Comparing two versions of roasted Tie Kuan Yin

my daughter already has plans for this box, for hair clips and jewelry

A friend in Malaysia passed on some teas; I'm reviewing two versions of roasted Tie Kuan Yin from that set.  That's the same friend who passed on insight about what hui gan is, a "returning sweetness" effect in tea, really more related to what the "gan" aspect is, a type of bitterness that also extends to an experience of sweetness afterwards in that form in tea. 

I couldn't identify an online reference to exactly what it is (just different teas, I mean more on that), but it's from Dragon-i, a restaurant chain there and in Hong Kong (with more information and reviews here, but it's about food).

The set is too much, really.  It's ok if I give someone tea without getting anything back but somehow not right if it goes the other way; eventually I'll have to balance the scales, even if I have to go to Malaysia to do it.  Here's what the two teas are:

Teh Oolong TGY

Teh Gui Pin TGY


Of course Teh is tea, and TGY is Tie Kuan Yin (spelled as Guan; maybe I'm wrong to always use the other spelling).  I tried to look up the Gui Pin reference but it didn't pan out.  Since I'm writing this after the tasting session part I know what it is, roughly, it would just be interesting to trace that label and general type description back.  It was just more-roasted lightly oxidized Tie Kuan Yin, I think.

They seem to almost certainly be from around Anxi in Fujian, China; there's no way these teas are from Malaysia, being sold from a Chinese shop.  I've never heard of anything but commercial CTC black tea being produced in Malaysia, although surely there must be an exception or two out there.

Review

barely getting started; Teh Oolong left, Gui Pin version right

Teh Oolong TKY (hereafter referred to as "oolong," but they both are that):  the first sip probably lets me know where this is going to go; this is one of the best roasted Tie Kuan Yin's I've yet to try.  It's clearly very well made tea, complex, clean in flavor profile, with roasted flavor aspect range that's new to me.  I'll say more about it next round and just list a couple first-impression flavors for now:  more-cooked caramel stands out, with fruit beyond that covering both raisin and something more interesting, with an awful lot of depth to the complex range beyond that.  I could say more but I'll leave off until next round, since it will show more of what it's going to be then.


Gui Pin TKY:  this is similar in overall range, just a lot different in character.  Where the other was heavy caramel this is a bit inky in flavor impression (mineral intensive), with the roast coming across just a little more as roast, or as light "char" as I describe that in Wuyi Yancha.  It will also have more depth and a cleaner, better balanced overall range and effect than I may have ever ran across in more-roasted TKY.  These teas will be an education in a potential I've just not got around to covering.

It's no surprise that it exists, or that I've ran across over-roasted light versions that weren't on this quality level in the past.  That's how that would go, unless someone gets sourcing better sorted out.  I wasn't so clear on it at this point in the tasting but the first ended up seeming a lot more interesting and novel to me later.

she liked both but I didn't get much review out of her

Second infusion:

Oolong:  it's interesting the way this is so different than any more-roasted TKY I've tried, that much better.  The warm rich flavors are shifted a little towards cinnamon now, with the other fruit still present but falling into a lighter balance.  That roasted caramel range might be coming across closer to cocoa now.  Part of it I'm just not getting to describing, like a dried fruit range well beyond raisin, but that's the closest familiar version of that general range.  It's towards prune but not that either.  It works well for me because of a match to preference; I like the way more oxidation together with some roast effect works versus just roasting a light version instead, which is what I tend to run across.  That oxidation occurs early in processing, the same step that makes black tea into what it is, or oolong different from green tea, of course with baking / roasting occurring at the end instead.


Gui Pin:  this is a little more familiar, the character of this tea.  It seems to be a lighter roasted TKY version that uses the roasting step to shift character quite a bit, versus the other seeming to be oxidized more (what I just covered).

Related to aspects a light char comes across.  This general type of tea I've tried before; it's a pretty good version though.  Depth picks up a little more than in the first round but the general flavor is still the same.  I really like the first better for being so novel and for combining so much fruit and spice, and overall depth, along with novelty.  This is good tea though.

I didn't make anything of it in the tasting notes but the brewed tea of the first version is a lot darker.  I'm interpreting that as due to it being oxidized more.

Third infusion:

Oolong:  the roast effect picks up a little but the complexity is still the main thing that stands out, so much going on and balancing so well.  The same flavor list as last time applies, just with part diminished a little and swapped out for a more general trace of char joining in.  The feel is full but that part could be thicker.  The aftertaste effect is more pronounced; that really lingers.  Mineral tones carry on longer than the rest of the range, a dark version of mineral, paired with some of the fruit that is as close to prune as anything.  For being as earthy as the tea is it's still sweet, intense, bright, and clean.  It's that balance that more roasted or oxidized oolongs struggle to reach, beyond just getting factors like level of roast to contribute as much as possible without tasting like char.


Gui Pin:  floral tone picks up.  It's odd I've went so far into a TKY pair review without saying that, since floral range is most pronounced in the type, in general.  The other version was too far into fruit and spice to notice it and the char had been too strong in this.  Now it's not; it has faded somewhat and this is mostly floral.  If I go back and taste the other version and focus on the level of floral it's there, just not as pronounced as the rest.  This picks up a bit of old book or furniture taste to go with that; the char dropping back gave it plenty of space to evolve.  In the right level that type of aspect can be nice and it works in this.  For personal preference I like the range of the other tea better, maybe in part for it seeming less like what I've experienced before.  I've tried plenty of teas from other places that overlapped a little with it, leading to the guess that it seemed to be oxidation along with roast as a cause, but none with really similar overall character.

That late interpretation of floral tone reminds me of the last review, how it barely came up in talking about three different sheng, even though floral tones typically tend to stand out in those.  One in particular was from Jing Mai, and to me that's characteristic of that region, just less so and in a different form than in Yiwu, where it can be really intense.  Part of that might have related to that one tea being over two years old.  Tea character changes a good bit over that time-frame, with brighter and more intense aspects diminishing, along with bitterness and initial astringency.  Much later warmer, earthier aspects like dried fruit, spice, or tobacco might emerge (although that seemed like spice to me already).  Another part is that milder or non-distinct floral tone might just seem like a general sweetness; someone might call it honey-like instead, or associate it with the other mineral or earthy range, just as non-distinct sweetness.

The last possible interpretation is a bit touchier:  I was rushed and distracted during that tasting.  Usually on the Saturday tasting sessions my wife is off with my son at his Chinese lesson and this time she came back during it.  Even a level of noise will throw off how much detail is picked up in tasting, and make interpretation harder, but someone urging you to "wrap it up" is even worse.  We had that temple outing to get to (with photos in the last post), and plans for an errand after that.  These reviews aren't supposed to be a last word on what the teas are like, just an informed impression, but that impression is clearer when conditions are more ideal.  At least I didn't have a cold; that's worse.

Fourth infusion:

Oolong:  the tea is still brewing with plenty of flavor, using only around a 20 or so second infusion time, maybe just over that.  Others might like it stronger, and it would still work well brewed twice that long, but I'd see this infusion strength as conventional, and to my preference as roughly optimum.  The flavor and other aspects haven't transitioned enough to say more about that.


Gui Pin:  this tea is probably the best it's been at that point, while the other might just be leveling off and fading a little now.  Both these teas have more story to tell, about this many more infusions or more to go, about how they would evolve over that.  Per one take how well a tea retains it's character and how much pleasant tea it brews relates to the overall quality of the tea.  That seems partly right, but that also relates to different styles of tea, instead of just quality.  To me how pleasant and enjoyable all of the infusions come across is the main thing.

Teh Oolong (left) leaves are definitely darker

Later rounds / Conclusions

I did keep coming back to these teas, drinking a couple extra rounds a few times.  They really just seemed to keep thinning from there, without anything really interesting coming up due to extending infusion times, and without aspects "going off" in any ways, transitioning negatively.  

Teas come in a broad range of quality levels and these seemed pretty good.  "Good" is always relative; I think someone well-connected with good sources, willing to spend a bit on better versions, could still find better.  For Americans buying what turns up in typical online sources they're probably well above average.  Related to what turns up in Bangkok shops you tend to just not see good versions in these styles, even with a really broad range of "good" applied.  The bright green versions come in range of quality levels, and some few versions that are roasted some, but decent more-oxidized TKY  oolongs don't as much. 

The same challenge applies across lots of tea types.  It's easy to find really mediocre versions of many, online or else in shops, depending, but as you go up the scale of quality level that gets much harder.  Spending your way to better versions, finding options selling for more, is a promising approach but it offers no guarantee.  I'm familiar with a couple of well-known vendors who just add a more flowery description and sell roughly the same lower-medium quality and cost teas for twice as much.  I hope these teas didn't cost too much but they probably weren't a steal.

There are more to get to.  I'll mention how that goes, probably limiting it to covering the most interesting versions.

A origin story about the Iron Goddess of Mercy

That Malaysian-Chinese friend passed on a story about Guan Yin, familiar from being associated and the tea type, with the plant type and finished tea both named after a statue of the goddess or bhodisattva.  His version of the story is similar to one found in this Wikipedia reference (the Legend of Miaoshan version), but it's also quite different.  It came up due to sharing pictures of my children's visit to a local temple where there was such a statue:

I had thought both statue images there might be Guan Yin, but maybe not:

We were there to offer food (alms) to local monks, as part of observing both our kid's birthdays (two visits about a week apart), as shown:

In Thailand it's a cultural observance that monks never seem cheerful, as part of being even tempered and free from conventional emotional experience.  Of course they're still just people, so it's a mannerism as much as truly symbolic.  That monk is one of my favorites because he is cheerful instead (even though I don't know him; I just see him around, and my daughter and I "wai" to him, the Thai hand gesture next in the series of photos of that alms offering).

what the Thai "wai" looks like

Ordinarily I cite quoted text in bold lettering here but since this story from my friend is longer I'll skip that part in the following.  He really does write as if he's creating literature in every sentence, in all the messages.  It makes for great reading, and he makes a great online pen-pal, for sharing ideas even more than for sharing tea.  I considered editing this down but it's all too good a read to take out any part.  No need to frame it, or comment further after citing it; his version is clear and quite complete.

The statue depicts a princess, the youngest of the three daughters of an emperor of China. She was nearly killed upon birth by her own father, for wanting a son to someday continue rule the land, but the empress managed to stop the slaying.

During the reign of the emperor, due to his arrogance claiming himself to be the most powerful man on earth, he dismissed the might and the presence of the heavenly beings. To show his displeasure, he banned all Buddhism teaching, commanded the wholesale destruction of all Buddhist temples and scriptures. He ordered the round-up of all Buddhist monks, all of them defenseless, to be publicly reprimanded, some were even beaten, in public squares, for the sole purpose to invoke fear for and submission to him alone, amongst the villagers.

As fate would have it, an unburnt page of the sacred writings from the fiery flames was carried by the light breeze on a windless day and it landed in the chamber of the princess. She picked up the charred piece and perused it contemplatively. Her interest piqued ever since with many unanswered queries, apparently oblivious to the mayhem his father have caused throughout the kingdom, the many invasion of nearby states, unmannerly amassing more land and wealth.

One day, during the princess's visit to the town, a divine being gifted her a copy of the Buddhist scripture. She read it surreptitiously in the palace but no less attentively, unbeknownst to her that she would someday be pivotal to bringing peace and solace to the whole world with the knowledge gained.

A dignitary from a neighbouring state was granted an audience with the emperor and the princess had a premonition that he was about to impale his father with a sword hidden amongst the treasures to be presented to the emperor. The princess dashed to shield her father and successfully foiled the assassination attempt but she was stabbed on the forehead by the tip of the blade, precisely the very spot between her eyes. Therefore, the appearance of the red dot seen on the sculpture, below her hairline. All efforts were made to revive her but failed, nonetheless. During the period of time the princess was comatose, she met a mighty and powerful figure. The utterly great and supreme Buddha. Buddha called on the princess to use her empathy and innate compassionate nature to help the people in misery by disseminating the teaching of Buddhism.

However, whilst in the realm of the mortals, the royal physician had declared that the princess could not be saved. Her body was set alight on the funeral pyre, thereby hampering her return to the corporeal existence.

The divine being, the one the princess had met in town, told the royal household that the princess could be brought back to life only if flowers were to bloom in the pond of the palace. Lots of flowers were then placed gently on the surface of the pond, with chrysanthemums, peonies, but all harshly sunk to the bottom of the pond. A warrior, not long ago volunteered to be the protector for the princess filled with extreme remorse and guilt for failing to keep the princess safe, jumped into the pond, his only way to show contrition by ending his own life and very nearly drowned. His act of loyalty was blessed with the blooming of lotus flowers, the 'flower that bloomed in a pond', one of the giant blossoms bore the princess.

And ta-da, the princess was brought to life.

Therefore, the statuette always sits criss-cross applesauce on top of a lotus flower.

[that's one of my daughter's favorite expressions!]

she can do the seated meditation version  too

The adviser to the emperor, a very devious person that was instrumental in bringing chaos all over the country, eventually committed an act of betrayal. An attack by armed insurgents he led, was launched against the emperor and within the palace. Alas, the emperor committed suicide.

The warrior, the protector for the princess, having royal blood himself, succeeded his uncle, as the new emperor.

The princess's undying love for her late father was undeniable. She 'journeyed' to hell to save his father, hoping to bring him back to the world. Due to her immense filial piety towards her father, the God of the underworld granted her request, permitted the emperor to be reincarnated as human. However, the emperor declined as he had fully repented and wished to reborn as cow or horse to serve the human race. He was allowed to be reborn as cow.

It is most probably for that reason, many Buddhists do not consume beef.

Whilst saving her father, the princess cut off her left arm to feed the hungry ghosts that obstructed her gateway back to earth. The new king had a statue of the princess sitting on the lotus flower commissioned, to commemorate her miraculous and safe return. A temple was also built adjacent to the palace, allowing the princess to further her teaching of Buddhism to the villagers. Well, the new king was actually in love with the princess all the whilst, wishing her to always stay close by his side and believing that the new temple would do the trick.

However, the princess was destined for great things, to promulgate calm and peace for all mankind through compassion, kindness and mercy. And in fact, no reward could win over her special calling, required of her beyond the confines of the temple and the palace.

The mason had finally produced a statuette but with a missing arm, mimicking the princess's current state, much to the chagrin of the new king. Upon seeing the anger the new king had displayed, the villagers had each brought a sculpted arm for the mason, all to be affixed on the figurine to pay homage to the princess for her bravery and devotion to her parent.

Consequently, in modern times, there are many versions of the figurine of the deity, one with many arms and hands attached, in particular.

The princess eventually achieved enlightenment. She left the temple built for her, travelled all across the world in a lotus flower as a disciple of Buddha. She acquired the name '觀音' or 'Goon Yum', the heavenly title bestowed by Buddha, also famously known as the 'Goddess of Mercy'. '觀' or 'Goon' means 'to observe', whilst '音' or 'Yum' means 'sound'. Goddess of Mercy, a godly being that listens to the plight of the people in need of her help and relief.

The name '觀音' or 'Goon Yum' was also used as name for a tea. The tea '鐵觀音' or 'Theet Goon Yum', also known as 'Tie Kuan Yin' to many others, means the 'Iron Goddess of Mercy'. It was rumoured that '乾隆王' or 'Khin Loong Wong', also called 'Emperor Qian Loong', was so captivated by the tea, its sturdiness that resembled the characteristic of an iron, with the taste that all but paralleled to the beauty of the Goddess of Mercy.

It takes good skill to carve the face of the statuette of the goddess to look compassionate and kind. The Cantonese would usually present the amulets of this goddess, usually made of jade, to family members, to be worn as necklace to ward off evil spirits or for mere protection, especially those making a long trip or having it placed in a crib of a newborn. It is not uncommon to hear accounts that a person wearing the jewelled ornament survived major accidents with minor or came through the ordeals unscathed, but left with the broken green talisman, having it 'absorbed' all negative impacts, both physically and spiritually.

Golding Jing Mai gushu sheng pu'er

This is the last pu'er sample sent by Golding, a shop in KL, Malaysia, a Jing Mai gushu sheng pu'er, tea from old tea tree plants.  They are in the process of updating website content, to add more detail, and there's an additional Facebook contact; always different pictures and notices on those.  According to the shop owner this version is a 2016 tea, with only a 2013 version shown on that site.


My first thought on tasting the first infusion was that this is something different, likely my favorite of these samples, but more comparison tasting would help determine that.  It's still sheng pu'er but the range of some aspects is different, aromatic and floral to a different degree.


I'm brewing this way on the light side,  following up on that working well for others.  Aromatic and floral pretty much describes the main initial infusions,  but doesn't do them justice.  That flavor must be a certain flower, maybe in the orchid range, but not the light, sweet, bright honey orchid familiar from Dan Congs.  It's richer and rounder, a step towards lavender.  Or maybe that just is close to lavender; I'm not great with floral scent memory.


The overall effect stands out in the sense of being novel and interesting,  but not at all in terms of which particular aspect is so interesting.  This is a new way for a tea to have a rich feel, a general theme that comes across differently in different exceptional teas.


Some of the effect must be from what's missing; the flavors are clean and balanced, with no negative aspects at all.  There's no bitterness (which wouldn't be negative to people who like bitterness), no astringency to speak of, related to that bite.  Mineral tones are part of the context of flavors but that aspect range is subdued, nothing pronounced, and not related to any corresponding bitterness or astringency.

The tea isn't transitioning so much; not sure where I expected it to go.  I brewed one infusion longer to check that effect and it did start to have that astringency in sheng; apparently completely eliminating that is possible through brewing lightly, with the same general flavors aspects.  It's interesting to consider where preference for that might lead others to brew the same tea in different ways.


It's a nice characteristic that this tea isn't going to stop brewing any time soon; around 10 infusions in it seems to be getting warmed up.  The flavors soften a little, gain a bit more depth, but don't shift much.  Even brewed lightly it's got a fulness to the feel,  and a lingering aftertaste.  As far as mouthful effect or where the tastes land on your tongue someone who cares about that could do reviewing it more justice.

Conclusions

After trying these I'm still not clear on where I stand on pu'er.  There's something to the type, of course, a novelty and depth of different dimensions not found in other types.  Aging adds yet another.  I reviewed that topic in another post, and the one thing everyone agrees on is that there are different approaches and preferences related to aging.


I really enjoyed the different pu'er versions I tried from Golding, this one, a Bulang Dragonball, a Jing Mai Xiao Shu, and a Nan Nuo gushu.  I suspect that if I went back and comparison tasted them I'd change interpretation a little, and probably add more depth to the descriptions.  There is a lot more story to be told about Golding producing their own teas as well, about experiences with that process, and insights into the types of pu'er-related claims that make for heated discussion in tea circles.  Some of that I may get into later based on more input from a Golding owner.


At the same time sheng pu'er doesn't match my natural taste preference as well as more roasted oolongs, or even black teas, mostly related to Chinese-style versions of those.  That doesn't stop me from enjoying pu'er and green teas, also well outside that range, and I'll continue with pu'er.  I bought a cake of an aged Hong Tai Cha Thai version this year (so really hei cha, not pu'er), the third sheng cake I've bought, in addition to several shou.  I experience some degree of natural preference shift in different teas and types, changes over time, and it's been interesting to see to what degree I can anticipate and lead that.

More on Wuyishan teas is coming next, along with reviews of an interesting set of samples from Nepal, but I will get back to pu'er.

Golding Bulang Dragonball (sheng pu'er ball)

Interesting looking!  I'm not seeing this on the Golding shop website, but then they've communicated they're updating that site content now, with an alternate contact for them through Facebook.


Even the initial brew, with the ball just starting to loosen up, shows where this is going to go.  The tea is nice, good sweetness and complexity, with lots going on, and some of the astringency / bitterness /  mineral element / medicinal aspect common in sheng.

a little edgy to be tea drunk

Other pu’er drinkers might contest any of those descriptions as common sheng pu'er elements, although what I mean in general is probably clear enough.  Astringency isn’t used here in the same sense as in Assamica black teas, for sure, closer to related aspects in green tea.  Bitterness is often confused with astringency, even though they are different things, one being a taste (bitterness) and astringency a mouth-feel element.  More tasting will help determine which is present in this tea.


The taste range includes some mineral, it’s just not as clear that relates to the other flavors / aspects I’m saying it could typically tie to, that astringency and mineral flavors could be related.  “Medicinal” is more commonly used to describe an unusual aspect found in older teas, typically as something positive.  But then different medicines would have different tastes, so there would need to be more inter-subjective agreement on how it should be used for that description to really be meaningful.

All that aside, the tea is nice.  There is lots of honey sweetness too, along with floral tones, some mineral range, and below that a trace of a pleasant earthy aspects, maybe something towards leather, with a bit of spice.  I’m ok with preference for teas within that sheng character range, so all this just requires some dialing in and unpacking.


Early on even a flash infusion works, barely giving the tea a few seconds, tempering the more challenging aspects down to a background element.  The tea is even positive toned way down, brewed quite lightly, of course depending on preference, still letting the nice flavors step forward.  The flavors and character are going to soften and transition just from the tea loosening up and coming to life beyond some initial infusions.


After some it does soften a little, with that honey sweetness remaining as the primary flavor aspect, with floral elements and minerals below that.  I’ll leave off with the mouth-feel description since I don’t have developed preference related to that anyway.  The tea is nice, with good complexity, but it’s hard to separate into more flavors; I’m mostly just getting that basic set, and I’m not so good with breaking down “floral” into specific flowers.  Based on the dry scent it had seemed like there was a little more range that would come out, earth or spice, but it remains faint, or maybe only present in my imagination.  The mineral might correspond to a trace of overlapping vegetal tone, not like a green tea tasting like green beans or bell peppers, but there might be just a faint touch of something.  I'm not noticing much in the way of actual bitterness, just a touch at most.


Even though flavors are mostly in the range of honey, floral, and mineral aspects, not a description of my favorite tea types, the tea still works for me.  The flavors are really clean, and the character softened to a nice range.  I wouldn’t give up dark roasted oolongs and black teas to focus on sheng pu’er based on this one tea experience but it’s nice enough, pleasant.  Many infusions along that trace of spice did start to pick up a bit, it seemed.


It seemed to me there is enough complexity to the tea that different brewing approaches could draw out different aspects more, so even though I didn’t experience lots of transition the tea seemed like it probably could potentially express more range, in that sense.

Beyond the review

The tea raises some questions.  It’s not normal for blog posts to point towards gaps in what is covered, typically just citing a description and moving on, but I’ll do so.  It struck me as odd the tea wasn’t more astringent or bitter.  Per a Tea DB post that gets into sub-regional version characteristics of pu’er bitterness would be characteristic of Bulang pu’er, and of course younger sheng pu’er in general:


Located in Menghai county, Bulang stands in stark contrast to the light and subtle aftertaste characteristic of Yiwu. One of the principle tea regions for Menghai tea factory, Bulang raw pu’erh is usually bold, bitter, and strong flavored. Due to its proximity with Menghai Tea Factory it commonly finds its way into ripe pu’erh. It is less likely to find Bulang marketed as Bulang than Yiwu, even though it produces alot of tea. Perhaps most notably, Bulang is also home to some of the hottest, pu’erh areas including: Lao Banzhang and Lao Mane.


Very clear!  So different areas cover different scope, and designations can overlap, to some extent.

Back to the tea not actually being bitter (or even astringent), it makes me wonder if the tea hasn’t been aged, or how aging changes related to smaller pu'er shapes.



That citation also starts into pu’er origin areas, to what extent different teas from the same area express different characteristics, which I won’t follow up on here.  Based on experience with other tea types characteristics can vary a lot or not much at all by the type of tea.  Some black tea types or light oolongs can be relatively consistent, varying by quality level but not as much in range of aspects, or put another way some tea types tend to be relatively consistent by aspect.  Wuyi Yancha or Dan Cong oolongs can vary a lot, not just as different quality levels, with different aspects per equivalent teas.  Those express a wide range of characteristic flavors, aromatic components, preparation styles, etc.


Some of the rest of what remains open relates to my own preference, and preference development.  It seems at least possible I like this tea compared to those other pu’er versions from Golding more due to becoming more familiar with sheng range, again.  I don’t think that's a significant factor, but more tasting might help pin that down.  It just seemed like a pleasant, easy to appreciate tea, for some maybe not bitter and edgy or “structured” enough, per preference for such things, but quite nice to me.


All this reminds me of a more general consideration, the difference in interest between actually experiencing drinking a tea and in reviewing tea background (cultivars, processing, regional sources, types, storage issues, etc.).  To me they are two completely different subjects, even though they do overlap.  I have an interest in both, in learning lots about tea (and discussing all that, here or in groups), and in experiencing different teas, but for me I experience both almost as two different interests.

I can completely relate to people who are much more interested only in drinking tea, an idea raised by a friend recently.  Some knowledge of types is required in order to place orders but maybe not a lot more than that, maybe more accurate for other types than for pu'er.  Sorting out source areas, age, and storage conditions is required for pu'er, some of which you can skip if you can just trust a vendor to pick what you like (which is typically a cue to mention the White 2 Tea vendor; make of that what you will).

It's not as if I'm digging so deep in this post; it mostly does just say what the one tea version tastes like, so here just related to typical area-type characteristics.  Looking back the last version of abstract tea research in this blog related to Darjeeling cultivars a month ago, although research into a Wuyi Yancha type strayed a bit too, and I was covering a lot related to cultivars from Taiwan last year.  I may do more with pu'er background based on more Golding vendor input later; we'll see how that goes.

Golding (KL shop) private Nan Nuo gushu sheng pu'er

Back into pu'er!  Based on talking about tea with people online a shop in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Golding, sent some tea samples to try, including this Nan Nuo version; many thanks to them for those.

I'm relatively new to pu'er but not completely new, but as well to clarify that first.  I tried many around three years ago when I found a pu'er shop near my office (what are the odds), JRT Imports.  There is no website to mention; strange, but a street-view link is here, and a Tea Chat discussion of local Bangkok pu'er shops goes into background.  A friend recommended that I try drinking a lot of one type of pu'er, buying and drinking a lot of one cake, to get adjusted to brewing and the general profile.  I did that, finishing a lot of one back then--two and a half years ago?  the time flies--but I got side tracked on other tea types.

The Tea Side vendor sent a good number of Thai hei cha samples last year, but I didn't really make the switch to pu'er then either.  I didn't dislike what I had tried, sheng or shou, or variations from different regions, and it kept coming up a little.  But I tend to explore tea types organically, almost randomly, which led to drinking a little of every other main type instead, from lots of countries (except yellow tea, that's only came up once).  I just bought a 2006 HTC Thai hei cha cake / bing from Tea Side (reviewed in this post), sitting at home now, so maybe I'll do a comparison review of trying the same tea again later.  I tried that idea with a Thai black tea in a recent post, a re-tasting test, but I couldn't pin down year-version variations against review-interpretation changes.

Review

Even the first rinse was promising; lots of sweetness, interesting mineral tones, not much similarity to taking an aspirin.  The first infusion was more of the same, sweet, lots of mineral, with a hint of smoke, really lots going on.  The general range was familiar, I'd just not been drinking teas in that range for awhile.

Brewing was going to be unfamiliar; still using quite short infusions the taste strengthened a lot due to the tea starting to brew.  In retrospect I'd added too much tea; more on that related to brewing difference description from the second go.

Texture came into play more, of course hard to describe.  At first it seemed like a dryness but really the tea caused a bit of mouth watering, the opposite.  What came across as mineral was really vegetal and mineral, in a kale range, with a little mineral close to chalk.  That might sound awful, or maybe to a pu'er drinker just a normal general range.  The effect was interesting, and it reminded me of a tea drinking friend's comment that people tend not to drink pu'er for taste, or at least there is less necessary connection, less emphasis on that.

With short infusions the tea still brewed light, with sweetness offsetting vegetal / mineral / slight bitterness, with just a hint of smoke.  The tea did cause an aftertaste, but I have no idea about throat feel or taste in the throat, those more exotic properties (more on all that here).

My assistant taster liked it. She said it tastes like flowers.  Either that's a standard answer (I had been drinking some Chrysanthemum in the evenings recently) or she's on to something.  It is a little floral, maybe especially after you drink it, the aftertaste more than the taste.  The scent on the gaiwan lid or in the empty cup includes more honey than I'm noticing during drinking it too.


After more infusions the smoke picked up a little and the honey sweetness became even more noticeable.  The mineral / vegetal / aspirin / sheng taste mellowed a little, and the tea was probably nicer for being more familiar, again.  The aftertaste was kind of different than the taste, related, essentially overlapping, but not as closely connected as is typical with other teas.  It seems to just not go away, to the extent that I wonder if I'm imagining it a few minutes later.

my back-up taster's back-up

I forgot the tea, interrupted by my kids, and gave it a long infusion; that didn't work.  At lighter strength the taste balance works; I think the floral-related aspect did pick up.  Other aspects are more interesting, the feel, a fullness and juiciness, and the aftertaste, which is pleasant, different. The light smoke seems to come and go, and a very mild bitterness sort of works.


I'm reminded of a recent Dan Cong, with a tartness that could be seen as a flaw or an integral positive aspect that gives the tea a nice balance.  Other tea types, oolongs, blacks, and whites, usually don't really get into much tartness or bitterness, so the challenge of how to interpret them doesn't come up.  A word on this bitterness; it's not astringency, a feel of the tea, but really a subtle taste element, odd to experience.  This could be one aspect people might describe as medicinal but it's really just bitterness.

Brewing parameter variation:  from light to quite light

A friend recommended brewing the tea very lightly, using relatively little of it in proportion to water, in addition to short infusion times, so I tried that.  This was really probably more standard practice; I just hadn't adjusted for the tea type properly, long out of the habit.  It was better, and also just different.

The bitterness essentially didn't come out, and taste range shifted to include some spice, maybe clove.  Clove is nice in tea, although real clove seems to be a complex set of related taste aspects, so this might have been just a part.  Everything evident in the tea was very positive, and there still was plenty of taste left to experience, so it was really more a matter of not being familiar with drinking tea prepared this wispy.  There was still evident aftertaste but issues related to feel sort of dropped out when prepared so lightly; it didn't feel like much.

I think there would be a balance point between prepared lightly and very lightly that worked best.  I mentioned in a post not so long ago I'd been drinking plenty of white teas lately, and that I was calibrated for the type, and I think I'm just not for sheng pu'er, related to brewing and drinking the tea, about taste range and brewed strength.


It's my understanding that some people enjoy white teas, particularly Silver Needle style, prepared so lightly that there is barely any taste to experience.  The subtlety--on the sort of getting something level--and feel is more the point, but I'm not one of those people.  I don't need to brew them up to black tea level flavor strength to drink them either, related to some people using really long steep times, but I tend to like having more going on with aspects in Bai Mu Dan style white teas anyway.  But then I've been drinking an interesting Ceylon Bai Mu Dan lately that you don't really taste as much as sense in some general way, even brewed stronger, and that's turned out to be a cool experience.

My impression is that it's a better tea than I can really fully appreciate, not just interesting and nice but refined, with complexity and depth to it.  It makes me further consider the issue of acclimating to a tea type.  As an analogy, I can't appreciate Scotch whiskey at all, but do I need to?  Coffee and beer worked like that, as acquired tastes, maybe not great examples since I don't drink much of either just now.  I think this may be a different case than with Scotch, that there's a shorter gap to bridge since I already like tea, in general.

But I will keep going with the other pu'er samples, and pu'er in general, and see what I make of it.  I'm reminded of something one of the more out-there tea friends I've met said, that one of the worst things that could happen to you is finding a pu'er that you like.  Maybe I'm playing with fire, and I'll turn into an even worse tea-junkie than I already am.