Golden flower Fu-style fermented white tea

This tasting experience was unique because I didn't even know the tea type when trying the tea.  I'd initially guessed that it must be a hei cha variation, but then it wasn't clear if that was right when trying it.  

This is from Oriental Leaf, a vendor source based in China that I've tried teas from before.  It was sent for review; many thanks to them!  Their other teas have been pretty solid, some a very good value, so it will be interesting to see how this works out.

It turns out it's white tea, a Fuding Shou Mei made with a secondary processing step, with a reference to golden flowers (the hei cha-specific type of fungus, that is usually intentionally inoculated).

Oriental Leaf's product description adds some detail:

Golden Flower White Tea Single Serve Packs (ten 3 gram individual squares, for $15.50, so around 50 cents a gram)

This exceptional tea redefines the Fu brick category by using premium Fuding Shoumei white tea from Fujian province as its base, creating a truly unique sensory experience.

Key Features:

Innovative Base: Crafted with high-quality Fuding Shoumei white tea, known for its delicate flavor and numerous health benefits.

Extended Aging Process: Meticulously aged for 1095 days (3 years), using 2018 Fuding Shoumei, packaged in 2024 for optimal flavor development.

Dual Fermentation: Undergoes both golden flower fermentation and traditional Fu tea fermentation, resulting in a complex flavor profile.

There's more description, that's just the main points.  It's interesting that this is both an aged tea, now 7 years old, with an atypical secondary processing used.  One main thing is always how it comes across, here reviewed without knowing any of that background.

this looks like pressed black tea, to me, Dian Hong

Review:

1:  malty!  This is nice.  It's probably some kind of hei cha, I'm just trying it completely blind, so I don't know the details.  Versions that get sold as Fu brick are often similar.  It's been awhile, but I think Fu brick might translate to "brick brick."  

This has so much flavor that there's lots more that I could add.  It's creamy as well, and very clean in effect, with good sweetness.  On the flavor list side warm malt notes are present on a base that's not so far off cocoa (or cacao; cocoa is the hot chocolate drink made from cacao).  Other warm tones are towards woody, but not quite wood, more like the warm base scent from well-dried wicker or palm leaves.  There's just a touch of a sour edge, but it wouldn't be natural to interpret this as sour, in terms of primary aspects.  It's quite pleasant.

I'm pretty sure that I'm brewing two 3 gram small square tablets, so 6 grams.  It's a good match for my typical Gong Fu brewing approach.  I'm in a hotel room, a Hop Inn, so the lighting is a bit directional from the window, not exactly ideal.  On the third round I'll try moving it right under the window, instead of beside it, since I've just taken a picture for round 2.  I brewed this a little longer than it really needed, in order to get the two tablets to open up.

that hotel, with an unusual light streaking effect

#2:  much lighter, because I used a long minute-plus steep for round one to get it started.  It's pleasant like this but a typical 10 to 15 second infusion time seemingly isn't ideal for this, since there are no negative aspects or high intensity to "brew around."  20 or 25 seconds is probably better, and it would be fine to drink brewed 45 seconds, quite strong.  Shou / shu pu'er is like that, that stronger is kind of better, but this flavor range is quite different.

Malt still stands out.  Not the harsh edged, mineral intensive malt in Assam, I mean like a malted milk ball, or chocolate malt milkshake.  There's some mineral base to this, but that warm sort of in between woody and spice range note is secondary to the malt, and limited cacao.  It's not completely different than the flavor of cooked bamboo, to switch it back to food flavor range, just one that lots of people may not encounter so often.  It's a normal food item here, in Thailand.  This is actually pretty close to that.

#3:  malt and cacao drop back a little and the bamboo / wicker / dried palm effect picks up.  This is still nice.  A slight sour edge some might find objectionable, but I don't.  This reminds me a little of how some Dian Hong comes across.  This could even be that; it's closer to it in style than to just about any hei cha / Fu brick I've tried.  It's too sweet, complex, and clean to resemble the other range.  My guess is that it's an atypical hei cha, unusual for being a bit better, and closer to how ordinary oxidation changes tea.  

That Dian Hong range can come across as slightly sour too, but it's easy to miss that interpretation, because it's so minor in intensity, and it integrates with the rest of the flavors, which are what you'd expect more.  If I tried this thinking it was black tea I'd probably be mentioning dried fruit; funny how that works out.  It's not exactly like dried tamarind, but along that line.

#4:  this is probably going to "brew out" relatively quickly since I extracted so much of it in a long first round, as much as two early rounds might have using shorter timing.  To me this tea would work well for brewing a smaller number of good and strong rounds, setting aside an expectation to drink 8 to 10 rounds, which applies to other types, and just get 4 or 5 good and strong versions out of it.

The flavors more connected to astringency (which is limited in this) extract more now, in part from using a 45 second or so round instead of around 15.  It's a little towards rust.  I mean that in a positive way; framed more positively it tastes a bit like some forms of bark spice, just forms that people wouldn't tend to be familiar with, not cinnamon.   Or maybe it overlaps some with cinnamon, but lots of the range is beyond that.  The feel changes, and the part like sourness picks up (or it is just sourness, but a moderate and well-integrated expression of it).

#5:  even for stretching this a bit, using those towards a minute brewing times, this is still pleasant.  It's thinning a little already, the character range.  Feel is still nice, and some sweetness still stands out.  It's pleasant.  For a sheng drinker maybe the limited intensity could be an issue, but there's a lot going on, and complexity is good.  A Dian Hong drinker, someone preferring that black tea type, might relate to this especially well.  It would be funny if it is just that.  Malt is heavier than is typical for that type range, but then that's not exactly a typical Fu brick / hei cha marker, that I'm familiar with.  Flavor falls in that general range, for sure, but I'm not sure if it's often exactly that. 

I'll leave off notes here and probably stretch an extra round or two out of this.  It should keep thinning, and that one edge should stand out more.

Conclusions:

Really nice, interesting and pleasant.  Apparently it's a sort of one-off for tea style, a hybrid form, so there was no way I was going to place it trying it blind.

I'm a bit skeptical of vendor site reviews, since those could be made up, or at the least they could filter everything negative off there (some vendors do), but I suppose those people's takes might fill in how others experience it.  They liked it.  The first one is an example of that, and maybe the most detailed input:

The dual fermentation process creates a complex flavor profile that is truly unique.

Was it though?  I guess; the review description had trouble placing it.  And it was very pleasant.  It's a little pricey in relation to standard Fu brick hei cha, but I suppose evaluating it within the range of Shou Mei might make more sense, or really it's not exactly that, given the extra processing input.  It's something novel.  There is no type-typical pricing point for a tea that doesn't exist elsewhere.  

I guess most people would know if they favor repeating experiences with their favorite type and style range of tea, or if they want to explore further in that same direction, if they're still exploring basic ranges, or if very novel experiences are appealing.  This didn't remind me of only white tea or Fu hei cha experience, and sort of combined in some typical black tea aspect range, so it was very unique.

That covers that part; I'll share some more of that limited travel experience, going out to Chonburi, a smaller community an hour's drive outside of Bangkok.

sticky rice as something like a rice pudding, at a local market

dried squid and mortar and pestles; lots of options

looking for stone goods at a local outlet

you don't normally wai to Ronald McDonald; she was a good sport about the photo op

four people ate all of this, a lot of food

back in Bangkok, on Ban That Tong road

the picture version that she told me to delete

2015 aged Peony white tea mini cake

I'm reviewing one of the last samples from a set by Oriental Leaf, sent for review (many thanks).  This is described as Peony, also known as Bai Mu Dan.  Often Fujian (Fuding area) pressed white teas are Shou Mei instead, made mainly from older leaves, with Bai Mu Dan a mix of buds and finer leaves.  Typical processed style seems similar, between the two, but overall effect, the aspects, can vary a good bit in relation to the different material type used.

I'll keep this simple, citing their description after making notes, and writing what I think of it in those.  9 years old is a suitable amount of aging input; often 7 years is cited as a somewhat full transition level time period.  It would depend on storage conditions, and the tea would keep changing later, but 7 years is long enough for a lot of the basic changes to occur, picking up depth, warming in tone, etc.

2015 Aged Second-grade White Peony White Tea Mini Cake  ($6 for two 5-gram samples)

White peony tea  (Bai Mu Dan), a type of white tea characterized by its large, open leaves, is typically picked in the spring when the young leaves and tea buds are most tender. Peony tea has a light, delicate flavor often described as floral or fruity and is lower than silver needle.

This tea is made with second-grade tea leaves, which are slightly lower quality than first-grade tea leaves, but at a more reasonable price. The tea has a more complex flavor and a more prolonged aftertaste.

The tea has been aged since 2015, further developing its flavor. The tea has a rich, mellow taste with notes of honey, flowers, and nuts. The aftertaste is long-lasting and refreshing.

This tea is perfect for experienced tea drinkers who appreciate the complexity and depth of flavor that comes with aging. It is also a good choice for those who enjoy the mellow taste of white tea. The caffeine content in white tea is relatively low. Different types of white tea may require different water temperatures for brewing. White peony tea can be like loose-leaf tea or compressed sheets. The quality of white tea depends on factors such as the source of the tea plants and the processing methods. 

So far so good.  I think that's more a myth than actual reality that white teas are lower in caffeine level, but it's not that much of a red flag that the vendor shares that.  Some people still think that.

The description works, matching the tea experience.  The cost seems ok, $6 for 10 grams, or 60 cents a gram, even though that's on the high side in relation to buying in higher volume.  You can brew two rounds for those two tablets worth of tea, at $3 each, and it wouldn't change that much if it cost $2 instead.  It's on the high side for Shou Mei, but it's not Shou Mei.  Samples tend to cost a bit more per gram; it's just how that often goes.  They do sell these same samples for less when you buy more of them, so you can scale up purchase amount and reduce cost, if that's of interest.  It's as well to just try teas first though, to see what you make of them, before committing to buying much.  

Different vendors bundling more mainstream, common types and grades into sets that are quite moderate in cost doesn't contradict all that.  Here we would probably be looking for uniqueness, for an aging input making this tea more interesting than a standard white tea offering, and I'll return to whether or not that shows through in the conclusions.

Review:

#1:  I gave this a nice long soak to get infusion started, about a minute.  It will still probably be a bit light, since tablet or disc shapes take time to open up.

Yep, it's light.  Flavor that does show through is positive, quite promising (a hint of floral tone, and a hint of cinnamon spice).  Often this range of white tea forms can be too subtle, so that I tend to never buy pressed Shou Mei versions.  Maybe for this being Bai Mu Dan it will include more sweetness and floral range; we'll see.  

The tone for those should have warmed over 9 years, but if this was stored completely sealed in that multi-layer material sample package it might have been relatively preserved, unchanged no matter how long it spent in there.  I think the transition process is different for white teas than sheng, not involving the same degree of bacteria and fungus input, actual fermentation, but I'm not sure if it can change with essentially no external air contact input.

I'll give it another minute, to make sure this gets going.

#2:  thickness, sweetness, and intensity all pick up, but it's still not there yet.  One more long soak may only get the tea fully wetted, so the fourth infusion may tell more of the story.

One interesting type of background enters in that people can sell aged white tea that's not really aged.  How?  It's easy enough for producers to let white teas oxidize more during processing, to give them a long wither (let them sit), then the color will change, and flavors will deepen, in a vaguely comparable way to what 7 to 9 years of aging would cause.  Could I identify the difference?  Maybe, maybe not.  It would help if I'd been drinking a good bit of aged white teas over the last half dozen years, instead of very little of it.  I can still describe character, and if it's quite positive, even though "artificially" achieved, then it's still quite positive.  

"Real" aged white tea can still lack intensity and complexity, it seems to me.  I suppose that more dried fruit range should evolve, versus a partially oxidized white tea version just increasing warm tones a little.  Real aged versions should probably be a little sweeter, but when teas are subtle to begin with making that determination can be problematic.

People say that you should "use trusted sources," but then they never seem to move on to what kind of vendor profile or backstory is likely to indicate that they are trustworthy.  A vendor can be very convincing and still ingenuine, or provide very limited background information and story and still be telling the truth.  You need to be able to judge the tea itself, and that requires a lot of experience.

#3:  in a sense this is really nice, but in another sense intensity is so low that there isn't much to experience.  That's normal for a lot of white tea.  If I were to say that it tastes like warm floral tones, cinnamon spice, and rich autumn leaf scent, with a mild toffee-like sweetness, that wouldn't be wrong, but it's all just so light.  Some vendors would add another 3 or 4 flavor aspect descriptions, varying them over rounds, all but guaranteeing to you that flavor complexity and intensity are positive.  Then the tea might still be subtle like this, expressing a hint of this or that.

Bear in mind that I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, and oolongs tend to come across as limited in intensity to me; my expectations are dialed up a bit.  Acclimation can lead to that.

I'll let this brew just over a minute again, and it might show more intensity, since it's finally in the range of being fully wetted.  Four minutes of total brewing time is a good bit, but while half of the tea isn't soaked through yet that part hasn't been releasing much flavor.

#4:  the cinnamon evolves a bit more than the rest.  This is pleasant, just still on the subtle side.  You could have a comparable but more intense experience buying decent Oriental Beauty (relatively more oxidized Taiwanese oolong, that comes across as fruity, with some spice).

Since preference is always a main yardstick I can't necessarily clearly identify limited intensity as a flaw, but to me it's like that, a limitation.  Of course it's possible to push the tea, to use full boiling point water, higher proportion, and a longer infusion time, and intensity will pick up.  I'm brewing something like 5 or 6 grams in 100 ml gaiwan, it looks like, so using a minute for infusion time isn't as much when you consider this is using less material than I typically do (more often 8 to 10 grams, with proportion maxed out, even using much more intense types of teas).

I'll give this a two minute soak and then leave off the notes.  It's fine; it's ok.  People on this page for tea character would enjoy it.  People getting rocked by sheng pu'er intensity most days would probably see it as a miss, more often.  Even a black tea or oolong drinker could see the limited intensity as a problem, but that would just depend.  It's normal for white teas though; this is in a normal range.  I would have a standard Shou Mei version from 7 or so years ago stashed somewhere; I could keep going with comparison.  There wouldn't be much point though; there would always be the question of just how good that version really was, if it expressed the best of the range or if it was below average.

#5:  Since I hadn't ripped the pressed sheets apart even after infusing for nearly 6 minutes now the innermost layers aren't completely soaked through yet.  Getting the most out of this version probably relates to messing with it, to doing that.  I did just break it all apart and re-added the water, giving it two infusions with the same liquid, but brewing temperature must have dropped way off, since this has been soaking for well over two minutes.

It's slightly more intense, richer in feel, with deeper, warmer flavors showing through.  It's nice.

Just how nice, though?  Does it seem definitely "real," tea that actually has been around for 9 years?  Is the flavor distinctive, complex, and compelling?  To me it's just pleasant, none of all that.  But then I don't love aged white tea that much.  It always promises to deliver on deep, rich, complex, varied, sweet tones, and then when you try it it's fine, and those things are there, if you look for them, but intensity is limited, and complexity occurs across a relatively narrow range.  It always seems like maybe there's a different, better example out there, that you just aren't sourcing right to find it yet.

I can go a little further with that.  In 2017 I did a combined white tea tasting that didn't necessarily make sense, this one:

Comparing compressed white teas, shou mei, gong mei, and one freestyle

Those teas ranged from 2008 to 2015, so the oldest then was supposedly 9 years old, as with this one.  One is Gong Mei, the style of white tea that contains even more bud content than Bai Mu Dan, if I've got that right.  Probably it's not quite that simple, and there is more to typical background themes and typical style, but it works to say that both are represented as not being made from mostly older leaf material.

I've drank most of all those teas since, just not all of them.  I think a chunk of the Gong Mei is at the bottom of a storage box somewhere.  I use aged white tea to drink while fasting, to get a break from shu pu'er, since those two types work best on an absolutely empty stomach.  I'm not sure any changed all that much in relation to aging another 7 years since, which would make the one 16 years old now, but I think it's already gone.

That older version had been kind of so-so in quality level, so the aging status is less meaningful.  Maybe they were "faking" aged shou mei versions even back then, 7 years ago, and it was just more oxidized white tea, not a version that old.  Who knows.

I didn't frame that as a selling point but aged white tea can be great to drink when you are sick.  It has a depth to it, and sweetness, and it's quite mild and approachable, and all that fits perfectly well when you are too sick to appreciate stronger versions of teas.  I would've been happy to drink this when I had the flu last week.  

Or day to day preference varies; maybe just for a change sometime.  I wouldn't be open to spending much on having this kind of experience; white teas like this tend to not cost all that much, and to me there isn't enough distinctive about the experience to justify that.  Then again if someone had never tried decent aged white tea and wanted to that would increase the draw quite a bit, and this probably wouldn't turn up for 20 or 30 cents a gram either.  It'll be interesting to see a listed price.

Conclusions:

So it's 60 cents a gram; a bit more, probably related to this being a sample, and tied to the distinctive aged version and Bai Mu Dan parts.  It's fine as an experience, and fine for trying this kind of tea, but I think someone would come away from it questioning if they had the best range of this kind of experience.  

What about the "second grade" part; couldn't it be better as the highest grade?  Would the aging input be clearer to identify and stronger if it hadn't been quite as completely sealed from all air contact?  White tea doesn't necessarily ferment, like sheng pu'er, but limited air exposure might help it transition, being stored in a cake in a wrapper that's not well-sealed.

As with trying lots of other samples lately I think this is fine for an entry into this kind of experience, but for people already further along the path this would be similar to what they've already explored, and they'd probably be interested in seeking out even more exceptional ground.  Or at least an inexpensive aged Shou Mei from a Chinatown market shop, sitting all but forgotten in a basement section, would be so inexpensive that it would be worth buying 357 or so grams to have an easy to drink white tea around.  

If this had "popped" just a little more, extending into dried fruit range, for example, then it might justify being a next level experience better.  As it is it's fine, pleasant for this kind of thing, just a bit unremarkable.

Trying wild origin tea versions, white and oolong (Wuyi Yancha style)

I'm trying two more wild origin teas from ITea World, probably the last of that set I'll get to.  There is a green version but that's my least favorite kind, and reviewing it tends to boiling down to mentioning a few aspects, beyond some vague talking around quality level.

That tea was from this set:

Chinese Wild Tea Sampler: 5 Flavors for $5 with Free Shipping

That's it, not much at all for 25 grams of interesting tea.  Their marketing oriented descriptions:

Wild White Tea:  Plucked wild in Fuding, our Bai Mu Dan white tea features downy silver needles releasing a dewy floral bouquet mingled with sun-ripened fruits and meadow sweetness. Each sip delivers a mellow, soothing creaminess.

Wild Oolong Tea:  Hailing from a Wuyi Mountain tea family, our artisan has over 15 years of expertise in handcrafting traditional-style Wuyi Rock Tea and black tea, having learned the art from a young age by apprenticing with family members.

They seem a bit like that, with less to go on there about what the oolong is like.

Looking around that site the white tea lists for $20-some for 40 grams, and the oolong is around $30 for 40 grams (I'm seeing pricing in Thai baht, initially, so the pricing listing isn't exact).  $25 and 30 it is, switching that over.  I never do really evaluate value later in this post, since that gets speculative anyway, trying to fold together issues related to demand per type, quality level, novelty, and then likely final preference.  

Pricing over 50 cents a gram is getting up there, but for some specialty tea range that's still normal.  I tend to try to buy teas that are more like 20 to 30 cents a gram, or less, but then I also buy relatively directly from producers.  I usually drink sheng pu'er or black tea, with some better oolong and rarer white tea range running a little higher in cost.  

I guess the pricing is probably ok, but more direct comparison with similar versions would tell more of that story.  Then when you are considering novel wild-origin teas it can be harder to find similar products, of any kind or at any price level.

Review:

white, #1:  that's nice.  It's smooth, sweet, rich, and distinctive.  An unusual and pleasant flavor profile may be the story of this tea.  It seems to include a bit of mint, and then warmer depth offsets that, giving it complexity.  The mint is like wintergreen mint, or at least the artificial flavor represented as that, very mild in comparison with something like peppermint.  One part is vegetal, a little like fennel.  It might be easier to break down the rest next round.

oolong:  that's catchy too.  I'm not noticing a distinct familiar Wuyi Yancha style this fits into, which is probably just as well.  The warm tones and good balance seems to relate to this being a bit more oxidized and roasted than a modern lighter style that I'm more familiar with.  When it all works this other range can be even nicer.  Of course mineral tones are part of it, as a base for the rest.  From there it's complex, but hard to really break down.  One part may be closest to warm spice, and another range like dark wood.  Sweetness might tie to something like toffee.

white, #2:  the fennel part picked up most, which works.  It shifts to warmer tones, off fresh fennel into fennel seed range a bit.  It's harder to notice a mint background note but it still seems to be there.  Complexity seems pretty good; it's hard to communicate how that works based only on a couple of flavor descriptions.  Part of a warmer base also seems to relate to autumn leaf range.  To me that can be expressed differently, as dry, light, sweet tones or instead as wetter, heavier range, relating to fresh dry leaves or wet versions.  This is the first case, dry, light, and sweet, and also complex.

oolong #2:  this warms and deepens.  It includes that one peach-like note that can be distinctive in Dan Cong; interesting seeing that stand out this much in a Wuyi Yancha version.  I suppose interpreted differently it's just floral, but to me clearly peach.  It's so pronounced that at this round it seems like a pretty good Dan Cong version, which is not a bad range to fall into.  

It lacks the rough edge that often adjoins those, the harsh astringency, but in my experience that seems to tie to quality level in Dan Cong, and to some extent probably also to growing elevation.  Most likely the connection is a bit incidental, and cheaper higher volume production, low elevation farmed Dan Cong is not processed quite as well, with plants stressed with fertilizer input to get the most out of them, and higher elevation sources are harvest less, and allowed to grow more naturally.  All just guesses, of course.

The sweetness carries over as a pleasant aftertaste.  It could extend a little longer; as a quality level marker--if taken that way--this suggests that this is upper medium quality range, with room for improvement.

white, #3:  creaminess picks up; that's an interesting shift.  I hadn't even mentioned it before; I suppose that it had factored in.  Trying this a little lighter probably shifts what comes across.  I suppose it's worth noting again that I write all this before I see any vendor description; it's interesting that creaminess is mentioned by them and also stands out.

It still works to describe this as like fennel with a hint of mint, with warmer but sweet complexity along the line of autumn leaf.  It's transitioning though; within a round or two a different description will probably work better.

oolong:  still pretty close to a Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong that happens to taste a lot like peach, with some supporting floral range and warm tones.  It's fairly clean too, with good sweetness; all the other aspects indicate this is a little better than just "upper medium quality level."  Maybe not some elevated "best of the best range," but then it's not even matching a standard type that its origin relates to anyway.

This reminds me of one of Cindy's Wuyishan origin teas, from Wuyi Origin, tasting a lot like peach one year, when it normally might've included that but certainly didn't typically include such a pronounced aspect.  Terroir inputs can vary some year to year, and of course by narrow location.  

I looked at the vendor page for more description, since there wasn't much flavor breakdown in that initial sampler-summary version:

...tea exhibits a rich floral and fruity aroma that infuses the water. Upon sipping, the floral and fruity notes rise, filling the nose with their fragrance.The flavor is robust and refreshing, with a pronounced sweetness that stimulates the salivary glands and leaves a clear, crisp aftertaste. The enduring sweetness provides a lingering, delightful aftertaste that is truly memorable.

Heavy on marketing spin but that actually kind of works.  They might've mentioned peach.

white, #4:  there is another shift; that creaminess has edged towards creamsicle, which I guess relates to citrus picking up a little.  This will probably eventually transition to warmer tones, or at least heavier vegetal range, but I'll probably leave off taking notes here.  8 infusions is a lot for my patience, and the short quiet window on a Saturday morning for tasting will end before too long.  

This tea exceeded my expectations; I expected some positive character from it, but it's normal for a lot of white tea range to come across as much thinner, and more limited, not as complex or intense.  Beyond including that the flavor set is interesting, integrated, and positive.  I've not mentioned much for feel structure but it's not thin either.  Aftertaste expression is there but limited, which I don't see as that much of a limitation; it can vary in different tea versions.

oolong:  not that much transition, maybe just a slight shift in earlier aspects balance.  Dominant warm peach flavor works especially well for me, so that's fine.  

This is definitely a tea that a Dan Cong lover could appreciate, even they had adjusted to expect higher quality range.  Feel range is pretty good; it could be a little thicker, but it's fine.  Aftertaste is positive; it trails on afterwards nicely.  Complexity is good; warm toffee range fills in depth beyond the peach and supporting floral range.  

There's not that much mineral base, as lots of Wuyi Yancha oolongs go; I suppose that could be interpreted as a limitation.  Really it not being fully type-typical is either a main weakness or else a good thing, since the range expressed is so nice.  Someone splitting hairs could say that the feel structure not being full enough is a limitation, since it's not well-balanced by that input, but to me that's not really even a flaw in this, never mind a significant one.  It's quite good, and the "wild origin" description leads me to expect something a little off the standard range.  More natural growing conditions can often lend to novel flavor inputs entering in, as has occurred with both these teas.

These seem particularly well made.  Starting with good material is one thing, but teas need to be processed skillfully to bring out a well-balanced character.  There's a synchronicity that comes with all of it coming together in an amazing way, how the best of the best standard versions come across, and I'm not saying that these are there, because they're quite good but not that fantastic.  There are essentially no flaws to point out in either though, just a limitation here or there, an aspect range that could be dialed up a little.

For the white tea that comes with the general style; it usually doesn't match the complexity, intensity, and full feel and aftertaste expression of many other tea types.  For that tea it being so positive, complex, novel, and pleasant to experience is enough.  

The Wuyi Yancha could pass for pretty good Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong, even with oxidation and roast level appropriate for that, better than most tend to be, which to me is generally a good thing, just maybe a little unusual related to the trueness to type theme.

Not from this tasting, instead from drinking some random sheng pu'er yesterday, I wanted to mention something relating to this teaware.  You don't need to spend much to use functional, pleasant teaware.  I buy these 100 ml, plain, white gaiwans in a Chinatown shop, selling there for around $3, but $10 might be more typical from other sources.  These cups I buy at a Japanese ceramics outlet shop, for around $1 each.  It's like the Ross Dress for Less theme, I think; they sell extra versions from large batch local production.

Then I use two so that I can pour the tea from one to the other to cool it.  I tend to use an extra to re-hydrate some goji berries every morning, eating those as a supplement.  I think it's a good source of beta carotene, what vitamin A is derived from, and supposedly it contains anti-aging related compounds.  I'm not really endorsing that, just explaining why my daily tea setup uses three cups.

Tea meetup at a Bangkok Chinatown shop, Jip Eu

 

I've let the subject of tea tastings go for quite awhile, aside from holding one in Honolulu this year.  But a Bankgok Tea Tasting theme Facebook group I started has seen more members join this year than ever before, so it made sense to try to meet some of them.  I was going to my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop to replace an aged sheng cake (Xiaguan) anyway, so I announced the visit as a meetup in that group.

Four others met with me for a pleasant tasting session there; their participation made the event work.  Writing about it is in part about communicating more to them about what we tried, what the teas were, and leads for buying similar teas.  Of course my main thanks go to Kittichai and his wife, the Jip Eu shop owners, for serving as the actual hosts; he was kind enough to share samples of several teas for us, and to keep pouring rounds for two hours.  For me it's always like visiting an aunt and uncle there, which makes buying good tea at great value all the more pleasant.

Conversation points

This is mainly about the teas, adding more about what they are, and reference links, but I wanted to also pass on the feel of discussion, even though I'll cite very little of it.  It's always interesting starting out with what people already like and experience of teas.  A good lead on visiting shops in Little India came up, but I've lost track of those details; maybe at the very back of Phahurat Market?  There's more on that area here.

Brief discussion of willow herb came up, aka Ivan Chay, a rare tisane type that can be oxidized.  I've tried some really nice versions of those, mostly from Moychay, and other novel and pleasant pressed mixed tisane bars.  It would be more odd that willow herb and tisane blends never caught on if decent tea wasn't also slow to gain acceptance.

From there lots of short tangents related to the teas we tried came up, so I'll skip on to that.

What we tried

2006 CNNP (/ Zhongcha) 8001 sheng pu'er:  later I was thinking about how the tasting theme went from heavy to light and back to heavy, kind of unusual.  I think maybe we had stopped by in the middle of two others trying this aged sheng pu'er, which is characteristic for one style (a bit heavy, earthy, slightly rough-edged for being this far through fermentation, definitely intense).  

Readers may think back to trying 17 year old sheng pu'er versions that seemed pretty fresh to them, still including bitterness, not fully transitioning from earlier slightly harsh range onto milder earthiness.  Storage input plays a big role, along with the initial starting point; Bangkok is as hot and humid as anywhere, pretty close to Malaysian storage.  It's not exactly like 20+ years in Hong Kong or Taiwan, but at least fermentation level is equivalent to that.  

I own part of a cake of this tea, reviewed here.  Note that I reviewed that 4 years ago, when it was 13 years old; those extra years of transition since have made a lot of difference.  Of the three more-aged versions--leaving out a Dayi purple label version in this discussion--I might like the CNNP the least, and see it as least refined, with heavy earth aspects that can come across as rough edges.  I've tried it in the last month or so, part of a normal routine of checking in, and it's good, but the other two I like better.  I have a spare cake of that Dayi sheng (reviewed here in 2020; it's better now too), but the Xiaguan runs a bit low.

silver needle style tea, from Fuding:  it came up that the range was a bit heavy, and Kittichai was nice to help switch theme back to the opposite extreme, brewing a pleasant silver needle version.  I didn't catch much for details; maybe this was partly aged, or maybe not.  My guess is that a slightly higher degree of initial oxidation than might be typical for the type added depth and heavier flavors, but both inputs (that and aging) could lead there, probably in slightly different forms.  It was really nice.  

It's hard to do a flavor-list review here by memory; plenty of mineral base stood out, it seemed quite floral, and there was at least one more aspect in there.  We weren't discussing teas in tea-tasting form, offering rounds of input about flavors and other experience, although more of that came up related to another version.

2022 Thai sheng (pu'er-like tea):  I brought some newish Thai sheng (not pu'er, to most, since that's a Yunnan-restricted designation), it seemed like a good time to try that, moving on to heavier but not exactly heavy range.  That shop specializes in Wuyi Yancha (Fujian rock oolong), and Kittichai has family roots in Wuyishan and Anxi, so trying Tie Guan Yin would also make sense.  We just didn't get to either.  To me Tie Guan Yin isn't the most interesting range, even though it can be pleasant, and it takes a lot of doing to get far with Wuyi Yancha, since you need prior exposure to place any given version, and to see how closely it matches your preference related to all the rest.  True of lots of tea types, I suppose, but with sheng my personal favorite we went ahead and tried a Thai version.

It was nice, fresh and sweet, intense, of course including plenty of bitterness.  There is a characteristic flavor range Thai sheng tends to cover, which I'd mostly describe as floral, but it seems possible that I'm missing one or two aspect descriptions that really pegs it.  I cover the source and reference a review in a later part about vendor background.  

It was fairly well received; people are often exposed mainly to young factory sheng versions instead, which can be a little more undrinkable.  Or to moderately aged versions, not onto optimum transition level yet, or to aged versions that don't express the full potential of the type range.  I suppose the CNNP version might've been guilty of that, but style and aspects relate to personal preference, and lots of aged sheng isn't "refined."

2006 Xiaguan 8653 sheng pu'er (full size cake):  this is what I was there to buy, and Kittichai offered us some to try.  I thought it was good.  It was better received by everyone joining.  To me it tasted a bit like aged leather, but another participant added that it covers a lot of the same scent range from smelling cigars in cedar storage, both the aromatic wood smell and the tobacco, which smells nothing like a burning cigar while in storage.  That really is it.  

I had tried the tea last about 3 days ago (after initially reviewing it last year), and it's much more refined than it had been just 6 months ago.  It has turned a corner in the aging cycle.  I bet in about 2 more years it will be really special, so that I should probably be buying a few of these, but my budget is fairly locked down these days, with the moving back and forth between Bangkok and Honolulu.

after a year more than half is gone; I'm drinking more than just to check on it

Vendor references

I wanted to add a few vendor references before this ran too long, related to what we tried.  Of course Jip Eu themselves are a great reference; all but one of those teas is from there.

Qing Fu Cha:  the owner of this online business, selling Thai sheng and Taiwanese oolong, joined with us.  I've tried some of their Thai sheng before (reviewed here) and it was quite nice, although I'll also mention other fantastic options for other versions.  Their FB page is here, and it's probably possible to find their teas in an online outlet shop, which Google search would identify if so.

Aphiwat:  a small local tea producer, selling Thai sheng, the source for that tea I brought (reviewed here last year, compared to one from Vietnam and to a version from Moychay).  I just ordered some from him today, which I suppose is tea blogger code for either that source's tea completely matched my preference or quality and value makes lots of sense, especially when I'm also listing other good source options here.  

An earlier review of a pressed cake version tells that story.  If I could live on only one tea version right now it would his, or Wawee Tea's.  I drank a 150 gram small cake in that first two-month stay in Honolulu, when my kids first started school there, and repeated that with another Thai tea I mention next on the next stay.

Wawee Tea:  a well-respected Thai sheng producer, who I wrote about here.  I've liked different things I tried from them, but one particular new version last year I couldn't stop myself from all but finishing in short order, almost a whole cake's worth in under two months.  

Mind you new sheng or the Thai sheng profile range isn't for everyone; Kittichai, the owner of Jip Eu, kind of gets it but doesn't love it like I do.  I don't think most versions are suitable for aging, and they would be fine, and a little different, a year or two later, but it's as well to burn straight through them.  You absolutely have to be ok with bitterness mixed with sweetness, and I definitely wasn't for the first half dozen years of trying sheng versions over and over.  Then it clicked.  I don't think there's any need to rush that, to see it as some higher form of preference; if you like it then you like it, and it's fine if you don't.

two of the teas I'm describing, compared with one from Vietnam

Moychay's Thai forest-origin initiative:  I might as well add a third exceptional source, related to Thai sheng I absolutely loved last year, this one, with more background on the source here.  It's possible that it's not quite as close a match to my preference as the other two versions, but in a way that's not fair, given that it was their initial production of the type, past early trials (or I suppose this maocha version was, but they're from about the same time).  

I bet they're right there with the other two producers already.  Wawee Tea has been a producer for decades, I think, and there are reviews in this blog of Aphiwat's teas from 2019.  My guess is that material quality is covered in their case too, that terroir and plant-type issues are dialed in.  All three versions were so similar, in such a narrow related style range, that it would take someone with plenty of exposure to notice differences and have a preference.  

those three teas

One thing I want to repeat to make it crystal clear:  the style of all three matches my own main preference; I don't mean to imply that these are better than teas from elsewhere, especially Yunnan, or even from Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, for that matter.  

Of course versions from the most valued narrow origin areas in Yunnan are superior in a few different ways, beyond better aging potential.  But if your preference matches mine something will really click when you first try a really good example, and your whole tea preference will shift a little.  If it's a first encounter with a tea with bitterness as a main aspect that probably won't happen, which is fine.

That Xiaguan cake must have been relatively undrinkable 17 years ago, when first produced.  Some other sheng versions hit an atypical fermentation transition "sweet spot" in the middle instead, softening and gaining depth without needing that decade and a half to be approachable.  But these two polar opposites seem the norm, to me, that sheng is often best within 2 years of being produced, or even right away, or only after nearly 20 years of very appropriate storage conditions input, or longer.  It was nice that we could experience that much of that range in just three versions in this outing.