Oriental Leaf Fu zhuan hei cha comparison, Lincang and Fengqing versions

 

red wrapper Fengqing version on the left, in all photos

I'm comparison reviewing two exceptional Fu cakes from Oriental Leaf.  I think the zhuan part relates to a brick form, so I guess these aren't that, but it still helps identify the material type, for people accustomed to only seeing them pressed as bricks.  

I've recently tried what seemed likely to be the best example of Fu zhuan hei cha I've yet to try from them, reviewed here.  The comparison theme serves a few purposes.  One is to get through versions and samples of teas faster, so that I can review 10 or so teas a month, instead of 5.  

Then it also plays a role in highlighting minor differences between similar versions, which is why I'm using it for this review.  It would be hard to spot differences in feel, sweetness level, aftertaste expression, and so on when reviewing similar versions days apart.  Even isolating flavor aspect differences could be tricky, if a basic flavor range is similar.  It works best for very similar character versions; trying two completely different tea types just adds work, and probably limits what you can notice.

These will be exceptional, it's just a matter of how.  All of the Fu versions I've tried from them have been great, and that's not going to change for these.  That last version was surprising for eclipsing earlier examples, and just being on par with that would be good.  

I'll add the vendor descriptions here first, which I always add back in to the post review notes after trying the teas.  I should also add that these were sent by the vendor for review (many thanks!).  The days of bloggers connecting with producers and vendors to review teas are winding down, or just blog writing is, but it's nice carrying on that form, especially to communicate about interesting and unique teas.  

I had others try those earlier Fu versions in a number of gathering based tastings, and essentially every person saw the version we tried as a highlight.  Work out visiting me in Honolulu and Bangkok and you can place that for yourself.

On Taoism Jingyang Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea - 350g Cake (2020)  ($65.50)

A 2025 World Tea Champion winner where five years of patient aging and Yunnan's finest spring buds unite with Jingyang's legendary flowering craft to deliver a Fu Brick Tea of extraordinary golden flower density and silken, honeyed complexity.

Jingyang Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea — Naturally Flourishing Golden Flowers, Mellow Sweetness, Silken Body

Abundant Natural Golden Flowers (Jin Hua)

Masterful Jingyang Flowering Craft (Fahua)

Smooth, Sweet, Zero Bitterness

Ideal for Daily Wellness and Long-Term Aging

What Makes It Unique

2025 World Tea Champion — Superior Leaf Award: Internationally recognized for best leaf profile and cup character, validated by blind tasting from global experts.

Extraordinarily Dense Golden Flowers: This tea has everything we look for: excellent base material, perfect "Golden Flower" growth, and great aging potential.

Premium Yunnan Spring Bud Material: Unlike conventional Fu Brick made with coarse autumn leaves, this tea uses 2020 spring harvest with exceptional bud density from Lincang and Fengqing.

plenty of golden flowers (the Fengqing version)

the Lincang version

nice looking leaf material, not chopped, as hei cha in general would often be

The black wrapper version is from Lincang, the red from Fengqing (from good Yunnan Assamica plant tea material, where a lot of hei cha source material would come from elsewhere).  I could see why this stood out in an expo event competition; these are pretty good.  Again, as related to trying two other smaller cake versions earlier, one matches my personal preferences better, but both are nice, distinctive, complex, and lacking flaws.

Related to that pricing, $65 for 350 grams, these are much better than any pu'er versions you would buy for that cost range.  The type costs less in general, since demand isn't as high, but for tea of this quality in general under 20 cents a gram pricing is pretty low.

This review doesn't mention golden flowers (which are there).  They add a distinctive yeasty, fruity sort of flavor input, which at best comes across as fresh bread and honey or dried fruit.  Those flavors get mentioned, I just don't elaborate on guesses about the fungus causing them, versus the original material.

Review:

Fengqing:  very nice!  It includes the range one might expect, if anything a little more distinctive and pronounced than expected.  Sweetness stands out, along a toffee or light caramel range.  Flavors are relatively light and bright; a main flavor is similar to fruit cake, a mix of bright range dried fruits, particularly something like dried apricot.  There is spice, and warmer tones, but those are secondary, and the warmth is limited.  There is warm mineral range, but that will evolve more as the tea is fully wetted.  I'll do a longer flavor list next round.

Lincang:  spice is heavier in this, and the tone is slightly warmer.  It's also exceptional.  That spice range is going to be hard to describe; I think it's more than one thing.  One part might be clove, and another cinnamon.  

Of course there is a yeast-like aspect to both, so some description to fresh bread or cinnamon rolls would make sense.  I'll try to sort all that out next round.

Fengqing #2:  it's pleasant the way this set of flavors integrates.  It may or may not sound like that; it is atypical range, related to a lot of other tea types' character.  

Dried fruit stands out, a little stronger, maybe heavier toned this round (for being brewed lighter, or relating to more leaf input than fungus related flavor).  Yeast flavor has already dropped back, but another part of this does relate to a fresh bread flavor.  The type isn't easy to specify; maybe closest to fresh cinnamon rolls or sticky buns (which are kind of the same thing, just presented differently).  

Light and warm mineral supports the rest, giving it a depth.  Pronounced sweetness seems to help tie it all together, now more clearly in a toffee range.  It's very clean in effect.  Feel is full and rich, and it provides some aftertaste experience, with some of the warmer tones and sweetness carrying on after.  

Lincang #2:  spice develops further.  This is really more than one kind of spice.  A warm incense spice stands out, something like sandalwood.  There is no astringency bite or sharp edge to this, but it includes spice range like a cooked form of ginger, a different kind of medium toned note.  That's closer to cooked lotus root, if that's familiar.  It doesn't come across as sweet as the other, but it includes sweetness.

Mostly related to personal preference for sweeter teas and fruit range I like the first better, so far.  But this balances well; the flavors are complementary.  Slightly stronger dark bread tones works well with the rest.  I've been brewing these a little strong because they work well that way.  The flavor intensity would support lighter infusions still being pleasant.

Related to comparison with the other earlier versions these might be a little better.  It's been awhile, so it's hard comparing across months of time since earlier exposure.  And when I drink tea just to enjoy it, or even in informal tastings, I tend to break them down as descriptions less, which sort of could help with analysis and ranking.

Fengqing #3:  it evolves; warmer tones keep ramping up, and lighter sweeter range is replaced by heavier sweeter range.  The earlier fresh cinnamon roll is closer to a fresh darker bread now, not a heavy version of one, but not light either.  The earlier dried apricot has changed to a heavier dried fruit, or mix of dried fruits.  Feel is still thick and rich; maybe even a little heavier.

As a sheng drinker one might consider if teas that lack the intensity and punch are somehow less appealing.  Flavor intensity is fine in this, but young sheng, or sheng with limited aging, is typically aggressive, in terms of feel and flavor, and this isn't that.  I never completely stop drinking black tea, versions along the line of Dian Hong, or related SE Asian forms, so I stay in contact with preference for a different range.

Some of this character isn't different than flavorful and intense black tea, that expresses a lot of depth.  The flavor profile isn't a close match, but it does overlap.  The warm mineral base and fullness can be comparable, again only related to black tea versions that emphasize depth.  The bread-like range is different.

In giving it one last taste before the next round something like dried blueberry might make for a good interpretation of part of it.

Lincang:  this evolves to include more spice range, again along the line of incense spice, perhaps close to sandalwood (although my incense spice range memory awareness is now limited).  It comes across as a little dryer.  Really it is sweet and full, with good depth, but small differences across a similar range stand out in comparison tasting like this.  A touch of fruit edge might relate to a warm citrus peel, not like chen pi (aged tangerine), but still not so far from that.  

There's almost a savory effect.  It's not similar in flavor that it links to related to sun-dried tomato, the other form of savory / umami flavor that tends to be expressed, beyond seaweed that's more common in green tea forms.  This might resemble dried seaweed a little, the roasted sheets version.  But it lacks the vegetal range; it's just the savory edge.  And that is secondary to the warm spice and dark bread context, along with warm mineral base.

Fengqing #4:  this shifts a good bit.  That dried blueberry I had mentioned is closer to dried cranberry now.  It's not exactly tart, but the fruit flavor has changed.  Maybe dried dark cherry works better.  The warm tones have shifted from a bread-like yeast note closer to cacao.  This is much closer to one set of flavor aspects that can come up in black teas, that dark cherry and cacao pairing.  The base feel and deeper flavor range context is different.  It doesn't include any of that sharpness in black teas, present in a very limited form in soft and full black teas.

Feel is a little creamy.  You tend to only associate that with milk oolong, or at least light rolled oolong, but it works as a description for this.  It's reasonably close to a milk chocolate and dried fruit experience, layered on top of warmer mineral and earth tones.  It's harder to isolate the earthy range in this, since the rest stands out a lot more, but I think it plays a role in this seeming so full and complex, and balanced.  It would be natural to just interpret it as warm mineral, but I think it's both, also including mild and sweet earthiness.  

Something along the line of a touch of sweet leather gives an idea of what I mean, but this doesn't taste that much like leather, it would at most relate to a base flavor tone.  Of course that vertical layering is something I'm adding in interpretation; I really do "see" the flavors in that way, but it's probably more in how I frame them than a naturally occurring positioning that everyone else would also experience.

Lincang:  that one spice note dominates this, and then there is a lot of depth and complexity beyond that.  I guess how much one likes this tea might relate to how they experience that one flavor aspect input, as much as the rest.  To me it's squarely within the range of incense spice experience, but I guess someone else might see it as tying to medicinal root spice, or something else.  If you think "bay leaf" when you taste it then it seems to resemble that conventional cooking spice.  

Since other spice range supports that aspect experience it's really complex, even if it's natural to see it as simple, with one note supported by others.  The rest sort of resembles that complex mix of spice inputs in pumpkin pie spicing, which of course overlaps quite a bit with masala chai spices.  I suppose preconceptions about flavors, what one expects, or associates with different complex ranges, would affect interpretation.

Fengqing #5:  this will probably be enough for note-taking, even though these won't be finished.  

Somehow yeast range seems to pick back up.  Interesting; that had seemed to fade.  That relates to a complex flavor set the golden flowers contributes, which seems to extend well beyond yeast, into some of this fruit range I've been describing.  The feel of this is interesting, and pleasant, really well balanced and full.  There is still that pleasant set of dark cherry and cacao flavors present.  This would work well as a Christmas tea with nothing added to it.

Aftertaste intensity is unique.  It's not one main flavor carrying over, or a set, but the rich feel and depth of flavors, and sweetness, all linger on.  Compared to sheng intensity or oolong creaminess and floral range it's limited, but it has a lot of depth, so it doesn't come across as limited.

Lincang:  the main spice note falls into a more even balance with the rest, letting this integrate the best it has.  Those other complex flavors worked well as supporting range before, but now it's all of a similar intensity.  It comes across as softer and fuller, and maybe even sweeter.  A yeast-like depth resembles a light rye in this, a fresh bread note.  Apparently this will brew a few more infusions that are even more pleasant, complex, and balanced, instead of narrowing in scope.

Again related to my own preference the first version stands out more.  I can appreciate spice range flavors, layered with fresh bread notes, but an even sweeter dried fruit and cacao set of flavors works better for me.  This probably relates to a difference between people who are attracted to lots of sweet flavors and deserts, like dried fruit based deserts, or even chocolate and ice cream, and others who like a savory and spice oriented range more.  

Why not both, as differing experiences at different times?  I do crave plenty of intense, bitter, aggressive young sheng, but my main preference within that range is lighter, fruity, strong but approachable versions.  Then sometimes I'll have Xiaguan that's not all that close to ready, and the variety of experience is nice.  A Da Xue Shan origin (I think it was that) "cannonball" form version works well to cover both ranges, and to balance, even related to being transitioned but far from fully transitioned, from 2017 or so.  I just looked it up; it was 2018.  The point is that some of my favorite teas aren't sweet and fruity.

Conclusions

A lot is concluded in this already.  The teas are good, from good plant material, sold at a good value.  I liked one more than the other (the Fengqing material version), related to it being sweeter, a bit fruity, and for tasting like cacao, while the other included more incense spice range, that transitioned to being more balanced by other inputs in later rounds.  

Both kept brewing; I tried another pleasant round that day, and two more the next day.  They needed more time for those 5th through 7th infusions, but you could stretch timing and keep going, or even simmer that type of tea, if you wanted to get the last of it.  Plenty of tea types you drink until the character is unpleasant, but these don't drift into tasting like some version of wood in late rounds (per my interpretation; maybe that simmered round would be off in some way).

To me a next question is how these would compare to the last exceptional Fu zhuan I just reviewed from Oriental Leaf (a 2010 Jinyang version).  I don't know, but I can guess, and might write about comparing them.  These are quite good but I think that tea was great.

You tend to miss things in trying a tea just once, as I do in these reviews, but I have to accept that limitation or else I would need to write and compare two sets of notes for each post.  There might be a difference in body / feel, flavor complexity, or depth between versions.  You can easily miss an important input that's kind of "in the background," like a touch of sourness, or a minor flavor.  I noticed mint on a second tasting of one recently; it was secondary, in terms of intensity, but it adjusted how the rest came across.  I would probably just compare the version that I liked better; three way tastings get to be a bit much.

Those earlier two On Taoism versions (identical tea, listed here, and reviewed earlier here, but sold as 190 gram cakes) were essentially an equivalent option, just sold at less volume, and a slightly higher cost (but still around 20 cents a gram).  I had reviewed them brewing them Western style.  That works, but for teas this good it's interesting to me to see the development of them across Gongfu rounds.  

If I'm in a hurry in the morning I'll still sometimes brew exceptional tea Western style, to keep things moving, and it's nice that these work both ways, as better black teas do.  For good oolong you kind of lose too much from transitions, but for inexpensive and medium quality rolled oolong, as most Thai versions are, Western style is still fine.  If an oolong version is limited in quality or flawed enough Western brewing is better.  Initially I kind of expected more limitations from these teas, an extra rough edge or feel gap, but they're solid, complex and well-balanced.

an orange kitten helped with this tasting

Shaanxi Fu hei cha processed Lincang material

 

The last review of an Oriental Leaf tea (sent by them for review; many thanks!) was of a relatively unusual type, a Shou Mei white tea used for secondary Fu hei cha style processing.  It was good, and of course unique.  This could be just about anything, based on that.

I wrote the review notes without knowing what it was, which I looked up later.

Chang’an Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea Mini Cake 2022 – Yunnan Leaf, Shaanxi Fermentation

In ancient China, tea merchants carried Raw Mao Cha (黑毛茶) tea from the misty Southern China mountains to the imperial capital of Chang’an, where it became beloved for its warming, restorative character during long Silk Road journeys. Our Chang’an Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea Mini Cake pays homage to that tradition, marrying first-grade Yunnan Lincang 临沧 dark tea leaves with the historic Jingyang 泾阳 fermentation that nurtures the signature “Golden Flower” probiotic bloom.

Beneath its smooth black-brown surface lies an amber-red liquor reminiscent of aged whisky or polished carnelian—bright, clear, and resilient across many infusions. The aroma evokes toasted wood, aged barn oak, and a gentle hint of honeyed dates, while the palate unfolds with velvety malt sweetness, subtle nutty tones, and a whisper of warm earth. Its finish is clean, slightly sticky-sweet like glutinous rice candy, leaving a long-lasting, soothing warmth.

Unlike dense traditional bricks, this 60g thin mini cake breaks apart easily by hand—ideal for gifting, travel, or brewing a single session without waste. Its Chinese name, “Bashui Run Chang’an” (“八水绕长安 Eight Waters Nourish Chang’an”), celebrates the life-giving rivers that cradle the ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty, infusing each cup with the poetic soul of Shaanxi.

So it's something different, again.  Really it would help to unpack more about that general tea type, and distinctive type-typical local variations from that area (Shaanxi province), but I may never get around to that.

I should clarify that Oriental Leaf may specialize in hei cha, and Fu brick style teas, but they sell a broad range.  I think they're sending me these more interesting versions just now because they think I'd find them interesting, and I do.

Review:

#1:  it's tempting to guess the tea type even before listing out aspects.  It's in between black and hei cha styles, it seems.  The color is reddish; that's typically oxidation.  Flavors, the primary range, are mostly black tea oriented, towards fruit and floral, with pleasant mineral grounding that, maybe into dark wood a bit.  But there's something else, a type of spice range that's unique.  And malt; that's back to standard black tea character.  

Maybe there's even a little distinctive sourness, which can come up in some types of black tea, but which stand out in different ways in hei cha.  I'll try a second round to get a different perspective on the tea, brewing it a little lighter, since I let this go a little long, to get the compressed tea to open up.

#2:  woodiness picks up a bit.  Intensity is considerable, especially considering this was a flash infusion.  Proportion is higher than it needed to be, even though it's just in the normal range that I use.  That distinctive spice note stands out.  It's almost closer to what I've experienced in different tisane ranges before, than in standard tea.  It's hard to put a name or type to that though.  It's not dis-similar to some heavier flavor floral herbs, like roselle.  A different part relates a lot more to a bark spice herb, or the like.  To use tasting shorthand people often reference something tasting medicinal, when it's hard to place; I guess that works.  I take that to mean "vaguely like ginseng," but of course it would mean different things.  

It's less similar to a standard black tea form, this round.  Those other flavors pick up, even a range I'm describing as sourness, which people might place in different ways.  Do you know how when you sharpen a pencil in an old-style sharpener, how that graphite mineral smell and the well-cured wood smell mix, in a much more sweet and aromatic form than a bit of wood and graphite shavings should produce?  It's like that.  But a bit more earthiness enters in, like a touch of dried mushroom.  Floral and fruit tones are also present, but they're hard to describe in a distinct way.

#3:  it all ties together all the better.  It may just be how I interpret it, versus an objectively clear transition pattern, but the fruit seems to pick up a bit now.  It's at the overlap between heavy floral range and dried fruit, towards Chinese date, jujube.

It would be funny if this was a tisane blend.  It's too complex, and expresses too much of what stands out in "real tea."  But a tisane like willow herb (fireweed / Ivan chay) can be quite complex, and it's typically not so different than this.  I think this still has too much complexity and depth for it to be that.  There's a limited range and depth to all tisanes, for the most part, which can be hard to work around even when blending inputs.  Real tea gives you that complexity, structure, full feel, and aftertaste input.

Again I'm stumped, for the second time in a row.  I'll try a couple more infusions to discuss transitions, then check what this is.

#4:  it's evolving, just not changing too much.  That distinctive sourness is fading, and richer fruit and floral tones stand out all the more.  If someone used half this proportion that could've potentially happened a little faster, and the final infusion count wouldn't go as far.  

Feel is nice in this, full and rich.  Sweetness is good; without that this particular flavor set wouldn't tie together as well.  It might be that only someone open to novel experiences would like this.  It's really not so far off black tea character, as some flavor aspects go, and it could just be that, but it would have to be a very distinctive version of that, something really different.  But it's not like hei cha forms I'm familiar with either.

#5:  I read what this is:  it's Lincang Assamica material processed using Fu hei cha methods, including exposure to the Golden Flowers fungus.  Cool!  Their description (cited above) is as close as I'm probably getting.  It's interesting that it turns out like this, from those starting points.

Conclusions:

Another fascinating and novel tea, something completely different.  The character was clearly positive, beyond the novelty, including complexity, depth, and balance.  Not everyone would appreciate this experience, but then that's common ground for both pu'er and hei cha experience (or if someone sees them as parts of the same set then that's redundant, unless you add an "other" back in modifying hei cha).

Our descriptions weren't identical but they overlapped quite a bit, and the spirit was the same, just different ways of describing the same tea.  Often vendors hold back from being that descriptive, for a few good reasons.  Teas can change over time, so then a few years later a description might seem off.  And people tend to interpret experiences differently, so conveying the general spirit might still seem to miss getting details right.  It's possible that a vendor might describe a tea in the best possible light, for example leaving "sourness" out as a description, which could seem like adding a biased spin, even though again the aspects list conclusion is fairly subjective.

This tea costs $18 for 60 grams, but it's hard to interpret that value part since this tea probably doesn't exist in any similar form from any other source.  That's costly as hei cha goes, but hei cha comes in a broad range of forms and quality levels.  This quality level of hei cha is unusual, and the style is a lot more novel than that.  It's made from pu'er material, it would seem, one main input to that cost.  I don't think that a per-gram price means much, since that kind of comparison just can't be done.  It works out to 30 cents a gram, for what that's worth.

Intensity of this tea stands out; that could be easy to miss, in a comment about it being a bit too strong for my typical proportion, which I'm using for young sheng pu'er.  It's fine if you flash brew it, not too strong, but using less would make more sense.  That intensity makes sense given that it's Lincang material, which one would expect to be bitter (in the sheng form, maybe not prepared as a hei cha), sweet, clean and complex (in good quality versions), and intense.

In the end this is pretty far from the character of typical inexpensive, lower quality material based Fu zhuan or Fu brick versions (which can be nice; a rough edge here or there doesn't always take much away from pleasant character and interesting flavors).  Let's check Google AI's input about that:

Fu zhuan is a type of Chinese dark tea (hei cha) from Hunan Province that is pressed into bricks and fermented to develop a beneficial fungus called "golden flower" (\(jinhua\)). This unique process gives it a distinctive taste, often described as sweet and herbal with woody notes, and it is historically linked to helping nomads with their high-meat diets. It is known for its potential health benefits, including supporting digestion and has a smooth mouthfeel that is very flexible for brewing.  

Just to clarify this is the production origin site:  Fermentation Site: Jingyang, Shaanxi, China

That description isn't too far off (sweet, herbal, woody).  What I was describing as medicinal bark spice can be interpreted more simply as wood character.  Or as aged barn oak, per the vendor's take.  It's complex enough that a broad range of interpretations would be possible.  And at the same time clean enough in effect that beyond a touch of distinctive sourness (which does seem related to the Golden Flowers typical input, now that I think it through) that there aren't many off or negative aspects to describe in any way.  

It's main strength and weakness is that it's unusual, which people could take in different ways.  The aspects character part is nice.

Oriental Leaf YXT Golden Fu hei cha

 

I'm reviewing another version of Fu brick hei cha, sent by the Oriental Leaf company for review (many thanks!).  It's not easy to place that in relation to the last version I wrote about, but I will add more final thoughts on that in a conclusion section, after taking notes.  I'll add a vendor description as an introduction and product identifier, per normal practice after I tried the tea and wrote the review notes.

YXT Golden Fu Tea Individually Wrapped  ($30 for 90 grams, sold as 15 six gram samples)

Basic information

Tea type: Fu Tea

Tea shape: Loose

Origin: Shaanxi

Picking year: 2021-2024

Picking Season: Spring

Tea shape: Loose

Fermentation degree: 🟠🟠🟠🟠Post-fermented

The last tea that I reviewed was an YXT Jingyang Fu Tea Classic Yellow Can 300g, selling for $50.

I don't know how these are different, or even if they are.  I would imagine that they're different products from the same producer.  I'll say more about apparent differences at the end.  It's easy enough to reference visual appearance differences just from the earlier sample photo:

more golden flowers, for sure

Review:

#1:  appearance is a bit broken compared to the more whole version that I've already reviewed.  That doesn't necessarily match up with grade in any way; it ties to how it was separated from a brick.  Even a bit of stick material doesn't mean much.  It's hei cha; it can be like that.  There seems to be less "golden flowers" showing in this, than that earlier version, but some.

It has a pleasant warm and yeasty taste.  I suppose that not everyone would love it; for some that wouldn't be so pleasant.  I would really need to try this along with the other version to make a distinction, to say how they are different, or which is better in what ways.  This is probably going to seem a bit generic as a result; it will sound a lot like the other one.

Flavor profile is quite bread-like, along the lines of dark bread, or at least a rye.  I'm ok with that; it's pleasant to me.  I don't love it so much that I end up buying hei cha, since I'm more into sheng pu'er, for quite awhile now, maybe 5 or 6 years.  That makes it hard to place, about liking something but not enough to seek out repeating the experience of it.  Do I like it more than the range of different oolongs that I also appreciate, but rarely drink?  It's just different.

#2:  a bit more fruitiness picks up in this.  Of course it's a warm dried fruit range, like dried apricot.  I'm brewing it pretty strong, infusing what looks to be about 5 or 6 grams for over 30 seconds.  There is no astringency or bitterness to be concerned with, no reason or limitation related to not brewing it much stronger.

Aftertaste experience is interesting, how the warm yeasty tone and some fruit carry over.  It has an unusual thick feel, not structured like sheng pu'er, not as round and full as some oolong can be, but not thin at all.  Mineral range grounds the rest; I suppose that carries over too.

#3:  mineral picks up.  That's not a bad transition, but it's also not improving.

This brings to mind what markers or identifying aspects would indicate good quality Fu hei cha (related to specific aspects, beyond tasting good).  I really don't know.  In a sense from a perspective of a tea enthusiast with very significant background in drinking a lot of other teas it doesn't matter.  If people into Fu tea find something in particular highly desirable, and the rest of us have trouble relating to that, it's not as if one perspective or the other is right or wrong.

Then I also bring up an acclimation process in relation to sheng.  It's valid for people with more exposure to a type to naturally prefer some range over time, or to see aspects initially experienced as negative as desirable later on.  With sheng pu'er this comes up in relation to bitterness and pronounced astringency.  Would this mineral input later on be identified as more positive or negative?  Or the yeasty bread note?  Would transitions over rounds be valued, or positive character after many rounds?  Maybe; who knows.

It seems less problematic but I also can't review this "against" the other version 2 or 3 weeks later, whatever it has been.  I considered comparison reviewing, drinking two teas at once, but it's a lot to take on given what's going on at home today.  I'll spare you that, but it has been a long sequence of reviewing a lot of teas in the last month, and home life just went from a bit busy to overloaded in the last week.  The kids will go back to Honolulu in about 4 days, and I'll stay here; it relates to that.  I can make some notes about a tea but it's best to keep it limited.

#4:  flavor is less integrated and balanced.  I suppose that the input of the "golden flowers" has largely worn off, and it's down to what the tea is contributing, at least more so.

I'm noticing a mixed color appearance; what to make of that?  Some leaves are greenish and others quite dark.  For an oxidized tea that would come from inconsistency to air exposure.  I'm not completely familiar with the processing steps for this particular tea, even though I've reviewed related teas in the past.  Under different conditions of personal life I'd look into that, but as things stand I won't.

The tea doesn't come across as relatively high in quality level, as unusually appealing in terms of expressed aspects, but it's nice, it's fine.  Those limitations seem less severe in relation to this tea type.  White tea that is so-so can end up being relatively flavorless, which is a problem for supporting a positive experience.  This isn't like that.  Sheng that's medium or below average in quality can be harsh, with heavy astringency, or negative flavor inputs.  Those can span a lot of range; some might taste vegetal, or musty, smoky, or too woody.  Wuyi Yancha of limited quality usually lack some aspect range that should be positive, like full feel, or flavor complexity, and flavors can be a little off.

This isn't like any of that.  For being a more basic type having some limitations seems fine; it integrates with the experience in a relatively low impact way.  Flavors are still positive, feel is fine, and transition cycle of aspects isn't bad.  This could even be above average in quality level; it's hard for me to keep track, again without knowing markers to watch out for that determine that per each type.  At a guess it's ordinary in quality level, not above average, and it just so happens to work out that it's relatively pleasant anyway.

#5:  it's thinning a bit but still ok, still nice.  A mix of leaf material character, evident in the different colored leaves, doesn't throw off final experienced aspects as much as one would ordinarily expect.  Sometimes with sheng pu'er this comes up; sometimes some leaves can clearly be more oxidized, and it all can balance nicely anyway, and still integrate together as a consistent, positive experience.  More often it wouldn't work well; it just depends.

It's hard to describe how flavor balance has shifted, how the early bread-like yeasty range and fruit largely dropping out has worked out, replaced by heavier mineral tones.  I'm describing this as positive because those didn't disappear, they just dropped to a lower level.

This is down to where a 5 or 10 minute soak might still be positive, essentially at the end.  This is a good place to leave off making review notes.

Conclusions:

It's not completely reliable but per my memory the other earlier version was quite similar but slightly better.  It definitely looked better, much less broken in appearance, and with more golden flowers input (which I take to be a good thing; someone wouldn't drink this at all if they thought the opposite).

The producer is the same, and the style is either similar or the same, so they're not so different.  It would be odd if I go back and try both together again, without making notes, and like this version more.  And that could happen; I can't really make that clear a mental reference to compare back against weeks later.

It's odd how I really do like this style of hei cha, more than just about any other type version, but then I never get around to buying it, after some early exploration 6 or 7 or so years ago.  I've got plenty to keep up with in exploring and drinking sheng pu'er, and I mix in some black tea beyond that, and then keep it simple from there.  Samples sent for review pull me in all sorts of directions for experience, maybe too many some of the time.  I appreciate the variety and chance to try different things but it can be a bit much, especially taken along with demands to spend time on reviews, then to edit content and share mention of it online.

In theory I could be earning limited revenue from affiliate marketing programs for mentioning teas, but in practice I'm not, none at all.  I signed up for one over the past few months but haven't checked if sales volume would relate to any commission yet.  It wouldn't; not that many people are reading these posts, under 100 for each, for reviews, and even in those cases few people would click through using a post link to be tracked as related.  I should check back though, just out of curiosity.

It's still interesting trying lots of different teas, and I don't mind the time and effort to write about that.  I might've liked the other related Fu / hei cha version better, but this one is still pleasant to experience.

In that last post about sheng pu'er, comparing three versions, I talked through how costs work out, how a tea budget might play out given expenses relating to different quality levels.  If someone prefers teas that tend to cost a bit more than average (lots of sheng pu'er range, rolled oolongs from Taiwan, higher demand Chinese green teas, etc.), they could alternate in drinking some hei cha or black tea to reduce the overall expense.  

Hei cha isn't for everyone, but that's how it goes with every tea type.  Exploring this type through market store vendors would also work (Yunnan Sourcing, King Tea Mall), but it might take some exploration to find a version that you like.

Jingyang Fu Tea hei cha, a version with golden flowers

A company called Oriental Leaf sent some teas for review; many thanks for that.  Their flagship product range seems to be Fu brick tea hei cha, the kind that often includes golden flowers, a type of fungus.  This is described as positive; I'm sure that it's safe.  I've had tea with this fungus in it before and the experience was quite positive.  This review describes a version (from Yunnan Sourcing), and what that type of fungus is.

The web page listing identifies price and what the tea is:

YXT Jingyang Fu Tea Classic Yellow Can 300g (listing for 1860 baht, $51)

This is a Fu brick tea, a type of post-fermented tea. The tea is covered with golden flowers, also known as Eurotium cristatum, a beneficial enzyme-producing fungus. It grows naturally during the Fu brick tea production process and is a crucial indicator of the quality of the tea. In other words, the more denser the golden flowers, the better. This tea has a unique tea aroma produced by the golden flowers. It has a very thick, rich taste and will give you sweetness in the mouth and throat...

It is part of the YXT classic Yellow Can series, renowned for its robust jujube aroma, abundant golden flowers, and a distinctly pure fragrance. The tea is crafted from Maocha harvested between 2019 and 2022 in the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi...

...The naturally occurring golden flowers are plump and abundant, contributing to the tea's visual and aromatic appeal. Employing traditional tea-making techniques dating back to 1368, acknowledged as an intangible cultural heritage, the tea is produced in a 5000-square-meter dust-free workshop at the factory, ensuring the highest quality standards are maintained.

This tea is exceptionally friendly to first-time Fu tea drinkers, offering a smooth and mellow taste. I personally brewed this tea more than 15 times in succession, and the flavor remained consistent. Moreover, as you progress through subsequent infusions, the taste becomes increasingly sweet. I highly recommend this tea for those venturing into Fu tea for the first time.

**This tea has a higher-quality product in RED can. Feel free to check it out. [YXT Jingyang Fu Tea Classic RED Can 300g]

Pretty good, for covering some basics.  The quality of this seemed pretty good to me too, for this being a product they sell a slightly better version of.  17 cents per gram sounds quite reasonable.  There is a different amount option and sample listing that runs higher in per-unit cost, and that's fine too, different options for trying teas or buying more once you know that you like them.  

Fu brick and other hei cha tend to be sold in rather large pressed portions, as somewhat inexpensive tea versions.  Quality and character can vary a good bit though, and the value is different related to how pleasant a tea seems.

Review:

Infusion #1:  to rinse or not rinse; for once I don't really know the conventional answer.  I'd guess that more people rinse this.  It's hei cha, and that's standard for those, and this is literally covered with fungus.  I'll try the first round anyway, and if it seems a little odd I'll let it go.  

I'm sure this is safe anyway; even for heavily fermented sheng and for shou that risk from fermentation by-products is described as low in level, so that the rinse step relates to removing limited trace contact with toxins that could add up in effect over months and years, and lots of exposure.  Since I'm almost never drinking this tea type that kind of factor doesn't matter.

It's different, but it matches what I remember of related experience.  Warm bread-like tones stand out, with a particular yeasty aspect a main part of the experience.  I think this will deepen and develop in complexity so doing a full breakdown now doesn't make much sense.

I did drink half of it, and threw some out, so half was rinse?  That makes no sense.  There's a good bit of fungus in this still so the idea can't be removing all of that or all of the secondary by-products from it.

#2:  intensity picks way up, and some complexity along with it.  Of course a deep, dark bread, yeasty aspect range is still present.  Mentioning "dark bread" doesn't capture how complex and pleasant that experience is.  Adding types like pumpernickel or dark rye isn't so descriptive either, but it's along those lines.  

Sweetness is good, and lighter tone range balances the heavier range.  A layer of light and warm mineral supports the rest, a little like the clay smell present in the type of soil back in Pennsylvania, which is quite different here (the smell of clay in the soil), and in Hawaii.  An aftertaste component that's tied to the rest, but not identical, supports the effect of complexity.

For people who have tried Fu brick teas with golden flowers what I'm struggling to express is already clear, and for others it may not get there.  Maybe secondary positive or off aspects would define what is most exceptional or not as desirable in this range.  I'm at that level of familiarity for pu'er, but not Fu tea.  I'll have to go with just describing it.

#3:  one part picks up, but it's hard to describe this as any set of individual parts, or flavor aspects.  So far I've been relying on dark bread, yeast, and clay as comparisons, but they're not a perfect parallel.

I suppose it's the yeastiness that increases.  If you taste something like sticky buns while they're still rising, the dough, a pronounced warm yeast aspect stands out, a little different than from fresh homemade bread or pizza dough, and it's like that.  Caramel or toffee sweetness might be reminding me of that; it might be the reason I refer to that distinction.  Sweetness is still pleasant, pronounced, and the overall effect is very clean in relation to this tasting as earthy as this does.  In between spice and earth, I guess dark bread falls.

Related to subjective preference, which varies by person, and isn't such a clear yardstick, I like this quite a bit more than shou pu'er.  Some yeasty variations of shou, like what I've tried as smaller batch versions from Russia, are kind of similar, but to me this balances that yeast-like range better with the rest.  It doesn't taste like wet cardboard, which can come up for some shou pu'er; it's a little closer to nutmeg.  It might resemble an aromatic wood component too, or rather a supporting component does, that makes up the distinction between peat-intensive shou and this much lighter bread and spice Fu flavor profile.

Our cats are very drawn to try to reach and lay down in a "wardrobe," or large wooden cabinet for clothes, the one my wife uses, upstairs in our house, which is made of aromatic tropical wood.  This scent resembles that.  Of course the cats aren't supposed to do that, and we have no idea why her closet / cabinet, right beside mine, is so appealing.  I don't know the name of that wood type.  It might be teak, or maybe just something related.  I doubt that you could buy such a thing today, related to restrictions on harvesting tropical lumber; it's a carry-over from her family being fairly prosperous in the first half and middle of the 20th century.

#4:  intensity keeps up, but then I am brewing this pretty strong, using a high proportion and intermediate infusion timing, maybe 20 seconds.  There is no negative range to brew around, no pronounced bitterness, astringency, or overly strong flavor range, so it could work at any intensity.

Flavors are pretty strong; brewed this way feel is quite full and aftertaste experience is pronounced.  I think spice range seems to be picking up.  It's not exactly nutmeg, as I've already mentioned, closer to incense spice, sandalwood or frankincense, which I don't remember the scents of, since my new age renewal days are long since over, back in the mid 90s.

Pleasantness stands out, a subjective reaction instead of set of aspect experiences.  That warm, rich spice or wood tone is quite pleasant, and all the other complexity, sweetness, fullness, and mild character supports it well.  It seems a bit refined, as hei cha goes, an elusive character that (to me) marks out a more ideal range.  Lots of hei cha is nice, but they tend to be thin across part of the range, or have a bit of an off input, a little extra smoke, earthiness, harsher mineral, or off spice tone.  If this tasted more like semi-cured hardwood instead of tropical wood and spice it would still be nice, but not this nice.

#5:  I'm trying this round brewed light, closer to 10 seconds instead, to see how that changes things.

Lighter flavors stand out, with the trade-off of depth and intensity being limited.  Aftertaste is less pronounced.  This may still be transitioning to slightly warmer tones anyway, moving on from lighter dark bread range to even darker dark bread range.  Usually extending brew times in later rounds causes that kind of shift to heavier tones, but this was the opposite context.  

I think that I could drink a lot of this, a kg of it.  Or then again I'd probably still crave sheng pu'er more, so I might not get to it so often if I owned that much.  I like it better than shou and aged white teas, two other ranges that might be partly comparable in terms of aspects.  Oolongs are just different.  This is as approachable as mild but somewhat intense Wuyi Yancha, and completely different in specific flavor set, but not completely different in overall effect.

It would be fine as a breakfast tea.  I think the quality of this particular version is good enough that it would make sense in the other use too, as a tea you focus on experiencing for 45 minutes or so, when free time is open.  To me since it's a little simpler and less intense than sheng it would stand in as a pleasant part of that experience, but not necessarily as naturally as the main focus of it.  

To me a lot of the aged factory sheng pu'er people are always into are a little like that, what 20 year old versions are like now, pretty much all the CNNP range.  It would be interesting to just focus on that the first few times you try it, then from there it could be a main part of a special experience, but perhaps not the focus of it.  For having friends over sure, but not for being the main focus of a Saturday morning long session over and over.

#6:  brewed a little longer warmer tones come out all the more.  It's not transitioning much; I guess that's not a part of the experience.  You can get some of the same effect from varying infusion times, since it's good at different strengths, drinking it as slightly different forms of tea.  I'll give it one more longish 20+ second soak and the next round will be final thoughts, even though this will keep going.

#7:  quite pleasant still, still complex, layered, and interesting, while being clean and approachable at the same time.  One part is still actually catchy, that yeasty warm bread tone, and the rest is still relatively complex in supporting that.

Conclusions:

This is one of the better hei cha versions I've ever tried.  I may have only tried a two or three yellow-flower inoculated Fu brick teas before, so I'm not working from that much depth of experience for the specific type, but I have tried dozens of other hei cha versions (not counting pu'er--that count is crazy), and this is clearly quite good quality tea.  

[later edit]:  I made some minor revisions, and it seems appropriate to add a comment here about an apparent contradiction this caused.  The description said that this is naturally occurring fungus (a passage added later), and I've just said that it's intentionally inoculated.  It doesn't make that much difference.  If the tea was produced and stored in a place with a lot of that fungus already present it would be around to contact and grow on the tea, and then a producer may or may not transfer it to the tea more directly.  I don't see this as one of those critical points where the story needs to be pinned down one way or another.  If it does seem so to readers then further review of other sources about the type might add more on it.

If you were to order a half dozen random versions online there is a good chance that none would be this good.  It matches the typical type flavor range (per my understanding), includes great flavor depth and complexity, matches some standard markers for quality (thickness of feel and aftertaste), brews a good number of positive rounds, and lacks flaws.  The price seems quite fair, given that quality level.

That's how the curator vendor theme is supposed to work, but you just never know.  Of course every sales site describes teas positively.  One might think that depth of background information correlates to tea quality, or that a sales site should seem a certain way, but in the end you really have to try the tea.  Or to accept input from another reference, but it would work to be careful about that.  Few people have tried an extensive range of teas, and even if they have a reviewer might spin certain products more positively for their own reasons.

Why would I not be doing that?  For people with the patience to have read a large of number of reviews, and to have tried some of the same teas themselves, they would have a sense of how to take input here.  If this is the first post content anyone has read from this blog then there would be no indicator or baseline.

To me more Chinese-side vendors turning up is a fantastic sign for the Western tea industry.  For a long time we've been at the mercy of Western facing sites like Yunnan Sourcing, Chawang Shop, and King Tea Mall to access teas like this.  Those sources are fine, and value is actually pretty decent from all of them, but quality level and value can vary for each (by product, more so than in general), and the range isn't even close to what Chinese teas are accessible in the Chinese market.  Per my understanding, at least, based on hearsay input from lots of people, in China and just familiar with the industry there.  

Chinese vendors reaching across the aisle to make teas available in "the West" could add real competition, and could gradually change things.  In many cases this would relate to sales of low quality, over-hyped, still moderately priced versions, which is something, maybe better as a starting point for exploration than for experienced tea enthusiasts to try the most interesting versions.  

It's my impression that this source is offering a slightly better quality range version, at least in this one case, which is all that I've tried so far.  That alone could be very inconsistent; a vendor selling one great quality tea at good value doesn't mean much in relation to the rest of their product range.  I'll try a couple more types they sent and check back in about how those work out.

playing with a cousin, the sweetest little girl

both my kids