Wuyi Yancha comparison, two Bei Dou and a Huang Mei Gui

I'm reviewing two of the Teasenz Wuyi Yancha samples they sent with the last tea I ordered.  I don't remember trying a Huang Mei Gui version before (also called Yellow Rose), although that doesn't rule out that I have.  Bei Dou I've tried a little of (with another review of one of these versions here); basically it's a cultivar type derived from cuttings of original Da Hong Pao plants, or something along those lines.  The version I'm comparing these other two teas with is from Jip Eu, a Bangkok Chinatown shop.

I'll reverse the typical sequence and add a little more about what Huang Mei Gui is first, then get into tasting review.  Let's start with Wikipedia's take:


Huang Meigui (Chinese: 黃玫瑰; pinyin: huáng méiguī; pronounced [xwǎŋ měi.kwéi]) is a very new Wuyi oolong tea, developed c. 2002. It has a highly aromatic fragrance and a lighter floral taste than most other Wuyi oolongs.  The colour of the steeped leaves is a very light green, much greener than other Wuyi teas.


That last part would tend to relate mainly to processing variances, one might think, not to plant type factors, but there could be something to it related to a more conventional preparation.


A random vendor, Verdant, adds this about their own version:

The Li Family's careful roasting brings out the wonderful balance of floral and savory that this varietal exemplifies. The earthy notes of taro and sweet corn meld with rose and jasmine in a way reminiscent of Turkish Delight candies.


I've already tasted this version and it wasn't like that.  It's interesting that these two type descriptions vary, not completely contradicting but not so similar.  Another one of my favorite blogs just reviewed this tea, My Thoughts are Like Butterflies:

So, if you were ever curious what eating raisin bread covered in honey while sitting next to a bowl of blooming orchids and plumeria tasted like, then good news, you can find out with this tea! It is impressively floral for a Yancha, not quite at Dancong levels, but certainly close, with an intense nectar like sweetness... Yanchas as a whole can be pretty intense, even when brewed lightly, but this one was almost delicate.


The review part will get to comparing my impression with hers, since this is the same tea.  Our takes never completely match, and she seems to have a more colorful and detail-oriented take on description, but the few times I've compared my reviews against hers for the same teas the general impression matches up, even if some details don't.  Let's also check with the vendor, Teasenz:

Huang Mei Gui (Yellow Rose): light roast. this oolong has a very unique floral aroma that evolves after every brew. It becomes sweeter, steep after steep.


This tea was part of a sampler set they offer, designed to let people try different Wuyi Yancha versions.  I won't be able to judge how true to type this one is but I can definitely pass on an impression.


The review notes are finished, in a relatively complete draft form, so none of this was going to change my impression.  Reading any description before trying a tea tends to shift things a little but I went into this only with the expectations related to being familiar with one of the teas, and it didn't taste much like I remembered it, which is covered in the following.

Jip Eu Bei Dou left, Tesenz Bei Dou top, Huang Mei Gui right

Review:

The Jip Eu Bei Dou tastes a bit coffee-like.  It's not the most fair version of it for comparison since I'm tasting the last of this bag, which included some quite broken tea, and that will probably pull the flavor range in a less positive direction, or at least change it.  That aspect might ease up a bit after this first infusion, which is more a rinse, but it's not really negative as it stands, just not how I remember it.  That coffee taste isn't as pronounced as actually drinking coffee, of course, more off to the side of cocoa and some bark spice, a bit interesting.  This tea isn't like I remember it, possibly also related to aging effect, since I last reviewed well over a year ago (the same leaves, not a different version).  Aging could dissipate the flavors or it could conceivably change, or even improve.  I won't comparison review it against that earlier impression, though, just describe the tea.


The Teasenz Bei Dou is also roasted a good bit, still medium though; the first aspects that comes across are in between a light char and dark caramel.  It's still probably going to be fine but that range could make picking out other subtle flavor aspects harder.  It seems lighter than the Jip Eu version, with an interesting undertone going on, maybe towards roasted almonds or chestnut, or perhaps just along that line.  Using a medium to darker roast is sometimes an intentional style preparation, per my understanding, that some people prefer heavier roasts, and some tea types lend themselves more to that than others.  But others see it as a flaw in a tea, either a processing mistake, a technique used to cover other flaws, or just a style they don't prefer.  Let's check a short Teasenz (vendor description) take on it:


Bei Dou Yi Hao (North Star): a light roast yancha characterised by a fruity aroma.


Per my understanding particular aspects like fruit tones versus other types can vary for the exact same tea prepared in the exact same way year to year, shifting based on what the tea plants experience as they grow.



The Teasenz Huang Mei Gui is also on the medium roasted side, not exactly light, but not heavy; all three of these will be in a similar range at least.  I tried a sample of another Wuyi Yancha version recently that seemed both light on roast and even a bit light on oxidation, so in a completely different range, and maybe that's shifted my expectations a little.  Maybe all of these don't seem as "green" and light roasted as if I'd been drinking some charred teas instead.

Maybe eventually I'll get around to saying more about that other tea I just mentioned; I have another sample of it.  It works well to not try completely different teas in a comparison tasting anyway; the contrast can be interesting but it really doesn't help with tasting.  Anyway, this version is a bit earthier, with more of a bark spice component to it, along the lines of dark wood.


Editing note:  so this is not so close to the other descriptions of this tea type so far, even though two of those were of the exact same tea version.  That can happen.

Jip Eu Bei Dou left, Teasenz Bei Dou middle, Teasenz Huang Mei Gui right

Second infusion

This is really the first real infusion, since I tend to use the first one as a long rinse.

The Jip Eu Bei Dou has cleaned up a little in profile, but using more broken leaves seems to be affecting it.  The coffee aspect has dropped back a bit but the general earthiness remains.  It still has spice tones to it making it interesting.  I remember this tea as being unique for balancing aromatic and flavor range aspects well (close to the same thing, but different), and it still does have a nice balance to it.  It comes across as more roasted than I remember it, maybe from using broken leaves, which would change the aspects present.  It's still a very nice version of a Wuyi Yancha, just not quite as exceptional as I remember, since it was one of the best I'd ever tried, per that earlier impression.


The Teasenz Bei Dou is picking up an unusual flavor aspect, a bit towards cardboard (but it sounds nicer to say wood, and that really would work instead).  In general that's a negative thing, a part of a less clean flavor experience, but it's not terrible in this, just not necessarily positive, and taking up flavor space where something more positive might be.  The level of roast has settled a little and it has good richness and fullness in flavor range, and beyond that one aspect is pleasant and positive.  It is a bit more aromatic than some versions of Wuyi Yancha, which I understand to be characteristic of the type.  That range comes across as more a liquor-like experience to me, in this case maybe in the range of cognac more than perfume.  It's still a relatively clean tasting experience, just not ideal due to that one trace aspect, which may well essentially drop out in transitioning.  It has some sweetness that helps it strike a nice balance.


The Teasenz Huang Mei Gui is moving off in a different direction, a good bit earthier, but more along the lines of roasted chestnut still (more like chestnut than almond, as it progresses).  It's a cool effect, and pleasant, although I suppose I would like it just a little more if I liked chestnuts better.  I absolutely love the idea of roasted chestnuts, and the scent, the flavor is just a bit so-so for me.  In addition to the earthiness being a bit like a bark spice or dark wood this has a bit of root spice depth to give it more complexity.  It's all much cleaner in effect than that flavors list would sound, more subtle, lighter and sweeter, but still complex.

3rd infusion

These should all level off roughly to where they'll be in this round, and then maybe just decline from here.  I'm using a relatively high proportion of tea to water, even for Gongfu brewing, because they were small samples so it wouldn't work well to split them up.  It's more than necessary for one infusion but a little light for two, so I just went heavy on all three, which matched how much of the one Bei Dou I had left anyway.


Jip Eu Bei Dou:  this is a really nice tea, with a good balance of aspects.  The coffee aspect has leveled off but it's still driving an earthy side of range that balances with other aromatic elements, all clean in effect, working well together.  It's not as mind blowing as I remember it but it's quite good.


Teasenz Bei Dou:  this tea is probably suffering from being compared directly to that other Bei Dou, which is one of the nicer Wuyi Yancha examples I've ran across, even if it has lost a little for being tasted as the roughed up end of the bag.  It's nice, balanced, complex, and clean in effect, with some nuttiness and plenty of aromatic range.  It's just that the one hint of cognac traces over into either wood or cardboard, not as clean in effect as the other tea.

On it's own it would probably seem a lot more exceptional for the strengths.  It's probably a touch more aromatic than the other Bei Dou, so "how good" in comparison might relate on preference for that too.  I tend to like either less aromatic or more balanced teas, not more aromatic, but others could easily go the other way on that.  It's why I was never really taken by Cindy's Qi Lan versions even though for some others they would be the best of what she makes and sells, and potentially absolutely amazing teas, if that's what someone liked best in Wuyi Yancha character.  This tea is the lightest of the three teas, which I can appreciate in how the style worked out, it just traces into one aspect range that isn't as pleasant along with carrying a lot of other range that works really well.


Teasenz Hang Mei Gui:  fading just a little, although I'm still using quite short infusion times, so it would be easy to compensate by lengthening that to draw out another two or three infusions.  The range is similar, earthy, with roasted chestnut fading a little, more of just a balance of different things going on now.  It's more complex than I'm really going to be able to describe; it might be floral tones filling in that background, but it's hard to sort out.  To put a name to that spice that picked up in this infusion, it's like cinnamon, not as edgy as Rou Gui cinnamon can be or as smooth as cinnamon in apple pie comes across but still cinnamon.

Altogether it's good; clean in effect, the level of roast works, with that dark caramel / toffee sweetness present in all of them maybe a little more pronounced in this one.  I'll let these go a little longer on the next infusion to see what that changes and that will be it for reviewing.

she sings happy birthday (but I didn't do much with pictures of these teas)

Fourth infusion:

"Longer" in this infusion is still around a minute, just to be clear.  From here it would work to push that out to a minute and a half but woodiness would probably increase.  I suppose some people would just call it quits instead; that would depend on preference.


Jip Eu Bei Dou:  the toffee element picked up a lot from the longer time; it's nice.  There's a trace of the coffee and cocoa from earlier but it's softened up, and it never had been murky in any way.  This will probably make another really nice infusion since this flavors balance is working so well this way.  It's a little woody but with toffee, coffee and cocoa on top of that, hinting a little towards spice, with a bit of aromatic range off to the side--more like a coffee liqueur in this than cognac, where the other Bei Dou falls instead--it's still quite good.


Teasenz Bei Dou:  this tea is still one component aspect away from being a fantastic tea.  Drop out the cardboardy overtone to the congnac aromatic range, filled in by very mild earthiness and limited dark wood / spice range, with a bit of toffee, and this would be great.  As it is it still works well.  Even just not tasting it alongside a relatively similar tea without that would help; it makes it stand out.  All three of these are pretty good teas, really.

Lighter Wuyi Yancha can pick up a greener wood tone that's unusual for a background context, and this has a little of that, I suppose not unrelated to what I'm describing, or maybe I'm just reading that in this way.  It's a bit hard to describe what green wood is like.  If you went out and bit into a half dozen live twigs it probably would be a good bit like one of them.  I was never tasting twigs that much--but then I was a strange child, so maybe a little--but I cut and split a lot of firewood as a child, maybe more than Abraham Lincoln, and played in trees, and did some construction.  It was a strange childhood, with lots of wood around.  Now that I think back this slight funkiness in this tea might remind me a little of playing on an old sawdust pile, a remnant of a sawmill operation on our property from a distant past (probably only a few decades back, but who knows).  Aging, fermenting sawdust piled up to about half the size of a small house has a great smell, really, but it's a slight stretch of range for tea.


Teasenz Huang Mei Gui:  this tea is fading faster than the others, for whatever reason, with the earlier character unchanged otherwise.  Part of that could relate to just being more subtle.  It's still nice but it's thinning quite a bit.  It can make another infusion but it will just be thinner, and doubling infusion time will ramp up strength but it won't get the most positive character back.  Four infusions for this type of tea isn't bad, but the Jip Eu tea did hold up a lot better, odd given how broken those leaves were.

Conclusion

All of these were nice.  The Jip Eu was my favorite, even diminished for using the last broken leaves of it.  The Teasenz versions were not far behind, better than they probably sound in comparison.  Wuyi Yancha comes in a range of types of aspects and quality levels (most teas do, some less varied than others), and being in the upper-middle of that range is a good thing.  Per my understanding these aren't being sold as "teas that never make it out of China" quality level, so they're fine for what they're represented as, decent versions, interesting, positive and unique teas.  I'm not so familiar with the Huang Mei Gui but I suspect they're relatively true to the standard types, which is kind of important given the point is trying those related to being sold as a sampler set.

A couple of years ago when I was just getting into better versions of Wuyi Yancha they would have seemed more exciting, now kind of becoming more of the same.  I suppose Cindy's teas have been spoiling me.  Tea can be like that; preferences can shift, but even beyond all that you can sort of end up chasing the dragon related to trying better and better types and seeking out new experiences.  That can work out well if you keep trying better versions, since the teas can just keep improving.  All three of these are a step or two above anything mid-range that you randomly run across, a lot better than teas sold out of large jars.

That cycle of moving expectations I mentioned is probably one part of why people tend to naturally drift to pu'er as more of a preference end-point; with aging differences the same exact teas will keep evolving, and the range in those types is broad, and the experience can extend well out of taste / flavor range.  I'd want to keep drinking some Wuyi Yancha since it's still a favorite type.  But now it's a favorite among other favorites instead, and even interesting, good versions can seem a bit more ordinary, as if I just expect the teas to be that good.

Wild Oolong mystery tea from Cindy Chen (back to Wuyi Yancha)

It's been awhile since the last mystery tea, although some of what I bought in Indonesia in December was a bit vague, not so much labeling in English.  This tea came with samples provided by Cindy, my favorite Wuyishan oolong producer (who can be contacted here).  Her teas are the subject of many blog posts here, like this one about some background on making Wuyi Yancha,, or a review of Shui Xian here, or a Rou Gui comparison review, or as a reference in another about which tea plant cultivars are used to make Da Hong Pao.

In asking Cindy about what the tea is I mentioned a potential problem I'm running into with tasting Wuyi Yancha, after going through a lot of trying them in the last half of last year:

Now it's hard not to put the teas on a scale of some being really exceptional, and others good, and others not quite as good, but really it makes sense to appreciate them for individual characteristics too, to not just try and make a hierarchy out of it, judging mostly as just better than others or not.  The tea was nice, interesting.


So there it is; it was nice.  Of course the point behind writing blog reviews about teas is to go a bit further, so I will.  I never did get far with discussing this tea origin with her, so it remains a mystery, because as everyone knows a lot of people in China are travelling now and spending time with family, so I'll get back to bothering her with questions later.  Also, happy Chinese New Year!

Comparison tasting:  Bei Dou

I've been off the Wuyi Yancha, and generally off the higher quality teas lately, instead drinking through some interesting but more conventional-grade examples I've ran across, from Indonesia and other places.  It's been nice to not try and describe teas for awhile, and to skip the write-up process, but I do have some really interesting research articles at different stages.

In order to place it against other teas and help my taste-memory I comparison tasted the tea against the Bei Dou I picked up from the Jip Eu tea shop in Chinatown (I've mentioned them in some blog posts, but I'll leave off with adding their Facebook page link here).

There are pros and cons of comparison tasting.  It helps identify some finer characteristics that stand out better when compared to another tea, but that really helps most when there is plenty of commonality so that you aren't tasting across too much context difference.  At worst it can be overwhelming, tasting different general types and comparing different taste and feel elements, and it all just muddles.  As a general rule tasting the exact same kind of tea works well.  But then I did try it with two very similar white teas (perhaps technically not Silver Needle, which they were sold as) and one having a strong smoky taste threw me way off any meaningful comparison.  Bear in mind all of this is just my own impression, not some standard approach or from an inherited body of knowledge, or "guidance from a master" type of instruction.

the normal look, "wild" on top I think it was

I could see how tasting the same tea type, say comparing a Rou Gui against another Rou Gui of a comparable quality level, could even be thrown off a bit by comparing teas roasted to a different level.  This would require accounting for that difference in assessing the two teas, since preference may shift the subjective impression as much related to that as the quality and other characteristics of the tea.  It's a completely different thing, and not a subject that's as clear to me as it might be, but the oxidation level from the preceding oxidation step--versus differences from roasting step--could also vary.


It may seem I'm drifting here for no reason, but the main point is that it's easy to mix different aspects of teas that don't have to do with the type or quality of the teas when comparing them, so over-all judgment could relate to a personal preference about one aspect and not so much about how other people would judge the teas.


This is a good time to mention / remind that Bei Dou is Da Hong Pao.  Confusing?  That linked post covers what Da Hong Pao really is, and the short version is that five individual plants represent the type, but at least two distinct plant types are derived from these, Bei Dou and Qi Dan, so any true Da Hong Pao is really one of these.  Of course it's not nearly that simple; that post covers a lot of the rest, but the final word is hard to pin down.

The tasting part:

The teas were similar in general type, enough so that comparison worked well.  The background of mineral and earth elements common to roasted oolongs of this general type was similar for both.  The short version might be that they tend to taste like mineral and dark wood, which people often describe as saying the teas taste like rocks, also a reference to the translation of the Wuyi Yancha type as "rock oolong."

The Bei Dou may have been roasted a bit more, coming across with just a little more "char" effect, but not in a way that took away from the effect of the tea, which really would depend on preference.  I've read a reference that said that better teas of this type are always relatively lightly roasted, allowing the tea characteristics to stand out, with roasting used to mask flaws, or even cover up mixing tea types, but it doesn't seem to be that simple.  Preference, the starting point leaf type, and producer choices and style also seem to come into play.  I have tried a few very nice lightly roasted oolongs of this type (but enough with the links already, so I'll not go there) and it does seem that perhaps the best versions of lighter roasts appeal to me the most, even though this Bei Dou is a good example of a tea that works really well in terms of style, individual characteristics, and overall effect.

In terms of taste the "wild oolong" has the same background going on, the feel and base flavors, but with a bit of cinnamon and a root-like herb as main elements.  The one component tastes a little like sassafras, but I get the impression I'm missing taste-memory of a range of possible root based herbs, and it was really in between sassafras and what better root beer tastes like.

The Bei Dou had a bit more of the interesting aromatic characteristic that comes out in better Wuyi Yancha, which is really hard to describe.  It reminds me of the effect one gets from smelling better perfume, or the smell of certain types of ink.  I've ran across a review that seemed to compare that one aspect to the taste of alcohol, and it's a little like that, and it seems like people tend to mix it with descriptions of the feel of tea, even though that's sort of a different aspect.  The taste range had a little more roasted effect, again not so easy to describe, not so much like charcoal, tied back to that sweet, rich, mineral-intensive and compelling fragrance in ink.  The sweetness drifted towards the fruit range a little more, closest to peach, covering the same range in the general flavor structure that a light cinnamon component did in the other "wild oolong."

wild oolong left, less oxidized ( / roasted?)

So both were nice.  There's a tendency to pick out a winner, to cite one as better in some way, maybe based on my preference, or even as objectively better tea.  If pushed to go there I'd have to say the Bei Dou is a better tea, but they were also just different.  Personally I'm really attached to that one aromatic component that comes out in better Wuyi Yancha, almost as much a feeling as a taste, and both exhibited it, more in the Bei Dou.  This cultivar (plant-type) version of Da Hong Pao is supposed to be especially aromatic, so this may relate to the plant genetics as much as tea quality, but to some degree all the inputs just come together in the final tea effect.


This Bei Dou example has a really clean feel to how the flavors are presented, if that makes any sense, with the "wild oolong" coming across as a very nice tea but just a little more muddled.  I've been running across a similar characteristic difference in a very different context in tasting black teas, comparing var. Assamica versions to other var. Sinensis types I've been more familiar with in the past.  Of course this is too general, trying to compare two different plant types and a completely different type of tea at that level of generality, with so many other factors coming into play, but as a very rough distinction--one so rough it's probably more wrong than right--it seems the var. Assamica based teas have an earthier, slightly muddled taste aspects presentation while the var. Sinensis come across as somehow "cleaner."


A tangent is tempting at this point since I've been discussing the relative role of processing input versus typical "terroir" related aspects and plant-type inputs some lately.  But I'll get back to that at some point, and will only say here that both processing and plant type potential seem to support different final aspects coming out in the tea.  It'll be a long time before I'd ever be able to guess at what inputs led to what aspects in teas but of course it's still an interesting subject.

The Real Da Hong Pao

originally published as "http://www.tching.com/2015/12/the-real-da-hong-pao/"

tea shop owner (one of them)

Awhile back I tried a really nice version of a Da Hong Pao, from a Bangkok Chinatown tea shop, Jip Eu.  It came up in discussion that different teas are actually sold as Da Hong Pao, and according to them the one I tried was an authentic version, a Bei Dou cultivar (actually Pei Tou, but based on research the other transliteration seems more conventional).

So what is Da Hong Pao, really?  Of course it's a Wuyi Yancha or “rock oolong” type, the best known one.  These are roasted oolong teas from Fujian province, China, with production centered around Wuyishan.  The flavor profile has earth and mineral elements, with leaves prepared as long and twisted versus the rolled styles.  The most distinctive elements of the best versions are a bit hard to describe.  Some say they relate to an unusual mouth-feel of the tea, others to a taste comparable to citrus, or even alcohol, and the aromatic elements remind me a little of perfume, in a sense I can’t completely describe.

 

the typical look, long, dark, twisted leaves

The part I'll focus on here is the cultivar / tea plant type issue.  This also came up related to a World of Tea cultivar database, with a related cultivars overview page linked from there.  This is a great reference, which will keep getting better with more details filled in.  Da Hong Pao wasn’t listed there.  Per online discussion with Tony Gebely, the World of Tea reference author, there is a possible short answer related to the plant type it's made from, and a likely complication:

Da Hong Pao is made from a cultivar called  Qi Dan 奇丹... [but] many times there are multiple correct answers [to such questions].

Right away this conflicts with the common understanding that Da Hong Pao is both a cultivar (plant-type version) and a prepared tea leaf type, but then the full story being more complicated than the conventional take isn’t that surprising.  The distinction between plant type, cultivar, and hybrid can be a bit unclear in different references, but for this discussion it works to use these as one thing, as possible "basic, starting point" plant types, and also as cross-bred variations of those.

How to resolve this then, since online references are most often vendor materials, short descriptions directly written for advertising products, or as summary reference articles that are not intended as full descriptions?  

I tried asking two people who might know.  One was my friend Cindy Chen, a Wuyishan tea producer, who suggested those two cultivars as both right answers was correct.  The other was the owner of that Bangkok shop, Jip Eu, named Kittichai (a common Thai name, but then it is a Thai-Chinese shop).  He said his family had been selling tea from that shop in Bangkok for 90 years, but that he still travelled back to Wuyishan to help produce teas there with other related family.  And he showed some interesting pictures of there, one of him at a small tea factory that was torn down when Chinese officials turned that tea area into a restricted park decades ago.

So two cultivars stand forward as main ones used to make the tea, but any number of others are sold as such, and it would be hard to say for sure which plant type really should be, or if there is even a grounds for such a "should."

brewed leaves; oxidation and roast affects color, looks about right

Or maybe the real answer could seem different after getting more expert input, as suggested by Tony Gebeley:   

I have 10-15 answers to many of my tea questions.  The correct answers usually fit into context and show themselves.

Tony cited one reference supporting Qi Dan as the single right answer is a Baidu.com article on Qi Dan / Da Hong Pao, essentially the Chinese version of Wikipedia.  Of course this is only one of many sources and authority inputs he had reviewed, and of course anyone that doesn't read Chinese would need to use automatic translation to read that.

Better references dig a little deeper.  A Global Tea Hut tea reference describes Da Hong Pao as a plant type, which it gives a detailed description of, and seems to describe Bei Dou as a first generation derivative plant type, with the name related to plants grown in a very limited area (with most details on page 19 of this reference).

A Tea Spring vendor reference cites some intriguing background that is hard to verify elsewhere, although this same content is referred to in other places:

In the early 1950s, Mr. Yao Yue Ming started a Da Hong Pao research laboratory. Using a few stems from the original 800 years old Da Hong Pao tea bushes, he successfully created two new tea varieties. However, Mr. Yao's laboratory was later closed down and his research was destroyed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Yet, he continued his research in secrecy and through his dedication and determination; he finally perfected his creation. He named this tea, Beidou No. 1.

Another Seven Cups vendor reference offers an interesting suggestion:

When you travel to Wu Yi Mountain, the birthplace of wulong (or oolong) tea, tea enthusiasts always visit Big Red Robe Park. Guides take visitors to the famous five bushes, perched on a cliff face inscribed with the characters for Big Red Robe. These bushes are estimated to be more than 300 years old – much older than is common for a tea bush… Researchers say of these five bushes, there are three distinct varieties. One of them is named Qi Dan.

So maybe one more name and plant type fills in the set?  It’s interesting to hear this complex story unfold.  Stepping back and thinking through plant genetics seems to help place all this.  A vendor reference about a completely different type of oolong from a different region, Dan Cong oolong from the Guangdong Province, provides a broader perspective, relevant even in the limited the context of discussing tea originated from only five plants:

In modern days, tea can be propagated by cutting. With this method, all tea trees carry the same genetic trait. In old days, tea was propagated from seed. Therefore, each tea tree grown from the seed carries unique and identical trait. As a result, each tree shows differences in terms of the leaf size, intensity of bitterness, flavor, taste and even the color of leaf. It is just like us, human. Although our face and character can be very resemble with our parent, we are not identical with our parent.  In a way, different tree carries different identity, especially in flavor and quality.

Comparison tasting two Rou Gui and a Da Hong Pao

More teas from my favorite Wuyi Yancha farmer and vendor, Cindy Chen!  Many thanks to her for providing those latest samples.

Cindy making tea

Since reviewing a number of her teas earlier in the year--this was the first related post, a Rou Gui in March, but there were others--I ran across a vendor profile of her by Tealet, a tea company that needs no introduction.


But just in case, Tealet's business premise relates to selling better teas directly from farmers.  It's essentially a type of a fair-trade theme since they can provide better compensation to farmers, and at the same time settle issues of sourcing transparency; customers are really clear on what they are getting.


It's a lot more difficult to just get in touch with a tea farmer, but to some extent that would work too, with the obvious limitations.  Someone you only talk to online claiming to be a tea farmer could just sell mid-grade tea from a wholesale market, so any claims about specific growing areas or not using pesticides wouldn't count for much.  It might be a problem just identifying what type of tea you are actually buying.

Reviews, one of the Rou Gui from Cindy:

Nice!  A very good, normal Wuyi Yancha; normal if you normally run across good Wuyi Yancha.  The level of roast comes across first in the scent; it's medium, maybe leaning towards darker.  The typical sweet earthy and mineral scents also stand out; lots of complexity.

Wuyi Yancha!

The tea has the distinctive Wuyi Yancha flavor profile, mineral, some earthy components, a pronounced aromatic element, and the slight edge of the roast, but not much in the way of "char" as some versions can have.  In some dark roasted teas it can actually incline a bit towards charcoal, which can be hard to appreciate.  The aromatic aspect is perfume-like, hard to describe, sweet, related to floral, but also leaning towards slate or graphite or ink.  Cinnamon is a primary flavor, accompanied by sweet earthy aspects, like fresh dark leather, which I mean in a good sense.


The feel is full and smooth, with a pleasant lingering taste.  A year ago all that would have been a more unique experience for me, but now I try to compare it to other nice teas.  Is it richer, is the balance better or worse, is the roast level a great compliment to the other characteristics?  I'm really not completely sure.  It's better than the average Wuyi Yancha one runs across, by a good bit, but it's harder to place it related to other better versions.  Taste is a factor, but another part is gauging if the feel and the aromatic qualities are exceptional or just quite good.  Comparison tasting would help with that.


It seems odd turning around the experience, drinking a great tea and asking what isn't as great about it, instead of just appreciating it.  Reviewing a lot of similar teas could lead in that direction but it wouldn't necessarily have to.  It seems partly the effect of tea-forum talk, too much input of "my tea is better than your tea;" taking that up and trying to pin down exactly how good a tea is.


I'm also reminded of the differences between what tea bloggers do, give a description of a nice tea, and an impression, versus people judging and grading the teas, where that type of process needs to go much further.  To be clear I'm not even ahead of the curve related to tea bloggers, just another guy drinking tea.  Cindy just mentioned taking part in a Wuyishan tea contest related to black teas, which helped raise that subject.  They took 7th in that category; probably really exceptional for that type of event and the range of participants.  But the review of their specialty scope is coming up next week, related to oolongs.  My favorite!


Back to the tea though:  it seemed like a very good example of a Rou Gui, but that it could be better in a few minor ways, slightly better feel, slightly more aromatic element, slightly more complexity.  But it seemed odd being that negative about it.  The tea is ridiculously good, better than almost anyone will ever know exists (of course it helps liking Wuyi Yancha to have that impression), but there was perhaps room for those tiny improvements.  This was roughly how Cindy passed on the grade of the tea, as they evaluate it, a good tea but not the best they produce.


One might wonder why they produce different levels of tea, why it's all not equally great, aside from minor differences related to slight variation in plant sources.  I've written a post about that, something very informative, based on input from Cindy about different tea processing, so I'll get back to that, just not in this post.

tea legends:  Rajiv Lochan and Cindy (she is one to me)

I also tried comparison tasting this tea made from bottled spring water against  filtered Bangkok tap water, related to discussing water differences with someone recently.  Of course the filtered tap water retained a bit of mineral taste, towards chemical, that threw off the taste a little.  Both had been boiled, so that shouldn't be chlorine; hard to say what else was in that water that contributed to it.  We plan to install a much more sophisticated multiple-filter multiple-step reverse osmosis filtration system to get away from using bottled water in the future (the kind that office water coolers use).


To really help identify subtle characteristics of a tea it's best to comparison taste with a second, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each.  So I tried that next, the next day, but with two different teas.

Round 2; a different Rou Gui compared to a Da Hong Pao

Rou Gui!  Another one.

Ideally these should be the same tea type to limit the natural variances and highlight subtle differences, but I wanted to compare one of the Rou Gui samples to a very good Da Hong Pao example I bought not long ago.  The idea was more about comparing grade related issues than the teas related to those types.  I bought that tea from the Jip Eu shop in the Bangkok Chinatown, the same place I picked up this Ban Tian Yao (another Wuyi Yancha type).


I wrote a review of that Da Hong Pao but haven't posted it yet since I'll be sharing it somewhere else too, along with a lot of back-story about Da Hong Pao.  Lots of the research-theme blogs working lately; I guess it goes in cycles.


In one sense that's about a much more interesting subject than this post, just reviewing teas.  As a preview I will say that Da Hong Pao is not the only name for this tea, and the general type has a bit of an identity issue.  Suffice it to say this one I'm writing about is one the best Wuyi Yanchas I've tried, although hard to place what that really means.  This tea made me reconsider that the unusually strong aromatic element I'd tried in Rou Gui teas before was only related to that plant and tea type, and not just related to a potential in other similar teas.

Both teas were excellent, both quite different.  Different in a limited sense, of course; if someone wasn't so hung up on trying different Wuyi Yanchas they might seem about the same. Since characteristics by tea type and specific tea properties are separate things, with lots of possible variations, maybe all this could be a little less clear presented this way, with the ideas mixing.

Da Hong Pao!  Really.

The Rou Gui is very nice, perhaps more distinctive than the other, in the sense of exhibiting complexity and the aromatic component better.  A pronounced cinnamon flavor stood out, with other mild earth tones underling that.  One spice element was difficult to identify, something like an unfamiliar sweet root herb, towards sassafras but not exactly that.  Combined with the sweetness it came across a little like butterscotch.  A mild wood flavor joined the other tastes.  Do I even have to keep saying "mineral?"  To me that's the context of the flavors, not a pronounced primary element, just part of the background.


The Da Hong Pao is even more aromatic, almost like a perfume, but with a different flavor character.  Both share that similar mineral undertone, without much in the way of "char" for either.  Both have good sweetness, clean flavors, a good feel to the teas.  The flavors of the Da Hong Pao extend more to typical range for better examples of this type:  floral, seemingly related to the aromatic element, dark wood, leather, sweetness related to a brown sugar range, falling short of the flavor strength of similar molasses components.  Of course brown sugar and molasses are kind of related, with raw cane sugar juice the unprocessed input for both, which you can buy fresh in tropical areas.


In terms of aftertaste the Da Hong Pao is stronger, and lasts longer, related to the one aromatic component carrying over.  It could be too much related to some people's preferences, although it seems generally regarded as one of the characteristic components, so I'd  imagine it would normally be seen as positive, no matter the level of intensity.


Just thinking that part through makes me consider how identifying the positive aspects of the tea individually seems to leave out something about balance, considering how well it all works together, the synchronicity of the tea.  It's some good tea when taste and feel and general impression references stop being enough and it's time to focus on balance.


Across infusions both stay really clean, full, and consistent.  Although the flavors differ the character is similar enough that a preference for one over the other might well come down to how one feels about the aromatic component in the Da Hong Pao.  Again it's worth noting that the Rou Gui is also quite aromatic, just in a range that is intense but still more familiar.  Or maybe the shift in the profile related to the two different types would tip the balance for some.  For me I love them both, and feel lucky to experience such tea.

the Rou Gui was a little darker (top)