ITea World Hubei hei cha (dark tea)

 

the color didn't look light like that in real life

I'm reviewing the Hubei hei cha / dark tea sample from ITea World, a set they sent free for review (many thanks!).  

Their Liu Bao was pretty good; a bit approachable and mellow as those sometimes go, but that trade-off seemed fine, giving up some intensity along with not including typical edginess, rougher feel and slate mineral base.  

This website information includes limited description of the Hubei version:

It occurred to me during the tasting to look up what this might be in more detail, beyond "dark tea from Hubei," so I'll include a couple of other references about potentially related types after the review section.

Review:

#1:  this is what I really like about hei cha; it's warm, sweet, rich, and mild, with good depth.  It's not distinctive and refined related to a set of subtle aspects standing out and balancing as occurs with good Wuyi Yancha, and not as intense and complex as sheng pu'er, but it's pleasant.  

The flavor comes across as one distinct range, but it is complex in its own way.  That might include woody tone, towards cedar, and mild and deep spice, along the line of incense spice.  And it's just opening up; that list should run longer next round.

#2:  Intensity, complexity, and depth did pick up a lot.  I don't think I'm going to do description justice; a lot of this range is unusual, not all that familiar to me.  It might taste a bit like leather, but in an unusual form, not like a shoe smells, or baseball glove, more how old books smell.  

The tannins related range is interesting, how this isn't all that close to black tea range, or even shou pu'er, but kind of in between the two.  One part tastes like an aspect in black teas, like that tannin edge, but the rest is rich, complex, and earthy, like incense spice, or Chinese medicinal spices.  One part is probably like root spice, yet another range I can't pin down well.  

It's interesting how this tastes like a range of different things that I can't clearly describe.  Sometimes when you read other reviews a flavor you've missed identifying seems clear, something odd like pine smoke, but in this case I might not be able to relate to even a long list.  It might be interesting to cite the vendor's take and a couple of other related product listings, to see what else turns up in those.

The effect is quite clean; this could easily be a bit musty, or contain an off range aspect, but it doesn't.

#3:  the flavors and overall balance shifts.  Intensity is pretty good, and in this drinkable range it could be brewed quite strong and still work.  I'm brewing the 5 gram sample in a 90/100 ml gaiwan, using 10 to 15 second infusion times, and it's still extracting plenty of flavor.  Feel is interesting, the way it really settles on the center and rear of your tongue.  There's a pine-sap like aspect that's picking up, that was present earlier, but was harder to identify when it was less dominant.  

Someone really looking for fruit tones (or that and floral range, two main review description scopes) might cite this as including dried fruit, dried mango or tamarind, and that's part of it, but definitely not the main range.  

A mineral base stands out, linking with the medicinal herb flavor aspect, grounding it in a flavor similar to what I tasted as a child in my grandparent's artesian well.  I suppose that only related to the rock content in that area, that the natural pumping process from underground pressure doesn't add any one particular flavor.

#4:  more of the same, I suppose.  There's a more subtle shift of what had already been there, the balance, but it's not unlike the last round.  Feel and aftertaste ramp up a bit as I brew this slightly longer, but it's not really fading yet.  Intensity is good for this tea version; for a tea this ground up it could extract really fast and then fade, but intensity was quite good to begin with.

#5:  heavier woody tones are picking up, what one would expect from later rounds.  This is moving through a transition cycle fast for being so ground up, and for using 15 second infusion times instead of really short brewing.  For 5 grams per 90 ml gaiwan it works out to brew a bit longer, often longer than this, and then for higher proportion, 8 or so, more standard for me, using quite short infusion times works better, under 10 seconds.

A dried fruit aspect also picks up, but I still can't really identify it.  It would be possible to interpret that as a warm and rich floral tone instead, but I think it's closer to a dried fruit.  It might be closest to dried longan.  I don't suppose that would be familiar to most, but it might be my overall favorite dried fruit.  Once I start on a bag of those I can't stop, and if I ever see that I buy it.  Fresh longan is nice too, and we buy that, but drying it warms the flavor range quite a bit, and the sweetness ramps up, and those are already sweet to begin with.  I might have been mentioning sweetness more in this review; it doesn't stand out as much as in some tea versions but that is what's tying all the rest together, making it seem pleasant.

I think I'll stop notes here because this runs long, and gets repetitive.  I really liked this tea.  For lots of the other ITea World samples they're just pretty good versions of basic types, which is nice, but not all that novel or interesting to me, having been through all that for many years, but this is a little different.  To me hei cha is usually either pretty good or else it kind of clicks, and is that much better, and this works well for me.

What is Hubei hei cha?

Hubei hei cha is probably not all one thing, but a couple of references from other vendors about hei cha versions from that area might be interesting.

2009 Chuan "Qing Zhuan Cha" (Green Brick Tea) 1700g Dark Tea, ZhaoLiQiao Tea Factory, Hubei Province (listing from King Tea Mall); this sells for $5.99 for 100 grams, not much)

"Qing Zhuan Cha" (Green Brick Tea) is a type of dark tea, distinct from green tea, originating from Hubei province. The name "Lao Qing Cha" (Old Green Tea) is used to describe this tea, where "Lao" signifies a traditional naming convention rather than the age of the tea, similar to the term "Lao Shi" meaning teacher, not specifically an old teacher.

As is common with dark teas, the material used for Qing Zhuan Cha is of a rougher texture. This tea is known for its dark appearance, elegant fragrance, and its ability to age gracefully over time.

The tea liquor is a rich red, nearing brown, with a notable brightness that speaks to its quality.

In terms of taste, Qing Zhuan Cha is thick, mellow, and smooth, making it a delightful choice for tea enthusiasts.

This tea is particularly popular among people living in regions like Mongolia and Tibet. It is valued not only for its flavor but also for its digestive benefits and cost-effectiveness, making it a practical and enjoyable choice in these areas.

Sounds nice.

2021 Hubei Dong Zhuang Brand Qing Zhuan Cha 50g, Chawang Shop listing, selling for $3.50 for 50 grams.

Traditional old style dark tea brick from Hubei province made by traditional technique (selection, fermentation, high temperature steaming, compression, drying). This style brick is made for Iner Mongolia - you can see old Mongolian script in wrapper, which is still used in Inner Mongolia. Clean deep orange brewed tea is sweet and herbal flavor in mouth with light floral aftertaste. This tea can be brewed in gaiwan or cook for a long time without astrigency or bitter or also can make nomad milk tea:

Living in Inner Mongolia and some areas adjoining to the province, the Mongolians mainly live on beef and mutton, complemented with rice and vegetables. The brick tea is an indispensable beverage to herdsmen and drinking salty tea with milk is a Mongolian tradition. The salty tea with milk uses green or black brick tea as its main material and an iron pot as the cooker. Fill the iron pot with 2-3 liters of water, and then put 50-80 grams of brick tea pieces into the pot once the water boils. After another 5 minutes, pour milk into the pot with a ratio of 1/5 to water and stir it, and then add certain amount of salt. Once the whole pot of the mixture boils, the salty tea with milk is ready to be served.

"Dong Zhuang" is the abbreviation of Yang Lou Dong tea house. Yang Lou Dong Chibi city is the origin of Qing Zhuan, the invention began in the Tang Dynasty, but the prosperity actually was during the Ming and Qing Dynasties time.

I don't think I'd experiment with making salted milk tea, boiling it together, but that does sound familiar.  It would seem to be at least vaguely related to the yak butter variations made with different types of brick teas.

Looking back it's odd that this tea is a year and a half old, even if it was pre-fermented more than these other product summaries seem to describe.  It wasn't green in character, not bitter, and didn't seem that young.  I'd expect that if it was pre-fermented that it would have more rough edges when so young.  Then again these aren't really clear processing steps summaries, and it's not clear that the three versions are identical in style.  

It's still interesting hearing about other potentially related types, and the main thing is still how the reviewed version comes across, how pleasant it is.  If it's a type of tea that sells for $5 or 6 for 100 grams, and it is similar to these, then the experienced character and quality seem amazing for that low pricing level.  It's common for different quality level versions to sell at different pricing levels; if this is a relatively identical style but a better quality version it may sell at a higher market value.

Greengold Daisi black / red tea

 

I'm trying another Georgian tea sent for review by Greengold, following review of a white / green version, an oolong and roasted green version, and two black teas.  All of these have been interesting and pleasant, and none really completely match styles from other places, standing alone as novel type versions.  Quality was good for all of them.

It works as an intro to clarify that often vendors sell relatively fully oxidized teas as either black or red tea.  Red tea, the more literal original Chinese designation, is often used for styles that are less oxidized and sun-dried, matching some Chinese processing range.  Black tea is almost always used for Indian / Sri Lankan style black teas, which tend to be more fully oxidized, and may or may not be presented as very broken leaf.  Those conventions can be a little loose; either term could work for any related teas.

From an online product listing on their website:

It was really nice, and the review descriptions I wrote match that fairly closely, as follows.

Review:

#1:  brewed a bit light, still opening up, but already malty.  It includes warm and sweet tones similar to malty Chinese black teas, not a bit drier and stronger as is typical for Assam.  It leans a little towards cacao but flavor might be centered more on fruit, along the lines of dried fruit.  It's complex, but unpacking that to a list might be difficult.

#2:  brewed a little too strong; funny how that cycle happens so often, overcompensating for a last round.  A few layers of flavors dial way up in this.  Mineral base picks up, including an inky aspect.  Savory sun-dried tomato range joins in.  Some warm tones remind me of an effect from roasted teas, no longer close to cacao but more into coffee range.  That mineral is so pronounced that it seems to include salt.  Sweentness is fine; it helps the rest balance.

It will be interesting trying this brewed more optimally, if I ever get to that, to see how these flavors balance when it's brewed better.

#3:  better!  Mineral still does include a touch of salt, seemingly, which matches with the savory note, and kind of works, offset by the rest.  Complexity is really good in this; there is a lot going on.  None of it really seems like a flaw, just interesting character instead.  There is no sourness or tartness (maybe a trace, balancing with the rest), no musty flavor; it's clean, rich, and bright.  

I can't place this as similar to any Chinese tea, or from anywhere else.  I guess that's fine, that it's novel and distinctive.

Fruit range is interesting, and a bit hard to place, towards a fruity version of floral experience.  It might taste a little like the Thai roselle tisane, rich and sweet, a little towards rose petals, but not exactly the same.  The warmer fruit range might be along the lines of dried tamarind.  It's hard to separate those inputs out and define them, with all the rest going on.

It's a little early but I might try to place how much I like this.  It's good, pleasant and interesting.  I keep having the experience of it being more complicated relating to a completely novel tea experience, at this stage in my tea journey.  It's almost as if repeating variations of earlier experiences would be easier to relate to, versus having new ones.  People seeking out repetition of an earlier experience might not be as interested in this tea.  Then of course it's also pleasant for offering something new.  I had neighbors new to better tea experience try one of the Greengold teas I had reviewed earlier and they absolutely loved it, one of their favorites in a set of interesting versions.

I've been drinking a Thai version of shai hong, Yunnan sun-dried, slightly lower oxidation level black tea, that this is closest to.  It's as different as similar, with that a little more tart, and flavor set not exactly matching, but the range is closest to that.

#4:  warm and sweet tones pick up, and the savory range stands out more than the mineral aspects now.  I like it slightly more like this, and it was already pretty good before.  It balances in a more conventional way.  I would guess that this would brew quite well using a more conventional Western approach (conventional across the count of all tea drinkers; probably more tea enthusiasts would tend to Gong Fu brew this kind of tea).

You experience this across your tongue and the rest of your mouth in an unusual way.  It's intense, and the experience coats your mouth, as flavor and feel, with that pronounced mineral range and sweetness lingering on.  Feel isn't dry or rough, but it has full body.  For the aftertaste some warm mineral, fruit tones, and a lighter cacao / coffee sort of input carries over.  That last part has shifted back closer to cacao brewed lighter, or maybe that's just part of the transition cycle.

Oxidation level seems low in this; that probably contributes to it having an unusual character.  Tones would warm further and flavor range would be more familiar oxidized more to a conventional level.  As it stands the result is quite novel.

#5:  Fading a bit, but still quite pleasant.  This will stretch for a few more rounds if I add more infusion time, and it seems those will still be pleasant, but it's on the way out.  I'm not noticing a completely new transition, more a mix of what occurred before.  Some of what I listed out seems to fade as a root spice tone picks up.  That savory edge and unusual mineral, right at the edge of salt, is still there, and most of the rest, just faded now.

Conclusions:

Pleasant, complex, and novel.  Note there were no mentions of any kinds of flaws, typical for their teas.  

This did seem to be processed to back off full oxidation level slightly, evident in the color of the lighter brewed rounds, and in the flavor listing.  Of course I'm not mentioning vegetal tones here or anything like that; I mean that maybe it's not completely oxidized, but not in a more medium oolong-level range.  It's good.

It always helps to place how good a tea is in comparison to value, relating quality and pleasantness in comparison with cost, since that range matters.  A pretty good tea selling for 15 cents a gram can be a much better value than a better version selling for 30.  Greengold is a producer, selling their teas wholesale through other outlets, so their website that I mentioned isn't listing per 50 or 100 gram prices, or any prices at all.  

This tea holds its own with quality level for most of what is sold through Western outlets related to teas from other countries, all the way up curator sites where only the absolute best quality teas are sold for quite a bit, well over that 30 cents per gram range, then this might stand out less.  If this somehow absolutely matched someone's style preference then never mind how much or how little it costs, it would be fantastic.  I really liked it.

Sub-cultures in US states

a small town near where I'm from, Oil City, Pennsylvania

A friend just asked about me sending a postcard to her daughter's class, since she is now a teacher back in rural Pennsylvania where we grew up.  That relates to the kids learning about local regional US sub-cultures by way of having people send postcards and thoughts on distinct local culture, practices and perspective unique to that area.  

I just wrote a little about local Hawaiian culture, here, and will send a postcard and some thoughts.  Due to living abroad for so long, in Thailand for most of the last 17 years, it's odd considering how similar culture is in US states, since it seems more uniform in comparison with Asian cultures than different, but that still works.  I'll add my own thoughts here.

wild turkeys at my parent's house

Pennsylvania:  really this spans a range of local culture forms, since the West side is more like the Midwest, and the East side the East coast, even a bit like New Jersey.  The two main cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, each have their own character.  Beyond all that there still is a distinct local PA culture.

People are friendly and open, especially in rural areas.  Maybe too open; it's normal to talk to strangers in restaurants or shops, and people love getting into other people's business, gossiping and offering opinions.  Older parts of US culture tend to be valued, things like older holiday tradition observances, harvest fairs, and other festivals related to seasonal themes.  Following sports is unusually popular, at every level, grade school and high school, college, and professional teams.

People tend to be conservative; supporting Trump is a main current theme, and anti-vax sentiment.  People hunt (kill animals for food and sport).  There aren't many minorities so the typical related conflict between races doesn't come up as much, outside of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  I suppose for people without a mainstream, white, conservative perspective things could seem rough, even just for being a minority or gay.

The "rust belt" economic shift is a real problem where I'm from; the former industrial area is currently living through economic despair.  It's a shame, because it's a beautiful area, with a wonderful natural setting and four season climate, with lots of quaint and picturesque little towns and villages.

my daughter's school, in Honolulu

Hawaii:  it's awkward for me to say much about local Hawaiian culture, because I don't represent that in any way.  A close family friend, sort of an extra uncle, is truly local, so I've been in on some insight, but I can only state some positive generalities.  Local Hawaiians value family, nature, traditional social roles, and family gatherings.  All that is true of everywhere, to some extent, but all the more so "here," (I'm in Honolulu now, living here for three months again).  They don't necessarily feel alignment with mainstream mainland US culture, but to some extent lots of people might feel that way now.

Another type of local is people with mixed non-native background, or that plus outsider input, and there are plenty of other Asians, and some white mainlander transplants.  Culture is mixed as a result, not at all unified.  All the same people tend to be relaxed, to value nature and outdoor activities, and to try to de-emphasize forms of tension and conflict that can come up in the mainland of the US.  That's even though people do seem to align with either the mainland left or right political inclination form, in relation to transplants.  Military personnel tend to be conservative and lots of other types of people are somewhat liberal, even into "hippie" range.

The economic pressure of a high cost of living definitely divides people, at least in Oahu.  There are beautiful communities full of high end shops and nice restaurants and then poorer local living areas and other bad parts of town.  That pressure has lots of younger, more native locals moving to the mainland, where eventually buying a home is much more practical, since home prices don't typically start at a million dollars, for the lowest demand locations.

Colorado:  this is where I've spent the most of my adult life, in the States.  People there really value nature as well (I guess I'll just keep on saying that), and sports participation.  Here in Honolulu people surf and swim, and running is popular, while winter sports, hiking, rock climbing, and biking are the main themes there.  People sometimes tend to be conservative and liberal at the same time, taking up parts of each spectrum of perspectives.

It's a state full of transplants, as California always was, so local US cultures tend to mix.  Maybe that dilutes some themes a bit, eg. a consistent take on holidays like Christmas.  Commercial influence is diluting the traditional forms of that kind of thing anyway.

Fleece is like the default local uniform; that plus an outer shell in the winter.  The weather is a factor that shapes daily life.  That's true in PA too, where winters can be long and cold, but in CO in higher elevation communities winter lasts half the year.  It almost has to be seen as a positive factor to put up with it.

where I lived in Baltimore, Fell's Point

Maryland:  I "only" lived in Maryland three times, for a total of less than two years, so it's the state I'm least familiar with.  I suppose it's representative of East Coast culture.  I've lived in Baltimore and Ocean City, two completely different places.  

In all of these places sub-culture varies by economic level, by social class, and I suppose that's as pronounced as anywhere else in Maryland.  I mixed with the low and high ends there, oddly.  Being from a rural area, from modest means, I've always felt plenty of connection with the modern working class.  That was stretched a bit trying to communicate with people working on the docks in that shipping related part of town; the local accent could be hard to understand.  

People can be very genuine and generally kind; it's not like New Jersey, where rough edges stand out more, or NYC, where really high population levels lead to people keeping to themselves.  I found the people in the lower social class levels more open to talking to an outsider, where at the other extreme there could be more emphasis on placing you, related to being one of them or not.  I was clearly not one of them working in piers and warehouses but in general they didn't care.

downtown Austin, Texas

Texas:  I've had uniformly positive experiences living in Dallas and Austin.  I suppose my experience isn't up to date or relevant for this time since all that was long ago, in the 90s, long before modern social problems evolved in the US, drug epidemics, crime, and political divide.  Transplants seemed relatively welcome back then, and local perspectives were open and flexible.  

Racism could've been a real issue, given the influx of Mexican immigrants was already far underway, but even that seemed somewhat moderate.  I lived in a Mexican neighborhood in Austin and it was nice, not as well-maintained as it could've been but comfortable and friendly.  In both Dallas and Austin it seemed like the divide between black and white didn't go as smoothly as with Mexican immigrants, the related class division.  Mexican immigrants were fine with carving out their own place in society even if the work placed them at a lower class level, but entrenched poverty is something else.

In one sense Texas seemed to have a unified culture, to me, but in another all the different communities and types of areas were a bit different.  Dallas had a lot of transplants, as Austin did, and El Paso seemed to be a completely different place (which I only visited a couple of times).  

Austin was quite liberal, and Dallas was progressive in a lot of ways, but still a bit more conservative.  I never noticed anyone being racist in Dallas, for example.  Racism takes different forms, and can tend to come in degrees, and as a white person you wouldn't necessarily be "in on it," if there were subtle forms of differences in opportunities, or if the legal system seemed to include a bias.

In all of these states you could move around freely, because that's a main running theme in the US.  Hawaii might be slightly different, since there is some bias against new people moving there, especially outside of Honolulu, or similar transplant areas on Oahu.  That seems somewhat justified, to me, since economic pressure partly related to people moving to local areas is a different kind of problem in Hawaii.  Austin may seem to be bursting at the seems related to a lot of new residents moving there over the last year or two but it's still not really the same kind of thing.

Next one might wonder about main common themes, and main differences, across areas.  Is Christmas observance generally the same, or are typical diets the same or different?  Christmas seems uniform, and I suppose typical diets are more the same than different, which may have been true even 40 or 50 years ago.  Regional foods vary, but those tend to be things people eat some of, as much as the basis for eating completely differently.  

In Texas I would often eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and routinely ate Tex-Mex and barbecue, but still other food choices were common.  In Maryland people ate a lot of seafood, local blue crab, shrimp, and mussels, and from what I experienced less fish, but most other foods were similar to elsewhere, meat and potatoes, fast food options, etc.  Hawaii has a lot of local and Asian influence.  White people are a small minority here, so many more locals have Asian heritage.

Beyond that minor differences add up to local perspectives that are hard to capture, even by listing out minor differences, and what those mean to a larger picture.  Religion may be a main running theme or somewhat less emphasized, or work forms and work ethic might vary. 

 

The transplant theme really shifts everything, muddling it.  Most of the people I knew in Dallas and Austin weren't from there, and in Colorado, which is true in a different sense now in Hawaii.  Some of my friends in high school ended up in Virginia and North Carolina.  It can be tempting to put a time-frame on shifts in population change, to say that an older and more established residence base was already there in the 90s, and then people new to areas in the 60s and 70s hold more claim to local status.  The next generation following the one that moves there is definitely "more native," having been born in that new place.  

Growing up I experienced a much older form of rejection of immigration:  members of the last wave of foreign transplants were regarded negatively, as outsiders, while earlier immigration patterns were more accepted.  Irish people moved to the US somewhat long ago, related to me being born in the middle of the 20th century, but somehow a more recent wave of Polish immigrants left them less accepted, as the butt of residual Polish jokes and negative stereotyping.  Some of that pattern applied to Mexican immigrants later, but there were so many spread across so many areas in different distributions that lack of acceptance was inconsistent.

Comparing US culture and Asian culture
  

This is outside the scope of any of this, but a few sentences might clarify what culture is even doing, for people who lack broad exposure to have noticed this.

There is no unified Asian culture or perspective.  I've seen lists of oppositions, points like emphasis on individuality versus group-role self-definition, and those can work, across all of Asia.  That said Thai culture and corresponding forms in places like Japan, China, Korea, and Indonesia are all relatively different.  Immediate manner of being, how you portray your public image to others, varies a lot.  Self-definition at the next level down, about being defined in relation to levels of connections with others, instead of as a list of personal attributes, might be more common.

Differences in food preferences and such seem important in a sense but also somewhat trivial, to me.  I'm not rejecting Anthony Bordain's consistent commentary that relationship with food and the overlap between that and social connections defines people, as much as anything else.  I'm saying that if you swap out all the Thai dishes for Vietnamese equivalents, keeping all the customs, aspects of self-definition, and daily lifestyle patterns, that it doesn't matter so much that you are eating something else. 

It's interesting how US perspectives, local sub-cultures, seems fairly unified in comparison with forms and patterns across other countries.  For sure the East coast, Midwest, South, West, and Southwest are all different places in the US but they're all relatively identical in comparison with the vast differences between Thai culture and perspective and the versions in Japan.  The difference between worldview in Mexico, Canada, and the US is also narrower than that divide, per my understanding.  At the risk of oversimplifying and trivializing complexities I'll offer my own too-limited summary of what I mean.

Thai culture emphasizes self-definition in relation to social level and roles, as I've said.  There are no Thai nursing homes, that I'm aware of, for example, since families take care of each other.  At work, or even in all public exchanges, differences of opinion are minimized, and all conflict is avoided.  In some cases it's regarded as easier and more appropriate to say yes when you really mean no.  That's hard to unpack; I don't mean that people don't have freedom of expression and speech, but they are encouraged to use their public expression within the bounds of accepted norms.  

People are pleasant; they smile when they are happy, and other smiles indicate agreeableness without happiness, or even disapproval, in some cases.  You can see the difference in their eyes, with practice.

Japan is a lot more restrictive.  Social connections and forms are experienced even more so in relation to levels of social closeness or distance.  People are said to have multiple faces, to show others versions of selves in relation to how close they are.  It doesn't tie to the idea of being "two-faced," to being ingenuine or deceitful.  It means that who you show yourself to be, the persona you interact through, is different with family, close friends, acquaintances, business contacts, and strangers.  Really that's happening in all cultures, to some extent, but it tends to be emphasized and encoded in more extreme or rigid form or else largely set aside, depending on the culture.

Americans are quite genuine, in general.  I know a lot of Americans would disagree with this broad claim, thinking that most others they know adjust how they come across, and the content communicated, based on varying goals and social forms, in essence rarely being completely open and transparent.  I accept that's true, but I'm claiming here that within Asian cultures additional social constraints are added to those social context forms.  

In Thailand you shouldn't come across as angry or unhappy, ever, in general.  That seems a bit odd at a funeral, but it carries over even to there.  By the time you get in a bar fight it's fine to express anger but most Thais would never be in any comparable situation, or even a tense and vocal argument at work.

I can't compare that to Japanese culture, since I've had Japanese friends (some close ones), and have visited Japan (twice), and have worked for years with Japanese work colleagues, but my exposure to that culture is still more limited than to Thai perspective.  It's my impression that Japanese people filter what they tend to communicate quite a bit, not just shifting form to be pleasant and screening out harsher elements, but adjusting it all a lot in relation to what is expected.

That's barely a sketch of differences, but it seems like enough to help place how the limited variations I've described in regional US perspectives compare.

ITea World Liu Bao

I'm trying the first of a dark tea / hei cha sample set from ITea World, a newish China based vendor, who sent these teas for review.  It's hard to place them in relation to standard Western outlets, but they seem to be in between a typical high volume vendor and curator vendor, selling teas that are above average in quality for good value pricing, but not the same as small-outlet curator versions, who sometimes offer unique quality range but at much higher pricing.  

The teas are these:

That amounts to 100 grams of tea (20 in 5 gram samples), selling for $19.99, so 20 cents a gram.  That's pretty reasonable.  Hei cha doesn't tend to be as costly as many other general types but for pretty good quality hei cha 20 cents a gram is still very fair.

Hei cha is one of my favorite ranges of tea, even though I drink a lot more sheng pu'er, and have had a lot more oolong over a long period of time.

The one detail that comes up in this review, related to this Liu Bao version, relates to age.  It's from 2018, so 5 1/2 years old now, not old enough for a "raw" / sheng version to age to where it seems to be, necessarily, but that's plenty of age for a well pre-fermented version to settle.  I don't know which it was, and this review covers more on that type divide.

Review:

#1:  that tastes just like Liu Bao; that seems like a good start.  The general style of tea can come in two types, as ripe or raw, shou or sheng, matching pu'er forms.  As with sheng and shou pu'er the tea is either extensively pre-fermented, wet-piled to process it in a way comparable to aging effect, or else not.  There must be more to it than that, since raw / sheng Liu Bao is nothing like sheng pu'er, not at all like a green tea, or variation of that.  I don't think I've written a post here on the differences either.

This version is smooth and rich; it would seem to either be a shou equivalent form or else significantly aged.  I have a lot of a raw Liu Bao version that a friend from Malaysia shared that has been settling and mellowing out for something like 5 years now, and it's not there yet.  Flavors are clean in this, nothing off or challenging.  Often a wet cement block sort of lighter mineral range comes up in Liu Bao, and this has underlying mineral, but not that.  It's intense and complex enough I could do a flavor list review but I'll hold off until next round.

#2:  I let this go a little long; my wife interrupted me during brewing.  For breakfast brewing I would brew another round very light, a flash infusion, and mix the two, but for this I can just say what it's like brewed strong.  That's not idea for breaking down a flavor list but it makes the feel and other character stand out more.

Warm mineral tones did pick up, common range for Liu Bao.  It doesn't taste exactly like cement block, more like slate.  Another part leans towards rich dried fruit, along the line of Chinese date (jujube).  It's odd how clean, full, and smooth this is; a touch more rough edge really is normal for Liu Bao.  This could actually be a well-aged version, something a decade or so old.  Or it's pre-fermented and that went well, and some aging removed the different musty or earthy tones that come along with that.  

Sweetness is pretty good in this.  It's moderate, not as sweet as sweeter range shou pu'er tends to get, in versions that can also taste a lot like fruit or cacao, but it has a toffee like sweetness that balances the rest nicely.  Of course earthiness is a main aspect range too, non-distinct enough in this that it's hard to describe.  It does have a touch of root-cellar depth to it, but it's clean and subtle, and integrates well with the rest.  We actually had a root cellar during my childhood, a dark and musty place we loved to lock each other in.  It was nowhere near as clean in scent as this.

#3:  It changes quite a bit, cleaning up.  Often for Liu Bao this would relate to it becoming more drinkable, but in this case it's just a style difference.  That touch of dried fruit shifts to become more like spice.  Maybe even a range of spice, possibly covering root spice and bark spice, two ranges I'm not great on separating further into sub-types, particular scents or flavors.  Some of the earthiness and mineral base seems to shift to a warmer and sweeter tone too, a little towards cacao.  

I'm making this sound different than Liu Bao, right?  I mean that the base of mineral and earthiness I've described is still there, still the main part of the experience, but the more subtle flavor tones that go along with that are shifting to these ranges.  That point seems to get lost in reviews where a new flavor tone or two are added for each round, so that teas sound like a half dozen completely different styles across the whole review.  It's natural to focus on the changes, on the evolution, and to not keep repeating the description of the flavor base.

For once I'm not reviewing two teas at once here, so I could focus more on feel effect.  I had a long, rough day yesterday, and came back to sleep another hour or two after dropping Kalani off at school, so I'm a bit groggy for baseline.  I don't feel the same light rush of energy sheng tends to contribute, but a mellow and calming lift works well for this context.  Just as vendors seem to overemphasize strong, clear, uplifting cha qi, sheng pu'er hitting hard, I get caught up in expecting and valuing that.  There's always lots to do, right, and we often need that pure, aggressive energy.  I'm taking a relaxing day today, even though Eye keeps mentioning one thing after another I can do while I have extra time.

#4:  more of the same transition, but very limited in form; this is leveling off to where it will probably stay.  I'm brewing a 5 gram sample, not the usual 8 or so I use for maxed out Gongfu brewing, so the related longer times will make this fade faster.  At this rate I might get another 4 infusions, but they will be less intense than the first 4.  It would've worked to brew this a good bit lighter and those could add up to 10, but to me this works well brewed on the strong side, as I like shou pu'er.  Or I might have brewed 10 grams instead, two samples, and used quite short infusion times brewed even stronger.  I don't tend to finish teas in one session brewing that way, which isn't much of a trade-off, since I can have a few rounds later.

#5:  The light spice note has shifted towards a marshmallow flavor; that's nice.  I've experienced that in 2 or 3 other teas across the years, and it's typically quite pleasant.

I've not been mentioning how I see this in terms of quality, trueness to type, or in relation to personal preference.  I think it's pretty good Liu Bao, quite a bit better than I expected.  You would have to push it a bit to get intensity out of it; it may have mellowed with age, or somehow could've started out as less intense to begin with.  Liu Bao is often a little edgy and challenging, and very complex, and this is closer to the opposite.  Even the "ripe" / shou versions can have intense and slightly harsh edges, just warmer and earthier than the light mineral and more astringent edge than younger raw / sheng Liu Bao, and this never did, from the beginning.

It's fine in relation to my preference.  I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, and can relate to shou pu'er and Liu Bao perhaps a little more directly than green tea, but it's still not my main preference range.  When I feel like it I drink that type.  People tend to claim that warm-toned teas match well with cold weather, that the warming feel--extended to Traditional Chinese Medicine internal context claims--is more suitable then, or for people with a certain body character type.  It's not as hot where I am now (Honolulu) as it always was in Bangkok, but the current 25 C / 75 F weather outside isn't cold.  It's a little cool to me; I run cold.  I suppose this would make more sense on a cool spring or fall day, or during an English summer.

#6:  hanging in there.  A bit more savory tone picks up, like sun-dried tomato, but not so pronounced that it seems like that.  Some of this transition relates to it being pushed more, using longer times.  If there had been heavy warm tones or astringency those would really stand out more now, but as it is this stays quite smooth and rich, very approachable.  A touch of mineral tone comparable to how volcanic rock smells did pick up, a bit warm and iron intensive.  That's not exactly like how a crow-bar smells but close enough, to pass on an idea that doesn't tie to having smelled volcanic soil.  I suppose volcanoes aren't uniform in character, mineral content, or smell; I guess that I mean here.

This seems like a good place to leave off; this already ran long.  One part had related to conclusions so I'll skip going further with that.  

It's a good start for their Liu Bao range, better than I expected.  I suppose for people seeking out edgy and intense Liu Bao experience this could be a disappointment, but for me it being approachable, smooth, rich, multi-layered, and light on rough edges and aggressive earth tones was all positive.  Pushing it a bit would draw out more intensity, but it is what it is.  Flavor complexity is fine, not bad, but there is room for improvement.  I've ran across a list of type-typical flavors recently; maybe I'll do more with passing that on later on.

Aging could've brought it to this aspect range, and I'm not sure how else Liu Bao would ever be this moderate in intensity.  It will be interesting seeing their take in a product description, and that background.  [later edit]:  they mention the production year, end of 2018, but nothing further about processing input, to what extent it was pre-fermented in original processing.  It is what it is then; pretty decent, maybe not the most exceptional or complex version of Liu Bao, but quite approachable, well-balanced, and pleasant, fine for quality level.

Greengold white-green tea

 

I'm trying another Greengold Georgian tea, one labeled as "Greengold white-green" tea this time.  The hybrid style theme sounded interesting, with more detail about it in their related website page:

მწვანე ოქრო /mts’vane okro/, in English meaning “Green Gold”, this is how Georgian ancestors were calling tea. Green Gold product has specific altitude in manufacturing process: tea leaves are plucked in specific area of our plantation and specific time (weather, degree level, moisture level, period of the day), which generates special aroma and taste of this tea.

The liquor has a soft, smooth and medium-thick texture. The moistened leaves have a distinct grapefruit juice odour. The infusion gives frank aromas of herbs, fruits and flowers. Its finish is slightly dry and ticklish. Sweet and refreshing. It gives you the body sensation of an instant heat.

Interpretations of flavor aspects are never completely consistent, between vendor descriptions and reviews, and how different people would identify flavors, but all that is pretty much it.

There would be one objectively more correct interpretation, wouldn't there?  In my opinion not really, but I can relate to the opposing conclusion and opinion, that there is.  Flavor aspects are complex in teas, as the compounds produced in the process leaves would also be.  For sure there is a one to one mapping of some final compounds and flavors to those compounds found in other food items, but in general I would expect a mix to occur, not two or three distinct compounds determining main flavors, or even a half dozen.

As we infuse teas across a number of rounds it's very conventional for people to interpret flavor profiles as shifting quite a bit, as the main effective compounds producing flavors varies.  For sure it was all present initially in the dried leaves, with the same compounds present in all infusions, but those are being extracted at different rates, in different proportions, and it seems likely that we tend to interpret sets of distinct flavor inputs in complex ways.

Review:

#1:  this could definitely pass for green tea; it's fresh, vegetal, sweet, and a bit floral.  I like it, even though green tea isn't a most favorite style range.  When green tea balances well that sometimes-annoying grass and vegetable flavor range can really work, as it does in this.  Longjing works around that by tasting more like nuts or toasted rice.  I can appreciate the umami intensive Japanese green tea styles but they're really not a favorite, so this more standard range I'd like better.  

Or maybe it is a little like white tea, and I've just not sorted that part out, including some less vegetal, sometimes warmer range.  Sweetness and brightness is really pleasant in this.

#2:  there is a distinctive flavor range in this that I'm having trouble making out, something that seems to reoccur in these Georgian teas.  It's along the line of a spice note, or maybe that's not it.  A touch of mint seems closer.  I had eaten a couple of those Girl Scout cookie Thin Mints not so long ago and thought it was just that carrying over in the first round, but I think this does taste minty.  It might be that paired with a savory note, so it's like a touch of mint and a bit of sun-dried tomato combined.  It's quite catchy. 

That sun-dried tomato range trails over into a unique mineral range too, which tastes almost like salt.  By that I mean that somewhat distinct flavors seem to relate to each other (perhaps already clear enough).  The range I'm describing as floral doesn't come across as distinct or pronounced then, because there is a lot of other flavor going on.  

#3:  the balance of these flavors is shifting but the set is the same.  I might be missing a spice related aspect description, in there along with the vegetal range.  It's not simple identifying that vegetal range; it's not far off fresh green bean but that's not it, closer to sugar snap pea or fresh soybean.  If I had to pick one it's sugar snap pea.  Feel is decent in this, not thin, but aftertaste really stands out, trailing on as a strong flavor experience after you swallow.  Length, that's sometimes called.

#4:  the brightness and sweetness fades a little, with depth and warmth picking up.  I'll give this a longer soak and see what I make of that and close taking notes.  

It's possible that this is a tea and tisane blend; one leaf doesn't look all that similar to Camellia Sinensis.  That might explain why the flavor is so distinctive.  Even though there is plenty of complexity, lots of different flavor range, it all integrates, so that it doesn't seem like some sort of blend to me.  Of course it could just be varying "real tea" plants that match together, or an extra herb that somehow does, along with those.

it's clear enough which leaf doesn't match the others

#5:  more of the same, including more transition in the same direction.  That vegetal range is quite different now, more onto a spice range, still including a bit of mint, and considerable sundried tomato savory tone.  I might like it better like this, less like a conventional green tea now.  The brightness and freshness being more intense did work well, with this still kind of bright and fresh.  

#6:  I let it brew a really long time, forgetting it, and flash-brewed the next round to mix them together.  Vegetal range increased again, into some sort of plant-stem type range, which doesn't mean much in relation to what a more conventional brewing outcome would've been.  It was still nice.

Conclusion:

An interesting and pleasant tea.  Maybe how much I like teas often doesn't come across in reviews, since I focus on identifying aspects and comparing to standard styles more, with the second not as relevant in this.  I never did get far with placing this as somewhere in between white and green tea.  

I liked it.  It was fresh, intense, pleasant, well-balanced, and novel.  I could probably even drink quite a bit of this, as a routine tea selection when I felt like having something approachable, light, and fresh, stepping back from the edge in relation to the normal sheng pu'er intensity.  It matches what I remembered of their teas, that the quality level and pleasant character hold their own with really good teas from anywhere else.  There isn't a single mention of an aspect flaw in this review for a reason.

Of course green and white teas are not completely unrelated categories, but it's odd considering a type to be in between them, instead of one or the other.  White tea is for the most part just dried, not processed in any other way, beyond some potential degree of wilting, allowing fresh leaves to rest.  Green tea is kill-greened, processed by a main heating step, to suspend activity of enzymes that convert compounds into black tea, the process referred to as oxidation.  

Use of pan-frying, steaming, or oven roasting seems to make a difference, probably best optimized by pairing ideal processing with material suited for that particular step.  Oven heating seems to relate most to large-scale production, but I could be clearer on to what extent final outcome results are inferior to using the other processing / heating forms.

  

I could say more, and there is an interesting reference on oxidation / enzymatic browning here, but in general I tend to focus on what teas are like, not speculating about processing or other inputs.

There was an exception in this review; one leaf seemed to not be Camellia Sinensis, and I wondered if this wasn't a tea and tisane blend.  Probably not really intentionally, not created or presented as such, but it does seem like an extra leaf made it in there.  Interesting, right?  That never happens.  This is one potential explanation in their main website page information:

Our tea plants are surrounded by paulownia tomentosa trees.  The trees create the ultimately supportive environment for plantation’s growth.

That's not described as material used in blending, but the look does match that extra leaf (from their site):

On to many more questions, right?  Is that leaf even edible?  What should it taste like, and is it ever used to make a tisane?  Would it be healthy?

This reference is comforting:

Paulownia tomentosa is commonly known as Princess Tree, Empress Tree, Royal Empress Tree, Royal Paulownia, Fox glove tree, Kiri (in Japan), PaoTong (China), and Odong-Namoo (Korea). 

Paulownia plants are well respected in Japan, China and most of East Asia for its tradition, uses and quality of wood. According to traditional literature flowers and leaves are cooked and consumed occasionally for the treatment of fever and pain, and skin ailments [40]... The major polyphenol found in Princess Tree wood is Paulownin which belongs to a class of chemistry called lignan.

Other sources that come up in a Google search describe use of leaves of this type of tree as animal food input, and say that consuming the leaves isn't a health risk for pets, although for some related plant versions you shouldn't eat the flowers.  Brewing a stray leaf should be fine.  

The related Wikipedia page doesn't mention consumption at all, but brings up that it might be seen as an invasive species in some places, probably partly related to it being fast growing, and potentially capable of replacing other tree species.  A photo there makes it even clearer that it probably was a leaf from that tree type:

By Plantman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=129895550

Maybe it's a theme that they could look into, using those leaves as tisanes.  For sure that would involve lots more review related to EU import, but a related tea and tisane blend might be pleasant and novel.

Viet Sun Tả Củ Tỷ and Giàng Pằng Autumn 2023 sheng (pu'er)

 

photo lighting isn't dialed in where I'm trying the teas just now

I'm reviewing Tả Củ Tỷ and Giàng Pằng Autumn 2023 sheng pu'er-style teas from Vietnam, from Viet Sun.  There are plenty of earlier Viet Sun reviews of different tea types posted earlier; these were sent by Steve (the owner) as samples when I reordered a good bit more of a black tea that I loved (this one; a new version should be available for this year before too long).

Tả Củ Tỷ Autumn 2023, $36 for 200 grams, (equivalent to $64 per 357 gram cake)

This tea was made in early September from a mixture of medium, older and ancient trees growing in a few different gardens around the area. One of the most interesting parts of this tea is the varied terroir inputs. Some of the raw material was collected from higher elevation rocky/ boulder field gardens and some from lower elevation more clay-rich soil gardens.

This tea brews up quickly into a clear green-golden soup. The flavor is punchy with vegetal mossy and deep forest floral notes. Bitterness and astringency are moderate with a quick floral sweet huigan that develops after the first cup.

I like brewing it at 90-100C for short and then longer steeps.

I believe this is a good candidate for aging as the raw material is good and its aggressive edge should round out nicely after a couple of years.

Picking Standard: 1 bud, 2-3 leaves

Region: Tả Củ Tỷ, Lào Cai

Elevation: 1000-1300m

Giàng Pằng Autumn 2023, $38 for 200 grams, so $68 for 357 grams worth ($68)

This tea was made from ancient trees growing at about 1400m. It brews up slowly into a rich, hazy golden, green soup. Heavily sweet and floral with a melon fruit range and vegetal forest/ almost leathery notes. Low-medium bitterness and astringency. Rich huigan that builds after a few steeps and energizing qi.

Due to being an early season tea, we decided to go with a younger/ buddier pick to minimize huangpian. Expect a more fragrance/ flavor heavy tea this season.

Picking Standard: 1 bud, 2 leaves

Region: Giàng Pằng, Yên Bái

Elevation: 1400m

Review:

Tả Củ Tỷ Autumn 2023:  that's really nice.  The flavor is richer, warmer, and more complex than I would've expected, not the typical pronounced bitterness, vague floral, and underlying mineral a lot of pretty good sheng mostly covers.  

Mineral is warmer, onto almost a metal range, or at least like a mineral-intensive well water effect.  Bitterness is there but secondary to the mineral range, which isn't underlying.  Other flavor is harder to break down.  It reminds me of the scent of a damp forest in spring, but that's not a flavor list.  One part is earthy, like a damp fallen log or mushroom, and another is sweet, a little towards dried fruit, and some could be a spice note.  I'll keep going with breakdown next round.

Giàng Pằng Autumn 2023:  absolutely different, but with a similar effect.  Bitterness is pronounced but not dominant, and mineral stands out in an unusual form, and form of expression.  Sweetness leans towards citrus, and there is more of a vegetal spice input in this, less warm and rich earthy range.  I suppose floral stands out more in this, but that fruit and light spice range is stronger.

Both of those I brewed for longer than usual to skip the part about them being too light to identify, and as a result both were a bit strong, more so than optimum.  At least the initial progression is on track.  I didn't separate the large chunks as much as I normally would, not for a clear purpose, just not so clear this morning, and skipped that step.  Of course you don't want to tear and shred the leaves but it does work to twist them apart without breaking them, the part I didn't do.  

Both samples looked great; I could've done more justice to that taking a better picture of those too.  I've been really busy here (in Honolulu) for about a month, and I overdid it yesterday with a long run (12 km) and walking the better part of that far doing local errands, then cooking and cleaning at home.  Our apartment here is tiny and crowded and my mind feels crowded as well.  All of these are ok problems to have; I don't mind at all.

Tả Củ Tỷ, round 2:  lighter, a more conventional infusion strength.  Bitterness has picked up quite a bit; that's no surprise.  The warm tone, sweetness, and unusual mineral range are all quite pleasant.  This isn't all that oxidized, seemingly, but limited association with black tea range might be pleasant for many, that tone being this warm.  Thickness of feel really picks up, and aftertaste.

I'm still not having luck with flavor list style breakdown.  There's almost a Chinese medicinal herb quality to this, complex and diverse, with parts warm in tone, like unusual dried bark spice, or maybe even mushroom.  It's not mushroomy, tasting like fungus, so maybe that part is more like ginseng, a root spice with a hard to describe flavor range.  It's hard to justify why I'm saying this is warm in tone; it just is.  It tastes a little like dried fruit but that's a secondary and integrated component at most.  There's just a subtle warmth to it, less subtle in the mineral range.

Giàng Pằng:  fruit really picked up in this, and also bitterness.  I brewed these fast, around 10 seconds or so, counting all the pour times, but they're still too strong.  As usual I've used too much leaf material; if I complete that step on autopilot it ends up like this, probably using 7 or 8 grams.  For drinking a lot of one tea with breakfast that's fine, but I won't get as far in review rounds for doing that.  And moderating infusion strength relates to using flash infusions, instead of adjusting brewing timing.

The flavor is lighter and brighter in this.  Again it seems more floral to me, but part is something else, a little citrusy, maybe along the line of lemongrass as much as true citrus, but I could see this as tasting like lemon (dried peel more than the fruit, I think).  It's intense.  I love that effect, of a strong sheng really hitting hard, but people accustomed to other tea types might not.  The feel effect on my mind is hitting hard already, for wrapping up drinking four infusions worth, which really could've been 8, brewed much lighter.

I'm using goji berries that were soaking to clear my palate between rounds.  For wispy light rounds clearing the flavor would be a mistake, not necessary or helpful, but these are a bit strong.  I would recommend eating goji berries daily for health effect, offsetting aging impact and helping with eye and skin health, but then what do I know. 

Tả Củ Tỷ, round 3:   finally light enough to be in a normal infusion strength range, using more of a true flash infusion.  I can relate to strong brewed sheng but it's not ideal for review interpretation.  

Fruit range seems to show up more brewed this way.  There is still bitterness, warm mineral, and vague earthy tones, but a yellow watermelon sort of fruit aspect enters in.  If there is floral range it's on the warm and rich side, but if so it's a bit vague, easy to interpret as something else instead.  

The feel is really nice, full and smooth.  Neither of these has seemed astringent and harsh, as younger sheng can be, but they both give up no intensity at all.  Sweetness and bitterness balance really well.

Giàng Pằng:  bitterness is much more pronounced in this.  It's like that dandelion flower or stem effect; strong, with a corresponding flavor matched to it.  Bright and light floral range stands out more, and what I'm interpreting as a light fruit aspect, which could as easily be regarded as related spice.  It all balances well, but the bitterness isn't for people who aren't already on that page.  

That pairing of a specific type of bitterness and heavy floral towards fruit flavor should be quite familiar from some Yunnan version examples.  The vegetal edge, which I've described here as like flower stem, may not be as common.  I reviewed a version not so far off this that I bought in a Bangkok shop last year, somewhat bitter, sweet, and floral, from a location I don't think I ever mentioned or knew related to it being written in Thai on the label.

TCT, GP, #4:  probably a good round to skip notes; both are not so different, and as usual this runs long, and become repetitive.  10 cups of these is a lot though, so the next round might be the last for notes.

TCT #5:  this is transitioning nicely, even if I'm not going to be able to communicate that clearly in a changing flavor list.  It balances better and better.  To me it's nice that the bitterness is so moderate (relatively speaking; this is bitter as straight aspirin compared to any oolong, and the other more so), and that the sweetness offsets it.  It seems to evolve more towards a warm floral tone, which is rich and full enough that it also reminds me of fruit range.  Oddly the complexity of flavor range makes it hard to separate out 2 or 3 inputs that are causing those effects.  There's a lot going on, which could seem to come across as integrated and uniform, but when you try to describe it it's quite complex.

GP:  this warms in tone a bit, drifting closer to the other.  Bitterness is still more pronounced, but that eases up.  Floral tone is even more pronounced than for the other version.  It would be nice to specify a flower type, but that always has been a limitation for me, remembering how a couple of dozen different flowers smell for baseline reference.  There's one aspect that I've experienced in Yunnan sheng that's catchy, maybe a set of flavors that tend to relate to each other in a certain way, a honey sweetness, combined with a citrus effect, and certain floral range.  It's like a naturally matching set.  

Round 6:  The TCT version is better than ever, pleasant and not challenging at all brewed lightly.  Floral and fruit tones really pop, with fullness and depth supporting those.  A bitter edge hangs in there for the other, the GP version, which lingers as bitterness and residual sweetness, even brewed lightly.  It's pleasant.  For people avoiding bitterness it would be too much, for sure, but for those who love that pairing of bitterness and trailing sweetness it's just the thing.

For combined tasting you can't separate which has the stronger body feel or heady buzz effect but these were clearly strong teas.

Conclusions / comparison to vendor descriptions: 

It will be interesting to go back and check on Steve's interpretation of these and see how he placed them (since I add those after taking notes, during editing).  I feel like my descriptions aren't all that clear or descriptive.

The Viet Sun sales page descriptions work, with a couple of differences in interpretation.  For the Ta Cu Ty "The flavor is punchy with vegetal mossy and deep forest floral notes" really works well; that early warmer and earthier flavor was hard to capture, but reference to moss and deep forest floral goes there, even if it's really about two different themes emerging early and later, per my interpretation.  

Bitterness seemed more pronounced to me for the Giang Pang is described, but "heavily sweet and floral with a melon fruit range and vegetal forest/ almost leathery notes" kind of matches.  There is one part that can be taken as challenging, here referred to as vegetal and almost leathery, which I've compared to plant stem taste input.  The rest balances that nicely, making it seem less like a negative inclusion and more of an integrated set.

It's hard for me to guess about aging potential for these, mentioned in relation to describing the Ta Cu Ty version as aggressive.  Both might be even better after a year or two of settling, but I'm not sure how they would change as moderately transitioned versions (6-8 years), or as fully aged (15-20).  A related comment and tangent about intensity might help place that.

For as intense and aggressive as these have been I would expect the next 3 or 4 rounds to be as good or perhaps better than the earlier experience.  That doesn't relate to high bitterness or astringency, oddly, just overall intensity.  Fall teas are know for being a bit less intense than spring versions, one limitation of the type range, but that's not how these worked out.  

There's a decent chance that the trees weren't challenged by harvesting a substantial amount of summer material to make black tea, as can occur with plantation or somewhat natural growth versions in more developed areas, enabling them to continue to produce leaves naturally high in compounds relating to flavor.  But then again what do I know.

Comparing these to the Son La version I've drank half a cake of over the last year parts of the range is consistent and familiar, even if aspects and style vary quite a bit.  I really like that tea; something about it I can connect with.  Both of these could match it in terms of intensity, in two different senses, but the way those aspects balance is so nice for me.

those old-style buildings are common in lots of local schools