I'm reviewing a third tea from the Malaysian vendor I've covered not long ago, Legend of Tea. These teas were sent for review (many thanks to them).
This theme is one I've been looking forward to, checking out a sheng pu'er version they sent. I'm trying out reviewing it completely blind, only knowing that it's sheng, with all of the label in Chinese. It's pretty good, but I'll let the review itself cover that. Value is really good; I'll add more on that after I cite the vendor's description, following:
2024 Xiao Ba Wang Raw Puerh Tea
As a timeless classic from Legend of Tea, "Xiao Ba Wang" has upheld its reputation for 19 years by consistently selecting high-quality, cost-effective materials with good craftmanship to deliver premium tea at an affordable price for all to enjoy.
This year's Xiao Ba Wang is sourced from ecological tea trees in the high mountains of Mengsong Da Man Lü, this sheng Pu-erh boasts a fresh, sweet aroma complemented by the distinctive alpine forest fragrance. Its naturally refreshing profile is soft, sweet, and intricately layered, offering a gentle yet rich tea-drinking experience. Each sip reveals a long-lasting sweetness with a refreshing, full-bodied aroma that lingers delightfully.
This is listed at $25 for 200 grams, so it's moderately priced, on the low side for Western oriented in-house teas (under $50 for a standard 357 gram cake; you don't see that in the main Western outlets, unless it's for "factory tea," nothing of this general type).
It's quite good for that price, the quality level (I try the teas before adding website content). I'll say more about that in the review, and cite more about the listed vendor background here:
What is High Mountain Ecological Tea?
High mountain ecological tea is cultivated in pristine, pollution-free environments far from industrial influence. Grown at elevated altitudes in eco-friendly tea gardens, these tea trees thrive in an ideal natural setting, surrounded by year-round clouds and mist. The significant temperature difference between day and night enriches the tea leaves, producing a clear, sweet broth with a distinctive mountain flavor and lingering sweetness.
At first sip, the tea is sweet and soft, with a full-bodied aroma that unfolds in layers, delighting the senses and enriching the palate. The sweetness and smoothness spread gradually, leaving a deep, long-lasting impression in the throat. Xiao Ba Wang beautifully combines the freshness of nature with the warmth and precision of handmade craftsmanship, offering a unique balance of strength and softness that is truly unforgettable.
I take everything every vendor says with a grain of salt, but it would be nice if all of that were true. The tea is good; you would expect positive results like that from this sort of source context.
Review:
#1: a little light; that's how first infusions tend to go, when you don't stretch the timing to offset that, or use a rinse to speed that along. So far it's nice. Sweetness is still moderate; how that balances might be a main input to my own preference. It's clean in presentation, no mustiness, off flavors, harsh astringency edge, and so on. There is already some mineral tone coming out. I'll save the flavor breakdown for the next round, but it seems nice, as if a few things will stand out, including some floral tone.
#2: depth and complexity pick up. Bitterness starts, but that's still moderate. Mineral undertone is pronounced, of course in a light mineral range, nothing like in Wuyi Yancha or other roasted oolongs. Flavor seems to include floral tones, and a creamy sort of feel is adjoined by a touch of creamy flavor. Sounds like oolong range, doesn't it? But the feel structure of this is sheng, and the included bitterness, even if it's not challenging.
Warmer tones are hard to identify. They could be interpreted as a savory edge, along the line of sundried tomato. Or it could be interpreted as an herbal tone, even towards a green-wood edge, but to me more of a savory aspect that includes herbal range. It's not exactly like pine, but not so far off that.
So what would this be, judging by just this? Hard to say. I don't have a catalog of distinct flavor profiles for broad and narrower Yunnan origins mapped out in my experiential memory. It's not as smooth, floral, sweet, and "round" as Yiwu tends to be, but being approachable with some floral range it's not completely dis-similar. The pine note reminds me of Jing Mai, but it's not clearly pine, to that same extent. It's not edgy, intense, or challenging enough to be from standard larger areas like Menghai or Bulang (with intensity and complexity more the Menghai theme, and distinctive bitterness that could be paired with pleasant sweetness from Bulang). So I don't know what it is, and probably won't.
#3: bitterness ramps up a good bit; this is closer to where it's going to be, and may even lose some of the bitterness and challenging edge over a round or two. But it's not really heavily astringent, or all that bitter, as more bitter versions tend to be. That's significant, but it balances with the rest. At this point it's the main part of the experience, so I mean balanced in the sense of still standing out most.
Sweetness isn't bad; it works. I've become accustomed to fruity, approachable, complex South East Asian sheng versions, and this isn't that. Aftertaste extends well beyond drinking the tea, and feel structure adds to complexity. Flavor range isn't as distinctive as it might be. Mineral tones stand out a lot, and some floral range, and an herbal / vegetal edge, more herbal than vegetal. It's not unlike how ginseng root comes across; a bit vague, but also complex, with plenty going on.
#4: more of the same; it isn't changing quickly. Aftertaste and bitterness may both dial up slightly. Intensity is definitely good, and again the balance and overall effect is nice, the lack of flaws. Flavor range doesn't extend to anything so interesting, but it comes across as good tea, pleasant and intense.
I think I'm feeling the effects already. It just worked out that breakfast was light on carbohydrates (starch in particular), which seem to delay stomach processing of tea compounds, and protect from negative feel issues. For me that's a good thing; I don't need to be getting stoned off tea. But this seems to have significant effect, for people on that page.
This may be a good quality version from an area known for being challenging, with this pronounced bitterness and feel structure only this approachable because it's whole-leaf material, and perhaps not low elevation / high fertilizer input grown. People claim that older plant material has a greater depth to it, more mineral range, with extra aging potential, and that more wild origin material tends to pick up interesting flavor range from the environment, and to often be more approachable, while still complex, which could vary. I suppose there's probably some truth to all that, it just doesn't help identify this tea.
#5: still not evolving so much. The earlier set of descriptions was already broad enough, and only the balance of the range mentioned keeps shifting. Floral tone really isn't so pronounced, compared to the rest. There might be some moderate fruit range evolving, along the line of grapefruit, probably a relatively sweet version of that. Herbal / medicinal range stands out, but not as much as bitterness and the mineral base. I'll look up what this is, out of curiosity, and leave off the notes here.
I checked; it's from Mengsong, presented as high mountain, natural growth origin teas, maybe not forest tea, but from a diverse environment (as I interpret it; I've pasted most of the description there). I've reviewed teas from Mengsong but again I don't memorize a matrix of origin-related character types well. It is interesting how the flavor range I struggled with describing, saying it was a bit like pine, or maybe ginseng, possibly herbal or vegetal in some way, they describe as "distinctive mountain flavor." That works.
Conclusions:
Just wonderful, for a tea presented as a moderately priced version (low, really, using Western outlet standards). It's a throw-back to when Yunnan Sourcing was still trying to keep their Impressions series as a moderately priced offering. Maybe they do release a modest quality version still, but last I checked most branded as such had moved on to higher quality, more distinctive specialization, and a higher price range, the typical $70 to 80 a cake that now represents the low end of in-house pricing.
Some of my reluctance to be open to that $80 to $140 current range is that I just don't have the budget to be buying and drinking that. That's enough of an issue. Then I also remember when the standard range for pretty much all cakes was $30 to 50, with some outlets pushing "white label" more exclusive pressings up closer to $1 a gram. I tried some marketed as such, and never bought any. To me buying a $100 tiny 100 gram cake is ridiculous.
Tea quality got better, over the last decade. A middle of the range $100, 357 cake is now probably better than most of the range available a decade ago, or closer to that exclusive pressing version than factory teas, or the then-rarer in-house versions. At the same time vendors working off a standard mark-up benefitted greatly from selling $120 cakes instead of $40 versions, so they embraced, or even led, the customer demand for better and better versions.
"Gushu" was all selling for $1 a gram 5 years ago, when pricing was still going up. Some surely was from older plant sources, but who knows, really. Or from more natural growth gardens, as this is presented. You could see from the pressed cake that chopped material had given way to more whole leaves, which is now more the standard form, outside of "factory tea" versions.
It's hard to place this version within the broad range. One critique one might apply is that it was clearly high quality material, but not necessarily as distinctive as it could be. With a bit more sweetness and floral range, or more distinctive bitterness, or other flavor range, feel, or whatever it might include, it would stand out more. It's good though, reasonably balanced, clean, somewhat complex, and pleasant. For this price it's probably better than it should be, and better value than you could find in the half dozen or so standard Western outlets.
It led me to looking at whatever else they sell, and a lot of the rest of their range is even more value oriented. They tend to sell what looks like blended material pressings identified by year, by the Chinese zodiac sign that year. To me this looks a lot like the Yunnan Sourcing standard themes. Here's an example:
Year of Snake Raw Puerh, 357 grams, $14.82
Year of Roaster Raw Puer, 357 grams, $19.998, from 2016 (rooster; I kept the typo)
Those two cakes could change how someone is exploring sheng, or could just be extra daily drinkers to check out for someone years into the type preference. Or they could be bad? Low cost, low-medium quality sheng can still be positive, just not in the same ways that spending over $100 on a cake tends to work out. You often give up aging potential. But then you really need to try a tea aged to be completely sure how that's going to go, even after you are familiar with typical aging transition patterns.
That last one is a 2016 cake stored in Malaysia; it's hard to summarize what that might mean, if someone doesn't already know. It's known for being a place to age tea quickly, the opposite of dry and cool Kunming storage. 9 years in Malaysia could represent a similar fermentation level to 15 in Kunming. For a $20 standard sized cake! That's unheard of in Western outlets, maybe beyond gambling on very mixed results through a vendor like King Tea Mall, a reseller who passes on whatever happens to turn up.
They do sell what is presented as more standard, higher quality, desirable origin specific teas. Here is an example:
2009 NanNuo Ancient Tree Tea, $86.58 for a 357 gram cake
I've had fantastic experiences with the few Nan Nuo versions I've tried, and no average or below average results. Here's their write-up for that tea:
NanNuo Ancient Tree Tea is a slightly domineering tea. The tea liquor entrance has a significant bitterness, which quickly dissipates and turns sweet, bitter with sweetness (just like Musang King). Since ancient times, NanNuo Mountain was a very famous ancient tea mountain. Meanwhile, there is also a key source of raw material for high-quality puer tea. There are abundant resources of ancient trees, which has made today's NanNuo Mountain a quality assurance reputation.
It's probably not that bitter at this point, 16 years later, stored in Malaysia (presumably). But you don't have to trust their judgment, or sourcing aptitude, since they sell samples of lots of their sheng range (I didn't check if it covers this one; it doesn't, so for those more distinctive and costly cakes you would have to trust them).
For people open to gambling on an $87 cake that's an interesting option, 16 years old and from a desirable origin area. Ordering other versions first could work, and what samples are available, to get a sense of their range.
All of this isn't really intended as a sales pitch. It's completely familiar background for people well into sheng exploration, or maybe not clearly thought through for people just getting started, or not yet started. It's how you tend to evaluate new sources, and to decide what else to buy. If a cake is in the $20 range sampling makes a lot less sense; you just try that kind of thing, and see how it goes. Maybe not by buying a vendor's whole selection range, in case it doesn't work out; you'd mix buying a few types. Having tea around that you don't like can be awkward.
But then if you aren't familiar with aging transition patterns that shifts things. Some tea character / aspect starting points have plenty of potential, and some don't. There's nothing like trying the same tea a couple times a year for 6 or 8 years to see how it is changing. It can be awkward doing that if it seems great after 8 or 9 years, and then you run out of it, and can't buy more. I sometimes buy a second cake of what seems most promising, then at least I'll have some after the exploration phase, even though a single cake isn't that much.
I'm not sure how this cake would age, what it would be like in 10 or 15 years. Even more intensity might be a good sign, to build in potential for change. They sell versions from this line going back to 2010, but those are from different identified origin areas, so not at all identical teas. Versions from 2010 and 2011 are from Nan Nuo and Bulang, and sell for $81 and $78, which really could be a life-changing sourcing option if those are very good material teas.
Now I wish that I could spend a few hundred dollars exploring those. But I live in Honolulu part time on a Bangkok salary budget, and spend more on airfare than makes any sense at all, so I'll make due with what I can afford to try. It could be interesting seeing what their lower end range is like. One last tangent note: they mention "dry storage" in one product description, for that 2011 tea:
The raw material selected by XiaoBaWang in 2009 is from BuLang Mountain, which is one of the six ancient tea mountains in China... Tea liquor tastes high sweetness, after 9 years of storage in the pure dry warehouse, it becomes thick and smooth, not astringent, not dry, and docile.
Dry for Malaysia is probably hot and humid for Kunming; it could all be relative.
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