Wild tree Feng Qing hong cha (dian hong, Yunnan black tea)

I've been trying a good bit of sheng lately, for the last 9 months or so, and the one contact who sent some interesting versions to try, Olivier Schneider, also included a Yunnan black tea with the samples.  The picture includes that description:  a 2017 wild tree varietal black tea from the Feng Qing area of Lincang, Yunnan.  Sounds great.

I tried looking up references for this tea in his main pu'er reference page (puerh.fr) and his blog page (blog.puerh.fr) but that didn't work; not surprisingly most of the content is about pu'er.  He's been exploring tea areas in a few other countries outside of Yunnan so anyone with an interest in exploring pu'er further or other regions should take a look around those.

Tea preference:  Chinese black teas versus sheng pu'er

It's been great trying different versions of sheng, from different areas, teas processed differently, from different plant types and growing conditions, of different ages.  I've really enjoyed those teas, and even beyond that level of appreciation it's been fascinating experiencing that range.  It might still work to say that better, more interesting, and more complex Chinese black teas are still more closely matched to my preference in teas. 

At least in the past year I've been trying more Assam than Chinese black tea, and more on Darjeeling before that.  I've never really let Chinese black teas drop (my favorite broadest origin for black tea), the general types just tend to cycle, and what I'm drinking follows broad patterns.  I bought and reviewed three vaguely related Yunnan black teas last year (Dian Hong from Farmerleaf), so I never completely left that page.

In general black teas give up a lot in terms of complexity to sheng, since the feel and aftertaste aspects just don't span the same range, and transitions across different infusions are less varied, and the flavors expressed fall within a narrower scope.  But I really love that set of flavors, complex and balanced teas exhibiting cocoa, roasted yam or sweet potato, sweetness in the range of sugar cane or molasses, and other supporting earthy aspects.  It's not really just about flavor, as much about how it all comes together.  And to be fair it is still a lot about flavor; that's still the main page I'm on related to what I appreciate most in teas.

I've written about different forms of natural preference curve evolution before, about how people tend to move from liking simpler, basic teas (or maybe even tea and tisane blends first) to appreciating different range, including feel and aftertaste aspects.  But I'm not there related to moving on from mostly appreciating how a tea tastes.  It's not my impression that everyone would follow the same path related to natural transitions, although it must be the case that typical patterns emerge. 

It's probably as well to limit the philosophy of tea rambling to that and move onto a review.

Review

I went a little light on the first infusion, adjusting to brewing a black tea much closer to Western style, but using a gaiwan set-up, so really a hybrid approach.  Preparing teas like this isn't at all brand new to me but I've been drinking a lot more sheng lately, and more shou, oolong, and white tea than Yunnan black.

The first infusion is promising; the tea is sweet, rich, and complex.  There's a good bit of molasses sweetness and other dark flavor range depth, a soft, deep type of earthiness.  It's probably as well to break that down further on the second infusion instead.  This kind of tea is all about maximizing preference in brewing approach, but not in the sense of brewing around challenging aspects in the tea.

I think almost anyone would like this kind of tea, although preference for what people like most does vary a lot.  A friend just mentioned trying a unique black tea with a bit of sourness, and he'd recommended a tart black tea to me to buy before.  I did try that second version, this Guangdong province black, or "Dan Cong" black, as those get marketed, reviewed here, with a YS vendor page here.  I can relate to those but don't care for tartness or sourness in black teas, at least not as much as this other type of flavor range. 

At an introduction to tea tasting event I held last year I brewed comparable style Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea) for participants, and after one taste someone commented "now I know that I like some kinds of black tea."  Her world--tea-world, at least--had changed that fast, in a sip, and it was cool being a part of that.

The intensity level of the second infusion is perfect, and the tea is probably brewed about as effectively as it would be, showing around as much potential as it will.  One more infusion will be just as good, perhaps slightly different, transitioning some, but it will probably keep going in similar range from there.

leaves still unfolding

The tea balances really well, that rich, soft, complex feel and aspect range, with just a hint of dryness in the feel range.  I mean something completely different when I usually say that though; this tea is "juicy" feeling, full and thick, and smooth, so I mean that the complexity extends to give it a trace of structure that balances the rest, not that the feel is based on that sort of range. 


I'd go with cocoa as the main taste aspect, which works perfectly for me.  Beyond that a fruit tone is along the line of dried tamarind, but it's not so far off some sort of berry or cherry that I'd reject that sort of interpretation.  Maybe interpreted that way it's closest to dried blueberry, which is nice.  Or it probably works best to say it really is both, a complex range of fruit tones including dried tamarind and dried blueberry.

The earthiness is hard to pin down, but molasses is a good start.  I usually don't mention flavor aspects like wood or leather for teas anything like this but it has complexity that could be described in different ways.  That part is subdued, and well integrated, clean and balanced as a much lighter contribution than the cocoa, fruit, and molasses.  It would be odd to make it through a sheng review not mentioning "mineral" but I'm not sure if much of that as an underling base lends to the tea's complexity or not.  It's not tart or sour, at all.  Of course there is plenty of sweetness, which would be implied by that flavor list, but I hadn't actually said that.


The next infusion isn't transitioning much; it's roughly the same.  I went slightly faster on the infusion time (a bit under a minute; I am using a lower proportion for this tea compared to how I usually prepare sheng or oolong), in order to draw out the process as much as to optimize it.  This tea would work really well brewed twice as strong, and which experience someone would prefer would just be a matter of preference.  Upon reflection that mild molasses taste range seems as much like a caramel.  It's possible that brewed on the strong side it would resemble molasses, adding a slight earthiness edge to the tea, going along with more feel-structure, and brewed lightly it would drift back to caramel, perhaps shifting how flavors are perceived based on intensity.

after a number of infusions

Of course I'm starting to guess in this range of interpretation, or subjective impression might be coming into play.  It's simpler and maybe more accurate to say it's between a medium level cooked caramel and molasses and leave it at that. 


It seems clear to me that using water off boiling point would increase the fruit tones while dropping the earthiness and feel back (what I'm calling "structure," today at least), and going with full boiling point water would maximize those.  Which someone prefers is probably more a matter of preference than anything else.  I suppose a different balance in different teas could lead to one approach being better for one tea but the generality being inconsistent.

later brewed leaf appearance

I did use slightly hotter water on the next infusion and it did draw out a good bit more of that dark caramel aspect, shifting the balance from sweeter and lighter and more fruit oriented to earthier, doing more with the molasses tone, a bit towards a spice-range tree bark (not necessarily cinnamon, but maybe closer to Vietnamese cinnamon). 


It would work to use a range of temperatures, as I just did, and go with cooler water originally (not below 90 C; I'm not talking crazy) and bump it up boiling at the end to get more flavor out of the tea at the expense of giving up some of the earlier aspects balance.  Then again I guess I'm so far invested in the "following subjective-preference is fine" that if someone wanted to brew their black tea at 85 C I'd have to be ok with it.

that same reviewed tea, brewed slightly lighter

Revisiting brewing parameters

Brewing temperature just came up in yet another tea group discussion, so I could go further with that tangent, but I should probably cut that short here given how this has rambled on as it is.

The starting point comment someone made is that teas can be brewed to emphasize sweetness by using cooler water to brew them (that link).  It was within a specific context, so I'll just cite it to avoid summary errors:


If you crave something sweet but don't want to ruin the quality of good tea or intake higher levels of sugar, your best bet is White Peony/Bai Mu Dan, and you can typically get respectable quality at relatively low prices.


If your goal is sweeter tea, that probably means you'll want to use more leaf than directed with cooler water and a longer brewing time. depending on the variety (some are a bit stronger, others are naturally lighter), I use about a 2-4 tablespoons and brew for 2.5 to 5 minutes with relatively cool water (about 60-70C or 140-160F is a good place to start).  If you get it right, you'll have a brew with full flavor, intense sweetness, minimal bitterness and a floral, honeysuckle bouquet.


So he's really mentioning that related to a specific white tea, using Western style brewing, and cooler water than is usually recommended for that type (although white teas are a general type example where recommendations tend to vary).  Perhaps critical to the recommendation is that the idea is to get the best results out of value-oriented medium quality level tea.

The last post I talked about brewing temperature at length in was just about oolong.  In that a general divide occurred between a more common acceptance that using boiling point water is always best, with intensity and aspect character adjusted by varying infusion time and proportion.  On the other side some temperature range variation was also accepted, or using cooler than full boiling point temperatures in general.

I'm not saying the two issues are identical; white teas clearly aren't the same as oolong.  But I will go ahead and claim that I've noticed the same trend in preferences and best-practice claims occurring across a lot of tea types, with one recommendation for using full boiling point water for green teas cited in that post.  In discussing that issue with that FB group post author I ended with this conclusion:


I could see why people claimed using boiling water for oolong was best.  Based on their preference and what they drank it was.  Those are both not a given for everyone else though, and to some extent relate better to assuming use of a Gong Fu brewing approach.  Of course I can see why drinking higher quality tea does seem like an objectively grounded improvement.

I just couldn't get on board for giving up personal preference as a factor. But I do gradually use boiling point water more universally myself, so I can see where that preference comes from.


I didn't mention it there but I don't tend to brew any oolong Western style very often either, mostly only for moderate quality versions at work, when not really getting optimum results doesn't matter.

It would seem too strong a claim to say that across a lot of tea types everyone would naturally move from preference to using cooler water to preference for adjusting final aspects range using other factors (proportion and timing), and brewing with full boiling point water instead.  Some of that might work as a typical general trend though, paired together with how optimizing better teas is different than the experience of brewing around flaws in lower quality teas.

I'm not sure all that makes any other less developed preference less valid, or one that just lands in a different place, but based on what I'm saying there is a limited scope case to be made for that.

China Life Jin Ya Dian Hong, Yunnan black tea

A friend passed on this tea in a recent visit to Bangkok (full name Feng Qing Jin Ya Dian Hong, from China Life).  It's a nice friend that gives you tea this good to try, an interesting and very pleasant Chinese black tea, with a style that doesn't really match conventional black teas.  I'll describe what it is more at the end, with a little research into the type and explanation of the name, but basically it's a buds-only black tea from Yunnan.

Review:

The taste is just what one might hope for, soft, full, complex, a bit sweet, with a nice dryness to the feel, nothing questionable or out of place.  It works well to describe this particular tea as a list of flavors since there are so many to pick out.  So lets do that:  the package cites cocoa, malt, and hay, and this tea includes those as predominant elements, although malt seems to be used to describe a range of different closely related tastes in teas.  Flavor aspects also include yams, with just a hint of smoke, and I could swear there's a little vanilla in the background.  I'm not noticing pepper so much; maybe.


For me the sweet potato / yam range can be too much in some teas, leaning towards an artificial sweetener taste if too strong, but in this case it's all in great balance, all expressed as positive aspects that work well together.  I think there is even a mild mineral tone as a base flavor that helps it all really integrate, but that's hard to pick up, more like the context for the rest of the flavors.


It's the feel and balance that make the tea work so well though.  That slight dryness--nothing like astringency in typical Assamica black teas, although it is vaguely related--offsets a generally soft feel.  Along with that a nice sweetness brings all the aspects to a good balance.  I get the impression that the tea would deal well with being drank at different strengths, based on preference, working well quite wispy or standing up well to someone liking tea brewed strong.  It also seems like a tea that would be hard to screw up.


Some teas are difficult to brew, expressing a range of aspects depending on slight shifts in parameters, tricky to optimize, and this doesn't seem like that.  There seems to be no need to completely dial in approach, no astringency to brew around, no subtle aspects that are hard to draw out.  I guess one might see it as a trade-off that it's easy to get great results but capable of less variation.  For me it's really nice as it is so that's not really a trade off.




Seems too early to stop there, but that about reviews it.  From drinking pu'er lately I almost want to describe how the feel comes across within your mouth, where it's located, or how the aftertaste plays out, but those things don't seem to add so much (in general, for me, perhaps more than for this tea in particular).  For what it's worth I feel the tea more on the sides of my tongue, and a little in the back of my tongue at the end, which means nothing to me.  The taste does stick around after you drink it for a black tea, with that dry cocoa effect and a trace of yam sweetness lingering pleasantly.



About brewing, it's pretty simple, still black tea even though it is from tea buds (more on that in the next section).  The one interesting twist is that it brews really nice later infusions, not giving up much at all in terms of that full taste profile, sweetness, clean flavors, etc.  As with Silver Needle style white teas it keeps on brewing nice tea.  After several steeps you need to go a bit longer on time, and that draws out a little more mineral and dark caramel flavor but that's really nice too, and the sweetness and clean-flavored effects stick around.


Even after white teas seem done, having brewed lots, you can draw out one extra one by cold-steeping the leaves again (or buds only, depending on the tea).  To do so you just put the tea mixed with warm--but not hot water--in the refrigerator for a good long time, and let it steep on it's own.  How long doesn't seem to matter, six hours or a day.  I didn't think to check if that would work with this the first time I made it; I'll have to.

Dian Hong research section:

Why not a bit more about the general type.  It doesn't take much reading around to get to the idea that Dian Hong can include buds and leaves, and Jin Ya Dian Hong is just the buds (kind of obvious the tea was that from looking at it), with Feng Qing as the location, a county per the China Life description.  Here's a bit on the type from Seven Cups (a vendor, who's version I've not tried before):


Yunnan Province first began producing black tea in 1939.... Jin Ya was invented in 1958 by Feng Qing tea company. Instead of using 1 bud to 2-3 leaves, they started picking only tea buds. Yunnan Province was the first place to make black tea entirely from tea buds. If left on the tea bush, healthy tea buds will open in to five or six tea leaves...  The tea master must completely control the oxidation process throughout every layer of the bud... Black tea that is too oxidized will be sour, and under oxidized tea will very heavy and tannic.


This version wasn't tannic or sour at all so I guess they nailed it.  Not really about this tea type but there's an interesting mention of an old tea tree, a subject that keeps coming up:


There is one famous tea tree in Feng Qing County, called “Xiang Zhu Qing Cha Zu”. It is the largest and thickest tea tree that has been found, and is protected nationally because of its botanical significance. This tea tree is estimated to be 3200 years old and the diameter of the trunk of 1.84 meters thick.


Good to know!  They should try to make pu'er from that (just kidding).  I noticed a Seven Cups guide for brewing Dian Hong Jin Ya on You Tube looking for a China Life reference for it there, but as the video describes there isn't much to it; it's black tea.  China Life does post a lot of nice brewing and type guides on YouTube, just not related to this type.  The tea works out well brewed Western style using boiling water, steeped for three minutes or so, then for more time for later infusions.  As with any brewing all of that could be adjusted for preference, shifting any parameters as one is inclined, but again it seems to me a strength of this tea is that you don't need to fine tune brewing conditions to get great results.

It would even be possible to brew this grandpa-style, to use unregulated infusion time, to just drink the tea as leaves mixed with water without separating them, but I wouldn't.  The tea is too nice when brewed to a good infusion-strength balance point to give that up.