This last tea tasting meetup was really more just having tea with a few friends, but to me the way it worked out was interesting. We tried some really novel teas, since two friends from earlier meetups had just visited China and Vietnam, even spending time with Huyen and her family there (in Vietnam), and with Seth. I'd probably be more envious of that second part than visiting a tea expo; her family is amazing.
Since the interesting teas were the thing I'll get straight to that, and skip most of the back-story and other details. We just got kittens a few days ago; that factored in a lot, so I'll mention it in passing, but that's an example of what I just said that I'd skip. The kittens were well received, and Kalani helped with them and joined part of it, which has just never worked out before, either kid taking part.
I'll explain at the end what themes this highlights, how different kinds of tasting themes can work in different ways. You don't really need one continuous, well-established theme for a tasting.
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from another tasting (I should keep in touch better, mostly mentioning gatherings in this group) |
What we tried
The tasting (from memory; some of this will probably be a little off).
Tea Side Dong Fang Mei Ren white tea: we started with a tea I've reviewed recently, a white tea version of Dong Fang Mei Ren from the main Thai specialty tea outlet. It's really nice tea, pleasant and interesting, and in a novel style (especially for being from Thailand), so it seemed a good place to start. It's bright, sweet, fruity, well-balanced, complex, and refined.
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that Tea Side Dong Fang Mei Ren (left), and a Gui Fei (rolled bug-bitten oolong) |
another Thai Dong Fang Mei Ren white: then we tried another white version of Dong Fang Mei Ren from Thailand that Steve brought; amazing it worked out like that (from Wang Put Tan, maybe it was). I thought that might have been Tea Side's source, but the two versions were different. They overlapped, being the same tea type, but oxidation level and aspects weren't identical. Both versions were exceptional. Probably producers can learn from what others do, and I've first tried Thai DFMR (Oriental Beauty) versions nearly a decade ago, so the theme has been around.
osmanthus rolled light oolong: then we tried a flavored tea, unless I'm missing one, an osmanthus rolled oolong. Flavored oolongs can be nice when the flavoring is natural, and this one was pretty good, relatively speaking. It doesn't match the best plain teas, or even well above average versions, but it can be interesting trying different range together like that. It didn't highlight the most potential a flavored oolong can have but it was interesting for comparison, and a nice tea, just a bit basic.
Ya Shi Dan Cong: then Steve shared a Ya Shi Dan Cong (duck shit) version they bought in China. It wasn't presented as the highest quality level, most costly tea version, since it sold for a moderate price, but it was pretty good. The style wasn't identical to most well-above average Ya Shi versions, but it was close enough, and the variation wasn't necessarily negative, it was just a little different. The smooth, roundish floral range typical of those was floral in a different way, with a different kind of vegetal edge, but without harsh astringency that can come up in some versions.
It was really nice, really drinkable, and easy to enjoy. People speak as if "breakfast tea" means something clear, as if a drinkable, moderate quality, pleasant to repeat tea experience can stand out for this context, and this would work well for that. Black tea is nice with breakfast, but I more often drink sheng pu'er; it just depends.
Vietnamese sheng: having tried so much oolong it seemed about time to change it up, so we tried a more-oxidized Vietnamese sheng version, one of my favorite teas, even though it's very non-standard, and not exceptional in terms of matching any of the standard pu'er range. I don't think it would be great for long-term aging, that the oxidation input would offset that, but it's two years old now, and is probably getting better. It's hard to describe what "more oxidized sheng" is like, but I've written plenty of detailed reviews that cover it in lots of detail. This review compares the 2023 and 2024 versions; it would get into those kinds of background contexts.
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those two "Quang Tom" tea cake versions (so fruity, I can almost smell them) |
2018 Xiaguan Reunion sheng pu'er: then we tried another sheng, that Xiaguan Reunion 2018 tea ball I reviewed recently, I guess not so much because it made sense in a sequence as much as because I found it so interesting. It's not ready yet, in terms of optimum aging, far from it, but it's interesting see where such teas had probably came from and were heading, and how pleasant they are just now. The mustiness from the local storage I said would fade over a month or two is already pretty much gone, and it has just been 3 weeks. It drinks much better than it had, but it's still not where it will be in even another half dozen years, when transition makes more sense, or a decade, when it's closer to a final form.
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looks like a tuo, but it's half a kilogram |
high roast level Thai rolled oolong: we got back to oolong, trying a well-roasted version, again out of Thailand. Roasting had sort of taken over the character, making it more one-dimensional than most of what we'd already covered. If someone would love that one flavor range it could still seem great, but low level oxidation, higher roast input rolled oolong isn't a personal favorite.
Producers or vendors who have tea around that's a year or two old and want to add more freshness or appeal to it are kind of stuck, it seems. A light roast might help, or there's always flavoring to be considered, but in general the material is as good as it is, and that's hard to change.
medium quality, medium roast rolled oolong (probably from China): then we tried another that wasn't so different for comparison, to see if the gaps in that Thai version were a quality issue, related to the material missing range, or how themes might shift. This moderate quality version had more going on, and less roast input, so it was better, even though it was clearly kind of medium quality tea, nothing exceptional. It had a bit of a woody flavor, versus floral tones or warmer cocoa range standing out, but that also leaned a bit towards spice, so it was nice.
Thai black tea, prepared as ground tea: then we tried something really novel, a ground up black tea, out of Thailand, an experiment that was supposed to draw on a matcha theme to be used to make milk tea, I think it was. It was pretty good. It ended up working out as brewed dust instead of obtaining a matcha-like whisked (blended) thickness, but maybe it had potential to be prepared differently.
It's possible that maxing out astringency input and getting it to brew faster and more completely for use as a milk tea could make sense, that brewing this form could be better in some way. Or it's possible that it's just an experiment, and completely brewing a broken leaf version would work out similarly, or even better.
I may have missed one or two. It was a lot to try, and took awhile. It was fascinating trying such a broad range of teas, and great talking so much that at times we drifted well off the subject of tea, on to current events, our own life patterns, politics, and so on. People into tea are surely familiar with that, how tea can support much more lively and diverse conversation than alcohol, under the right circumstances. And having kittens and a child join made more sense with the tea, than if we had been getting drunk instead.
So what is the point of sharing this? Bragging? Recommending that others get together with people they know, or don't know, and try lots of teas together? To me it's that last part. People into tea seem to often be pretty nice, and when others can appreciate a broad range then all of you being fascinated by lots of what is experienced really adds to a gathering.
It can work mixing a lot of types of experiences together, with sub-themes mostly linking two or three versions, then moving on to the next range. If you want to experience the most of a higher quality, refined form then it could be better to dial in focus and pay more attention, drinking teas that are similar in a sequence that makes sense. But for a visit that divides focus on discussion and trying lots of tea range the other way can be good too.
It can be interesting trying a tea with a novel flaw, just to see what that is like (trying one with storage flavor input contamination comes to mind, white tea probably stored near laundry soap), but of course then you wouldn't brew it for very many infusions, and in some cases might want to discard a rinse, if that frames it better.
It was especially interesting hearing about what a Chinese tea expo is like, and shops in a tea area in China, and how exploring tea in Vietnam went. I feel like I'd be speaking for someone else telling a lot of their story in summarizing that though, and the ideas covered so much ground I would miss parts, or screw up framing. It sounded like a real high water mark tea experience, the kinds of things I've never done myself (both of those broad themes). I've seen markets in different places, and tea plants growing in a few, but it was never like that.
I'll sample a single interesting idea just to show what I'm leaving out. They said that in China now no one pays with cash (not so unusual, I guess), and that you need to have WeChat payment capacity set up, or other local apps a foreigner wouldn't have, and that this one step was a bit tricky to clear. It worked for them, so it wasn't a huge hurdle, it was just interesting hearing about the final process. People use payment apps in Thailand too, but they're usually good about accepting cash, and often accept credit cards if they don't take cash.
There were lots of other tangents that came up; it would take pages to capture even main parts. It was nice touching on personal background and current events some too. I've met them all a few times, just not together, so it was like catching up again, and adding meeting my kids and the kittens added some chaos and also an interesting extra dimension.
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Kalani made shirts for them from a sock |
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wearing a hat (with some goat's milk spilled on me) |
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they sleep all piled together, at times looking like a yin-yang symbol |
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Eye with them (right); thanks to Ploy (left) for giving them to us |
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