2022 Bangwai and 2021 Bulang gushu sheng pu'er

 

I'm reviewing two more of what should be fantastic gushu sheng pu'er from Tea Mania.  Again these are mini-discs, not the ideal form for brewing, but it works, and with practice it works well.

I've been trying Bulang versions some lately, but of course that range could vary.  I might seem to imply understating origin as an input to flavor and other character, even though I claim that the two connect, and that there are regional consistencies, probably more pronounced the more local the area is under consideration.  It's just that I don't memorize a matrix of past impressions, and derived general expectations.  For the Bangwai even that wouldn't apply; I may or may not have ever tried a version from there, and don't know where that is within a broader region.  I'm fine with only passing on an impression, as a primary review practice, but it seems a bit like sloppy work.  

Of course I'll compare this a little to Bulang versions I've tried in the past month, but even then not much.

Bangwai Gushu 2022  ($117 USD for 200 grams; equivalent to a $209 357 gram cake)

The Bangwai Gushu is celebrated for its meticulous, traditional handmade processing and the selective use of the finest tea leaves. This dedication to quality is evident in every sip, making it a treasured choice among collectors. Due to the limited availability, Pu-erh teas from the Bangwai region are released in small quantities each year, adding to their exclusivity and allure.

Ideal for long-term aging, thi tea is a tea connoisseur’s delight, known to develop richer and more complex aromas over time. Its robust character and evolving taste profile make it a remarkable choice for those who appreciate the depth and intricacy of Pu-erh teas.

Harvest: Spring 2022...

Aroma: Spicy, much Cha Qi and sweet finish

Terroir: Bangwai, Lancang prefecture, Yunnan province, China...

Tip: This Bangwai tea is ideal to mature a few years

Bulang Gushu 2021 Balanced  (the same price as the other cake, 95 CHF, $117 for 200 grams)

Harvest date: Spring 2021

Pressed: 2021

Typ: Sheng

Taste: Strong, intense and deep

Terroir: Bulang Mountain, Xishuangbanna prefecture, Yunnan province, China

There is a bitter version and "balanced" version listed, and I'm guessing that this was balanced, since it's really not all that bitter.  I guess it's possible that 4 years of aging transition changed it a lot, and it could have been, and it might be the other one, but probably not.

[later editing note: per discussion with Peter, the owner, it was probably the bitter version, which did emerge more in the late rounds (that flavor aspect).  But it was probably a good bit more bitter when new.]

There isn't much more description of the tea there, just some related background (only sampled):

This exquisite Bulang Gushu is a product of the collaborative craftsmanship of teamaster Panda and Yang Ming, crafted exclusively for us with a keen understanding of our fondness for Bulang teas. Reminiscent of the legendary 2015 Bulang Gushu, which we still fondly remember and has long been sold out, this tea promises a similar allure.

Echoing the legacy of both the 2015 Bulang and the esteemed 5-Village Blend, this Bulang Gushu shares a unique connection – it is sourced from the tea fields of a former school friend of Yang Ming.

These teas are really good, and they may well be very type-typical for this origin and general style.  It doesn't work very well for a vendor to add lots of flavor list, because in the 4 years this aged that probably changed some.  Interpretations vary so much that I'm sympathetic to vendors skipping adding much initially, even as an early snapshot.  They need to say something, but the flavor-list approach is problematic.

Review:

2022 Bangwai:  I let these infuse for about a minute, to start opening up.  Unless you really pry the tea apart it will brew somewhat unevenly, with the outside starting early, and being relatively far along the transition cycle by the time the center is even wetted.  I can accept that; it doesn't throw off results much, it just changes them a little.

Feel has nice creaminess, even though this is still too light to clearly identify a lot of flavor.  It's in a floral general range.  It's bright and clean, probably with decent complexity, and pleasant sweetness.  The effect seems quite fresh; 3 years isn't that long, in moderately dry and cool storage.  More description to follow next round.

2021 Bulang:  a warmer tone is included in this.  It also expresses quite a bit of feel, for being so light, but it's different.  The other was light in tone and creamy, and this contains some structure already, a vague hint of dryness.  There's a really catchy flavor that I can't make out yet, and good overall balance.  These aren't the kind of teas where you throw out half of the early infusion that you don't make out as clearly; they're already quite good.

At the risk of brewing them a bit strong I'll give them another minute to infuse, and while they won't be completely wetted yet by the third round they'll be brewing more normally.  Two full minutes of infusion time is a lot, for that outer layer, but to me it's not as if the time the tea spends wet (under water) is the only brewing it does; it seems to continue to extract into the moisture in the leaf between those cycles anyway.

2022 Bangwai #2:  the Bulang version opened up a lot more.  It's interesting that the topic of how hard pressed a tea coin is never occurred to me before.  And I suppose I expect dragonball shapes to be really tightly pressed too, in a relatively uniform way.  Of course that could vary.

Warmer mineral depth comes out more than I expected.  Bright, fresh, sweet, floral tones are present, but the overall character is layered, and not light and bright in tone, more medium.  It integrates well.  It's still a bit creamy, but those warm tones and slightly more structured feel change overall character.  Beyond the vague floral description, and mineral, there is a substantial richness to the flavor, matching the feel, I guess along the line of macadamia nut.  It's really clean and complex, well-integrated, so an impression of quality comes across.

2021 Bulang:  this is a little strong (where the other hadn't been yet).  Dryness stands out more, and a very different warm mineral layer.  In this it resembles cedar, or maybe an incense spice.  That catchy aspect may have been a fruitiness, that's hard to identify, along with the cedar or spice tone.

2022 Bangwai #3:  light; I dropped back time a lot, maybe too much for this version, at this level of leaf separation.  I'll pull it apart for the next round.

Flavor is still bright, clean, and somewhat complex, even though it's subtle.

2021 Bulang:  this balances really well, brewed to a proper infusion strength.  That catchy aspect is some sort of fruit, along with a spice tone.  I should be able to describe that fruit tone better than I can.  Maybe it includes floral range, a mix, that is integrated, making it harder to separate.

2022 Bangwai #4:  this is an unusual experience, how it comes across as quite complex and also quite subtle (lacking intensity, I guess, put another way).  The rich flavor might be in the range of butter cookie instead of macadamia nut, or between the two.  Bright floral range is quite limited, but it still seems to be an input.  There is a mineral layer, it's just light, both in the sense of being light in tone and also not strong.  Somehow it comes across as fresh, and refined.

Bitterness is quite limited; as a sheng drinker, who is often appreciating even younger versions, I don't really notice it.  Maybe to someone more into oolong that would actually stand out some.

2021 Bulang:  stronger, for sure.  Bitterness is much more pronounced, and warm mineral, some degree of floral, and range I'm interpreting as both spice (or aromatic wood, cedar or redwood, maybe sandalwood) and some limited dried fruit all give it great complexity, and intensity.  There's a lot going on.  For sure the bitterness was a good bit stronger 4 years ago, and tones brighter.  This has mellowed into a very pleasant and drinkable character.  

It's interesting considering how this compares to a Legend of Tea Malaysia stored 2021 Bulang, reviewed here, three weeks ago.  It has been a long three weeks; that feels like over a month.  The write-up sounds pretty similar; the same basic flavor profile is expressed.  This is probably cleaner and more refined, and slightly lighter in tone.  I'm not sure it works to guess that it's better, but in a limited sense that's probably true, at a minimum related to preference for one type of character, and maybe to some extent in general.  This definitely lacks rough edges.  That tea had a sappy, perfume-like feel and associated flavor range; this sort of does, but probably not to that degree.  That tea was really good, exceptional for the price-point, and the quality of this is probably even better.  Or maybe it's that it is made in a more drinkable style, which is a different thing.

Put another way, expressed in more detail, that probably started out as more intense, with rougher edges, more bitterness and astringency, and had transitioned more by the time I tried it, perhaps arriving at a slightly warmer tone range.  For people more accustomed to factory tea that context and style could be better.  This might ring a bell more with people more on the page of boutique-style, drinkable when young tea versions, that are clean, sweet, and balanced, but not challenging, I suppose "giving up structure and intensity," if someone sees it that way.

2022 Bangwai #5:  this integrates all the better this round, with warmer spice tone entering in, resembling one part of the other tea.  Complexity and intensity really ramped up.  Maybe because I finally got timing right, and it's all wetted and brewing now?  It's not as if this has been challenging to brew, since results were really positive before, I'm just getting variation out of it.

Bitterness doesn't really stand out much, as sheng experience goes, but a little more of it balances nicely.  At least I can notice it.  The butter cookie / macadamia expression is nice, and light floral range, that I'm not really covering as much.

2021 Bulang:  perfume-like nature and sappiness ramp up; interesting.  Maybe because I'm looking for that?  But in that earlier review--of a different 2021 Bulang sheng--it ramped up across a number of infusions, as just occurred.  Dryness picks up a little too, but this is far from dry.  "Sappy" works.

Even though I'm in between the kids being here and the next travel step (I'll go back to Honolulu the day after tomorrow) I'm still busy, with a list of a few things to do to get ready, so again I'll cut this short.  One more round will work for catching final thoughts, or whatever I've missed.  Of course these teas are going strong, and will brew at least as many more rounds later, and of course I'll miss a couple of minor aspect transitions.

2022 Bangwai #6:  full, creamy, complex, and well-balanced, with flavors not so different than last round.  This flavor set, and other aspects, works really well for my preference.  Sometimes I'm describing a flavor range that could be fine, or even exceptional, but it just doesn't click with me as well as this does (like root-spice range sometimes doesn't).  This could even be interpreted as heavy on root spice, but it would be a light ginseng sassafras fullness, not a heavier bark spice oriented range, something more medicinal.

2021 Bulang:  brewed fast this round this is exceptional.  Intensity and complexity is great in both, and again this flavor and other aspect set seems very appealing to me.  Clean, balanced, and refined character is great.

So which is better, either in terms of general quality or a match to my preference?  Both are pleasant in novel ways.  The Bulang isn't challenging, at all, but it's more intense, and heavier in flavor range, with more bitterness offsetting that flavor set.  It's far from straight floral tones; the spice or aromatic wood tone might be even stronger, at this stage.  It all makes perfect sense together, to me.  These are in a great place for aging transition to integrate well just now.

It's all as I expected.  Really high expectations can be a challenge for a tea to be reviewed against, because any minor flaw or less favorable balance would stand out all the more.  Then when a tea is great it's just meeting those expectations; there is no exceeding them.  Even a novel flavor input or atypically positive feel aspect can only seem normal, if you go into it expecting a tea to be great.

There's a lot going on with these, so that I've cut short feel and aftertaste range descriptions.  There's some background noise as well; my wife is talking to our kids online about first week of school preparations (they just ended it, but hanging details remain, needing an extra binder or highlighter, and getting jet-lag sorted out).  I might've even added a couple more flavor aspect descriptions without that distraction.  This will do; the teas were great, as described.

Further conclusions:

Describing these as "really good" seems a bit limited.  They are, and the aspects seemed like what I've listed, but the clean nature, complexity, depth, and refinement are hard to pin down in a description.  This pricing may be more than I'd end up spending even if I had a loose budget, instead of very little of one to work with, but I get it why people open to that would drink teas like these.

It's hard to guess about longer term aging potential.  For as good as these are now I'd drink them right now, or within a year or so.  For someone with a wide open budget buying one to drink and one to age might be a good strategy.  That only goes so far, for these being sold as 200 gram cakes.  You could drink through one fast, if you weren't rationing it.  Which could work out; it's good tea.

I'm traveling now, for a month, and already miss them terribly

not exactly bonding, but at least Myra is adjusting to them being around

Comparing Son La (Vietnamese), Naka, and Bangwai sheng

 

Son La left, Naka middle, Bangwai right, in all photos

In reviewing two Tea Mania gushu sheng pu'er versions recently I felt as if I didn't really place quality levels and style as much as I'd hoped to.  In comparison reviewing a vendor's teas along with each other the main current benchmark, the other version, tends to be something similar in style and quality level.  This adjusts for that.

Of course there are flaws and limitations to the approach.  Style of tea varies a lot, and you need to take that into account in description.  Personal preference can favor a style most others would see as inferior to experience, related to their preference.  I try to make all that explicit in these notes, but I can't drill down too far across all the scope.  When reviewing a number of teas together it's natural to focus on flavor aspects more than mouthfeel or aftertaste range; that narrowing of scope of consideration happens automatically.

I want to keep descriptions short here because comparison reviews run long.  Let's let the vendor's descriptions introduce what these are.

Viet Sun Son La cake (the 2023 version, the one I tried, seems to be sold out; I can cover 2024 instead related to product description, and mention what I knew of the other).

2024, 200 gram cake, selling for $48

A very special tea from Sơn La province in northwest Vietnam.

This is a tea from arguably the best ancient tree gardens in Bắc Yên district of Sơn La province growing at 1400m. The people living and making tea here are of the H'Mông ethnicity.

This tea was made in an area called Tà Xùa, one of the more well known areas for old tree Assamica tea in Vietnam and is located just south of where the 2023 Sơn La tea was made. Tà Xùa mainly produces wok made green tea but we were lucky enough to have the chance to get some of the raw puerh version.

This tea has some aggressiveness and kiss of smoke from the wok which is typical of this area although subdued compared to the 2023 tea. This tea brews up into a rich gold green soup. Heavily floral, fruity and sweet with some citrus notes, medium bitterness/ astringency. This tea has a pleasant minerality with a rich lasting Huigan and strong qi.

Apparently the 2023 version listed for $77 for 370 grams, so 21 cents a gram instead of 24.  What is that, a 15% increase in a year?  Viet Sun teas always were going to increase in price once awareness and demand ramped up, and this is probably how this will go.  They'll outpace inflation for a half dozen years and level off as costing what main source Yunnan teas do now, $100-120 per cake.

Cheng Sheng Hao Naka sample, part of a sample set, selling for $79 per 195 grams.

That's not double the Viet Sun pricing but getting on towards that.  Some of their teas included were really exceptional, and some more ordinary, making it hard to assess value.

2022 Na Ka (那卡)

“Na Ka” is the sweetness representative of Pu-Erh tea. The soup has an attractive pale-gold color in the cup. The aroma and taste are alluring, exhibiting a noticeable peach-like flavor and strong sweetness in the later infusions. There is also a strong cup scent left behind in the early brews. 

Tea Mania 2022 Bangwai sheng, 200 grams for $111

Harvest: Spring 2022

Pressed: 2022

Typ: Sheng

Aroma: Spicy, much Cha Qi and sweet finish

Terroir: Bangwai, Lancang prefecture, Yunnan province, China

The rest of the description pretty much just says that it's gushu, from old plant material.  It includes description like this:

The Bangwai Gushu is celebrated for its meticulous, traditional handmade processing and the selective use of the finest tea leaves. This dedication to quality is evident in every sip, making it a treasured choice among collectors. Due to the limited availability, Pu-erh teas from the Bangwai region are released in small quantities each year, adding to their exclusivity and allure.

So these sell for 24 cents a gram (the 2024 Son La version, the only one available now), just under 40, and 55 cents a gram; quite a range.  

It's not a fair comparison with the Naka version because 3 of the 7 in that set were presented as more exceptional, higher demand, award winning versions, and the other 4 at representative of a local origin type.  There's no way to estimate how some better versions represent higher value for the average, without looking up other things that they sell, which I'm not going to do here.

These teas are from 2023 (the Son La version), 2021 (Naka), and 2022 (Bangwai); that will throw off comparison a little too.  I won't emphasize likely changes from aging input and storage conditions here, going more by experienced character, because again a three-way comparison tasting is a lot to cover, and to read.  

I really wanted to try a sample of a 2024 Son La tea with these, to get to tasting a little sent along with the last re-order of a 2023 cake, but to keep the aging input more consistent I didn't.

Review:

Son La #1:  this won't be a fair comparison at this stage because this version is loose, ready to start brewing right away, so I infused it for less time, 15 seconds or so, versus over 30 for the others.  It still won't balance; it will start faster.

This is ready to review for flavor profile description, even if a little light.  Floral range is pronounced and complex, sweetness is good, bitterness not really started yet, and feel is starting in.  There might be a faint hint of smoke but I think that drops out.  It's good, a personal favorite.

Naka and Bangwai:  I'll skip saying anything; even next round these might not be started yet.  Compressed forms are like that, and separating apart these forms is not easy.  

I'll use 10 seconds for the Son La version and a minute or so for both others again to get these to balance being wetted better, but that will probably even up more in a third round.

Son La #2:  intensity picks way up.  Bitterness does really enter in, and sweetness elevates to match.  Flavors range is mostly floral, although I'd interpret some of it as fruit as well.  Feel is nice, a bit full, not overly structured, and not challenging.  Intensity draws out aftertaste experience already, even though this has only been brewing for about 20 seconds so far.

Naka:  there's an odd woody flavor component to this.  I've always wondered if using cardboard as storage container wouldn't impart some flavor, if that's not what I pick up when some teas taste a little like cardboard or wood.  It will probably fade fast as the main tea flavors pick up.  I had an interesting experience with the earlier two Tea Mania teas I tried barely getting started in the first two rounds, as the tea opened up and wetted; that may be going on with this.  It's not soaked through yet.

Bangwai:  a really catchy fruit tone shows through.  It seems like it's probably coupled with a spice input, which makes it seem all the more complex and interesting.  It's still too light for clear evaluation though.  I'll again brew the Son La version for about 10 seconds and the other two for over 30, backing off the full minute I gave them last round.  Of course I'm breaking normal form and discarding most of these first two rounds, since tasting three teas will add up fast for volume.

Son La #3:  a bit strong; I've probably botched proportion for using an amount too close to my normal range, maybe backing off to 8 grams instead of 10, but it's still too much.  [later edit:  wetted leaf volume, a better indicator of amount, if you don't weigh the material, indicates there isn't as much difference as it seems through most of this tasting].  Warm tones pick up in this round, and intensity is high.  Bitterness is pronounced, and sweetness; they balance.  

It's clear from the leaf color alone that oxidation level varies in this tea, which some people would see as a flaw.  For me the final experience is the thing, and this works, so it's not really that, just unique in style.  That warmth and richer flavors in the profile must relate to that, at least in part.

Naka:  this tea is quite decent, but it's probably going to suffer in comparison with these other two.  Sweetness level isn't pronounced, but it includes some sweetness.  Floral range is there but it's also a bit muted.  Feel is decent, with moderate fullness, but it all seems a bit muted in comparison with the Son La version.  That tea is much further along for brewing, so it's not a fair comparison.

Bangwai:  flavor range is quite novel for this.  I'd place that mainly as root spice, at least at this round.  Floral range fills that in, but it's less distinct.  Bitterness and feel aren't so pronounced or challenging, but it works for balance.  It comes across as refined; there are no negative inputs or rough edges, and there's an experience of depth.  

A friend recently asked what I mean by root spice.  Does this taste like sassafras, ginseng, ginger, turmeric, or horseradish?  It's the first, a lot like sassafras, maybe leaning a little towards ginseng.  There are other roots that can be brewed as tisanes, just as there are plenty of other bark spices beyond cinnamon.  They can tend to group up across a common character range, even though many are very spicy, while others are mild.  I went through a decade long tisane drinking phase, during which I could've placed all that better.  As a placeholder, if someone is thrown off by this description, they can just swap in sassafras root, and if that's not familiar think of it as tasting like ginseng, or ignore the description.

The Son La version is dialed way up across most aspect range in comparison, with more intensity, flavor complexity, bitterness, sweetness, and feel structure, but there's something pleasant about a more limited flavor range, good balance, refinement, and depth.  It's a different kind of pleasantness.  Again this tea isn't fully wetted yet, so it might change a good bit over the next two rounds.  Some leaves will have been brewing for 5 rounds by then, so it will gain complexity by mixing inputs across an infusion cycle.  

Son La #4:  bitterness seems to stand out all the more.  How much I notice that might vary over time, depending on expectations, or just paying attention.  In comparison with less bitter teas it's hard to miss.  I'm still brewing this pretty fast but at a high proportion it's going to be intense; I would imagine most people might like it lighter, using less leaf and still a short infusion time.  Probably how I drink teas varies day to day, with mood, especially infusion strength.

Some of the plant-stem sort of flavor that relates to a connection with bitterness might divide people on preference for this.  I'm fine with it; it works for me.  Five years ago I probably wouldn't have liked it as much, but I've drank a lot of relatively bitter tea in that time.

Naka:  again this tastes like pretty decent sheng, and it balances ok, and has a decent profile, but it comes across as muted after trying the Son La.  It being two years older probably isn't helping with that.

It's probably better that high bitterness and edgier feel are not present, that it balances more at fullness.  It just doesn't have pronounced sweetness or strong floral range to fill in complexity.  I think tasted alone it would seem better.  No part of this seems like a flaw, beyond flavors being limited.  Feel is fine.  Given it was described as being unusually sweet I guess that's a let-down, but still it's ok.

Bangwai:  this stands out for being the opposite, in a sense, unusually distinctive.  It ties mostly to a limited range of flavor input, that's not all one thing, but is complex across a limited range.  It seems like mainly root spice, to me, with some floral input supporting that, and range that might seem more vegetal across a more medicinal range, like herbs.  Feel is smooth, full, and "round," not challenging at all, bringing across an impression of depth.  

For someone looking for the blast of bitterness, sweetness, feel intensity, and strong flavor in the Son La this could also seem muted, but to me there is a good bit going on.  It's just a very different kind of experience.

I've not been mentioning aging input differences, and that could be a factor.  The Son La is from 2023, the Naka from 2021, and Bangwai from 2022.  The Vietnamese version would pick up depth and lose sharper range and some intensity over two more years.  I see that as good and bad; to me those are positive, they work.  Maybe since intensity and complexity is so significant it will improve from that trade-off.  I've drank about two thirds of this cake, so it won't be around for me to know in two more years, but I bought a replacement of it to fill that role.

The Naka is most muted from aging longer, 3 years instead of 1 or 2.  That can bring across a positive experience of warmer tones and depth, and to some extent that occurs in this version.  It's just hard to appreciate when it's giving up intensity, complexity, and distinctiveness in relation to the other two versions, as described in detail in these notes.  If someone really loves a softer, richer, less challenging tea version it could be better, but the Bangwai also lacks rough edges.

I haven't finished all of these rounds, discarding some, but part of 12 cups was already a lot, right when the second two are finally fully wetted.  I'll need to take a break and eat something to offset the stomach impact.

Son La, #5:  again quite pleasant.  Strong intensity, even brewed quite fast, stands out, along with sweetness, bitterness, and a plant-stem sort of flavor input.  Floral range that I interpret as including some lighter, hard to pin down fruit component makes it complex and balanced.  I think match to what I like is more of the appeal than some abstract and objective quality level, but not much of this would be regarded as a flaw, as I see it.

Naka:  again I think this would come across better without the direct comparison, because it seems a bit muted and lacking in flavor complexity.  It has good depth though, and is clean in flavor range, with balancing bitterness and full feel.  Flavor range is fine, but it's just indistinct floral range.

Bangwai:  that distinctive flavor range, a set, really, is evolving.  It's still in root spice / Chinese herb medicinal range, but different now.  I suppose preference for this tea would depend on if someone loves that kind of novel flavor experience or not, that particular version of it.  I could imagine a lot of people loving this as a novel experience but not preferring to experience it over and over, as a 357 gram cake.  These are selling as smaller cakes; 200 grams isn't the same thing, since this would still be novel for the first half dozen sessions. 

I think it partly relates to having basic tastes, preference, but for drinking a tea version over and over I'd go with the Son La.  This Naka version isn't offensive in any way, maybe the most neutral of the three, with pretty decent overall balance and depth, so it could work well as a sort of plain tea to have with breakfasts.  Why not have that be lots more intense though?  Maybe that's what sheng pu'er is supplying that I end up craving.

Son La, #6:  it's interesting brewing this faster across the whole tasting, but part of that is getting the proportion wrong, using too much of this.  It's more intense than the others but not that much more intense.  

later edit:  there is a slightly higher proportion, as shown by wet leaf volume, but not that much.  It's a more intense tea than the other two.  That's normal for it being younger / less transitioned.  Astringency is higher too; I don't mention much of that as a trade-off, because to me it's not so negative, but it could be to others.

This is better than ever; the initial rough edges are smoothing out, and it picks up warmth and depth.  Richness of feel picks up, evolving from a slightly rougher structure earlier.  The rest is as described earlier.

Naka:  not evolving, as described before, pretty good and decently balanced, just not as intense and distinctive as the others.

Bangwai:  not really evolved in relation to the last round.  This is the most unique and distinctive as flavors go, and has the most refinement and depth.  

As objective quality level assessment goes this is probably the best, but match to personal preference is something else again.  That flavor set someone might love or else not like.  I have no idea about match to a conventional local origin type or standard character.  

It would seem odd to me that this could be typical, given how distinctive it is, but I really don't know.  Maybe versions from there tend to be distinctive in different ways, so it is a common generality, just not in terms of this exact aspect set.

Conclusions:

Going in this wasn't a fair test for the Naka version, from the Cheng Sheng Hao vendor.  The Son La tea is a personal favorite, and Tea Mania is sourcing some pretty good tea versions, and selling those at medium-high pricing rates because of that quality level and distinctiveness.  

This Naka tea wasn't presented as one of the best versions from that vendor, more as representative of a local origin type.  I'm not sure that it lived up to that.  I'm particularly bad at memorizing a matrix of typical local origin sheng pu'er aspect sets, but per description sweetness was the thing to look out for, and it was no sweeter than the others, and less so than the Son La version, which included other range some might find off-putting.

The story of the Bangwai version was novel flavor profile, along with depth and refinement.  It's a pretty good theme.  The last post comparing Tea Mania teas mentions a tasting set that they sell; that's probably a good way to assess some different versions to help place them in relation to preference, and to judge quality for yourself.

The one limitation I want to address here relates to people not being able to experience a volume of different teas, to costs really adding up.  Of course someone could spend over $100 on sets from each of these vendors (often free shipping starts in at around that price level), and they'd have their own impressions, but $400 might be most of a conventional annual tea budget for a lot of people.  Drinking tea every day for not much over $1 a day is pushing it, but it is practical to only drink 5 to 8 grams of a 20-some cents per gram tea per day.  

It can get a little annoying seeing people present photos of $500+ orders in tea groups, as if this isn't even a factor for them.  It seems to be about them promoting being ahead in some sort of exposure game.  It would be nice to be able to spend thousands of dollars a year on tea, but I'm not trying to set up a high level of spending as some sort of assumed norm here.  

No one is missing that much for not ever trying these three teas, or anything like them.  It's just tea.  If you acclimate to prefer what others regard as quality markers, and seek out rarer in-demand tea types, your required expense will escalate, but it's not necessary to spend $100 on a cake, or 30-some cents per gram, to get decent tea now.  But to buy tea that's in the highest demand that's probably not even close to enough.

On the other side of that if someone spends $8 a day on a coffee drink they have the same beverage experience, over and over.  To me that's $240 a month essentially wasted.  It's better to spend $70 to 100 on a 357 gram cake, drink 8-10 grams of tea a day worth, and have that cover more than a month of experience.  Sampling different sheng helps with placing where to go with that exploration.  

Spending $100 on a month and a half worth of tea still works out to an $800 per year expense; it's still too much for everyone at or under the average in income, both in the US and in Thailand, the two places that I tend to live.  I suppose that's just how it has to go, that people experiencing above average quality tea on a regular basis would face an above average level of expense.  That doesn't mean that good tea is only for the wealthy, but there is significant buy-in, when it comes to above average quality sheng pu'er range.