Quang Tom 2022 Lao Cai sheng from Vietnam

 

I'm reviewing the last of a set of three Quang Tom producer Lao Cai Vietnamese sheng versions, from 2022, with the other two covered in the last post.  This extends the review of how these teas might age, with this one coming up on four years old.  I'll speculate at the end about how it might continue on after that, but I can't really be sure.

There is no product listing or description to site, since this is a producer, not a resale vendor.  This is their FB profile; that would work for a contact.  There are some photos and videos on there for background, just not as developed as vendor sites tend to be.  That first review post includes more background.

photo color seems a little off; lighting variations change that

Review:

First infusion:  a little light; I'll write out first impressions and the next round will tell more of the story.  It's similar to the other two versions, of course.  Honey sweetness stands out, and deep floral range, like chrysanthemum.  The fruit tone probably is dried apricot, but that will be clearer next round.  The main question here is about an aging transition pattern, beyond yearly version variation, and neither is answered yet.  It's really good; that's already apparent.

Second round:   it's interesting how this expresses a lot of the same range, maybe just not the brighter fruit or floral range, but heavy mineral depth stands out.  So far I think I like the character of the other two better, so although this is really nice that alone doesn't bode well for the short term aging potential of these teas, or the long term potential.  Maybe someone else would really value that mineral depth and come to the opposite conclusion.

If I had only tried this tea version, and not the others, I would be more surprised about and more positive in relation to this aspect set and character.  The honey, floral range, and integrated dried fruit tones are really positive.

Third infusion:  warm mineral tone actually settles out, replaced by more dried fruit.  It is heavier on dried apricot range now.  There's a cool medicinal tone in this, that's hard to place.  A touch of menthol?  If that really dialed up and heavier tones transitioned in this might become great in a novel way.  It's quite good now though; it's not at an awkward.

4:  this is a flash infusion, to see what that changes.  Character is the best yet, but it had already been trending towards that.  Those flavors are complex, packed within the range already described (honey, warm floral, dried fruit along the line of apricot, a touch of medicinal range, near menthol, and warm mineral base).  A hint of citrus might be picking up, or maybe even a little root spice, a root beer / sassafras flavor.  Balance of lighter and heavier flavors, and feel, are all really nice.

5:  more of the same, but that root spice is picking up.  I have a doctor's appointment to get to so I won't be able to describe another 3 rounds, and this will probably keep shifting.  It's great how clean this is, even though a heavy mineral tone could easily have been adjoined by a less clean flavor range.

6:  a hint of vegetal range finally enters in, a light wood tone.  It might not be over for the positive range of flavor transitions but it doesn't seem to keep improving further, based only on this round.  The somewhat dominant root spice, fruit, and floral range is still very pleasant.  Honey tone stands out, but not like in the 2023 version, where it's dominant.  Someone could reasonably interpret a toffee note as pronounced, but there's a lot going on that could be interpreted in different ways.

I just remembered that I never mentioned liquid tea clarity, related to the 2023 version being just a little cloudy in the early rounds.  This version isn't.  That version might have been incompletely dried after a pressing phase, or something else came up in production.  It didn't ruin the tea, or seem to cause much for noticeable flaws, beyond that indicator.

the second infusion of that cycle; it's easier to make out in person

Conclusions:

Experientially, at this point in time, this is my least favorite of the three versions.  So its story is more about what it conveys about aging potential, and beyond that if someone with different preferences might like it the best instead.

Sure, that's possible.  It has the warmest, heaviest, and most mineral intensive flavor profile of the three.  It only hints at menthol and root spice picking up, so there is a lot more potential for it to keep improving.  Or I guess it's possible that the trade-off may seem negative instead, that losing the bright floral and fruit tones over the next few years probably wouldn't be offset by those other flavor themes ramping up, even if that second type of change is positive.  This could be really good in an interesting way in another half dozen years; it's hard to say.

It's also anyone's guess what this will be like in 15 more years.  Some styles of teas just go dead over not much longer than this 4 year span, and it doesn't seem to be doing that.  But it's not clear that a longer term transition potential is positive.  I don't really have the right background of experiences to guess.  I've tried Yiwu that was probably bright and floral, and approachable, as a young version, that lost almost all flavor after 15 years or so, but surely this doesn't match that starting point.  

It's not conventional sheng, with this much oxidation input.  I don't know that aging sheng in Vietnam, or the styles varying, or teas matching this quality level, all goes back 15 to 20 years.  There is plenty of mention of decades old Vietnamese sheng; people convey trying that, even from the 1960s or 70s, and say that it's good.  I've tried some aged Vietnamese sheng.  But the match or mis-match to this style isn't ever clearly defined, I don't think.

The only way to be certain would be to buy a cake or two and wait out that 15 to 20 years.  If I had an open tea budget I'd do exactly that.  Since my case is the opposite, and more than all the free budget that we can spare goes into flying back and forth to Honolulu, and to cover high living expenses there, I'll use the three cakes I have as drinking stock, as I did the last ones.  It's always possible to stash the last 50 or 100 grams, but then you wonder if a large sample portion ages in the same way as a cake.

To me these cakes are great to drink just now, so there's no downside to drinking through them, even if their longer term potential is good.  In every case where I've tried approachable, bright, sweet, floral or fruity sheng that I've loved as a very young version they've never been as good a few years later.  That "approachable" description seems to be the key; sheng with considerable bitterness and astringency edge, even with all the other described aspects also included, might change positively over a few years, or a longer term.

Of course all of this is offered as a perspective based only on limited exposure.  I've tried however much pu'er over the last decade or so, with early exposure 15 years back, but I'm no expert on the theme.  Plenty of others have pushed further through much more experience, based on more outside input, and trying more highly regarded range versions.