I'm reviewing two teas from Moychay, provided by them for review (in part related to helping with editing, but still, many thanks!).
I've been using their samples (they sent a good bit) as comparison for other "local" South East Asian teas, but it will be nice to just compare two of them instead. All the other versions were good. There were some issues related to them matching the standard type form perfectly, to trueness to type. When a tea is made from wild origin material that seems to automatically come up; the starting point in the material itself varies (at least one of them was, and maybe two). This concern led me to write about that theme separately, about trueness to type, in another post.
For a market-style vendor like that buying in significant volume and selling at moderate pricing could also be issues. Of course I'm not going to overthink any of that here; I'll just describe the teas. I'll add their product descriptions after writing the tasting notes.
Before that, the type-typical theme largely drops out here. I would've had comparable teas before, but I still come in without the pre-determined expectations of a main set type. It might come down to whether or not these express tartness, which I really don't care for in black teas, typically.
Honey Orchid Black Tea (105 Euro or $121 USD for 50 grams; that seems wrong, doesn't it?)
Grown in the highlands of Meizhou, Guangdong at 800 meters above sea level, this black tea comes from old bush tea gardens using the Phoenix Dancong cultivar. The gardens are free from pesticides and chemical fertilizers, relying instead on natural forest humus and ecological pest control. The Phoenix cultivar naturally carries the honey–orchid aromatic profile that gives this tea its name.
The tea is handpicked as one bud with two leaves during the early spring, when the tea plants have accumulated nutrients throughout the winter. The fresh leaves are processed using traditional black tea techniques. After natural sun withering and indoor resting, the leaves are gently rolled in bamboo machines, fermented in a high-humidity room until the signature honeyed aroma emerges, and slowly baked over wood fire to lock in flavor and aroma.
The dry leaves are wiry and dark with golden tips. The brewed liquor is clear and orange-red, with a rich honey fragrance and soft orchid notes. The taste is smooth, sweet, and lingering, combining depth and elegance.
Over $2 a gram for black tea? That seems wrong. 50 to 80 cents should be the normal high end range, and any vendor charging over $1 / gram is usually messing with you. If a tea type is rare enough and demand is high enough then the cost would climb, with no real ceiling on that, but a black tea couldn't be good enough for me to see that as decent value for anything. It was pretty good, but there is no pretty good value related to that pricing.
I can clarify what I mean by that by citing a comparable listing from another favorite vendor, from Wuyi Origin (a business ran by a family who I'm friends with a member of, Cindy, to be clear about potential bias):
Wuyi Origin Mi Lan Xiang Black Tea 蜜兰香红茶 (2026) ($17.60 for 50 grams, so 35 cents a gram)
Mi Lan Xiang, or “Honey Orchid Fragrance,” is one of the most celebrated cultivars of Phoenix Dan Cong. While most Mi Lan Xiang teas are crafted as oolongs, this unique version is processed as a black tea, combining the fragrance of Dan Cong with the richness of Wuyi-style fermentation. The result is a rare and elegant expression that blends the sweetness of Phoenix Mountain with the smooth body of Fujian black tea.
This 2025 harvest comes from Daping Village, where the 40-year-old Mi Lan Xiang bushes grow naturally in clean, high-altitude gardens. The leaves are fully fermented on-site to preserve the honeyed aroma and smooth mouthfeel. The liquor is rich, mellow, and entirely free of bitterness. As soon as it is brewed, a soft sweetness fills the air, reminiscent of warm honey and ripe fruit. It is a tea that soothes and delights in equal measure.
Comparing a highly atypical, high quality producer direct source is a little unfair. These types of sources barely even exist, as Western facing outlets, but when one does it has a competitive advantage, for selling their own unique teas without any middleman resale costs. But this is the right range, just on the low side of cost, for what that tea would be. Normal vendors would sell it for 50 cents a gram or more, instead of 35. Just as a guess, for as good as I expct that it probably is more than 50 cents per gram pricing would still be normal.
Maybe within Europe it's a problem to buy directly from China, in lots of places. There are import duties to be considered, and testing protocols for imported goods. This citation is not offered here as a competing option, more to identify the normal pricing range. It probably is a fairly similar tea, but then one would have to try both to compare them.
Black Tea LAO CONG HONG CHA, Old Bush Red Tea from Wuyi Mountains, Chinese tea from Wuyi, Fujian Province (Red Tea), 60g (12 Euro or $14 for 60 grams)
Old Bush Red Tea is produced from 40-year-old Meizhan and Shuixian tea bushes in the southern foothills of the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province. The tea is cultivated at an altitude of 500 meters in from 2006 year certified sustainable agriculture tea gardens that are part of a 4000-acre estate managed by the producer.
Harvested in April and May, this tea is hand-picked, focusing on two or three leaves per sprout. The leaves undergo a traditional black tea processing method, including withering, oxidation, rolling, fermentation, drying, and refinement. The result is a tea with tightly rolled leaves and a robust appearance.
When brewed, this tea yields a bright red liquor with a sweet and mellow flavor, characterized by notes of caramel and a rich, full-bodied texture. The unique processing reduces polyphenols by over 90%, creating the distinctive red hue and smooth taste associated with black tea.
Review:
Mi Lan Xiang Hong Cha / Honey Orchid Black Tea: a little tart. This tea is still fine, very exceptional. Floral range is unique, heavy and distinctive, but also clean and refined (at only the first infusion). Maybe that does taste like honey orchid; it's hard for me to tell, even though I've drank a lot of Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong. The tone is warm, so it leans a bit towards lavender.
A fruit input is really exceptional. It's not far off peach, which does come up a good bit in Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong, but it might also have a citrus edge. It could be broader than peach, including a bit of apricot as well (or maybe it's more apricot, with a touch of peach).
Feel is good, balance is nice, and refinement is a strength.
Lao Cong Hong Cha Wuyishan / Old Bush Red Tea: not as intense, but this seems to express more depth. It includes cacao; that's nice. And more of the roasted yam / sweet potato / butternut squash range. I'll try more of a flavor list next round; these flavors integrate, so it's hard to separate them apart.
This seems to be framed along the classic more forward, sweeter, lighter flavor aspects (the first) and a version including warmer tones, more mineral, and lots of depth (this tea). The first includes a touch of tartness, which means more to me than it probably does to most people.
In general I might like the second more, since Dian Hong is my favorite type (or rather it's the other way around; Dian Hong is my favorite type because I love the experience of depth and certain forms of complexity in black tea). But it's not as good, in at least one other sense. This Wuyishan version includes a limited enough forward flash of flavor and sweetness that it might seem like a gap, at this stage. But then this is only the first infusion. And it stands out a lot more for it being brewed alongside a tea that emphasizes that initial floral hit.
MLX #2: this falls into a great balance. All of the tones warm a good bit, and tartness backs off. The intense floral range moderates a bit, but there's still plenty there. It's not easier to separate the flavors into a list this way, but the complexity balances well. It still includes warm floral tones, which probably does include rich orchid flavor, and fruit, now emphasizing a warm mineral base more.
One bright tone stands apart from the rest, and gives it a nice counterbalance. It's like that juicyfruit gum flavor, or not too far from teaberry. Or given this context one could interpret that as floral range instead of fruit, even though I've done the opposite here.
Feel is good. It includes a hint of dryness along with the structure, but that doesn't come across as a flaw, in the type and level, along with the rest. It just has an astringency structure, which works. It's still a soft and rich tea, nothing like a more challenging version of Assam, even within the better orthodox whole leaf range.
Wuyishan: this is softer and richer, with more depth. Again the flavor range seems to express a gap; there is a lot of warmer, deeper tone, and some more forward flavor (cacao?), but it's not continuous along the entire range in between. One could interpret part of this as tasting like soft and warm malt (ovaltine or malted milk ball, not Assam malt). Something along the line of roasted sweet potato fills in flavor depth. But in between that initial flavor hit and the depth that comes later there is a short pause in the experience.
Brewing this stronger would offset that effect. I've brewed these for 15 seconds or so, not long. Intensity is still pretty good (they're brewing at 7 grams per 100 ml gaiwan), but I expect the profile would seem to "fill in" at a higher intensity, for this version. The other was already intense enough.
Someone more critical of this tea's character might say it tastes like cardboard. That's partly right, but it's an effect coming from heavier mineral and limited somewhat earthy tone. I would imagine that positive or negative bias would have one "seeing" either the better parts that work well or else what might come across as gaps or flaws. I try to see it as it is.
It's a bit strange but I tried mixing the last of both, to see how it would merge and blend. In a limited sense it is better than either version, but it's also less distinctive and interesting, so in another sense both lose what makes them work.
MLX #3: I gave these just over 20 seconds this round, to see how that changes them. This version had been intense using a shorter time, so it may be a little strong.
It is. That works though; the pronounced warm floral tones really pop, supported by pleasant fruit. I think this is just what someone would be looking for in a Mi Lan Xiang black tea version. Even that touch of early tartness is normal, as I recall from other versions. Depth is really nice in this, the way warm mineral tones fill that in. Flavor complexity and refinement are exceptional. Some might not love that touch of structure and dryness in this version, but for others that could be a main strength.
Sweetness is a main positive, obviously. I've not explicitly said that, and just describing sweetness related flavors doesn't necessarily connect with that, even though it does here.
Wuyishan: this is better for being brewed stronger, more appropriate for this tea version. A hint of cinnamon joins the rest, filling in a nicely complex flavor balance. The rest has transitioned. A touch of cacao grounds the rest, and there is still roasted yam and limited dried fruit input in this (or maybe it has evolved to where those stand out now, and there were only related flavors in the first two rounds, nothing identical).
Simply brewing this a little stronger did seem to resolve an overall balance / range gap described earlier. Or the evolution across rounds did; it would be hard to be sure.
That seems like enough for notes. These will shift a little more across two more positive infusions, and you could stretch them for two more beyond that. I would probably mention another flavor aspect for both, or a different balance of what came earlier. But the basic story has been told.
Later editing note: a liqueur or perfume like character stands out in the Mi Lan Xiang version, a good indicator of tea quality, and something that's pleasant to experience.
I really liked both. The style of the second (Wuyishan origin tea) suits my main preference better, but the strengths of the Mi Lan Xiang version really stood out. It would be normal for people to judge it as a better quality tea version. But really their character just varies, looked at another way. The Wuyishan version got a slow start related to brewing a full flavor range complex character, but that was just an early round anomaly, and could have related to it working better being brewed slightly stronger.
The only anomaly or concern here is the $2+ per gram pricing of the Mi Lan Xiang version. That's a lot; probably too much.
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