In visiting that favorite local Bangkok Chinatown shop not long ago, Jip Eu, they mentioned having a novel version of Xiaguan product that we'd never covered in discussion. It's a 500 gram / half kilo ball of tea, not a tuocha or a cake, something else instead. It's 2018 Reunion Da Xue Shan origin tea, a special production version, seemingly intended for gift-giving, now called gifting.
Why did I never hear of this, since I've bought lots of Xiaguan tuochas there before, and two versions of an older Xiaguan cake from them? That shop works out like that. They have different amounts of one-off teas around, and that one might've seemed like something appropriate for giving someone as a gift, versus what a sheng drinker might buy for themselves. They even offered to let me try it after I bought it, if I was going to buy it for myself, so at least I'd have a chance to taste it, assuming I might be giving it away.
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packaging was a bit extensive |
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extensive |
I'll skip mentioning the shop cost here; that might change over time. They tend to sell older sheng on the low side of the standard range, and for some teas there isn't a lot of standard range to work with. I found one example of someone selling this online (that listing), for $84, and it cost less than that.
Expectations related to aging transition and potential are interesting; a 2018 Xiaguan version shouldn't be ready yet, typically. But then this may not have standard Xiaguan character, the rough edges, harsh intensity, and barnyard range character. I'll say more about potential issues with it coming straight out of a storage space in the review notes.
Review:
#1: on the light side; I didn't use a rinse, so this is just getting started. Flavor range is interesting, smooth and layered. Tones are warm, maybe even beyond what I'd expect for a 7 year old version. It will be clearer next round though.
#2: it's in an interesting place for being in between where it was and where it's headed for fermentation input and result. It's intense, but without the typical Xiaguan barnyard flavors, which must relate to a different source origin. This clearly wasn't light, flavorful, approachable, and sweet as boutique sheng can be earlier on; it still has a lot of power, and some bitterness and astringency.
The flavors are hard to break down to a list. Mineral stands out, but as usual I see that as more of a base for the rest. Earthiness could relate to wood or even dried mushroom. That sounds worse than I would intend; it's complex and balanced, not overpowered by some off flavor, but it's not really centered on floral range, or the like. Sometimes sheng can loosen up and shift a good bit over the next few infusions; the next one or two might tell a different story. I'll have to keep infusion times short to keep intensity in check; this is a strong tea.
#3: it might be musty tones that I'm picking up, possibly as much from a storage conditions input as the tea itself. Jip Eu's storage is surely very hot and humid (all of Bangkok is), and relatively tightly sealed, so that tea straight from there has picked up some significant mustiness. That usually fades, but it takes time, a month or two. I'm not sure if the conditions and that input are a bad thing, neutral, or actually good. Adding more air exchange to their storage area would resolve that in one sense, but that may cost the tea stored there intensity, removing more of what gives it flavor. For well-sealed teas it wouldn't matter (sealed oolongs stored there); I mean for sheng, left open enough to access some air contact. This was stored in what I take to be a muslin cotton bag, inside a box, with no plastic wrapper or bag layer, as is more common. It would've contacted external scents all the more for that.
Flavor is still kind of clean; it's a bit of a contradiction. There is that one edge, but beyond that nothing off, earthy, musty, or so on. It's not really vegetal, at least not as much as is common with sheng still going through the first half or so of its aging cycle. I'd have expected some residual floral range, but there's not much, and it hasn't transitioned to the standard dried fruit, medicinal herb, camphor, and incense spice ranges. But it seems to have potential to develop in lots of directions. There is a lot going on, a lot of complexity and intensity, I'm just failing to describe it.
#4: it's cleaning up; a good sign. It's not overly musty, not exactly tasting as if it had been in an attic or basement, but it had been in a storage area that should resemble attic background scent range. The flavor could seem to imply either aged hardwood, in an unusual vegetal range, or on to rich dried fruit, or medicinal herb, or all of those things, maybe even including some incense spice. I think I'm trying it right between it's early character and the aged version. It certainly didn't "go quiet," as people describe as one possible outcome, but it's covering range that doesn't necessarily make sense together.
Some might read this as a negative assessment, but to me the opposite is implied. It's in a great to place to develop into very interesting and positive range over the next 7 or 8 years. Sure that could seem like awhile, but time passes quickly. That would be a rushed version of the process, for a tea like this to be essentially ready at around 15 years into aging. The hot and humid storage input has definitely rushed things along.
As I keep tasting it tobacco would be a reasonable interpretation, I suppose tasting like a cigar instead of cigarette or chewing tobacco. That ties to this being anchored in earlier vegetal character and now moving on to richer, transitioned, warmer tones. I would guess that in just 5 years it won't taste a lot like tobacco, mushroom, or attic, that it will have moved on to whatever other transitioned range instead. There is still no "barnyard" range developing; it doesn't really taste like leather, cured hay, aged wood, or smoke.
#5: it keeps getting better. Sweetness picks up, and that distinctive mustiness is fading. I think with two months of aging it will be less of an input, and I could tell better where this is going, but it's so far from it's final more-fermented form that it would only be so informative. I think this tea is going to be wonderful in a half dozen years, and maybe fully at its peak in another 10. It might be fine to drink through it in 7 or 8, close enough, but then it's always a judgment call finishing tea right before it's fully ready. I might need to buy another of these, to own a full kilogram, to be able to keep sampling and also have plenty later on.
#6: there might be more story to tell over the next half dozen infusions, but lots of round by round notes will be too much. This still tastes in between cured and aged wood, and like tobacco, with complexity that is hard to place filling in from there. It's not really bitter and astringent in relation to younger sheng range but there is some bitterness and astringency remaining; this started out as really intense tea. It has lots of potential to keep changing.
#7: sappiness of feel ramps up, and to some extent a related flavor. It leans a little more towards pine now. I suppose brewing a dried pine cone might taste like this. It's interesting that this keeps changing, but one might expect that, given the earlier intensity.
#8: more of the same, more minor transition. It's definitely not losing intensity. I'll cut off the note-taking here; a minor transition or two won't change much.
Conclusions:
I liked it. The in-between fermentation ranges issue and mustiness from being direct from storage did stand out, related to how it is right now. In terms of only how the experience is right now the 2006 tuocha version I tried not long ago is a good bit better. It's harder to place longer term potential though; I think this might be good even before the general 20 year old age range, which doesn't come up for another 13 years. In another 7 it might be in a good place, related to hot and humid conditions rushing that process, even though a more final form will probably level off in another 10 or so.
That raises a couple of questions. Would it better if you stored it in a cooler and dryer place for 20 years, or 25, instead of rushing the process over 14 years here, or maybe on towards 20? Maybe. To be clear everywhere but Malaysia is a considerably cooler and dryer place, including Hong Kong. Taiwan and Guangdong get mentioned as places with moderate storage conditions, which some describe as ideal, but then that interpretation mixes in some marketing spin.
One might also question if this storage settling period I've been mentioning, a month or two to drop out a lot of initial mustiness, is different than the version relating to letting a tea rest after shipping. I see it as different and unrelated, but it may overlap more than I know, and correcting for storage conditions input may often be a part of that other rest period. People rest sheng that has been shipped for a few weeks, or a month, to let it settle from being shipped, with variations in humidity and temperature said to throw off character a little, temporarily. It's usually described as it seeming a little flat, losing some intensity, which comes back when it normalizes to more standard conditions. This is about a mustiness fading instead.
Everyone has their own take on how storage issues work out, and since preferences also vary the conclusions are never completely identical. I just saw a Reddit post about a guy storing tea in a wooden cabinet, without any plastic or mylar coverage of the cakes, just in the paper, all mixed together, at whatever temperature and humidity he lived at, in the Midwest of the US. That's probably fine, but for some others it wouldn't be, maybe for different reasons.
It makes a lot of difference if you are drinking through cakes in a couple of years, or a few, or holding onto them for a decade or longer. I might use individual wrapping to limit air contact instead, the ziplock style bags cakes come in or the like, but that's not a critique, just a statement about personal approach. If you open the cakes from time to time that's already plenty of air exchange, and probably even if you leave them sort of sealed for a few years it's still enough. Mylar or multi-layer packaging restricts any air exposure better, but ziplock or the other light plastic wrappings, similar to food wraps, would allow for plenty of contact.
According to the author of the Late Steeps blog--a great reference--air contact related to tea being sealed in mylar allows enough oxygen contact / exchange to support bacteria and fungus to thrive, one related consideration. Who really knows, but it's interesting to consider. Again all of these considerations really only kick in if you aren't actually drinking the tea at all, not even getting it out a couple times a year to check on it.
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the chunk that came off in one pu'er knife stroke; it's nice that it's easy to access |
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