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it wasn't this meetup; I forgot to take a picture (but this is Seth and Huyen) |
I finally hosted people for a tea meetup this weekend, trying some really nice teas, that went well together as a set. The main focus was on Thailand and Vietnam origins, but the two last versions didn't fit this post heading description at all, as aged Yunnan sheng (2004 from Dayi / Taetea), and 2020 Fu hei cha. I took no pictures of the event or participants; that's an oversight.
The sequence of teas worked out well. The people joining were in a good place to appreciate them, so discussion was pleasant, including range beyond tea. This will leave those parts out, and focus on the teas, and why the order made sense. That last part is a lot of the meaning here, about how trying a diverse range of teas can really inform the experience of everything in the set, more than a narrower theme.
In one sense these were all really good quality teas, and pleasant versions, and in another sense just basics range. It's interesting how that works out.
101 Plantation Thai Oriental Beauty: I've reviewed a lot of these teas, some recently, with this one reviewed here. It's a pleasant, drinkable, very approachable place to start, tasting like honey, citrus, and cinnamon as OB tends to. This version is pretty far up the scale as quality level for Thai OB goes, one of the better versions that I've tried.
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rolled leaf form OB on the left |
That said, it still includes just a bit of green wood flavor input, and some of those positive flavors could be a little more intense, so it's just on the pretty good side of the Taiwanese range, better than average, but not comparable to the best of the best. Which is still pretty good. Given the price is moderate all that adds up to a cue for Thai local tea enthusiasts to order it online as soon as they hear about it, because it won't be around long.
Wawee Tea black tea: I love this tea, which is kind of a main running theme across these versions, that they're what I like, just now and in general. It includes plenty of cacao and fruit, with warm floral tones, and no tartness, which to me detracts from the overall experience. The balance, sweetness level, and intensity are good, beyond that flavor profile being quite pleasant.
I reviewed this tea in comparison with the next one we tried from Viet Sun in this post; strange it worked out that way. I already mentioned loving both tea versions; it relates to that. That detailed description doesn't exactly match what I'm saying here about these teas; so it can go, that you can really zero in on specifics in a combined tasting, spending an hour on just experiencing two tea versions, versus drinking them in other ways.
It's not so far off a standard Dian Hong style. By that I mean that it includes a lot of warm mineral range and depth, and even though I've described it as including bright, intense, forward flavors--or at least that seems implied to me, as I read this. It is as much about that depth as it is the forward range. Which works well for me; I like that style. With any tea experience there's an emergent "how good?" effect that relates as much to match to preference as any of these aspects or styles that I describe. This tea version works really well for me.
Viet Sun Vietnamese black tea (Y Tý Air Dried Black Spring 2026; probably sold out now, that's generally how that goes).
This version smells really sweet, and lots like cacao, with fruit notes coming in beyond that, and it is really intense. It switches that focus on depth, or equal balance with warmer, deeper tones, for that blast of cacao and fruit. But it balances just as well, just in a completely different way. Flavors are really pronounced and clean, without a hint of anything negative, or any flaw. This is a fantastic version of this style and form of tea. The guests could really relate to both, and to the difference between them. But it was time to shift theme.
Wawee Tea sheng pu'er (or since it's Thai tea just sheng, or however you prefer for designation): in drinking "light to heavy" it could seem more intuitive to get to this tea first, because the tone is lighter. It's bright, fresh, and intense, with lighter fruit and floral range, a bit of bitterness, and limited vegetal range. Sweetness is great, balancing the rest. It's a great match to what I love in drinkable young sheng, especially that overall intensity. That's why I had us try this after the black teas instead; it's way more intense than them, even though flavor tones are lighter. Sometimes people have trouble relating to a balance of bitterness included in a flavor set but everyone present seemed to relate well to this version. It is approachable, not overly bitter, as some sheng can be.
It made for an interesting discussion point, about how aspects like bitterness and astringency can vary, and about why I describe factory teas as one particular thing, often in somewhat negative terms. That came up again later, as we tried an aged Dayi (purple label 7542, from 2004). It goes without saying that lots of teas from factory production tend to be even more intense, and less approachable, sort of "designed" for aging, even though it just works out that way. The leaf being broken--often--lends to this harsher effect and greater intensity. Then there's really a divide between the main producers, Dayi / Taetea, CNNP / Zhongcha, and Xiaguan, and how the rest of the smaller producers come across, which is not unified. But that's a lot to get into here, even at the higher level summary, as we just did.
Viet Sun Y Ty sheng (I think the H'mong version, instead of the Dao): this is my favorite of the set of Viet Sun teas I bought earlier this year, or at least it was, so it was nice trying it as well. It's not so far off the Wawee character, but a little more refined in a sense, and intense in a different way. I suppose the flavor profile is different. I wasn't trying to clock specific flavor lists in this kind of tasting, especially for going through a lot of brewing details fairly quickly to keep it all moving along. And we had a nice snack, maybe after this tea version. There's a good local bakery in the Suan Dusit University, a main branch of the Home Bakery, that makes nice pastries, croissants, and egg tarts, and we had a nice mix.
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those two Y Ty origin versions |
This was one visitor's favorite; he really connected with these approachable and pleasant sheng. Bitterness is pretty moderate for both of these versions, and intensity is significant but not challenging. Flavor sets are pleasant; to me they are easy to relate to. But again it was time to shift theme.
2004 Dayi / Taetea purple label 7542: this tea is finally aged to where it should be, after 22 years in hot and humid Bangkok storage, so just a bit ahead of schedule. It was a huge shift, moving from black tea, then light and approachable sheng, then onto well-aged sheng pu'er. But it helped that the tea is still intense in terms of positive flavor range, and not challenging in any way. 4 or 5 years ago it would have been. Of course it tastes like old furniture, old books, or like an old cabin in the woods would smell. But clean; the hot and humid storage isn't as musty as one might expect.
Specific storage areas can include that kind of input, a bit of extra fermented cardboard, or cement block. Getting air contact right helps. In one sense this might seem to mean very little air contact, since if you set this tea out on a shelf it would go dead. I store the teas wrapped in either the plastic wrapper they come in, or in multi-layer packaging, or both, and then they're in storage boxes that get opened relatively regularly. If you only opened a storage box every other month you could limit that extra inner layer of containment. But it's more common now for people to use mylar sealing envelope type storage to keep them very contained, after conditioning to a desired level of moisture / humidity content. It's always 70% or more humidity level in Bangkok, so it's fine, in a decent range.
This tea is pretty good; there's more I could say about that. The people joining seemed to get that. Where we rushed through the black teas a bit more, saving them for drinking some mixed together for a large cold-brew batch later, we did a couple of extra rounds with this. I tried keeping proportion moderate for the two younger sheng, using longer infusion times, so we "used up" the potential for those better. I was brewing two combined infusions ("stacked") from a 200+ ml gaiwan, mixing that to serve as a bit less than 400 ml split by 5 people; a good bit for this kind of tasting theme.
2020 Fu cake (this was the Lincang origin version, reviewed here): I've taken to including one of two similar Fu hei cha versions, from Oriental Leaf, as a last round for tastings. It's very different than the rest, no matter what we drink, and heavy in character, but quite approachable. The uniqueness works well; everyone always loves the tea version, and it's one last eye-opening indicator of how much range tea can cover.
These versions--there is a second from a different origin that's similar but different--can taste a bit like yeast or fresh bread, extending into a fresh rye or dark rye bread flavors. There is a touch of citrus and honey from the jin hua / golden flower input. Depth and complexity are great, and it's all way more approachable than one would expect. It can be a little bit of a shock trying something so novel so far through a tasting experience, but it's interesting to end on that kind of surprise.
The guests really got the teas. Two I've met at least a couple of times before, at these tasting meetups. Two were new to Bangkok, exploring South East Asia, as many guests have been before, a bit transient. I miss some of those people, or I suppose a lot of them. I've been lucky to meet so many bright spirited, charming, enthusiastic, and open tea drinkers. People bringing different perspectives helped discussion extend in interesting directions beyond just focusing on the tea.
We talked a bit about Thai culture, the local art scene, what temples are like, differences in SE Asian countries, travel, and so on. The subject of Japanese tea ceremony came up, but it's a lot to fully treat in depth, so as with many other tangents we only brushed through mention of a few points. It can be problematic for the discussion to feel balanced in covering so much range in such a limited form like that, or some developed tangents can leave some guests out. In this meetup it all really worked. Size of the group matters; 5 of us joined, with 5 people either cancelling or being tentative and then not coming, and with 10 people it would've been much harder to manage.
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we met inside instead of out here this time; it's a bit warm lately |
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the other garden space |
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fence view facing the other way, with a mango hanging, and cat checking out a squirrel |
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my nemesis; he eats the mango before they're even ready |
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