Viet Sun Lùng Vài Vietnamese white tea

 

Steve of Viet Sun sent a few extra samples with my last order; very nice, much appreciated!  White tea sounded good, so I'll try that one.

When considering what it might be like it occurred to me that I end up saying roughly the same thing about most white teas (and some other types too, really), that flavors can be novel and pleasant, and sweetness, but complexity and feel range tend to be limited.  So I can end up liking a tea but it's hard to not balance describing that with discussing limitations, about what aspects aren't as developed.

I hoped that at least this is in Moonlight White style range, my favorite white tea type, and it must be that, for looking like it [and from the description, which I didn't read until after the review].  Those tend to be extra fruity and sweet, really showing off what works well within white tea range.  Next maybe I like Bai Mu Dan best; those can be complex and intense, to an extent.  

Drifting off topic a little, I last drank an aged Gong Mei white last week, mixing it up, drinking different versions I have around.  I should probably save that for fasting; along with shu pu'er it's very mild on your stomach, ideal for when you aren't eating at all.  It's 8 years old now, reviewed 6 years ago, so already appropriately aged.

Per usual process I'll come back and add Steve's thoughts from a sales page later, and move on to review notes first (including all that sales page entry, since the content is interesting):

Lùng Vài White 2023

This tea was processed in the Moonlight White style from old and ancient trees in the Lùng Vài, Hà Giang.

Lùng Vài is northeast of Tây Côn Lĩnh mountain, the tallest mountain in Hà Giang province. Information about Lùng Vài and other wild origin tea producing areas here.

Nice 1 bud- 2-3 leaf picking. This tea has heavy sweetness with a complex floral fragrance. A light bitterness keeps the flavor profile in balance. Brews up a rich crimson gold soup that goes many rounds. Lasting huigan and strong qi.

I think this a great candidate for aging as the raw material quality is really high.

Very flexible and forgiving, I like brewing this tea with a lower leaf: water ratio at 90-100 degrees for long steeps. Grandpa and thermos brewing are also good options.

290 gram cakes ($0.15/ gram)

I'll add more thoughts on that in a Conclusion section.

Review:

first infusion:  fruity, but subtle still.  This is what you get for not using a rinse step with compressed tea; I'll start notes next round, giving this a longish infusion to get things moving (around 30 seconds).

second infusion:  this does actually have a nice creamy feel to it; that's an exception for how white teas can work out, not expressing structure or the same degree of velvety feel that even some black teas can show, as his black tea version I've been drinking does, but creaminess can be nice.

Fruit flavors are in a typical Moonlight White range.  I like those best when sweetness is really intense and they include some dried berry, and this is more towards melon, but it's still nice.  It's odd how I hate that general melon flavor range across all melons but watermelon (which doesn't have it anyway), in cantaloup, honeydew, and so on, but in tea as a trace aspect that's only similar I like it.  That's about the only fruit I don't like, beyond durian; guava is only so interesting but I would have some if it was in a breakfast buffet.

It's nice how complex this is; I guess that's another exception.  A simple and limited range of flavors can come across as somewhat complex if that includes enough supporting notes and tones, or even just forward flavors (berry with citrus and melon, for example).  Warm tones underlie this experience, and the creamy feel seems to connect to actual flavor range, so it's a little like a creamsicle (but not exactly; it doesn't match that artificial orange flavor).

third infusion:  warmth picks up; it's different.  It leans a little towards cinnamon, maybe just not exactly that.  Melon seems to be transitioning to warmer and heavier fruit range too, maybe moving a touch towards dried persimmon.  Sounds like I'm making that up, doesn't it, letting my imagination run a bit?  I think it really does though.  A light and counterbalanced version of melon, dried persimmon, and cinnamon is nice.  

Intensity is moderate in this, maybe even light, especially for me being accustomed to sheng and black tea range lately.  I'll need to keep compensating by using longer infusion times, 20-some seconds at least.  Lighter range flavors would probably show through better brewed wispy light but it's harder for me to appreciate that.  

Using full boiling point water would probably extract the most, without heavier flavors or astringency being an issue at all, so that's probably best.  I use hot water from a filtration and heating dispenser so it's not at full boiling point.  There's an electric kettle sitting on the table beside me but it's hard enough to get motivated to write these notes, and I have a list of things to do later.

fourth infusion:  warmer tones keep evolving, although brewing a tea slightly stronger will cause you to experience that range more, as I'd mentioned.  It's not so different than last round, but a richness might be picking up, an almost savory range.  Dried persimmon has a bit of savory edge to it, in addition to warm and rich fruit tones, so I'm just saying roughly the same thing in a different way.  If you visit a Chinatown you should pick up some of those; they're so nice.

It's nice how this is fruity but also well into sun-dried tomato range now.  White teas don't tend to transition this much.  I think I've emphasized that by leaning into brewing heavier, but it's still cool experiencing that.  

fifth infusion:  more of the same.  If anything a mineral base stands out more now, lending a slight metallic edge to the rest, in a way that's actually pleasant instead of off-putting.  It might be more natural for someone to interpret that as a warm forest floor note evolving, as a transition from cinnamon spice and warm dried fruit tone earlier.  Heavy mineral tone, similar to that from an artesian well, and warm earthy range, similar to early summer forest floor, are somewhat different, without much overlap, but in a sense those two impressions meet each other at one particular place.  It has a nice heavier tone supporting base; maybe it's as well to leave it at that.

sixth infusion:  really more of the same.  Somehow a touch of citrus tone picked up; that's odd, for it to increase at this place in an infusion cycle.  I was just going to say that's plenty for notes but let's try one more round.  

These leaves really should be fading a bit because I've been pushing them, using longer infusion times (20+ to 30 seconds instead of 10 to 15, which I use for more intense tea versions), but they probably have a few rounds left in them.  Late rounds can seem less interesting to me, and I get bored of writing, and it must be a lot to read.

seventh infusion:  this really is more of the same now, with less interesting heavier flavors picking up, tree bark and such.  It's still pleasant, but not as good.  That heavier range matches better with the shifted form of fruit, the citrus (like dried tangerine peel, I guess), than earlier lighter fruit probably would.  All in all this has been very pleasant.

Conclusions:

Really nice!  Moonlight White is my favorite white tea range, as I said, even though I've not had one in awhile, and this works as an example of why.  Flavor range is quite pleasant, and it overcomes limited white tea depth of experience for including a rich feel and layers of matching flavors.

I don't want to criticize Steve's interpretation too much, since it's perfectly valid to interpret teas in different ways, but let's go there and review his sales listing notes.  I didn't notice any bitterness in this tea, and main range seemed fruity, not really floral.  The non-distinct sweet and complex background could be either, to be fair, so that part still actually works.

On aging potential, it is interesting how few teas can become more appealing with age, so when that is probably the case it's worth discussing.  I agree that this tea would probably be equally pleasant in a different way in 5 to 10 years.  Some of that bright range would get swapped out for even more dried fruit and heavy flavors, some of which are present already, like the cinnamon spice.  It's so good now it would be hard for me to wait and hold onto it, even if I owned a good bit of it.

It seems natural to me to frame how good I judge this to be in relation to how it is presented.  Sometimes white teas are offered as that one really exceptional range version, something truly refined and novel, well worth a 50 to 75 cent asking price.  That's just not typically accurate, to me, related to having experienced a decent range of new and aged white teas, not so many but not only a few either.  Now that I think of it I've set aside some of a buds-only white tea cake years back (I bought in 2017, reviewed here, but I didn't know the age then); I should try that and pass on notes to help make that point.  

Then if a vendor claims that a white tea version is pleasant and novel, relatively refined and complex, with good aging potential, but still offers it in a normal price range that's more appropriate, to me.  White tea can be interesting and pleasant but not refined in the sense Wuyi Yancha or Dan Cong can be, and not complex and intense as sheng pu'er versions can.  In one sense tea cost and tea experience are two different things, so that you have the same actual final experience whether you pay 10 cents a gram or $1 for it, so all I'm saying here is that value can shift around, with descriptions sometimes seeming to extend beyond what a tea-type range tends to ever express. 

This 290 gram cake is now selling for $43; that's a great value.  Maybe it's priced a little low, really, for what this is, which in general is probably something I shouldn't type out very often in blog reviews, leaving off at only implying that.   

Of course white teas can be unique, complex, refined, and interesting, but to me there's a limit to all that.  Supply and demand probably factor in even more, than whatever this point was supposed to be about.

If someone could buy two of these cakes and drink the second one after 7 years of aging (that old norm for more positive transition), they would have something fairly novel on their hands.  To only buy one and set it all aside would seem strange to me though; this tea is good now.  It can work to buy a cake and forget about the second half; I do that sometimes.  That piece of pressed silver needle cake I didn't even own that much of; it had a back-story to it, about giving an entire cake version to a Thai princess.  Since it meant more to me I didn't drink it, if that makes any sense.

Wild Qi Tea Moonlight White; on quality markers

Reviewing the second of four samples sent by my online friend Shana Zhang, a Moonlight White version, after reviewing a nice Dian Hong.

Moonlight White is a processing style for white tea out of Yunnan, also sometimes associated with one particular cultivar that turns silver and dark when processed this way (per input from a tea maker friend, at least, who has made both types of versions to witness that cause and effect firsthand).  This tea is dark in color, light green, and also brown, so it's made from a different tea plant type.  Those can be great too, with character varying by plant type, and of course according to processing steps and conditions. 

White tea is the least processed, so there's less variation in choices made or how steps are conducted, but factors like temperature and humidity can change how fast the tea dries, which would change the relative degree of oxidation.  I don't make tea myself, so I limit comments about that to passing on relatively obvious points.  If that subject is of interest William of Farmerleaf is kind enough to share thoughts and videos on it.

Onto tasting then.  I tend to not read descriptions prior to review but in taking pictures saw this listed as tasting floral with peach; sounds good.  It's normal for a touch of savory range to be included in some versions, or for the sweetness related flavor to head towards a light berry, which is why Moonlight Whites are one of my favorite tea types.  They vary in different ways but are usually quite intense in flavor as white teas go, and often span a very pleasant range, without losing the thick feel that makes lots of white tea versions appealing.

Review

I won't always use a rinse for all tea types; beyond pu'er and hei cha that seems like a judgement call to me.  Of course the teas were laying around in different places, often on bamboo mats or clean surfaces versus on the ground, and dust could get mixed in, but somehow all that doesn't seem a pressing concern to me.  I will use a fast version of one and also taste it this time; a middle ground.

This will be sweet, light, creamy, and intense; nice!

It is very nice.  Floral and peach works, and it's notably creamy.  The peach could be interpreted in different ways; that could be seen as similar to a red raspberry, which is how I'd probably describe it.  Even without much air exposure this tea will change character over time, but it's new enough that this particular identification difference probably does relate to interpretation. 

Bright floral tones give it good flavor complexity so pulling apart the fruit range is trickier.  There isn't much for earthiness or savory range but if you try to notice it some very light wood and savory tone is there.  It's not woody in the sense most tea flavor range is, more like dried sticks from the ends of very small branches, a sweet and light, mildly earthy range that might be ok on its own.

I brewed this pretty fast, in the range of 5 seconds (counting all the pouring time; down to 3 is about as fast as is practical counting that), but it's still on the intense side.  The color looks darker for brewing this in a shaded place.  I'm reviewing it at 9 AM outside, too early for a lot of sun to get directly to me in this tasting area, but some is in the driveway already. 


I brewed the second infusion slightly longer, still well under 10 seconds.  I'll probably try a flash infusion next round to see how that varies things.  This tea won't lose intensity for a few more rounds to make brewing strength a concern but it probably would transition a little, with lighter, brighter notes coming out earlier.

It's really nice this round; a tea-berry related form of fruit and mint picked up.  It's more savory now too, although to be clear I don't think very many people would taste this and interpret it as that.  It's a far cry from tasting like a seared steak, or even a light and sweet Japanese green tea.  But that edge is there anyway, giving it a nice balance, especially against the mint and fruit range this infusion.

Mint is also at the edge of being perceptible; it ties more to the fruit in a tea-berry than the mint part, but including that adds complexity (again, as with the savory range).  This tea works as well as it does because it seems simple, sweet, and light on a fast take but it's really actually complex.  In flavor, at least; the feel is pleasantly thick and the aftertaste is there, it doesn't fade immediately, but compared to the range of structures and aspect intensity in young sheng it's on the simple side.

I brewed this next round quite fast but the color is still a dark golden.  This could be oxidized slightly more than it seems.  That would normally be associated with a reddish brewed color, hence the Chinese name for black tea as red tea, but I'm guessing that an intermediate level of that, along with extracting other compounds, helps this come across this intense and rich.  It brews as golden though; dark golden shaded by tree branches over me now, probably more yellow-golden in different light.

Even brewed very fast (just under 5 seconds) this is about as intense as the last round, and not transitioned much.  It could be a little sweeter.  I don't experience that as a flaw or limitation in the tea, just placing it. 

Savory range and a very light earthiness picks up just a little in this round.  If  that"light stick" earthy range description didn't ring a bell for description a sweet and clean version of balsa wood is also close enough.

It's great the way that fruit spans a good range.  Ripe peach still works as a description, as does red raspberry, and to me it still reminds me most of the fruitiness of tea-berry, which isn't a commonly eaten berry or fruit.  It's not even really a berry, I don't think; I don't know what it is.  It seems like a berry in the sense that a coffee bean is called that (or also a bean); something different.  This post is heavy on tangents but let's check on that with Wikipedia anyway:


Gaultheria procumbens, also called the eastern teaberry, the checkerberry, the boxberry, or the American wintergreen, is a species of Gaultheria native to northeastern North America from Newfoundland west to southeastern Manitoba, and south to Alabama.[1] It is a member of the Ericaceae (heath family).[2]...

The fruit is red and 6–9 mm (0.24–0.35 in) across.[4] It looks like a berry, but is actually a dry capsule surrounded by fleshy calyx.[5][4]...

The fruits of G. procumbens, considered its actual "teaberries", are edible, with a taste of mildly sweet wintergreen similar to the flavors of the Mentha varieties M. piperita (peppermint) and M. spicata (spearmint) even though G. procumbens is not a true mint. The leaves and branches make a fine herbal tea, through normal drying and infusion process. For the leaves to yield significant amounts of their essential oil, they need to be fermented for at least three days.[12]


That last part is interesting; checking that out has been on my to-do list for years.  That "berry" texture is really odd, just not odd enough to stop me from trying them whenever I see them, since the flavor is really unique.

credit that Wikipedia post, Wikimedia Commons

I brewed this next round over 10 seconds to experience it the other way, prepared stronger.  That should ramp up those warmer tones and body, and diminish the fruit a little.

And it does.  It still works, nice for being heavier in effect, that bit more intense.  Probably an optimum for me would be in the middle at this stage, maybe around 8 seconds, but it really doesn't matter for this tea.  It changes a little but it's fine across a range, one of those tea types that's hard to screw up.  You'd squander a lot of its potential, in my opinion, if you let this brew for 30 seconds at this gaiwan proportion but it would still be nice.

On the subject of complexity I don't think I've been giving credit to the role light mineral is playing in increasing that effect, picking up over the last few rounds (much less notable in the lighter infusion though).  It's almost impossible to identify at that light, integrated level; it tastes like a light form of rock, maybe granite.  On the subject of appreciating rocks:

That's not rock climbing, that's walking along a relatively broad ledge, an old image from when I appreciated the difference in character between types of rock (Southwestern US sandstone, in that case, not exactly what people tend to call "slickrock" but close enough to that).  I wasn't appreciating the smell or related taste in foods back then, but instead the function for hiking or climbing on it, but some of it comes back as distant memories during these tastings.

How that area looks, like Utah but it's Grand Junction instead, over on the Western side of Colorado.

In a familiar recurring theme I'll need to try this once more and move onto a roller blade skating outing.  My kids will go back to taking Mandarin lessons in two more weeks and I'll be able to do extended Saturday tasting sessions, but we may switch over to ice skating next week, which could take up even more of the morning.  It's never enough until it's too much and we're closing in on that; they go to yoga today and tomorrow (at time of writing), and Keo has piano on Sunday too.

On the next round fruit and brighter tones keep fading.  They help with the balance but the warmer mild earth and faint underlying mineral give it a more even balance now.  It's not quite as pleasant but still very nice.  At this stage it would make sense to me for people to want this to turn out stronger and to let the times run onto more like 20 seconds; it's just not necessarily my preference.  It's great lighter, although it does need at least a 10 second infusion time to be strong enough now, or 15 is ok.

All in all a very nice tea, a good example of how Moonlight Whites can be.  Some are slightly sweeter, or different in different ways, but this covers most of the range I like best in these.  All that reminds me of a long tangent on what is seen as most positive in different types, which I'll cover further here.

a little uneven oxidation; that worked out well

On Quality Markers

It's nothing too novel, but in discussion of sheng pu'er a list of most appreciated aspects and a standard pattern for preference of one scope of those over another tends to come up.  At the risk of oversimplifying, people are said to appreciate flavor most first, then mouthfeel, then the way teas make you feel.  The ancient Chinese wisdom version of that goes something like this:  beginners drink tea with their mouth, intermediate tea drinkers with their throat, and after more experience with the body instead.

The subject of quality markers--not a standard term, but how I frame the idea--relates to these.  Adjusted a little one would look for certain aspects in sheng pu'er to identify it as being of high quality:  a positive set of flavors that are typical to the growing area comes into play, along with expected and balanced levels of sweetness, bitterness, mineral aspect, and so on.  Mineral works better as a quality marker than the others; the form and level of that seems to correspond with tea from old tea plants, which is preferred.  Next specific forms of mouthfeel are appreciated, bitterness transitioning to sweetness, lingering aftertaste, and finally the tea making you feel a certain way (cha qi effect, or as I like to think of it drug-like qualities).

Moving on, are there a set of aspects that identify Moonlight White as a higher quality version?  I might add "in my own opinion;" all of this isn't standard understanding of evaluating tea, even though it is in part derived from hearing a lot of others' opinions on a lot of teas.  Those "lots" span a good bit of scope, but mostly tied to online input and personal evaluation of that against my own experience.

Not so much as for some other types, per my understanding (sheng--young and old, shu, and for various oolong types).  White teas come up in discussion, and Moonlight White versions do, but it's a different thing, narrowing expectations and standard perceptions down to a single tea type within a category.  To the extent I think I can specify that (even further into just being my own opinion), I think flavor aspect range stands out, just maybe more related to match to preference than for identifying quality. 

"Quality markers" might relate to thickness of feel, intensity of flavor, and overall balance.  Aftertaste can occur related to different teas, and people's takes on cha qi vary, but as I see it flavor is a main input for how well someone would like a Moonlight White, and the others could be used to judge quality, if one were so inclined. 

I'm typically not; how much I like a tea as a balanced and pleasant experience suits me for evaluation purposes, and all this is more about sharing a potential different way to look at tea experience.  Sometimes it works out--broadly, as experiences go--to experience an experience as a simple thing at first, to accumulate levels of details while sorting out what those experiences are all about later, then to come back to simpler forms of appreciation later on.  All of this may be helpful in that middle ground range when someone is trying to unpack why they like complex experiences, which isn't really a necessary project to take up anyway.

Brewing more positive infusions or transitioning in an interesting way across rounds both make for special cases; these can be quite pleasant to experience, but I personally don't see them as quality markers.  Tea only brewing a limited amount before losing positive character is definitely a flaw but claiming the opposite doesn't work quite as well.


This tea does ok related to that type of analysis (the markers theme).  Thickness of feel is nice, the flavors there are positive, interesting, novel, and balanced, and sweetness is pleasant, although it could be a little more pronounced.  A tea expressing some degree of savory aspect would do well to not be overly sweet, while one more centered on aspects like peach or berry probably would be better if sweeter.  In other versions sweetness can work to provide a better overall balance, at the right level; eg. offsetting bitterness or other flavor range. 

In summary, this is clearly good tea.  Perhaps more importantly I like it.  Next value comes into play; is this tea as good as implied by the price range, or how does that relate to other comparable offerings from different sources?  Of course that kind of interpretation varies as much by individual as subjective preference for aspects.  This covered too much ground already, so I'll leave out exploring that concern, and show pictures from that outing I mentioned.

playing a game in between skill drills at that lesson

Keo and that friend visiting from China, Olea

extra skateboarding session after the class

Farmerleaf summer 2018 Jing Mai Moonlight White

I picked this tea up awhile back, ordered along with a nice Tian Xiang Jing Mai sheng.  I've been busy lately with vacation outings and getting through some other teas.

Moonlight White is a personal favorite, but then lots of types sort of are.  As white teas go I like it as much or more as any other.  Some versions can be a bit savory, with sweetness balanced with rich flavors, but my favorites are bright and fruity instead, including flavors like pear or even berry. 

As with other whites the texture and overall impression can be pleasantly rich and full.  I'll add William's (Farmerleaf's) take in a citation before I post this, but reviewed without seeing those details first.  That citation:


For this moonlight white the fresh leaves of our natural [Jing Mai] tea gardens were spread on flat bamboo baskets and left to dry in the shade of our factory for three days...

Moonlight white will oxidize as it ages, just like Pu-erh tea, but quicker. The few months of storage and the pressing process have already given this tea a red character. It delivers incredibly good sweetness, considering it is summer material from relatively young gardens... 

You can brew it gongfu style, in a mug, or even boil it in a pot! White tea is very forgivable to the tea brewer, this tea will, never feature much bitterness. If you brew it strong, it will just be thicker. The fragrance is woody and reminds of autumn leaves and a walk in the forest after the rain. The mouthfeel has a light texture and the tea doesn't have a strong effect on the body... 


Sounds nice, without too much for spoilers in that.

Review

The first infusion is a bit light but this tea is already really pleasant.  I'll do more with a long flavor list and going into texture next round, but it's already sweet, warm, and rich, with a nice spice aspect emerging.  It is fruity versus savory or floral, but in a warm dried-fruit range, towards apricot or something such, or maybe dried persimmon.  That warmth may relate to autumn leaf but it's more in the sweet dried fruit range than earthy.

I went longer on the second round, over 15 seconds, but this is still subtle.  It would take longer infusions to get more intense flavor out of it, in terms of the high-note range, but this tea has a different kind of depth and intensity that's very evident prepared this way.  Aging these types of versions usually swaps out that forward intensity for deeper, sweeter tones, and this is along that line already, even though it's not even a year old.

Warmth picks up on this second round; autumn leaf is more evident, and a hint of spice develops.  The fruit tone might be traded out a little for that, or at least the brighter aspect range of it, so dried persimmon works much better as a description than dried apricot in this round.  Those are a type of plum hybrid, unless I'm mistaken, so if that's unfamiliar it works to say this tastes a little like a sweet version of a prune, or a fig.  I'll give the tea more like 30 seconds on this next round to see what range it can cover, but really just drinking it light and subtle and sticking with 15 or so might well be optimum.


The initial promise of lighter range fruit kind of faded, and it's sticking with richer and more subdued tones instead.  That's not necessarily bad, since the character is quite pleasant, maybe just a little disappointing given my own personal preference and how it seemed it was going to go.  The intense fruit versions of Moonlight whites can be really nice, in a different way.

Related to the idea of this type of tea being savory there is a richness to it, it just stops short of coming across as actually that, something more like soy sauce.  I keep sensing there is a mild spice tone but that's so subtle it's hard to place, towards cinnamon, but it doesn't quite stand out enough to be clearly that.  Autumn leaf is stronger, but even that is integrated into a mild, subtle, but rich combined mix.

This type of tea gives you options related to how to brew it, or for mixing things up with adding something to it.  That might sound like I'm saying that it needs something added to be better, since I wouldn't dream of mixing other ingredients in with most plain loose leaf teas, but I'm only saying that the character lends itself to that, to matching well with other range.  Dried orange peel (the outer part) or dried pear peel or fruit might lend it a little more intensity.  As to the first part, brewing variations, this would work well made Gongfu style (as I'm preparing it), or Western style, or even "grandpa style," added to a tea bottle and drank with the leaves continuing to brew in it, with water re-added until it looses flavor.  It would even work to cold brew this, or to simmer it, I'm just not into such things.


More of the same on the next infusion; it's warm, rich, and subtle.  I think the sweet and complex smell of the dry tea led me to expect it to be more intense.  From tasting this I'd expect it to be a shou mei, instead of a Moonlight White.  The prepared leaves aren't silver with a dark bottom, so it must not be made of the cultivar that turns out that way, which would account for the aspect range varying.  Shou mei really might be a leaf size / grading term, versus a style, or given how tea terms and types go it could be used as both.

There is a common misconception that any tea leaf can be made into any tea type, which is technically true but only in a limited sense.  Different initial inputs (leaf types, and compounds present in leaves) will only support making good versions of some types of teas.  You can't really make oolong out of Assamica, for example, or at least the experiments in attempting that I've tasted didn't work.


Per one conventional understanding a general range of white teas age very well, picking up depth and complexity over 7 years (a time frame lifted from one of those old Chinese sayings: "one year a white tea, 3 years a medicine, 7 years a treasure").  It's hard to link that to this tasting result, or pass on my own take on conventional aging patterns for white teas, since I've been through a bit with that but don't have it even close to sorted out yet.  I tasted four white teas together of somewhat related types across different ages (here), but really individual version character differences alone made it impossible to draw any other conclusions.  It was an interesting experience, beyond relating to a mild case of caffeine overdose.

It just keeps brewing; a half dozen rounds in it's still not transitioning.  This would make a decent breakfast tea, a relatively neutral background experience to go along with eating pastry and whatever else. 

Lots of people claim they need a strong or robust black tea to really get them going, in part probably related to the flavor experience expectation carried over from coffee, and probably also an expectation that tanins somehow relate to caffeine content.  Since caffeine levels vary by age of leaf material (bud are higher in level than older leaves) most white teas actually contain more, but this one wouldn't necessarily, as a larger-leaf derived summer tea version.  The limited flavor intensity probably relates to summer harvesting as well, and I don't know how often Moonlight versions tend to ever be made in the Spring.

Comparison tasting second session

That initial tasting didn't really seem conclusive; it's odd doing a round of tasting and notes and then feeling like you might not have really captured what a tea is about.  So I comparison tasted it with a relatively similar white tea cake from Moychay, one that seemed to be in between white tea styles as well.

Farmerleaf left (but they look a bit similar)

This won't be a round-by-round detailed review, just a short general impression.  This Farmerleaf tea impression didn't change.  It still seemed positive, sweet and light in character, and pleasant, with a balancing mild earthiness, but lacking complexity and depth.  It still didn't necessarily seem like a standard Moonlight white, but being light and sweet with warmer range for balance is a good start.

The Moychay compressed 2018 Moonlight version was richer, with deeper flavors, slightly more complexity, and a bit of a savory edge along with more dried fruit range.  Looking back I had reviewed that tea in an article posted on the Moychay site, not here in this blog. 

This lacks specifics but for both I'd probably be retracing the usual ground of how in a lot of cases flavor aspects could be interpreted in different ways.  This Moychay tea could've been more intense in terms of pronounced flavor aspects but the Farmerleaf version was even more subtle.


I liked both.  It might seem like I mean something else, when I'm saying that tea seems kind of narrow in character range, not so complex, and lacking some degree of depth.  Some teas are simple, and that can work, if what they express is positive.  White teas in general took some getting used to, and I still find some buds-only versions (silver needle or silver tips) just a little too subtle and vague to really like as much as the rest.  Adding any warmer tones and more sweetness works better for me, even if a version doesn't make it as far as being complex or distinctive.

Farmerleaf left (but they look similar)

In a sense the Farmerleaf matches part of the Moonlight range better for being very light and sweet, since those are often like that, just in those cases often more fruity as well.  But then some versions are deeper in tone, more like dried fruit, with a savory edge, like the Moychay example. 

It's odd that I just read the early notes saying that I like the lighter and sweeter style better, and I may as be clear about what I've only implied up until now, I liked the Moychay version slightly more in this case.  It had more depth, and dried-fruit range can be really nice.  When I said that I tend to like the brighter, lighter, fruitier styles of Moonlight White better (in the intro here) that was a reference to some teas actually tasting like berry (which can be amazing), with other savory versions sometimes tasting like sun-dried tomato. 

Looking back I can cite examples spanning this range, that might help clarify what I mean.  I really liked this Thai version of Moonlight White, because that bright fruit was present, extending towards berry range (even if it was a little subtle in overall character, and tastes really settled at mandarin orange, plum, and teaberry, with some degree of savory range too).  Oddly that was complex in flavor range but even more subtle than these, for lacking that deeper mild earthiness, the autumn forest part; so things can go. 

A Laos version of Moonlight White from Kinnari tea (reviewed here) might be more what I'm talking about related to those sometimes being more savory and not as sweet and fruity.  That's crazy that I comparison tasted that Laos MLW along with two others, buds-only white teas from Laos and Nepal at that.  It kind of makes no sense, and is borderline disrespectful to that Moonlight version to not give it its own post.  Then again mentioning a half dozen other versions for comparison in this review post is definitely atypical.


Further into the range of reviewing taboos I'm curious about comparing value for the two versions, since they seemed so similar, and since I spent money on the Farmerleaf version.  Moychay contributed the other for review, to be clear; they've been great about helping me experience a broader range of teas to review. 

The Moychay version lists for $10 for 100 grams; pretty good for as nice as that tea is.  Farmerleaf's lists for $25 for a 200 gram version; a little more, but really in the same range.  With both teas that inexpensive it would seem wrong to blame either for offering questionable value; if anything both seem a little low in price.  Other vendors might charge considerably more and use more superlatives in their descriptions, and then could still end up selling tea that's not quite as good.

that (then) 5 year old shou mei version 

It would be interesting comparing one or both of these to a standard Fuding shou mei, like the one reviewed here, but two rounds of tasting and all this cross-reference is already a bit much.  I could check those against that same version of that tea but it might have changed since that review time-frame.  Or maybe not; it was a 2012 produced version I reviewed in 2017, so maybe two more years of storage didn't change much.  It's cool that version just made it to that "7 years a treasure" threshold; I should check on that.

lychee season; time to switch over to more of a fruit diet

Comparing Laos and Nepal white teas

Moonlight white lower left, Laos top, Nepal tea bottom left

This tasting was about getting to a few teas I've been meaning to try for awhile.  Anna of Kinnari Teas passed on teas at the end of last year, some versions that were sold as Kinnari teas and some that she had ran across in travels in Laos.  Her teas are great.  Laos teas are great, in general.  If this government initiative to support that industry works out you'll have broader access to try some, but don't hold your breath; SE Asian government projects take time.

Another friend, Somnuc Amnousinh, passed on some Laos teas I've written about as well.  He's not a vendor, just a tea enthusiast who gets out, and related to that he shared some great versions from Laos.  This black tea version works as a good example; it's a crying shame that anyone being able to order that tea online is only a distant dream.  If it sounds too good to miss then you need to get on a plane and fly to Laos.

The third is a Nepal tea, shared by a small producer friend there, Narendra Kumar Gurung.  His teas are produced through a Highlanders Farmers Private Limited tea-coop, which I said more about in this post, sold labeled as Barbote teas.  This review of a black tea version conveys how unique and well-made those teas are, just amazing they could be that good so early in their production history.  It's not as if he is new to growing tea though, and processing very good tea is nothing new in the local Nepal industry.  "Very good" is all relative; in this case I mean in the sense of not giving up much in terms of Darjeeling quality standards, or maybe as good but just different in style.  To me that's impressive.


It is nice knowing such interesting and diverse people through exploring tea interest.  Now that I think of it I've written about all three of these people in one other post about meeting interesting tea friends, here.

I've not actually met Narendra in person yet, and there really is an extra depth to that form of experience.  But it can still be nice sharing ideas through messages, and I've tried his teas, which have all been very nice.  It's probably luck of the draw as much as anything but all of the Nepal teas I've tried, not just his, were very pleasant, distinctive, and somewhat consistent in style ranges.  I won't add more about that background, though, since there's plenty of review to get to.

One of these is a Moonlight white and two are silver tips style teas (buds-only white, not so different than silver needle, but I take that to be a more type-specific reference).  It's odd comparing diverse tea types like that, just sharing being white tea.  The plan was for the contrast to make sense, for the Moonlight White to stand out for being type-typical and nothing like the other two, and then for them to make sense related to each other, with the contrasting descriptions as a base that fills in more about character.  It sort of didn't work out like that, but that's part of it too, seeing how things go.

Review

I used about a 30 second infusion time for the first round, which would be way too long for the shengs I've been drinking more of lately, but for these they'll just be getting started infusing in that time.

Laos Moonlight White (Kinnari Tea):  the tea is great, as expected.  It leans more towards spice than I thought it would, since I was expecting more fruit, but that works too, and the fruit will probably develop more over the next two rounds.  This is warm and earthy enough that it could easily be an aged tea version, it's just not, similar in some limited ways to a well-transitioned shou mei.  It's nice, distinctive and sweet.  As near as I can tell based on drinking a light initial infusion it's well balanced.  I'll do more with an aspect list next round.

I didn't take a picture of the dry teas before reviewing them, a bit of a lapse.  As memory serves this looked similar to Oriental Beauty in color scheme as these teas go, with dark, reddish, and brown leaf colors, not limited to silver and black as is typical for Moonlight White.  I really should take another photo since I have more at home, and may edit this to include one if I end up posting it before I do. 

I didn't do much with photos at all in this tasting; I'm not sure why not, since I am in the habit.  It probably related to family-originated background noise; I can't always wait for the kids to clear out somewhere to try and write notes about teas, and it's really hard to focus with piano playing, banging around, and screaming in the background.  It's like having wild animals in the house.

the sweet little noise makers out for pizza recently

Laos silver tip (or silver needle, if you like):  this is labeled "Yanchaw W;" I don't know what that part means).  For once this silver tips version doesn't taste vaguely like straw and flowers.  A good bit of spice comes across in this tea, even more so than in the Moonlight version, which included more spice than anything else.  Strange.  If anything the proportion is slightly lower for this white and it seems more intense than the Moonlight (although without weighing the teas that's just a guess, a guess that will be more informed once I see the fully saturated leaf volume, when it will still be just a guess).

I'm wondering if this wasn't contaminated by being stored too close to something else, the taste range is so unexpected and intense.  There were tisanes in that storage box too and one in particular was aromatic, an unusual form of compressed fruit tisane bar.  I had some pu'er and other long-term stored teas well isolated in a cabinet, and other samples and in-progress versions in a moderately sealed box in that same cabinet, and miscellaneous samples and boxes piling up all over the place, and my wife collected the strays into one storage box.  It would be odd if this whole review was about flavor the tea picked up along the way, and it's as much an actual possibility as a funny thing to say at this point.  These Laos sample teas from Somnuc were stored in plastic bags similar to ziplock bags, and those are a bit permeable, not a great moderate-term storage solution, and this has been around for a few months now.


Nepal silver needle:  this is interesting, distinctive, and pleasant; not on the weak side for being an initial round.  It does taste floral and like dried hay, so it is what I expect as a default from bud-only white teas, but a touch of unique range mineral seems to give away the Nepal origin.  There's a hint of citrus in it too, a dried peel that could be tangerine versus a sweet version of orange:  that's nice.  I'll leave off the longer descriptions to do a full list for all next time.

Laos Moonlight White left, Laos white middle, Nepal tea on the right

Second infusion

Moonlight white:  fruit isn't necessarily filling in yet but a nice savory sweetness similar to sundried tomato is.  That's primary; the spice range isn't as noticeable, and really at this point it requires imagination to split out the rest further.  Free associating a little to get to that:  milder spice is present, and some degree of light floral, but a sweet version of it, something like violet, or instead like a light version of lavendar.  Fruit is closest to dried apricot; to me that part does stand out.


Laos silver needle:  I hate to say it but this does taste like the spice in a tisane blend I tried not long ago, something really novel from Moychay, a pressed fruit bar that was quite heavy on spice (listed here with a description cut short since it's sold out).  This might be a rare case of an aborted review, leaving off as a warning about combined storage, especially if one of the teas isn't well-sealed.  Using ziplock style bags can be a problem; not much of the rest of how teas are stored is as open to being affected like that.  The tea is quite nice, for what that's worth; that hint of spice works well with the rest.  If it is natural it's a unique, positive aspect of this tea.  It's probably not (more guesswork), and most likely a happy accident that the flavor cross-contamination was positive.


Nepal silver needle:  the mineral, light floral, sweetness, hint of dried citrus peel, and dried hay all works together.  It's a distinctive profile that seems familiar.  I'd probably have to brew it stronger to draw out a thicker feel but it doesn't necessarily come across as thin, I've just accustomed to sheng lately, which are even more multi-dimensional.  I will let this run over another 30 seconds to get plenty of infusion strength out of it.


Third infusion

Kinnari Moonlight White:  more of the same, mainly savory, towards sun-dried tomato, with a bit of spice under that.  Or it could seem more like autumn forest floor:  warm, sweet, and rich, clean flavored but earthy.  Using either as a main flavor-range interpretation (or more likely seeing it as covering both for range) there's a hint of spice as well, closest to cinnamon, but also not so far off nutmeg.  Reviewers with a great imagination would add a lot to that, aspects like warm floral tone or rich berry, like blackberry, maybe closer to that than apricot in this round.  I thought it might be even fruitier but at least it does get to a little of that.


Laos silver needle:  I'm dropping this out of the review process; it tastes like warm spice and fruit, way too close to that Moychay tisane pressed bar.  Now that I think of it that tisane bar would be perfect for mixing with an inexpensive white tea to convert it to a flavored version.  To some that would seem like an unnatural act, way off their own preference, and I tend to not drink teas along that line much myself.  But it seems to work in this, and it's not even brewed together, seemingly just picking up a trace of flavor transferred across two layers of packaging.


Nepal silver needle:  the mix of flavors seems to evolve to include a bit of fruit.  The light tangerine peel aspect already was that, but it seems more pronounced and complex in this round.  It's a bit non-distinct, since it is coming across along with all the rest (mineral, dried hay, etc.), and since the profile extends to light floral too.  I'll guess out a range for that fruit as dried citrus fruit itself, versus the peel, maybe closest to blood orange, quite warm and sweet.

apparently I didn't feel like taking pictures that day

Fourth infusion


This will do for a final take; it's enough tea, even though these are probably only more or less half finished.  Using the longer infusion times would limit the count, so it won't make it to over a dozen as sheng tastings have (which brews a lot of tea too).  White teas are often durable related to what can be brewed from them compared to black teas.  Oolongs are in the middle; it just depends on the type.

Moonlight white:  other than fading a little the general effect is the same.  Even that change could result from a variance in infusion time, from not keeping track.


Nepal silver needle:  still in the same range, but the balance keeps shifting.  Mineral might be stronger than the rest in this round (a flinty / limestone sort of range mineral, lighter stone), with light citrus, dried hay, and floral tone standing out, more or less in that order.  It's quite flavorful as buds-only white teas go, in a range that's pleasant.

Conclusions

I really liked all three teas.  The Moonlight wasn't what I expected but it was nice.  For amounting to a tea storage glitch the Laos white was very pleasant.  I probably never will carry through on using that tisane for making a homemade blended version, mixing it with tea, but it would be great for that, and I tend to just not think along those lines.  I did mention in writing about it elsewhere (another story I'll get to) that the fruit tisane bar might work well for adjusting the flavor of a masala chai, doing a fruit-adjusted version of spiced tea.  That I might get to; it's interesting messing around with versions of those.

The Nepal tea was better than I expected, although I probably should've expected that character.   Buds-only whites so often come across as relatively flavorless to me that I don't start with high hopes but Nepal teas are often on the intense side, and Narendra's other versions have been really pleasant.  Someone with more exposure to Nepal white teas would've done more with placing that, comparing it to other range.  In the past I've been more of a fan of the really intense bud and fine leaf Nepal white versions, which can be heavier yet on citrus fruit with a cool mineral undertone, as Narendra's version of that type was.


Many thanks again to those three friends for sharing those teas.

at a local temple with a visitor recently

probably time to get back to a haircut theme

same week, same temple (Wat Pho), different visit

a photo with my wife and a very respected local monk

Kinnari Tea Laos Moonlight White

I'm feeling a bit behind in tasting lately, with lots of interesting options to get to.  I've not made it far into the teas I brought back from Taiwan a month ago, strange to delay that, with others from Darjeeling, Nepal, Yunnan, and Wuyishan in queue (Cindy's teas; really strange to not get to more of those straight away).  After some consideration I decided to try the tea that sounded most interesting to me, the Kinnari Tea's Moonlight White from Laos.

I tried a really nice version from Farmerleaf in Yunnan not long ago, so it will be interesting to compare this version.  Just for reference, that Yunnan / Farmerleaf version was interesting for combining a subtle floral sweetness with a subtle range of savory aspects, sunflower seed into sundried tomato, even with a hint of smoke.  This teas' leaves look and smell nice, the same mix of silver and dark-backed tea leaves, with good sweetness and complexity just in the scent.  The tastes description is so well presented on the label it's hard to miss:  green plum, leather, chocolate and citrus.  So we'll see.


The first infusion is a bit light, normally how I prepare most tea types, more or less drinking a long rinse first.  It just depends on the tea; for pu'er I'd really rinse it.

same tea; a bit black and silver

The effect is similar to that vendor description.  Cocoa is subdued compared to tasting their golden tips (Golden Flame, buds-only black tea style), where that really stood out.  Leather I'd usually notice more in earthier teas than this one, in Wuyi Yancha, complex with minerals and earth tones, or shou pu'er, where that type of range dominates.  Based on the light infusion I could see the light earth tone seeming closer to the range of hay instead.


Brewed a little stronger the next time, in the normal range, I can see what the green plum description is about.  Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with green plums to be more certain about it, but something quite unusual is going on in a related fruit range.  Maybe all of the reviews for these teas will just say "like they said," which could be worse.  Transitions will happen over infusions, so the description won't typically limit to four aspects, and I guess I can still describe relative strengths, or more about how those come across.

interesting look while brewing (not exactly Western style)

The tea is on the subtle side.  I'm getting acclimated to that.  I've tried one gold tips tea since that last one from them, which I probably never will post about, since the notes sort of said "similar to that last one, and subtle."  I am still picking up earthiness closer to hay than leather in this, which isn't so bad.  Cocoa isn't pronounced at all related the other aspects, and I might not have even got around to noticing it.  The wording said "chocolate," which is related to cocoa, but I'm not sure I'm noticing much of either, a faint undertone seems to relate to that.


The flavors profile is interesting, that unusual fruit aspect, surely as close to green plum as anything else.  It's not that far from raw pumpkin, not the orange jack'o'lantern kind, the versions that are closer to a type of squash that they eat here (pumpkin is a type of squash, but you know what I mean).  The sweetness and brightness reminds me of vanilla bean, although it's not a perfect match for that taste, just pretty close.  I am noticing hay in this.  It's interesting the way it expresses both the warmth and richness of a dried hay (similar to leather, described on the label), but also the nearly vegetal, sweet range of fresh-cut hay, closer to that green plum space.

For someone ok with subtlety, for a white tea drinker, this complexity and interesting range would make it a very nice tea.  For people really hooked on the more pronounced black tea range, or even more straightforward oolong presentations--lots of range in that broad category though--it might be a bit of a challenge.  I really like it.  Going back to the same line of thought that comes up a lot with white teas it would be possible to brew heavy and intensify the flavors but in a sense that seems to miss the point.  Of course judgement and preference are parts of that; the best preparation is what you prefer most.


It's the kind of tea you would want to drink in a quiet place to get more out of the experience, but one that rewards you with lots to experience when you do.  The noise level of this house is medium for this tasting, not ideal for that.  I just sent the second kid in here banging around to play outside with his sister but that might be too late given I'm pretty far along.

loud little people

Although the tea is subtle there is good complexity, so even though it's a struggle to get past the most dominant elements to identify the rest there is more happening there.  It's complex beyond how silver needle style teas typically come across, it just shares some space related to the subtle character.


A good number of infusions in it stays in a similar range; not so much transition.  Brightness and sweetness still stand out, joined by a bit more warmth.  Citrus isn't exactly wrong as a description, it's just on the faint side.  It doesn't come across as bright, tangy zest, or as sweet, rich orange juice, more a light supporting tone.  Someone could interpret that as a floral tone in between earthy and perfume-floral instead, one that's citrusy.  All the flavors being as clean and positive as they are makes it all work out well.  A hint of mushroom or even a poorly matching mineral aspect might really throw off the effect, even with the other taste range the same, but nothing like that is there, and it's all clean and positive.


Related to that Yunnan Moonlight white, it seemed similar in some respects but also quite different.  I'd have to try them side by side instead of months apart to be more clear on preference related to the two, and other differences would likely turn up, or maybe similarities I'm not flagging.

brewed leaves; interesting to consider oxidation level

I switched to hot water--full boiling temperature--a good number of infusions along to see what would change related to that and the earthiness came out more.  That light hay (maybe leather) moved into an autumn leaf tone, nice to me, but then I like that sort of thing.  I've had a Thai tea before that went too far in that direction, perhaps similar to really brewing some forest floor, but it works well as a supporting element.

brew at 95 C; plain as day

It would probably be possible to get a completely different experience out of this tea just by using boiling point water the whole time, or close to it, not necessarily better or worse, more just different.  That said, I just noticed they did recommend 95 C, while I was brewing this a little cooler, in the more standard white tea range.  I was trying not to read the label to taste it "blind" but I'd broke down and read that flavors description at the start anyway.

There's an interesting description of this tea in some supporting material that vendor had passed on:

So it might well shift a little with that extra 5 to 10 degrees, and the warm hay might move towards leather.

I can try it again since they sent plenty for more than one go, and I'll mention it if something more novel comes up.  In addition to the flavor balance shifting it might help offset the subtlety a bit.  It was nice as it was though.  Someone might need to experiment a little to see how they wanted to shift proportion, temperature and time to get it where they like it most, since the tea probably has some range.  Or there's always just trying out following the directions; I should try it prepared Western style while I'm at that.  If I ever ramble less in a review there is more I should say about Laos.  It's nice there, interesting, not so different than Thailand in some ways but quite different in others.