half a day after a run.  The extra foam depth--I think there is more--and minor adjustment to mechanical form might make the updated 1080 version even better for a really long run, but the Propel feel like they could handle picking up the pace a bit.  

Probably if spending $200 on shoes isn't an issue the rest of the Asics range might have a slight edge, depending on preference.  They're swinging for the fence in terms of evolving design forms and foam development, or at least that seems likely to me.  I'd know better if I'd bought a few more pair of their shoes.

If someone reads all this and considers putting it into practice related to using shoes just to walk, or to stand around in, a main consideration is how they feel in terms of fit (or related to running, of course).  Width is important, and the style matching your foot.  That "rocker" / curved bottom sole could be a huge benefit for someone that it suits, or it could be off-putting.  Shoes can break in a bit to feel more comfortable later but how well it feels right away is an important sign.  I've went this far without mentioning arch support, or saying anything about heel cuff padding or different tongue designs, but it all works together, and how it seems to feel sweeps in most of all that.

A running friend recently mentioned that per his understanding of conventional wisdom runners would have at least two pair to offset the shoes reinforcing slight differences in running mechanics.  That sounds right.  Beyond my level of interest and training probably more would be better, but early on just owning a couple would do.