I'm reviewing more aged sheng from Tea Tracks, that vendor friend based in the Netherlands.
I'll include their description of these after writing notes, the usual process. They're presented as "Li Ming," which must be the producer. There might be a more local source area cited, but typically that doesn't mean much to me; at least Bulang is familiar.
Sheng being 17 or 18 years old is also familiar. Plenty of people drink lots of much better versions than I get to, regularly, but I've tried a decent amount of aged sheng. I own a half dozen cakes older than that; not much, but some.
I was just thinking about how I really do minimize purchasing and keep it all basic, related to not buying any tea for Black Friday. I might've not ordered any since January, and haven't bought any in shops since then, for myself, maybe beyond an extra Xiaguan tuo somewhere along the way, and tea to give away. I've tried something like 100 teas vendors were kind enough to share this year, so that mixes it up a bit.
I've been going back through re-trying the few dozen versions of sheng I own varying amounts of; I just tried some from a "new" cake today, probably a roughly 6 year old Jing Mai version, but I'd have to look that up to know (labeling from different producer sources can be more or less clear).
One of these versions is gushu, the other isn't (older plant material, sometimes identified as over 100 years old, but that could vary). Qiao Mu relates to them being more natural growth produced, I think, a tea farm allowed to remain in a more natural state, not strict monoculture, but not a forest.
Bu Lang 2007 (357 gram cake lists for 81.75 Euro, $86.50 USD)
This is a semi aged tea from the Bu Lang mountain. As many older productions it has a smokey smell and taste during the first 2-3 steeps. This tea has been dry stored in Kunming and still has quite some bitterness and some astringency.
This tea is made from tall tea trees that are in Chinese called Qiao Mu (乔木)...
...Li Ming (黎明, daybreak) is a rather large state owned tea producer that makes Pu Era tea under the label Ba Jiao Ting (八角亭, Octagonal Pavilion). This producer serves a wide spectrum of teas. You can find lower quality plantation tea as well as high quality tea from older trees and tea gardens.
Taste: A bit smokey taste in the beginning which turns into tried fruit with a somewhat heavy body.
Trees: Larger trees
Origin: Bu Lang Mountain, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China
Harvest: Spring 2007
So maybe Qiao Mu really relates to plant age, and I'm remembering wrong? I'll pass on reviewing that further this time. That does mention dry storage in Kunming, which was pretty obvious from these seeming like well under 10 years of aging transitioned versions. I wrote these notes before looking up that listing and it's a main running theme in the comments.
The 2006 / gushu version isn't listed on the site; it must have sold out. It would've been interesting to see the price, and the pricing difference, but it doesn't matter so much now, since that's not available. But due to being curious I looked it up on past Tea Tracks site pages, on the Wayback archive machine, from 2022, here. That was selling for 170 Euro then ($180 USD now); gushu pricing can be up there.
Review:
Li Ming Bulang Qiao Mu 2007 (so not gushu): there's quite a bit of smoke. One of the leaves is more scorched than the rest, and it doesn't take much of that to add a charred note. I threw that one out, and the rest might settle some in relation to that input over the first few rounds. Smoke contact or limited charring of leaves was more common 17 years ago; higher end producers avoid that more effectively now, and it's even been resolved in lower range factory teas, for the most part. Producers are on to refining other considerations, processing steps.
This seems fine beyond that, but I'll skip the aspects list until next round. It's a little strong; I let the first round go long (30 seconds) to clear through the early infusion start issues, to speed it along, and avoid commenting that it doesn't taste like much yet.
Li Ming Bulang Qiao Mu gushu 2006: no smoke, that I'm noticing. Being brewed slightly too strong isn't doing this any favors, but it holds up ok to that. It's not as astringent as it could be, but there is notable feel edge to this. Of course flavors are warm in tone, just maybe not as warm as I'd expected for an 18 year old tea. Maybe this was stored in a moderately cool and dry place, the opposite of where I live. A shorter infusion time round next time will tell more of the story.
Li Ming 2007, #2: smoke isn't exactly fading but it's balancing out some. These really aren't all that age-transitioned, fermented, for being these ages. You can see it in the leaf color, or taste it. It's possible that I just drank a 7 year old sheng version that was more fermented this morning, which had spent most of that time here in Bangkok.
This is pretty good. Bitterness isn't gone, transitioned to gentler warmer and deeper tones. There are some of those but the mix with the younger character aspect range. This might be relatively fully transitioned in another decade, based on experiencing the same storage conditions. I think more balanced, moderate humidity and temperature is better than the rushed conditions here, in general, but I suppose outcome would vary by all of the inputs together, also relating to the tea character. This isn't at the most natural place for drinking this now, but it's pretty far along, so within 5 more years in typical pu'er-enthusiast controlled storage it would make more sense.
2006 gushu: it's a little better for lacking any smoke input (or significant amount), and flavor range is a little heavier, deeper. Feel is moving towards a rich sappy character, but it still has plenty of younger edge to it. You can see where this is headed for more complete transition easier; the other is that extra bit "greener." Bitterness mixes with warm mineral tone, and a feel edge that seems to connect with something along the line of green wood range. Sheng that's prepared badly ends up tasting like wood in a different sense; here I'm using that as a placeholder for a range that's hard to describe. This is standard character sheng, above average even, so that wood-tone is more aromatic, like cedar, leaning towards spice.
This seems to have great potential to keep shifting, for that bitterness to drop out, and plenty of pleasant, complex flavors to emerge, but it might take longer than 5 years for that to happen. 7 or 8 more years is relatively short-term in relation to sheng time-frames. I'll describe different flavor aspects as these transition over a few more rounds, but their potential will probably be the story, not their pleasantness now.
Bitterness, feel structure, and overall intensity is a lot to take in, for both, even as very short infusions. I'll try one more round and break for some neutral food and drinking plenty of water.
2007 #3: smoke is balancing in an even more pleasant way. Sweetness and other flavor range picks up; I can do more of a list. Bitterness and a green-wood sort of edge is still dominant, so the rest is what stands out beyond that. Warm tones include more aromatic spice range, towards incense spice (a pretty broad category; even if I was more familiar with that range it's picking out the third most dominant flavors at that point). It's interesting experiencing this much bitterness in tea switched over to this warm a tone range, seemingly halfway through that change.
2006 gushu: again the warmer, milder, slightly more complex flavor range is a welcome change. Again the overall intense experience is a bit much, related to it being too much at one time. This really needs another decade to settle. Sometimes I do drink Xiaguan tuo versions that are way too young, "only" a dozen years old, to experience that blast of astringency and bitterness, but it's still clear the tea isn't at its best yet. The spice range in this is especially promising, but more as what this might evolve to be. It includes aromatic spice like cedar or incense, bark spices, but it could evolve to include more root spice range, more like ginseng.
These might relax and settle more through another 3 or 4 infusions, but I'd expect more of the same, in general. Related to my own tea-experience preferences I definitely wouldn't buy these teas to drink now, but they have good potential for later on.
That tea I drank this morning, that I mentioned, a 6 or 7 year old Jing Mai version (I think) was quite faded in intensity compared to these, and not bitter at all. That's fine for drinking it now, or it will have a more fully transitioned character in another 2 or 3 years, much sooner than these, probably related to storage input, but also tied to initial character. I suspect that tea's best days were behind it, that it might not have made sense to keep it around to age it, for it going so dead for flavor, but these two teas seem much more suitable for aging.
2007 #4: smoke is much lighter, integrated with the rest, no longer a dominant aspect. Greener vegetal tones (towards green wood) are also becoming better balanced by warmer and sweeter range. This tea version is pretty good; complexity is ok, feel is nice, there's a depth to it. That flavor aspect range people would have mixed impressions of, probably; it could shift and be more positive with more aging, warmer, and even better without that vegetal range input.
2006: this really seems to be at a tipping point, having left behind that harsher, more astringent, "green wood" range, but still with moderate bitterness, and still switching over to warmer tones. Those include warm mineral, cedar wood, and aromatic spice. There's some early promise of dried fruit range, jujube, or Chinese date, barely showing through now, but that could pick up quite a bit over even a couple more years. This tea still needs time though; it would be a shame to drink straight through it at this stage.
2007 #5: not so different than last round, but the slow, incremental shift to include less smoke, greater depth and flavor complexity, and more rich feel continues. Aftertaste experience is pleasant, the way this carries over. It should be much better later, after it transitions more through more aging.
2006: the two are more similar now, but this is still better, across all the dimensions I just mentioned for the other. It will also be better once it ferments just a bit more. That really may take a decade instead of 5 years, and that would probably depend a lot on storage conditions as an input.
Conclusions:
The gushu version, the tea that's no longer available, was a good bit better. Beyond the smoke input just a bit more fermentation might've been a main difference, and that tends to even out over time. Or maybe the character was much better in other ways; it can be hard comparing versions that are in different places for aging transition. For being one year apart in age they should've been quite close, related to that one factor; different inputs could've caused them to seem different.
Smoke in tea can fade over time, but this one has had awhile for that to occur already (17 years). It should keep fading, and since it mostly dropped out within the first few infusions--not completely, but mostly--it might seem like less of a concern later, when this is more fully aged.
Some people could like that smoke input. In general it's interpreted as a flaw, but how one relates to it still relates to preference.
In one sense this seems like a good value for partly aged sheng, for the one still available. Even it being stored in a cooler and dryer environment I don't see as negative; I think teas rushing through transition here in Bangkok, in the hottest and wettest possible conditions, is not necessarily positive, beyond the process going faster. Heavier, mustier flavors can result; it's not all good. There's a vague idea out there that dry storage can couple with other slightly off flavor range, a flatness, sourness, or cardboard sort of note, but it's hard to separate other issues related to a limited range of main vendors' storage from dryness and cool conditions as main causes.
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