Wawee 2021 Thai sheng (pu'er-like tea)

 

This is the second review covering more teas from that friend who shared them, Alex Phanganovich / Alexey Zykov.  This is the first of two Thai shengs, this one from Wawee area material (Assamica, of course), actually processed in Doi Mae Salong, a separate area, better known for oolong production.

There's not much more to cover; that's all the background I know.  Teas from that area are almost always referred to as wild growth material, and I suppose most could be, and this could be that.  As I said last time Alex may sell these teas, or he may not, or maybe he just bought some to be able to sell and then it wouldn't last long.  He can be reached on Facebook and he could talk about that, or maybe pass on advice about local sources.  I've reviewed very similar teas from two local Thai sources in this blog; searching would turn those up.

One thing that I mentioned in that last Russian teas review (of a white and gaba red / black version) I'll repeat here, that I think my impression was altered for those for the styles not being familiar, which led to the individual aspects not matching what I already like.  The opposite occurs here; after many years of long exposure this particular style is very familiar, and the aspects are what I value in tea experience.  Just a half dozen years ago the considerable bitterness in this version would've seemed negative, but now it's really not.

Review:

First infusion:  a bit light, not really brewing at normal intensity yet, but very pleasant and promising early on.  This is exactly what I would've expected, or I suppose even hoped for.  Sweetness level is good, even light complexity is coming across well, with plenty of floral range and other flavor filling in beyond that, including a nice mineral layer that should strengthen.  There's no pronounced green or really strong and fresh range aromatic edge, which is what one would expect from a sheng that has rested for a year and a half.  There is fresh flavor range, but the form changes after that much time.  Bitterness is moderate, but at the right level to support the rest.  It's quite good; even brewed light the balance and refinement are unmistakable.  I'll add a more detailed flavor list next round.

Second infusion:  bitterness ramped up considerably for brewing that a bit long to make sure it was well wetted, around 15-20 seconds instead of the usual 10 or so.  That's fine, better for identifying some of the aspect range and quality, just not as good a match for optimum related to what I prefer.  Warm tones make this exceptional, on the fantastic side instead of just well-balanced and good.  Floral range is there too, and mineral undertone, and that bitterness, but warm aromatic range really complements the rest, towards an incense spice tone.  Other "green" range also picked up, a bit of wood or plant stem, but the way it all balances works really well.  Pronounced sweetness is part of that; that effect seems to help other range tie together well.  The clean nature of it all helps a lot to, and the refined character; nothing here seems like a flaw, or out of place.  Aftertaste is good, pleasant rich and structured feel is nice; it all works.

I made a big deal of how catchy one particular flavor note was in another Thai sheng, that I drank a lot of, finishing most of one of two small cakes in the 7 weeks I spent in Hawaii.  It included bitterness, and a touch of vegetal range, but was mostly about a really catchy floral aspect range, or I suppose how it all tied together, really.  This is the closest I ever remember having a tea to that.  It was pretty new, this year's tea, and that difference alone could account for the warm tones adding in to this one.  Resting for a year as a maocha, instead of being pressed into a cake, as that was, could allow for the earlier initial starting point to be nearly identical, or about as close to identical as teas ever get.  That's a promising range and comparison, as I see it, since I liked that sheng version about as much as any South East Asian sheng that I've ever tried.  

To be fair that's partly a statement about personal preference; I don't think it necessarily works as well as an affirmation of general and objective quality level.  But the tea is quite good, both this one and that one, and they're clearly very well made, surely based on use of very promising material.  Whatever this is I would definitely recommend buying it.  If the pricing is crazy, towards $1 / gram range, then it's back to concern over budget issues, and fairness, but at any type-typical price this tea would be a great buy.  

That part gets a bit odd, doesn't it?  A vendor can talk about ancient, wild forest product teas, and mention doing well in some convention contest, and then the tea is suddenly worth $1 a gram.  Different vendors tell different stories and market essentially the same teas in completely different ways, at very different price points.  There is no market value for this tea then, because it's too rare a find for that to work that way, but to me buying a 100 gram cake of this for anywhere near $100 would be too much.  But then you could probably easily buy tea that's not as good for towards that general range.

It's interesting that all that gushing over how good this is was based on a round brewed a little stronger than I typically like best.  That extra bitterness from overdoing it slightly integrates that well, in a very positive form.

Third infusion:  bitterness hangs in there even at a lower infusion level, but it's still really well-balanced.  I actually had two teas from Apiwat that were different versions, one on the brighter and sweeter side, and one including really notable bitterness, and I was just comparing this to the first, but bitterness might be closer to the second, or I suppose in between the two.  People tend to mix up bitterness and astringency effect, since they are often present at the same time, and of course I'm not saying that this is anything like the harsh-edged effect of drinking young, chopped material factory sheng.  Mouthfeel is totally different.  This is rich in feel, with a little bite to it, but not harsh at all.  It doesn't need more time to age and smooth out to be quite pleasant; it's there now.  

It might really peak for balancing more depth and broader flavor range, and more sweetness and richer feel, after another couple of years, but it wouldn't seem in order to age-transition this in a hot and humid environment, like where I am, in Bangkok.  Moderate level of transition in a drier environment, that's not bone dry, could coax out a limited shift that works even better.  Two more hot and humid years wouldn't ruin it, but to me this tea type range is probably well suited for slower, cooler, slightly drier aging.

It's hard to break down the experience further into a flavor list.  The plant-stem type bitterness is somewhat dominant still, and ample floral range beyond that is hard to split out to specifics.  It's light, sweet, and bright, along the lines of plumeria, but there may be more complexity to the floral range than I'm able to notice.  The overall flavor range expresses depth, with mineral and some degree of warm tones underlying the rest.  That could seem more like aromatic wood, cedar or something such, than a spice tone.  It works, however you interpret the breakdown.  Bitterness is strong enough that at least a bit of water between rounds might be good to cleanse the palate a little, to let you experience the full shock of that effect again and again.  Just trying that, it's cool how the water tastes extra sweet, part of the carry-over effect of bitterness shifting to sweetness, which many others probably wouldn't be hesitant to refer to a hui gan.

Fourth infusion:  bitterness eases, and honey sweetness ramps way up.  Floral tones shift to a richer, different range as a result, like how a buttercup flower might smell, or at least how those look like they should smell.  As with that one other Thai sheng one oddly pleasant part of the effect is how clean this is, quite intense, but all in a very positive way.  In a different tea type form one would see that as "refined," but here it just balances exceptionally well.  It's easy to miss all the parts contributing to cause that, how rich feel really is factoring in, and how extended quite pleasant aftertaste also does.

Fifth infusion:  similar to last round; I'll just enjoy drinking this and give the notes a break.

Sixth infusion:  those warm tones are picking up.  I think I'll mention the next round and then drop taking more notes though, trying to pin down the split here between warm mineral tones, spice range, and aromatic wood tones.  Maybe that's all there.  

Seventh infusion:  this is definitely not losing depth or complexity, or changing much, so there's not much to add.  It's just great at this stage.

Conclusions

It's crazy that tea producers in an oolong region made this, in Doi Mae Salong.  This is really good tea.

Related to the point about this style being a personal favorite, and it not being fair to those Russian teas that I didn't care for them because they were sour, this level of bitterness I really wouldn't have liked in the past.  I've drank plenty of sour teas too, and can also relate to that aspect better than I could've a half dozen years ago, but sourness never became a favorite input, and I never matched the same appreciation for sheng with other tea types.  Great oolongs can be just as good, I think, but not if they are sour, and those tend to be about refinement and complexity instead of intensity.

This version is as good as two recent Thai sheng favorites, this one (the Moychay cooperative version) and this one.  Really this is closest in style to the maocha from Gaw Khee Cha (Apiwat), reviewed in the first linked post, with the second pressed version a little less bitter, but still similar.  All three are about as good as any South East Asian teas I've tried, and not surprisingly a bit similar in style.  For people not yet exposed to sheng frequently enough to appreciate bitterness the Moychay cooperative tea might seem best, then the sweeter (less bitter) version from Apiwat, then maybe this one, then the more bitter version from Apiwat.  To me there was something about the second I linked to that eclipsed the rest, a dynamic floral intensity, with bitterness perfectly matched to adjoin that, but again I'm talking here about how oolong drinkers might interpret these teas instead.  

I hope that all would come across as good to many people, but it would relate to how one takes that bitterness, just as my more negative judgement about sour Russian teas weighed in as negative in those.  But that faded after the first two rounds, for both, so that's a little different, since it took 5 or 6 rounds for this sheng bitterness to really ease up.

I'm way out of the habit of sharing personal photos.  Happy belated Songran!

a cool image from a Chinatown outing, a dragon wearing a Santa hat

not so many places feel like home as much as that Bangkok Chinatown

a nice market area for picking up an informal dinner

Russian white and red (black) gaba tea from Egor Matchak

A friend that I've mentioned before, Alexander Panganovich, sent a few teas for me to try, and to write about.  He's Russian, living in the Sochi area for awhile, as far as I know, but back visiting Thailand again recently, although we've not met yet this time.  Two of the teas were from Russia and two from Thailand; these I'm writing about here were from Russia.  

There isn't much that serves as a bio of Alex in this blog but this post first mentions meeting him two years ago, and we last "met" online in a meetup at the beginning of the year, and of course a Facebook profile covers some of who he is.  He's a good guy, a likeable and interesting friend, and a true tea enthusiast.  In discussing his background further his more accurate name is Alexey Zykov, relating to use of nicknames.

Alex, waving.  I miss that meetup experience.

Alex may or may not be selling these; I think he does sell some tea, but that he's not really formally a vendor, in the sense that people with online sales channels are.  We haven't met in person for quite awhile, so I'm not up to date on that part.  I'll check and pass on that update along with a second review post.

In looking up what those teas are it seems there won't be a product description of any kind, but two references turned up.  One is photos in an instagram account mentioned on one label, which matches the person's name written on the sample, Egor Matchak.  There is a longer, kind of cool background mission statement in a vk.com site profile for Jiva Tea, an unfamiliar social media channel, which I will include all of for completeness:

The main objective of our project is the production of high quality organic tea.

We have revived and improved the technologies for creating tea in Rɣsi. We collect and process all tea manually, without the use of mechanical devices. The collection point is the abandoned tea plantations of the Black Sea coast, namely the city of Sochi. We do not yet have a factory for the production of large volumes, we make all tea at home, in compliance with all necessary measures affecting the quality of tea. Compete with China, India, Laos, etc. we do not need, we create an environmentally friendly and energetically correct consumer product. The high cost of tea corresponds to the quality. We do not have volumes requested by people who want to make a profit on resale, but we are actively working on this issue.

Our group is for those who are tired of Chinese fakes and tea of ​​unknown origin, with a series of hieroglyphs and imposed values.

Here you can communicate in your native language, understand all the subtleties of the freshest Rɣsi tea, there are no cultural and language barriers, so it is much easier to study Rɣi tea traditions, watch how everything develops here and now, taking on new forms. Over time, it will be possible to collect tea ourselves and try to prepare it with our own hands, we have been working on this for several years.

It sounds good.  That page has over 2000 followers, and it looks like it was founded in 2017, so this isn't a brand new initiative.  The tea was good enough that it didn't seem like early processing efforts, refined and positive in character, especially given that just setting up a nitrogen environment for processing to make gaba would involve some equipment and learning curve.  I almost never tend to like any gaba teas, so that's not the best start, a complete mis-match for preference, but some are interesting, and styles and character do vary.

Presumably this is all truly Russian origin tea; that does seem to be the theme.  It's interesting that the gaba red (black) version was pressed; somehow that makes teas seem a little more interesting to me, even though storage taking up more space and accessing an even sized amount when loose is no problem.

I could "read" that using Google Lens, but didn't

more label information

Review:

white:  not what I expected at all.  White tea like this--that appears similar, at least--always hits you with a floral or fruity sweetness first, which can be a bit subtle and whispy, sometimes lacking intensity or complexity, but that's always what it is.  This is a little sour.  Then it's interesting from there, with a depth to it, other smooth, deeper, warmer range that is like the rest of what white teas can express, a creaminess, towards a green tea base of light and neutral vegetal range.  At least it has novelty going for it; I've tried no other tea that this reminds me of.  I'm getting the sense this might evolve a bit early on so I'll do more of a flavor list next round.

red (or black, if one prefers):  equally novel, but for gaba teas this character is the consistent, normal range (more or less).  Sourness can be a problematic input in those, to me, and this includes a version of that.  From there it's interesting, the sweetness, depth, clean effect, and range of other novel flavors.  Part is towards rich dried fruit, like tamarind and elderberry, and another range reminds me of aged aromatic woods and fragrant oils.  This will probably evolve some too, so I'll skip expanding on that for a round or two as well.

In relation to match to my preference this tasting has got off to an odd start.  These teas are interesting, and clearly refined in character, with clean and complex natures, but these aspect sets aren't what I like most in tea experience, at all.  Sourness standing out is a rough start taken alone.  They're so interesting that I probably won't skip posting this review, but if they don't evolve to match what I like more this is going to make for an odd write up.

white tea, second infusion:  sourness subsided just a little, and other flavor range picks up.  Next round this might be even better, but the clock is ticking related to this maintaining the same degree of intensity.  This is very fine and somewhat broken leaf material tea, so it's just not going to brew a dozen intense and positive rounds.  Vegetal range became more interesting, moving off a non-distinct effect onto a green wood and aromatic dried autumn leaf range; that part is nice.  Sweetness picked up, and that part is ok.  Sourness is unusual in form, within that category range; it's a light edge in this, that connects to other aspect range, seemingly continuing from it.  

There's a warm depth to this that's hard to describe, maybe like a woodiness that's closer to balsa wood, or something like toasted oatmeal.  Altogether it's interesting, and not completely unpleasant, but just a bit more fruit or floral range would really make this more conventional, and probably more pleasant.  It's hard to even try to imagine what fruit or floral range this experience could map to.

gaba red:  stronger sourness, than in the first version; flavor at least related to that part is perhaps increasing in strength instead of easing up.  I'm a lot more open to sourness as a part of potentially positive tea experience than I would've been 4 or 5 years ago, but this combined tasting experience is really pushing it.  It's not on sauerkraut level but it's halfway there, a main part.  

Most of what escalated is really tartness, to be fair, a related but different effect, and that tartness has mainly already replaced the sourness.  Unfortunately I don't love tart teas either.  If someone did absolutely love tart black teas this would be ideal for them; that's at least half of the overall experience at this point.  

Rather than unpack the rest I'm going to eat something to clear my palate, drink some water, and try again next round.  To be clear there are redeeming qualities to both of these teas, and there are indicators that they are well-made, a good clean character, good complexity and intensity, but a lack of match to personal preference is unusually negative in this tasting so far.  I rarely like gaba teas, so that wasn't completely unexpected, but beyond finding silver needle / tips versions that don't taste like much uninteresting I tend to like all white teas.

white, third infusion:  now this has settled into a range I can relate to, and like.  Sourness dropped out, warmth picked up, and complexity is interesting and positive.  What I meant by "autumn fallen leaves" may or may not be clear, but that's at the crux of this experience.  It could mean different things to different people, since fallen leaves smell completely differently depending on leaf type, how dry they are, how other background scents combine, and any number of other minor inputs.  Back "home," in Western PA, there's a woody depth to that range, across all it expresses, because the scent of fall is about many types of plant material settling in many different ways.  Here tropical fragrant leaves fall and dry resulting in sweet and complex scents, that are much different.  It's probably closer to what I experience here, with lots of complexity, but in a lighter range, with less earthy depth.

Other almost intangible inputs work out well:  level of sweetness, clean character, hints of other range (maybe floral finally is factoring in), even a light fruit tone, bridging every so slightly into citrus scope.  Depending on interpretation this either is citrusy, light like lime or lemon, or it includes a touch of green wood scope, which is still how I interpret it.  Or that could be like a touch of dandelion, combining many of the other aspect themes I've mentioned, the light floral and fragrant dried leaf range.  It's nice.

red gaba:  brewing this light seemed to help tartness balance better; it still includes that but it has diminished to a minor contributing aspect.  Warmth picks up, now in a cinnamon sort of range.  It's interesting that this changed so much from last round, and that both shifted from tea experience I really disliked into such positive range over just one round.  That has to tie to that intangible complexity and quality issue I mentioned; a poorly made or low quality material tea wouldn't have the potential to transition so much in interesting ways, the flaws would be what you'd get.  I still definitely wouldn't buy this tea, but for people into gaba it could be really appealing.  

Since I've not done a proper flavor breakdown I should mention some of the rest, to get this to add up to a description.  That warm range serves as a base for this now, with tartness very limited, almost gone (strange; I think infusion intensity and round to round transition combined in an odd way).  Beyond that there is a sort of wine-like quality to this now, towards brandy, maybe only partly there, more like a tisane that's popular here, roselle.  I suppose that tastes a little like rose leaf tisane, just with more intensity and more of a tart edge, and a little towards red wine flavors.

white tea, fourth infusion:  I think a pleasant floral infusion ramped up, but the flavor mix is complex enough that it requires a lot of judgment and interpretation.  This is as good as it's been, quite pleasant.

red gaba tea:  also the best this has been; that cinnamon spice warmth, roselle tisane floral tone, towards red wine range depth are nice together.

As does tend to happen on weekends I need to get to a long task list; I'll stop taking notes there and mention changes in conclusion notes later, if those apply

Conclusions:

The teas stayed positive for extra rounds but didn't change so much.

I was considering how I probably would've interpreted the experience much more positively if that tea range had been more familiar.  I really didn't expect such novel white tea range would come up, for that broad category being a bit more consistent, covering a moderate range of styles, but a narrower scope than many other type-categories.  Gaba versions do vary a lot, with some consistency in some flavor aspect range, especially that sourness.  They're not as often so tart, but tart black tea is a familiar theme.

Then hardly any of that is a close match to my main natural preference.  If the tea characters were just more familiar I think that would've seemed like less of a gap, that I would've found them more relatable and pleasant.  They weren't unpleasant; I was clear in the notes that they had redeeming positive aspects, and were clearly well-made teas in a sense, distinctive and complex, free of a broad range of flaws that can turn up in different types and versions.  Except the sourness, I guess; it can be hard to see that as an aspect that others might relate to better and prefer.  For an even newer producer I might expect that a tweak or two to processing steps could identify a cause for that and resolve it.  It's generally not a distinctive type or area typical inclusion, although I guess that it could be that.

The white tea was quite positive after the first two rounds, clearing out that aspect.  I think for people who like tart black teas the black (red) tea would be the same, very pleasant, distinctive, intense, and complex after the first two rounds.  Maybe well-balanced and refined, even.  I just much prefer richer, heavier flavors in black teas that doesn't include tartness.  Almost every gaba tea I've reviewed includes some sort of related statement, about how the tea might appeal a lot more to someone who is on that page for preference.

In trying the first of the Thai sheng versions, which I've already written notes for, it occurred to me again that this may not really serve as a fair, objective account of what these teas are like.  I'm quite familiar with Thai sheng range, and love that style, and the aspects that are usually included.  Familiarity and bias for a certain range of experience combine to make it sound like that tea is clearly, objectively better.  I think it might work better to say that it matches my preference much better.  But I think I'm going in with expectations and openness to range of experience that favors that tea, over these I'm reviewing here, and the limitation in prior exposure represents the opposite of an objective and complete analysis.  I could like them more just for trying them a few more times; that can happen.

I wish this producer the best, based on their expressed mission and values.  For sure their level of success in producing novel and positive teas will vary across versions and seasons, and I hope that they can stick with it, continue to develop, and thrive.  I feel like the tea community that they indirectly reference in that citation, people interested in preserving prior traditions and opening the door to new forms of development, all themed around more natural production contexts and developed forms of interest, all represent themes and experiences that should be valued.  They're already making good tea, even if these two examples don't represent the closest possible match to my favorite styles.