1990s 8972 (aged sheng pu'er)

I'm reviewing an interesting version of tea passed on by my new tea friend, who I've mentioned in the past two posts, as one of the founders and owners of Teas We Like.  I don't know that this is one of their products, since we didn't discuss that, but it could be, since there's one on their site that matches the little I know about it:

90s CNNP 8972 Naked Brick  (listed for $120)

This is a 90s 8972 brick from CNNP. There is some debate about this recipe, but we believe it is a blend of predominantly sheng with some light fermentation shou. This brick went through traditional HK storage and then spent 20 years in dry Taiwan storage, resulting in a very clean, dark, and satisfying entry with plenty of thickness and bittersweetness. It has a dense, strong Menghai character. It has no wodui aroma or taste, no smoke, and a small amount of traditional storage earthiness in the background. A good casual and comfortable drink with an aged puerh profile.

250g brick, not wrapped.

That pricing seems on the low side, for tea of that age, doesn't it?  But then "a good casual and comfortable drink" sounds on the basic side.  Basic for them might mean something else entirely for more casual tea drinkers.

It's especially interesting that they speculate that it could be a mix of mostly sheng and some shou.  I've heard of such things, but there's a good chance that this is the first time I've tried an example.  I didn't notice that much shou input in trying it, but then roughly 30 year old sheng isn't that familiar a theme to me.  

I could add more about the last 2 in that number code relating to the Menghai Tea Factory, now known as Dayi (or Taetea), but that leads straight into early history of Chinese tea production that I know little about.  Different producers made tea for the main government entity, which already implies more than actually mean.  It's easy to look up more on that background, that would fill in some details.

I wrote these notes before seeing that description, which is how reviews here always go.  I knew what was in the post title.

Review:

#1:  interesting!  I've tried aged sheng before but it has been a long time since I've tried anything similar to this, even though it might be a standard enough form, probably well above average factory tea, favorably stored, and around 30 years old.  

It's clean at the start.  In some past cases--of trying older sheng, even some from the 80s--there was a heavier fermentation input flavor range to get past, which took a couple of infusions, but this might just include a little more char effect than it's going to after another round or two.  What I take to be what people describe as betel nut comes across in a strong form right away (although to be clear I never get around to trying that, even though it's out there in Bangkok's Chinatown).  Feel is especially nice too, rich and smooth, a bit velvety.  Aftertaste is pronounced, although that will probably pick up further, leaving behind that heavy mineral, unusual herb, and the touch of char.

I could keep going; someone could free associate another more flavors or experiential aspects, just from this first infusion.  That's really something.  It leans a little toward a dried fruit that I'm not making out.  Warmer and heavier tone could seem a little like an aged tree bark, maybe pine bark, but it doesn't include the sharpness of pine needle.  The mineral range is interesting, but it's easy to get stuck on that tasting like some kind of rock.  I'm not getting much ginseng or medicinal herb yet, but those would fill in a lot of the rest of the typical flavor range of aged pu'er, or I guess camphor also might be added to that.  

It was an interesting first round.  This will "clean up" over another round or two, and the minimal mustiness and char will probably drop out completely, even though it wasn't pronounced.  

#2:  creaminess picks up; that's pleasant.  The early char is transitioning nicely to include a heavy and warm bark spice.  It's always hard describing what the rest of bark spice range is, or root spice, for that matter, beyond cinnamon (and ginseng).  I drank a broad range of tisanes over a decade or so before getting into tea, but didn't keep track.

I think I'll limit the free association of possible flavor connections this round.  It's nice just experiencing the tea.  

Maybe I am already "feeling" this?  I'm internally inconsistent, making it harder to judge that kind of thing.  I don't sleep so regularly, and often get really intense exercise inputs in long runs, so my body works through a lot of natural variation.  Some really pleasant ocean swimming and getting extra sleep has been balancing me better than usual lately.  

It does seem to impart a calm, clear energy, even though I don't notice or value that about teas much.  I'm on a balcony on a sunny, breezy, perfect temperature day, sitting beside rustling palm trees, so maybe some of that effect would happen without tea.

#3:  even using moderate proportion (for me, or really just normal range, about 5 grams in 100 ml gaiwan) this is fairly intense.  4 grams would've been fine.  As I've covered at length here I don't weigh tea, but from trying countless samples of different sizes I feel like standard amount / weight baselines are familiar.

Depth increases this round.  It had significant depth before, but now it's more.  Where it gave a full, rich feel in the mouth before now it's coating those surfaces.  There's aftertaste, and the feel itself also carries over.  It's interesting.  People talk about feel residing in different places in your throat or mouth, which I've also not learned to value.  This contributes a substantial feel across your mouth, not so much centered in the back of the throat, but across the tongue, roof, and front in a unique way.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but it is interesting.

What I take to be betel nut is still quite pronounced, and there is warm bark spice, or aged tree bark, and lots of warm mineral.  But I'm missing something, or maybe a couple of things.  An effect related to root spice seems to join that.  Sweetness is a little like dried fruit, but not in a familiar range, and I get around to trying a lot of dried fruit.  It feels relatively rich and full.  

There's a strange effect that happens here--when I'm in Honolulu--that the more calm, focused, and present I am the more I hear birds.  They're always there; we live right beside a giant park.  But I usually don't hear them.  On a walk to swim I relax and become more present, and they sound loud, there are so many.  There are a few saying different things just now.  I'm not claiming that this tea experience is connecting me to the universe, or anything such, since just relaxing for an hour could help with that, but the energy feels good.

#4:  I had my wife taste this tea and she said that she doesn't like it, that it tastes like mold.  That's a nice counterpoint.  It can be interpreted as tasting like those half-circle shape fungus disks on fallen tree trunks tend to smell like.  It probably helps more than I'm noticing that I've tried much murkier aged sheng before, so to me this tastes clean, light, and pleasant, but still nicely complex, with nice depth.  As my friend mentioned lots of old tea, old sheng or other range, tends to taste like pond water (or was that swamp water?).

I think that people open to this general range would like this, but it's the next consideration whether acquiring a preference for range like this is a natural outcome, or if just an inter-subjective group norm, because others in "tea circles" tend to like it.  Across a range of forms aged sheng is still an odd flavor range, from any normal perspective.  I think it makes sense to dismiss the two extremes, and then consider why falling in the middle, towards either side, seems more natural.  "That tastes like mold" is the one extreme; the other is the developed, refined, "advanced" range of aspects and experiential states.  Including positive or negative judgmental descriptions kind of assumes the conclusion.

A small green gecko joins me; I just saw a baby gecko right here a few days ago, which oddly never comes up.  In both Thailand and in Hawaii people love geckos.  Partly because they eat insects, even inside the house, but it may relate to a connection to nature that's different than in mainland perspective.  The birds are your neighbors, and although competing with the squirrels for mangos back in Bangkok can seem off-putting it's their home too, so they should get some.  They eat most of them; they cheat and don't wait until they are ripe.

About preference development, an interesting case came up in discussing Japanese interpretations of Scotch whiskey.  That's a learned preference, that can surely be complex and refined, with a literal strong form of poison as the base of the experience, that almost no one would like without conditioning to like it.  Within the range of whiskey experience much better aged versions probably would seem incredibly smooth, complex, and approachable, but surely to the average person without that acclimation it would just be less bad.  

I think aged sheng is a different kind of thing, and people could appreciate it and like it without conditioning, but maybe not as much as basic Tie Guan Yin or Dian Hong.  I have trouble fully placing what that means.

#5:  I tend to lose focus and interest on writing long before a full infusion cycle.  Sure, teas keep changing, and brew plenty of rounds.  But I only need to describe the general effect of the experience, not every last detail.  I'm already stretching infusion times, out to 20 seconds or so, and this will relate to going longer as rounds continue.

It's not developing, not heading in new directions for aspects, related to flavor, aftertaste, or feel.  It's not really fading fast either, but I suppose intensity is decreasing.

Related to really pinning down a flavors list I've probably missed something along the line of heavy mineral, bark spice, or root spice.  The feel was more interesting, and the overall clean nature (even though per that one secondary input it tastes like mold).  

This tea must have been pretty intense originally to retain this degree of intensity, complexity, and depth across the last 30 years.  Storage conditions must have been a lot less humid than I'm familiar with in Bangkok, since teas can pick up a heavier musty flavor range within a decade and a half or so.  It seems relatively fully fermentation transitioned, which brings to mind whether that not happening in drier storage could still be possible over 30 or so years.  Probably it could.

All in all a very interesting and pleasant experience.  Pushing the next round a little more (#6) it does transition, but in the ways you'd expect, the light wood and spice note develop.  Spice a little like clove is picking up, just not exactly that.  It's as pleasant as it has been, very clean in effect, maybe slightly thinner in feel, but with good depth, and nice mineral range expression.