I'm reviewing another two versions of the Legend of Tea flagship branded sheng pu'er type, this time the 2013 and 2022 years. The teas are from different origins each year, so the 2013 is from Mang Jing and the 2022 from Jing Mai. Mang Jing isn't familiar; let's check what Google's AI response thinks that is:
Mangjing Mountain Pu'er refers to Pu'er tea produced in the Mangjing area of Jingmai Mountain, a region known for its ancient tea forests and unique tea varieties. Specifically, the tea trees in Mangjing are a natural hybrid of Assamica, referred to as Mixed-Leaf varietal, which contributes to the tea's sweetness and aroma. Jingmai Mountain as a whole is recognized for its large, well-preserved, and ancient tea forests, with some trees being hundreds or even thousands of years old.
So it is just a local area in the broader Jing Mai region, according to that source. Plant types varying some in different areas is a normal, recurring theme, but also one that's hard to place.
It may seem odd trying two very different years like this, and it is. The idea is to contrast how an aged and relatively unaged version compare, even though differences in the material, related to origin location and other inputs, would be as much of a factor. Initial general character, aging potential, and how each tea transitions through aging wouldn't be the same. As luck has it maybe not so different, given the location proximity.
They sent a number of years of samples; somehow I had missed that earlier, writing the first sheng pu'er review post as if I wouldn't try these. The years are spread out so that I can still do two more comparison posts, that make more sense, of closer year spans, of two other versions from consecutive years. And from different origin areas, so it will be about discussing differences as much as similarities. And quality, and aging potential, and I suppose guesses about the storage environment.
About "dry storage:" In talking to the vendor again after the last post "dry storage," referenced in a product description, is used in a sense natural storage often is for Hong Kong environment descriptions. It's unadjusted, related to the natural climate, instead of being held at a high humidity level to speed up fermentation transition. Of course very local micro-climate varies everywhere, even in different parts of a city, but in general lots of Malaysia is pretty hot and humid, as Thailand is, to a less extent even in the "mountain" areas in the North. By that I mean that the annual low in Bangkok is in the low 20s C, around 70 F, but 25 C / 75 F is a more standard low temperature, and it's in the 30s most of the time (90s F).
The Legend of Tea vendor listings and descriptions:
2013 Xiao Ba Wang Raw Puerh Tea ($70 for a 200 gram cake, equivalent to $125 for 357 grams)
MangJing mountain ecological tea has the best aroma, which is similar to the ancient tree tea. The aroma is mellow and last long, the serrated edges of tea are not obvious, and the tea buds are slightly thin. Due to good ecological conditions, the MangJing mountain tea comes with a strong orchid fragrance is the best raw material for the processing of puer tea.
2022 Xiao Ba Wang Raw Puerh Tea ($34.80 for a 200 gram cake, equivalent to $62.12 for 357 grams)
This year's Xiao Ba Wang is made from ecological spring tea from JingMai Mountain, and the most important feature of this year's Xiao Ba Wang is "sweetness"! What is different from the usual "sweetness" is that the sweetness of JingMai tea comes directly and quickly!
The sweetness of JingMai tea comes out when you pour down the hot water! The aroma of this tea is orchid fragrance, and the taste is fresh, sweet, and smooth, you can feel the sweet aroma of this tea enveloping the whole mouth and tongue. The tea broth is fine and smooth with a full and mellow taste.
I checked another source to hear more input on Mang Jing, since AI content is unreliable, and the part about natural growth and thousands of year old trees wasn't promising:
Spring 2019 Mangjing (a Farmerleaf listing)
Ai Leng Ancient Garden, Mangjing Village, Jingmai Mountain
In the heat of the Spring season, we visited our friend Ai Gong. He lives in Mangjing, a mountain adjacent to Jingmai, 10km away from our village. The altitude is 200m lower than our mountain, it peaks at 1400m. It is populated by the Bulang minority, unlike Jingmai, which is Dai...
The leaves in Mangjing are smaller than the ones that grow in Jingmai, the varietal is probably slightly different, despite the close distance between our respective mountains... The tea shares a common character with our jingmai gulan, but it has a different fragrance, more minerality (probably due to the higher amount of old trees in the gardens) and a somewhat more aggressive profile. Jingmai and Mangjing are like two brothers with different personalities. You will get your money's worth with this tea.
Their site doesn't show the price, but Google's site listing thumbnail entry says that it was $128, which is probably right. What does that mean, that a $128 cake is "good value?" It's a coincidence that Farmerleaf sold that as a new version at the same price Legends of Tea is selling theirs as an aged one, 12 years later. But it's different material, for sure; you can't say all tea from an origin area is the same, and when a local area vendor describes a version as exceptional for that area it's promising.
In trying to confirm that price I looked up a Steepster review, by Togo, from back then, reviewed in 2020 (which never did list the price, but it adds one detailed take on that 2019 tea):
This tea from “greater Jingmai area” is light bodied with a very up-front floral but not perfumy character. I am not a big fan overall, but I do like its creeping, grounding cha qi that induces a great mind-clarity.
In the aroma, there are notes of light smoke, citrus zest, beef and focaccia. Taste is sweet and flowery with a milk note initially. Soon enough, a nice bitterness appears that has a tart and nutty backbone. The finish is buttery and the aftertaste vegetal, cooling and sweet with notes of olives and peach. Later on in the session there is also a hint of an interesting black pepper like taste and a more woody character overall. All in all, there is complexity, but I didn’t find the profile to be particularly enjoyable. The tea also doesn’t really last beyond 200 ml/g worth of infusions.
Flavors: Bitter, Black Pepper, Bread, Butter, Citrus Zest, Floral, Flowers, Meat, Milk, Nutty, Olives, Smoke, Sweet, Tart, Vegetal, Wood
Maybe not completely relevant, but interesting to consider. It's also interesting how bitterness kind of drops out as an assumed background condition in sheng reviews (in the flavor list here, but not covered in the write-up). You might comment on the level being low or high, but that's just how one year old sheng goes, it includes that.
Review:
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(2013 Mang Jing left in all photos) |
2013, Mang Jing origin: it would be conventional to use a rinse for aged sheng but I didn't. Flavor isn't pronounced in this; it's normal for sheng to need a round to open up, hence the conventional use of a rinse. It's still interesting to me getting an initial sense of the tea, even if it doesn't get far. Flavors are clean and warm in tone. It should be nice once it gets going.
2022, Jing Mai origin: more comes across in this, but I still might save more of a breakdown to the next round. Of course the tones are much lighter, and include some bitterness, not showing up yet in the other.
2013 Mang Jing, #2: it's interesting how far this aging has progressed in a dozen years, pretty far along. Warm tones are mostly along the line of aged wood, towards a medicinal herb flavor, not so far off an incense herb range. Root spice like ginseng also works as a description. The effect is quite clean; there is no mustiness of off flavor range. Intensity is pretty good. Feel has a nice structure, including just a bit of dryness. It seems like this will keep evolving over the next couple of rounds though, as if it's not to where it's going to be yet.
2022 Jing Mai: again a much younger sheng range, not including overpowering bitterness, but that's still a significant input. The flavor is a bit fresh, but already leaning towards warmer tones, including some of that. One vegetal input is a bit towards pine, a normal flavor aspect in Jing Mai tea, but it's as close to green wood in this version, at this stage. Floral tones don't really stand out, but there may be some of that filling in background, connecting with sweetness. Intensity is good; overall balance is good.
2013, #3: a pleasant spice-range sort of herbal note emerges. It had tasted like medicinal herb before, but this is a bit towards sassafras. Feel is nice, with some fullness and structure, but it's not challenging. Aftertaste experience is nice; it really carries over.
This isn't all the way through aging transition, of course, but it's not falling short enough that you tend to speculate about when it will be better to drink. It's ok now, it's just going to keep changing. To the extent this includes wood tones those tones are warming, a bit towards a cinnamon spice range, but it doesn't taste like cinnamon, it's just a comparison. So like aged tree bark? I guess that works.
2022: the bitterness and astringency level in this is in a nice place. Those inputs tend to soften but not drop out over the first few years, and brighter and fresher flavors start to change, but sheng pu'er versions are still young at 3 years into aging. This probably is at a level comparable to 5 or 6 years into Kunming aging; in some cases sheng stored cool and dry can not change all that much in the first 8 to 10 years. Intensity is good, and sweetness level is nice in support of the rest. Feel is fine, and intensity carries over into aftertaste. It's a nice tea, at a nice place in transitioning.
So far I've avoided extending aspect notes into conclusions in any way. This is nice, but how good? What is the quality level? Is the other a great example of a 12 year old sheng, beyond flavors and other aspects being a particular way in any given case? I'll try to add some thoughts on that over later rounds. It's not an easy judgement call to make. These lack flaws; that's a good starting point, that makes them at least average. And then I think they're at least a little better than that.
Judgments within the narrower range of the higher end is always more difficult. Maybe I've never tried the best of the best of what comes out of Jing Mai? I've tried a good number of versions from that broad origin, including quite a few from Farmerleaf, that other vendor mentioned in a citation, but Mang Jing isn't familiar at all. A simple count of teas you like or don't like doesn't mean much; someone could accidentally try below average quality tea versions over and over, especially if their main filter related to trying the lowest cost versions. Or preference for aspects varies, a different thing than a quality assessment.
2013 #4: similar flavors as I've described. The balance gets better and better as it goes, the way those come together, and the way that root spice / driftwood scent sort of range emerges. The feel is nice in an interesting and difficult to describe way. There are no heavier tones one might associate with more humid storage, but then that also must depend on the starting point input. For the tea being this subtle and balanced it didn't start out as harsh, complex, and intense as factory teas are. But it's also far from fading away; the balance it strikes in the middle is a good one.
I've been re-trying a Jing Mai version from in between these years, maybe 2019 or so, that was an autumn harvest version, and the intensity is mostly gone now (not from Farmerleaf, but it seems the source doesn't matter related to making this point). The tea is fading to include some warm depth and that's about it. That's still ok for an experience, but this tea expressing more interesting flavors, complexity, and feel is much better.
That tea was on the inexpensive side, and not that intense to begin with, so I'm not really upset that aging it isn't working out. I had bought two cakes and drank one new, so I've had the earlier part of the experience, the one I consider more positive. Now it will work well as a tea to have with breakfast, when I feel like something subtle, or I could keep most for another half dozen years and keep trying it when it's really faded (with more comment to follow on whether or not a temporary lapse in intensity could relate to a "teen years" in between transitions state.
2022: pronounced bitterness really stands out in comparing these two. But in comparison with young sheng versions, and not even challenging ones, this isn't all that bitter. It's a main component, and intensity is pretty good, but that's still moderate, since a lot of 3 year old sheng might not be all that approachable yet.
I think quality is pretty good for these. I'm never going to be able to be as clear as I might be on that, putting it on a scale of 1 to 10, or comparing it to known benchmark versions. I'm not sure what "boutique style" teas are ever used as benchmarks. I guess an individual could be familiar with whatever they drink a lot of, and their own comparison could tie back to that, something from one of the main Western vendors, for a Western tea drinker (from Yunnan Sourcing, Farmerleaf, White2Tea, etc.). The older form of Yunnan Sourcing Impressions series seemed designed to fall in between categories, described as an alternative to something like blended Dayi / Taetea 7542 versions, but really the style for those was never all that similar.
Related to how this might be better some pine and green wood isn't bad but swapping in a bit of somewhat warm and transitioned floral range might be nice. The brightness and sweetness might relate to a citrus tone, but it's subdued and integrated enough that this comparison or interpretation might not come to mind. But at least that complexity works, letting the flavor balance, as the feel, intensity, and aftertaste aspects all kind of work out well together.
This may only be "pretty good" level tea, versus something amazing, but ranking well in relation to what I've tried from other vendors is a nice level to achieve. Given the moderate pricing I referenced in the last review it's punching way above its weight class [editing note: I hadn't included the price or listing citation content yet, but this being equivalent in price to a $62 357 gram cake is on the low side, sold as a 200 gram version instead].
2013 Mang Jing, #5: a bit more old book flavor joins that pronounced root spice and driftwood range. This is improving across rounds, a good sign. At 12 years old this drinks a lot like an aged sheng; hot and humid storage conditions can lead to that kind of result faster. You can tell it's not quite to the level of 20 to 25 years of aging input, but this would be comparable to 20 years of cooler and drier storage, just as it is, except that the effect varies slightly, it's not about fermentation input all being one uniform kind of change. This has fantastic potential to age to be a bit smoother, mellower, with deeper flavors, within the next 3 to 4 years. Intensity is still there to support more transition.
It's on to guessing but in another decade this might move on to fading some instead. The most powerful teas tend to not fall into a pleasant, more aged form balance as fast as this has, in "only" 12 years. But intensity is good now; there is still lots to appreciate. And it's past the awkward stage where aged flavors and character is evenly balanced with newer / younger range inputs, when teas just don't make sense.
There's talk in pu'er circles about a tea not tasting like much at one aging transition level, then with intensity and warmer and more age-related flavors filling intensity back in. To some extent that must happen, as such a broadly discussed and expected theme, but in my experience the opposite is more common. You can still taste and feel plenty, all across the aging transition, it just doesn't make sense, or isn't pleasant, right in between young and truly aged forms.
2022 Jing Mai: this is clearly a slightly age-transitioned but still young sheng, just as it should be. This is a pretty good aging range for drinking this tea. It would've been ok quite young, if someone was ok with the higher level of astringency and bitterness. Which is still often moderate for Jing Mai origin teas, compared to something from Menghai areas. Or is that wrong? As I tend to perhaps over-repeat I'm not a great reference for mapping typical sheng aspect range to origin locations.
It complicates things that low elevation grown, monoculture produced, somewhat chopped material, high fertilizer input tea is much more harsh, and if you get in the habit of drinking that from one region and versions of the opposite background from another then you'll mix up the inputs, and over-emphasize origin related themes that are really tied to different causal inputs. To some extent I must be doing that, in ways that I can't sort back out. And referencing broad production areas never really works well; generalities can come up, but teas also vary a lot.
Earlier in the social media history of tea drinking people in tea groups would debate these points. It was a great input for comparing your own limited experience range to others'. That has quieted down quite a bit (for example, Steepster is pretty much finished as a discussion and review site, per my understanding).
I think that's because the wave of tea enthusiasts from before my time, from the 2000s, had already went quiet when I started exploring and writing a dozen or so years ago, and that next "class" I discussed themes with has also dropped out talking about it. Now 20 to 25 year-olds discuss tea experiences in Discord servers, which is fine, since it's an effective channel for that. But for us "old-timers" the chat thread format is unfamiliar, or not as functional, since instead of individual discussions being saved for later review you have the current history of 15 or so main themes available. You can't really scroll back to see what was covered over the last year, never mind a few years, since it's too much volume, with lots of small-talk mixed in between interesting theme-related discussions.
That's already plenty of tangent on that. I'll leave off taking notes here, even though a few more changes will turn up.
Final conclusions:
I've already concluded plenty, so I'll keep this short. To me these are really good teas for being sold at moderate prices. I can't really place them in the standard levels related to other Western outlet sources, if they might represent $80 to 90 cakes, or the $120 to 140 range (and $60 to 70 cakes are mostly a thing of the past, in those main sales channels, related to this higher end boutique style of teas, at the risk of using that categorization term a bit more broadly than some do).
A market outlet like Yunnan Sourcing would sell plenty of older sheng, from 9 years back, or older, but you might need to compare this 2013 version to pre-2010 versions stored in Kunming, related to demonstrating a similar fermentation transition level. I haven't drank through a mountain of related samples of those from them to place them.
These teas are surely amazing for the moderate pricing level; I'm not afraid to draw that conclusion. For people open to spending $200 or more on a cake, who have tried many times over what I have of aged sheng range, maybe they would seem to fall short of expectations.
The Jing Mai character was nice, but you can find interesting variations of very pleasant teas from that area, and in general pricing is lower than the higher demand areas (with $62 representing a relative rock bottom for tea pricing in this type category). The Mang Jing character was also nice, representing a pleasant aged-tea range, and novel character, but aged sheng is a broad subject, open to lots of varying interpretation about most positive aspect ranges. Maybe someone could critique it for being a bit approachable or even lacking intensity at this age / place, thinking that if it was still a little more challenging it might land on an even more positive final result in another half dozen years.
To me all of that might be splitting hairs; these are good teas, interesting and pleasant. Value is all but off the normal scale, delivering more experience for less cost than it's almost possible to find in standard Western outlets, potentially with limited exceptions. The last 2025 Farmerleaf Jing Mai Miyun I tried, their take on an inexpensive blend, was really good, for what it was, and that now lists at $45 for a 357 gram cake. Producers using blending to offset limitations in different input lots is another tangent I'll skip saying more about here, but results can be good for that, just not the same as narrow-origin source material, trading out some distinctiveness for good balance and complexity.
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