Wanmu Tea Garden (Xinyang, Henan producer) Dong Fang Mei Ren

 

first and second samples

third sample

I'm trying three more versions of another type of tea from the Wanmu Tea Garden (small factory producer), a Xinyang, Henan (China) tea producer.  There is a little more background on them from trying two yellow tea versions, that were exceptional, but I've still not turned up more depth of background.  Their website mentions a more history than that blog post, but nothing on this tea type.

These are presented as versions of Dong Fang Mei Ren, more commonly known in Western tea circles as either Oriental Beauty or Eastern / Asian Beauty (renaming around "oriental" moving to seem negative).  The other sample I have yet to try is described as an award winning black tea; it is probably a more standard offering type from them.  They would sell a tea like this, but may well be working out processing details, or which inputs make the best version of it.  

The review part goes into issues of it being true to type, and why to some extent that may not apply.  Some tea types are source-area limited, as pu'er is (from Yunnan), or Japanese tea versions (sencha, gyokuro, matcha, and others).  Teas like Wuyishan area oolongs or Longjing green tea could potentially be made from material from other places, but those are source limited too, so only versions from the original area would be authentic.  

It's my understanding that Dong Fang Mei Ren / Oriental Beauty is a style, relating to plant type, location input, and processed form, but that it's not tied to one origin area, beyond originating in Taiwan.  Good versions are made outside of Taiwan, in Thailand and Vietnam, produced by copying those three main inputs as closely as possible.  Those use plant types from Taiwan, which should also relate to using bug-bitten material.  

These teas are made using local plant types, so they won't be as similar.  I didn't know that when trying the first two samples, and had talked to my Wanmu contact prior to trying the third, to cover that by then.  So the goal, for them, might be to produce the best quality, most pleasant tea possible, using comparable but different inputs, that won't necessarily match the original aspect range closely.  Oxidation level is one main related concern, which I go into more in these notes.

Review:

#1, first infusion:  this looks a little lighter than the other, more golden and less towards golden-amber; it's surely less oxidized.  It will be interesting to see how that works out.

Flavor is interesting; very complex, covering more ground than is typical for just about any tea version or type.  It includes warm, rich, sweet tones and also some greener, lighter, more vegetal range.  It's a little early to say that's going to amount to a flaw or limitation but that's a natural early impression.  

The warm and rich flavors present are right for Dong Fang Mei Ren, which I still think of as Oriental Beauty.  There's honey sweetness and a citrus note, not extending into warm cinnamon type spice much, but it's complex in different directions, potentially including that.  Sure, I think it's there.  The vegetal note is along the line of green wood.  As a primary flavor input that wouldn't be good at all, but it balances better than it sounds in this.  

The feel has a bit of a related edge, almost implying bitterness is also present in the flavor.  It's in that space where feel and taste seem to overlap, astringency and bitterness.

#2:  interesting, also quite different.  I was expecting at least one of these to completely match the standard DFMR / OB flavor profile, but neither really do.  This is warmer and richer, and that part works.  Sweetness is ok; it would seem sweeter if there were more of an associated fruit note, which doesn't stand out, but there's some to make it balance.  There's a wood range flavor that's completely different than the mild green wood in the other, in this case more along the line of cured oak.  Someone might interpret that associated dry feel as linking with sourness, versus bitterness.  That's not how DFMR / OB goes.

I really thought that I'd be discussing how these fall well within standard DFMR range, describing how fruit in one compares to more cinnamon in the other, or something such.  Instead this might be about how they vary from that range.  These were presented as experimental tea versions, not a finished product that they've been producing for awhile.  That impression came from those yellow teas being absolutely spot-on for character, and very pleasant in aspect range.  Even great related to flavor complexity, cleanness, depth, and balance.  These two versions could be interpreted as showing flaws as much as promise, and falling much further from trueness to type.

Maybe that could relate to using a very different plant type material than what DFMR / OB is usually made from?  I don't know that part.  Of course processing also comes into play, and growing conditions inputs.  I'll try a lighter version of both; that may help them stand out more positively.

This makes me wonder what the third sample is like.  I won't know until I try it.

#1, second infusion:  it balances better.  Honey sweetness stands out as a dominant flavor this round, which is typically pleasant, in a lot of mixed flavor contexts.  This tastes a lot more like a good Jin Jun Mei I just tried at a favorite Chinatown shop recently than one would imagine it could.  I wonder if they could make something similar?

Fruit drops back, maybe extending into dried fruit more, maybe apricot.  The wood tone does soften, and for the most part transitions out.  It's not exactly type-typical for OB (I'll start writing the shorter form), but it's as close as these have been, and it's quite pleasant.  Feel is full, without much astringency, beyond that fullness.  You probably wouldn't think of green wood, or even vegetal range, when trying this, for this infusion.

#2:  this is better as well.  That wood tone has softened, with more complexity entering in.  Astringency hangs in there more, in that different form, but it decreases, with broader positive flavors making it balance better.  It is a lot closer to cinnamon spice; that's one decent interpretation for a main flavor input.  A good bit of wood offsets how one experiences that.  

It seems like oxidation level for both of these might be a little low, maybe less so for the second one, but possibly even for it.  Then maybe the material isn't as suited for this tea type, or at least it might not be able to duplicate how Taiwanese oolong material ends up in that form.  Looking up standard online references don't mention the plant type used, or at least the first two didn't, so I asked Google's AI to fill that in:

Oriental Beauty tea is made from a specific cultivar of the Camellia sinensis plant, but its unique flavor comes from being bitten by the tea green leafhopper. The insect bites damage the leaves, causing the plant to produce a special chemical reaction that creates a natural honey-like aroma and sweet taste. The tea is a type of oolong tea that requires this specific, pesticide-free process to achieve its distinct qualities. 

Plant: The base is the Camellia sinensis tea plant, with a cultivar often used being Chin-shin Dah-pang, notes Nih.

Insect: The tea green leafhopper (Jacobiasca formosana) bites the leaves, stems, and buds.

Flavor development: The insect bites trigger a defense response in the plant, leading to the production of chemicals like diol, which are converted into compounds like hotrienol during processing.

Pesticide-free: This process is only possible on tea plants that have not been sprayed with pesticides.

It's usually bug-bitten, as this covers.  I thought that Qing Xin / Chin Shin would've been a common plant type used, but one from Thailand I reviewed not long ago used a #17 variant, with good outcome.  Here's that review; it was from Tea Side (a Thai vendor selling Thai teas online), and that was the Ruan Zhi / Bai Lu cultivar, however one names that.

In looking up that reference I ran across lots I've written about lots of OB versions, from different places, made from different cultivars (plant types).  It would work to scan through another dozen posts here to get a feel for different range.  I won't go into what it means here here, but this covers lots of local Taiwanese cultivars / plant types:

this TRES / TTES content is off that agency site now, I think, so attribution would require some extra steps finding it on the wayback machine

#1, third infusion:  it's even better; this is evolving to taste a bit like bees' wax, not just honey.  That's really like Jin Jun Mei then (Fujian black tea from the Wuyishan area).  It's odd that it's so close, for being less oxidized (seemingly).  Kittichai, the Jip Eu Chinatown shop owner, just mentioned that good Jin Jun Mei should be a little less oxidized; it may relate to that, that the black tea style is also like that.

For flavor list this also includes a bit of citrus and dried fruit, and limited warm tone range, some mineral.  Feel is quite pleasant.  The vegetal edge is diminished, but I suppose a little is still there.  It's not that close to type-typical original OB but it's good.

#2:  warmer toned, which one would expect to match OB better, but that one wood flavor aspect and slightly dryer feel really throws that off.  It's also pretty good, but I suppose I like the first more.  It balances better, for the green wood and astringency generally dropping out.  This does include some fruit, but it's harder to appreciate as separate from a cured wood flavor range.  I tend to describe warm toned dried fruit as like tamarind, as a default, and it's not so far from that, just probably not so close either.  It probably works better to say it includes some dried Chinese date, jujube, and then a warm mineral tone that seems to link is really something else.

It's pleasant, but if this is an experimental tea it may not be quite there yet.  It's not balanced and pleasant enough.

Second review, the third type:

first infusion:  again a bit more vegetal than DFMR / OB tends to be.  The flavors are nice, bright, clean, and complex, but the range is completely different than that standard oolong type.  Some sort of warm tones are there, in the background, but this is mostly floral with some green wood sort of vegetal range, so completely different.  Maybe there's a touch of citrus fruit; I'll check again next round.

#2:  this tea is interesting for balancing between two different things.  On the one hand the astringency and vegetal range (mostly flavor related, not feel) ties to a lighter themed tea, not really a standard type that's easy to reference, but along the lines of green or light oolong.  Since it's a non-standard form it might come across as less approachable or positive, just due to being unfamiliar.  

Then on the other side it also balances well, and is clean and complex, so it has a range of positive character going for it.  It just doesn't completely "make sense," related to falling outside of expectations.  Not just for DFMR / OB, but related to the entire range of standard tea types.  In a sense it tastes like an adjusted version of a green tea, not an oolong.

Setting all that aside the actual aspects are pleasant.  It includes some kind of non-descript fruit and floral range, and that doesn't really oppose the vegetal range (towards "green").  That last aspect is closest to green wood, but it might be even closer to a somewhat unfamiliar vegetable type.  Bitterness is really moderate, but present, but the flavor isn't so far off bitter gourd.  If that's unfamiliar I suppose it's a little towards okra?

In talking to Gisele about these, that tea contact, who works for them, she said that it probably wouldn't match normal DFMR / OB character for using a different, local plant type, and for growing conditions being different.  And of course processing steps wouldn't be a complete match; this isn't oxidized as much.  She said that her understanding is the range for OB is 60 to 85% oxidation level, and I suppose that kind of works, even though that kind of designation is problematic.  80 to 85 might be more normal, probably even overlapping with the lower end range of black tea (Shai Hong, often more lightly oxidized Dian Hong, as a sun-dried variation).

#3:  a little more spice emerges, and the tone warms; this creeps a little closer to standard OB range.  Deeper fruit tones seem to pick up, replacing brighter range that had seemed split between floral tones and fruit earlier on.  It's dried fruit, along the line of dried apricot.  This may well be my favorite of these three versions, but the "#1" version was pretty good too.  The third, the second I tried, had a bit of warm cured wood flavor, and dryness of feel, that threw it off a bit, to me.

It's odd judging these based on my judgment.  I love Oriental Beauty, so that should work, but I don't love green tea range as much as all other tea types.  If it's especially vegetal, like Japanese green teas tasting like seaweed, that's not so pleasant, per my preference.  This vegetal range matches with other green tea range, I guess.  I suppose it should match with Xinyang Maojian, the main type they make in this area.

#4:  a hint of citrus picks up, maybe along the line of tangerine peel.  This is the best that it's been.  If tones were a good bit warmer, if this had been more oxidized, it might actually come closer to normal OB range.  It's still good, it's just a different kind of tea.  I'm not sure that vegetal edge would ever completely drop out, but more oxidation may transition it quite a bit.  Just a guess; I really wouldn't know.

Brightness is good, how clean this is in effect, and intensity and complexity.  Sweetness level is good.  Feel is fuller and richer than it sounds, given how one might expect astringency to pair with some bitterness and vegetal flavor range.  There is some astringency, but it's limited.  It's not full, round, and smooth as light oolongs tend to be, but there is some fullness to it.

A green tea drinker who also likes light oolong might absolutely love this.  But it's hard for me to see it from that kind of perspective.  

I completely "get" Dan Cong, and the clean nature, intensity, and refinement match for this, but the flavor profile is completely different (from that oolong type).  And the feel.  There is a characteristic astringency edge to lower quality Dan Cong that partly matches part of this better than the smooth, rich, full, approachable nature of higher quality Dan Cong versions.  I've always wondered what that's about.  Does it relate to using more whole leaf, to growing tea at higher altitude, to getting processing steps just right?  Maybe all of those, or maybe it's something else.

#5:  hanging in there; this is still the best it's been, which is quite pleasant.  Again I think this is my favorite of the three versions.  To review the flavor list, which I keep mentioning in relation to what changes, in order of intensity, this is balanced between expressing dried apricot, a bit of citrus, cinnamon, and a vegetal range note, now in between a wood tone and some type of gourd.  If it's easier to relate to that last vegetal aspect isn't far off the small eggplant version Thais often use, which is almost nothing like the purple eggplant used in the US.

It's good.  It's not very close to standard Taiwanese OB, but still pleasant.  Thai versions of OB (I've probably reviewed a half dozen here) are much closer to that, but it's not a fair comparison, since they've imported those Taiwanese oolong related plant types, and are trying to replicate the growing conditions and processing steps.  Same for Vietnamese versions.  This is something else, that has to be judged as something different.  The more you expect it to be "type-typical" the worse it comes out in judgment.  Judged as a varied form of OB that leans a little towards green tea two of these versions would seem exceptional.

Wild origin teas, adopting foreign tea styles

First posted by TChing here.

These two subjects came up recently in an online social meetup with Rajiv Lochan, about teas made from "wild" origin forest-source plants, and that of producers adopting and interpreting foreign styles of tea.  Problems can occur with both themes and approaches.

The range of both of these ideas and cases is all a bit complicated.  It can be hard to map out what is occurring or might occur related to using different types of natural growth plant sources, or drawing on local tea processing styles, and draw clear lines in what is typical or acceptable and what goes too far in violating some type of norm.  We didn't get very far with that discussion, so to be clear all of this is my own framing of a complex set of ideas, that we didn't discuss in detail in that meetup.

It's well known that wild growing tea plants are common throughout the Assam area, and other areas in India, and in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.  These Assamica variety plants aren't closely related to Yunnan Assamica, or maybe even to plantation Assamica versions of Indian teas.  Due to interbreeding with other species of Camelia Sinensis the range of what is growing can be inconsistent.  The typical understanding is that these plants are remnants of past use and intended planting by earlier people, not necessarily in ancient times, but as some point in the past.  Within that context the tea plants could be seen as feral versus truly wild, untended but not completely naturally propagated.  All that could be clearer, and to some extent it doesn't really matter.  

natural growth tea plant in the north of Thailand

this shows size better

what that area looks like

One influential tea blogger has claimed that wild tea plant produced beverages are better regarded as a tisane, not as true tea.  To me that goes a little far with applying category judgment, but I get it, and there's a lot to that.  Processed version results are often inconsistent, just less so for Yunnan based versions (or those represented as such).  Two of the main versions I've tried in Thailand ended up being quite sour, and then more other versions presented as such were not atypical of Yunnan Assamica plant based sheng pu'er.  I recently tried an Indian newly-created version of sheng, which was very unusual, as close to black tea in character as sheng pu'er.  It's not "pu'er," which is a region-specific type, but then sheng means "raw," so as I see it using that term is equivalent to calling any tea black (relatively fully oxidized), just a general description.

So again, what's the problem with "wild origin tea," beyond someone preferring to keep the term and range of "tea" narrowly focused?  Inconsistency can be seen as a problem, for products to vary with changes in whatever happens to be gathered.  Some of the plants could really be Camellia Taliensis material, a version that's around in Yunnan, or Camellia Formosensis, a "wild tea" plant in Taiwan.  Or something else, or a hybrid, a mix of types.  It doesn't seem to pose a significant safety issue, that a producer might be poisoning you, but just not knowing what a product essentially is can seem unusual.  Maybe to some extent there is a health risk to be considered; I can't exclude that.

maybe "Shan" versions come up most, not the Formosensis "wild teas" listed (source)

Importing styles from one country or region to another is something else, raising a different concern.  Rajiv expressed how Indians producing something called Longjing or Matcha could be deceiving, whether or not location based designation protection deems that unacceptable or not.  I completely agree.  

This reminds me of a very early experience with tea in visiting Vietnam, trying a version of Japanese green tea there, produced with Japanese support.  I'd be a better judge now of how close the style match was, but I bought some and drank it, and it seemed fine, or maybe just a little rough edged.  At the time I thought it was great that countries and cultures could influence each other like that, to share experience and technology.  Later, after thinking it through and being exposed to more background, I realized that it was likely that the tea was destined to be sold as being from Japan, regardless of where it was finally consumed.  That's different.  The knowledge sharing and alternative product development steps still seem fine, but that last step not so much.

Can we say that Vietnam should not produce Japanese style tea?  It's not as easy to conclude that.  The toothpaste is definitely out of the tube in relation to Vietnam producing Taiwanese style oolong, a lot of which is understood to return to Taiwan to be sold as Taiwanese tea back there.  It would be all the easier for Vietnamese-Taiwanese versions to be misrepresented in other countries.  In the North of Thailand you can buy the same Thai tea packaged as either from local production, what it is, or as being from Taiwan, what it isn't.  That's a hearsay based account, to be clear, related to what has been passed on to me second hand as vendor communication.  It doesn't conflict with how other types of branded products are sold here.

Let's set that aside, and consider that if every product is sold as exactly what it is, should India produce Japanese style green tea or not?  It's hard to find a broad enough justification to say no, but there are clear reasons for seeing that as a negative thing.

What about sheng ("pu'er")?  As I see it we are onto a different kind of case, because at least based on my single related experience the resulting product from India couldn't be presented as Yunnan true pu'er, even if one wanted to do so.  It's too different.  Of course a variation of sheng made just across a border from China could be exactly the same as teas made a few kilometers away.

one year old Ketlee Indian "sheng;" it's dark

So now we are talking about hybrid styles, about one region borrowing processing steps and final tea styles from another.  Is that ok?  To me it is, but I can relate to why some "purists" wouldn't think so.  My favorite Indonesian tea producer, Toba Wangi, has moved to produce tea plant types from other places, made by drawing on foreign processing styles, as novel new tea types.  I think that's fine, but maybe not everyone else would.  It could depend on how the tea plants were obtained, and of course on branding / marketing claims.

early Toba Wangi plantation plantings; definitely monoculture

Nepal tea being sold as Darjeeling is something else altogether; now we are back to a sort of counterfeiting case.  What about a Nepal tea being based on a Darjeeling clone, borrowing as much as possible from Darjeeling processing, grown in conditions chosen to duplicate results, but still sold as Nepal tea?  That seems less clear, and not as clearly ok.  And that seems much closer to what Vietnam is doing with Taiwanese oolong, since all of those steps and factors match in that case.  Even Taiwanese people are brought there to process the tea, per my understanding. As Chinese people are now, and have long since been, training people in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar to make pu'er-like tea.  

locally produced "wild" Thai "sheng pu'er-like" tea

Vietnam is different related to this case; the tradition of making what they tend to call "sun-dried tea" is not new to them (or maybe really just translated to dried tea, per what I've been told).  Those teas have long since been bought and brought back to China to be blended into Yiwu pu'er versions.  Mind you Vietnam makes a broad range of local styles that don't exist anywhere else too; their tea tradition is very diverse and developed.  Some of it is rustic and rough-edged, and some refined, distinctive, novel, and very high in quality.  Vietnamese teas don't get the credit they deserve, but the more awareness and demand spreads the more pricing inflates, so it's probably not a completely bad thing.

It's hard to end either subject with a clear "in conclusion..." summary.  Varying experiences bring up different combinations of circumstances and final outcomes.  I'm probably a lot more open to producers using different kinds of tea materials and processing styles than some others would be.  I see it as a natural evolution.  The sustainability issue related to using currently growing, forest based plants isn't lost on me; one main (frequent) alternative is for producers to clear-cut forest sections for mono-culture tea production.  That's not better.  Then right up to the edge of tea version counterfeiting I'm fine with producers borrowing styles.

Borrowing tea type names is almost a different subject.  Should Thailand producers be able to call teas Oriental Beauty?  If a type based on Yunnan sheng pu'er is made elsewhere, which is common, and pre-dated the current borders of China and the conventional name "pu'er," per my understanding, what should that be called?  Opinions would vary.  The point here was to raise these issues for consideration, for limited discussion, more than proposing my own take on resolutions or limitations tied to any of these themes.

Thai Oriental Beauty, or at least it's based partly on that type and style

Greengold Georgian black teas review, and meeting Nika Sioridze

 

Nika being interviewed, with tea plants (photo shared by him)

We've met with Nika Sioridze in an online meeting with that circle of friends, the producer of this tea, which will help frame a review of two teas he sent earlier (many thanks for those).

The general theme may be familiar to many:  Georgia was a main tea producer under the Soviet Union, with their tea industry crashing during the dissolution of that.  Some tea production continued but not on the same scale.  According to Nika that earlier phase related to producing relatively modest quality tea at the largest scale possible, essentially the broad current perspective on Kenyan and Turkish tea production (for the most part; there would be exceptions).  Now smaller producers and co-operative organizations are pushing forward to try to change that paradigm and create better tea versions, and scale up demand by improving local and international awareness of new options.

I've heard a few accounts of others on a similar page in Georgia; over the past few years that story has been getting out.  The Renegade Tea producer might be the most active on social media (which may correspond to mature forms of tea production too, although it wouldn't have to connect).  If you Google search Georgian teas themed resellers like What Cha list other similar sources, or a blogger like Geoffrey of Steep Stories has probably written about plenty of others (like in this post, from awhile back).

The proof is always in the pudding (or put in the more sensible original British form:  the proof of the pudding is in the eating).  Reclaimed old plantations making new styles of tea based on updated processing steps is a great theme, but it has to translate into a positive beverage experience to work.  Adding a review here goes a long way towards assessing results, with the limitation that this only covers two of a set of a number of samples, with more to follow later.

This story line reminds me of lots of places, but I suppose especially Assam.  Or Nepal isn't so different, or Indonesia, maybe with that latter country all the closer since earlier Dutch plantations are still there, still producing older higher-volume and lower-quality teas, while new forms of plantations draw on new processing and plant types.  Assam seems similar because the history of doing things the older standard way is so entrenched there, with such a clear and recent time period cut-off between the possibility for new approaches not existing and then coming to life.  Per my understanding restrictions in place on types of businesses and agricultural practices in Assam only changed within the last half dozen years or so.  Other parts are a close match:  mixed use of varying cultivars and mixed backgrounds in experimenting with processing, and drawing on foreign influence as much as prior mass-production themes.

So one might wonder what Nika has added that's unique to Georgia in that discussion.  One novel difference is that a lot of plants were there, growing untended from that earlier era, which ended within the time-frame of 30 or so years back.  The "feral tea plantation" theme is different in Georgia than elsewhere in relation to that time-frame being so well-defined, so recent in the past but still removed (relatively), and for a larger scale of plants still being there to work from.  Nika talked about how along with moving as quickly as possible on the path to making really good tea they could ramp up production to a certain number of tons.  This isn't like starting from a bunch of seedlings.

again all onsite photos were contributed by Nika

It's obvious to ask about tea plant types:  what's growing?  Nika passed on that they are growing a local strain, a type of Kolchida cultivar, and also Qimen (/ Keemun), a Chinese plant type used to make black tea.  A distinctive flavor aspect made me wonder if that's not common among that set of Georgian types (I've seen a number listed beside a Kolchida cultivar elsewhere, so apparently there are variations). I'll get back to that idea in the review.

Nika's personal story was interesting.  He's from an agriculture background, so expansion into tea was from that side, which is probably a great background to draw on.  He explained how input from one person in particular, with ties to tea production in Nepal, helped speed up that difficult processing learning curve.  Obviously processing equipment import relates too.  We didn't get too far into any one side of the entire range, for starting with general background.  The talk about local awareness, preference, and expectations being on the basic side related to black tea styles and quality is so common to what I've written about other countries I'll skip going into it.  Nika sees foreign markets as the best early consumer for what they make, which will scale up over the next few years, since a lot of that awareness shift has already occurred elsewhere.

So it really comes down to just how good the tea is so far; how far along have they come with processing skill, and how suitable are the plants that are growing to compete with higher quality and more distinctive black teas from elsewhere?  In particular, one might wonder where they stand in relation to a region like Assam, if style and quality could be compared across varying origins like that.  I'm not going to take that last step all the way to conclusions, but maybe I'll go further with it in subsequent reviews.  I've tried revised form high quality orthodox Assam from a number of small producers, and from a co-op and a large plantation also on that page.  For a starting point describing two versions of these teas will be enough.

mixed and OP (mixed left, still mostly whole leaf)

He sent samples divided by type, including OP and mixed input categories.  It would've been most sensible and effective to compare two from one category (leaf wholeness set), then to re-review two from another.  Of course I didn't do that; I tried one of each to start. Why, why!?  I have to go by intuition.  I was curious how results would work for mixed forms, and the samples are large enough I can re-taste a version if it seems in order.

Of course I didn't "cup" these using a standard Western brewing plantation-output evaluation form either, that thing with the sets that look like lidded mugs, tasting from a bowl with a spoon, etc.  I prefer teas prepared Gongfu style, and I see that as presenting just as valid a result as Western brewing.  

A Western brewing approach can give very different results, and those might even be slightly more positive, for brewing very broken leaf material (so not these).  Not overbrewed per the ISO standard format, where the idea is to use a consistent approach well suited to identifying flaws.  That must be quite functional, it's just not the page I'm on.  

Review:

Mixed left, OP right (for non-regular readers I'm not into straining)

Mixed sample (less whole leaf, but mostly that):  it's nice.  There's more astringency edge than I'm used to from drinking the softest Chinese and American grown teas lately, but this is a really pleasant level of astringency, and quite moderate compared with most black tea produced.  There seems to be a cocoa edge to this, and some degree of fruit.  It's really far from any version I would consider adding milk and sugar to, at other end of the quality and astringency level scale.  

There is a touch of malt but it's not strong at all compared to Assam.  It seems to have a pleasant mintiness to it, not really strong and towards eucalyptus like for Ruby / Red Jade / #18 from Taiwan, more a touch of light and sweet mint, like light and sweet spearmint instead of peppermint.  It will be interesting to see if that develops or gets harder to notice.  It's great; hopefully the first.

OP:  this brewed a lot slower for not being as broken, so where the other could be backed off a little for infusion time this version is just getting started.  It's much milder, seemingly not developed to where it's headed just yet.  Character is nice.  It's a little more woody, but light cocoa and mild spice range fills that in.  It must be similar to the other version, more than I am noticing, but it's still developing.  I'll need to adjust brewing to go faster on the first version, with the timing I used ok for this one (out towards 20 seconds, but probably not that long, even counting the pours).  I'll leave off and add more description next round.

interesting how much faster the "mixed" version extracts, but not unusual

Mixed, second infusion:  really nice, coming in well even for that infusion being quite fast, under 10 seconds.  12-15 might be optimum for now but it's nice trying teas slightly weaker and stronger to see how that changes things.  That touch of mint hangs in there.  It would be easy to not identify that flavor at all, to see it as mixing in along with other wood, fruit, cocoa, and spice range.  It's complex, and not easier for me to break apart into a list for me not drinking as much black tea these days.

OP:  still on the light side, even though this did brew twice as long as the other version.  Whole leaf teas are like that; brewing time changes, and outcome in relation to experienced aspects and flavor proportions.  It's hard describing that one mineral intensive, towards woody aspect that many would see as just tasting like black tea.  I would've expected to like this version more than the first, for being more whole-leaf, but it doesn't include some of the same flavor range as the other, and the astringency in the more broken version balances really well.

I'll try to get infusion times relatively close to an optimum next round and focus in on a flavor list more.

Mix, third infusion:  pleasant, not so different. I think that mint really is something exceptional I'm "getting," not just interpretation or imagination.  Mild astringency edge is nice, one of the next things that stands out, but at a positive level.  I suppose related to taste it seems to connect to a warm mineral tone.  As to the remainder cocoa does seem to be part of it, and from there what I interpreted as fruit earlier could just as easily be floral, along the line of rose, or something such.  Earthier flavor, not so far off the warm mineral taste range, is towards tree bark, an earthy version of it, but still like a dry hardwood version.  A very slight resinous edge could seem like pine to someone, but at that level of trying to identify ever more faint aspects interpretation is probably more of a factor than what one is actually tasting.

OP:  this is pleasant too, it just suffers in comparison for having less going on.  It's odd saying that, since really the softer, full, rich character should be exactly what I prefer, based on liking Chinese black teas the best (Dian Hong, I suppose, Yunnan blacks, but other black teas are nice too).  If a smooth woody tone here shifted to include just a bit more cocoa or that fruit / floral range it would be better, changing an overall interpretation a lot.  

It's a lot harder to derive a flavor list from this version.  It's woody, with root spice beyond that, or maybe with those two switched in order, and beyond that traces of what occurred in the other do seem to be present.  A warm mineral edge is much lighter, and the cocoa and the rest is hard to clearly identify for mixing together beyond the main flavors.  I can't tell if there is any mint tone to this or not, so I guess that's saying that there's not.  Other range adds complexity without flavors standing out as identifiable.  

There are no flaws; I've not really done much with describing that, but it makes a lot of difference.  Feel is full and flavors are clean.  Sweetness could bump a little but what is present balances the rest.  I would be guessing to cite any causes (guessing based on so little it's of limited value or likelihood), but the material used to make the first might have been better, leading to results I like a little more, versus the broken leaf form somehow making it more positive.  It would be interesting to let Nika fill in more about the backstory for tea plant types and growing conditions, in case they would explain that [from earlier notes; he did, but it's hard to map to type].  

Mix, fourth infusion:  I'll probably stop taking notes here, since I've got things to do.  It's interesting how the color is so much darker in this version, even for being brewed a lot faster.  Different compounds would extract for broken leaf tea, or at least in a much different proportion, but the idea is one thing, and then seeing and experiencing it is interesting.  The intensity is backing off a little but it's not so different than the last round.  For stretching it from here results would probably be less positive, with that edge picking up while other positive flavors keep fading, but this is surely fine for giving another few very nice rounds.

OP:  if someone valued moving away from that astringency edge as much as possible this would clearly be a better tea version.  In terms of other flavor aspects present it might give up a little to the other version.  It's good though, and very positive.  It's not fading or losing appeal in terms of aspect range; if anything it's the best it has been.  It's interesting for being complex, with a broad range of flavors contributing, but a lot of it isn't distinct.  Cocoa seems noteworthy to me, just less pronounced than wood and root spice.  The more subdued warm floral range really could be interpreted as dried fruit instead, towards raisin but maybe lighter, more like a dried pear or apricot.  Or it could be both, accounting for why it's hard to place.  Interpretation varies how one might take that quite a bit.  To one person this might seem like straight wood, to another very complex across a broader range than I've just described.

Conclusion:

Both are nice, both overlapping in nature but different.  It's strange I kind of did like the broken version better, in those notes, but it seemed likely that the whole leaf version would be much more positive across the next 3 to 4 infusions. It definitely did work out like that.

The second whole-leaf version kept on improving further after those first four rounds, while the other tapered off.  It picked up a cool brandy-like character, along the line of dried fruit like raisin, but really extending into that liqueur like taste, maybe even towards red wine.  Even for whole leaf versions it's a little odd for a black tea to change or improve that much after the first four rounds like that.  I suppose it could be partly about that positive character always having been present earlier, at lower levels, then with most of the wood-tone flavor effect dropping out to let it show through.  Both teas made a number of additional positive rounds though.

All in all this tea is much better than I expected.  It's hard to place it in general terms against a general Chinese black tea character, aspect profile, or quality level, or against Assam orthodox versions.  I will return to that idea as I try other versions.  Tea from everywhere varies in character quite a bit, beyond some very consistent flavor profile themes emerging (first and second flush Darjeeling, Nepal whites, Taiwanese "honey black" teas, some types of Chinese black teas).  Those profiles vary with plant types used, micro-climate and other terroir inputs, the weather that year, processing approaches, and so on.  I get it why people tend to make blanket, sweeping comparisons or cite typical aspects, as I sometimes do, but to an extent that just doesn't work, especially to make general quality level assessments.

These are good teas.  It's absolutely not what you would expect for a plantation a few years into being recovered from inactivity (3 or 4, maybe Nika had said).  That leapfrog step of drawing on Nepal originated processing methods and skill comes to mind as a likely factor.  Probably the people growing this tea drawing on an agricultural background didn't hurt, leading to creating good material to work with.  The maturity of the plants was probably a factor, not needing to rush seedlings through a fast growth process just to get enough to experiment with earlier on, and stretching production to have some volume to sell after that few years.  

For this being the work in progress phase, versus some final end point, they're on track to make some really exceptional teas.  Or really they're kind of already there.  That mint edge and the late-round transition to a unique red wine like character were really something.  I've only tried a few Georgian tea versions prior to this and they were nothing like this, much more "rustic" in nature, not even close to this refined.

I've only ever tried one black tea version with a mint aspect remotely like that one, since it's nothing like the heavier eucalyptus range version in Red Jade / Ruby / # 18.  One wild cultivar version from Laos that Anna of Kinnari Tea shared was like this; perhaps one of the best black teas I've ever tried, if one highly values novelty in tea experience, as I tend to.  Maybe it's not novel in Georgia; maybe it's just normal for that one local cultivar.  I've heard that a mint aspect typical in Russian teas but I've never noticed it, but then I've tried relatively few teas from there.

All in all a cool back story and fantastic start.  It will be interesting seeing what range the other samples cover.

2014 Ali Shan and Dong Ding oolongs

Getting to some samples that were included from back when I ordered teas from Tea Mania (provided by the vendor, Peter). To me their sheng pu'er are just amazing, and a great value.  That was covered in detail in this 2018 Jing Mai arbor review, and 2018 Yiwu "Lucky Bee," and many earlier posts, but this re-review of how the 2016 Lucky Bee Yiwu version is progressing really tells that story. 

I've come to expect that everything from them will be better than one would expect from even good sources. Then again there are levels to source types, and quality and pricing, so I just mean that the teas seem to be on the higher end for quality, while typically in the middle for pricing, a rare occurrence. 

Oolong being aged for 6 years is new to me. I've only tried a couple of examples of well-aged oolongs, over 20 years, and that aging effect wouldn't be the same over a shorter time period. I'll get around to guessing about expectations in comments about the experienced aspects, but without actual background experience to set up a baseline that's not worth much. 

Heavily roasted Wuyi Yancha are said to improve a lot over even a year or two, and would mellow and become more pleasant over this time-frame too, with the roast effect softening and diminishing. That's not how this will go; you can tell from appearance the Ali Shan was light to begin with, and the Dong Ding was never relatively fully oxidized or charred, as Taiwanese "red oolongs" and high-roast Anxi Tie Guan Yin can be, respectively. 

Vendor descriptions: 

Ali Shan Qing Xin 

This Qing Xin Oolong tea from Ali Shan is a classic Gao Shan Cha (highland tea). Ali Shan, along with Li Shan and Shan Lin Xi, is one of the three regions in Taiwan with highland tea plantations. 

The Ali Shan Qing Xin is warm, full-bodied and has a complex taste profile. The aroma is clearly floral but there are also notes of ripe fruits. The sweetness reminiscent of dark forest honey with a slight woody undertone. The tea is light and airy, but the sweet honey smell lingers in the empty cup for a long time. 

Harvest: Spring 2014 

Taste: Honey sweet with floral aroma and notes of ripe fruits. 

Oxidation: appx. 40% 

Roasting: light-medium Origin: Ali Shan, Nantou, Taiwan. 

Preparation: Per serving 5g, temperature 95°C, time 15s. Rinse leaves gently with hot water before infusing. 

That was selling for 20 CHF, or $20 US, for 50 grams. 

The next tea: Dong Ding  (selling for $25 /  50 grams instead)

Dong Ding is a classic and rightly famous Taiwanese Oolong tea. This Dong Ding is a good example of flavors that a highland tea (Gao Shan Cha) can develop. Delicate floral scents, honey notes and subtle roasted aromas delight the palate and linger in the mouth and cup long after the last sip. 

Like other famous teas, Dong Ding is often and often imitated. Dong Ding is a limited mountain area with limited tea production. Because of its special aroma, Dong Ding style tea is produced in many other tea growing areas. But, even if the cultivar, the style and sometimes even the tea master are the same as on the Dong Ding, its quality and aroma is never achieved. 

Harvest: Spring 2014 

Taste: Flowery, light toasted and delicate honey flavor. 

Oxidation: appx. 40% Roasting: medium Origin: Dong Ding, Lugu Xiang, Nantou, Taiwan. 

Preparation: Per serving 5g, temperature 95°C, time 15s. Rinse leaves gently with hot water before infusing. 

I should add a few thoughts about all that, without getting too far into covering review content, since I've already tried the teas and write this part during editing.  A lot of people would go with full boiling point water; that kind of goes without saying.  It's easier to recommend someone tries both and see what they think than running back through all that.  Given that these have smoothed out a lot with age and some of the more forward, "higher end" flavor has diminished it might be all the more true for them, that hotter water would work better.

It also goes without saying that the Qing Xin reference is to the main, older plant type used for oolongs in Taiwan.  Other posts have covered that; I'll skip going further with it here.

Qing Xin is a more updated transliteration of Chin Shin, table from here

It's not what I expected but not completely surprising that the Dong Ding is oxidized to the same level as the Ali Shan.  I'd have guessed that the Ali Shan wasn't oxidized that much, but this Dong Ding isn't pushing the envelop towards black / red tea range.  The roast input will change character in ways that isn't identical to more oxidation, but it can be tricky splitting back out the two inputs.

I think if I re-tried the Ali Shan I might be able to break down flavor range better, in relation to clarifying what fruit seems to be represented.  I agree that it's primarily floral, and that made it hard to get far with that secondary range, but I suspect that the flavors warming and deepening pull them more towards fruit than when this tea was on the young side.  That oolong version was complex enough that to some extent the broad range of flavor inputs seemed non-distinct, covering floral tone, some fruit, and a touch of supporting mineral, trailing into spice effect just a little.  The Dong Ding seemed to include more straight cinnamon, but it was complex too, with a lot going on in feel range.

I dropped out essentially all discussion of aftertaste range, probably mostly related to experiencing an unfamiliar tea type, and also due to rushing the tasting process.  My normal weekend morning routine is to wake up, eat something, mess around and become more fully awake, then to do a tea review with notes.  Yesterday I got a haircut instead after step 2, and went to a lunch, and then a play area with my kids at noon.  I am concerned about "doing the teas justice" when they are this good and this novel, but if I waited until I had a 3 or 4 hour block of free time I would stop review blogging.  This will be a bit quick and rough as reviews go, because I don't have that much time (so the standard process).

Review 

I let these brew for too long the first round, not because of some strategy of getting them to start faster, just due to looking at something on the internet for half a minute. Not an auspicious start.  This is a little later than I typically start the day for ingesting any caffeine, late morning instead of right away. 

If these had been sheng I'd be talking about how overbrewing teas lets you analyze flaws or limitations in different ways, but for these I'm not sure how it will work out. 

Alishan: very pleasant; floral and fragrant. I expected some of the high end to dissipate, with these evolving more depth to compensate, and it will be interesting to see how that goes. The most intense and forward high end is diminished, even though I let this soak a bit long (towards a minute). A warm spice-like character fills in other range; that's interesting. This is floral too, but it's a warm, muted floral range, shifted from brighter tones to a deeper, warmer floral type. There's no edge to this at all, even for being slightly over-brewed, but that's not really a surprise. 

Dong Ding: this is warmer yet, with cinnamon as the most intense flavor aspect. Again the sharpest, brightest high end flavors seem to have evolved out, with depth and smoothness filling in more character range. I must have mentioned it in the later intro but I have no experience with 6 year old Taiwanese oolong range, that I remember, so it's unfamiliar to me how these are "supposed to be." 

There's a perfume-like character to this that shows up in really good quality oolongs across a broad range. I've mentioned it so many times I don't want to go far with explanation, but it's a little like cognac, not just the floral tone a perfume brings across, but seemingly tied a little to the solvent range. 

This is full in feel in a really novel way too. It's creamy, but not in the same range of senses I would usually mean that. Real cream actually feels quite heavy in your mouth, related to the way it coats your tongue and the rest, and this matches some of that, almost a coating type feel. Lots of oolongs feel thick, and sheng pu'er exhibits a broad range of types of feel and structure, but this is different. 

Second infusion: 

Ali Shan: this picked up "higher end" floral intensity, or maybe that's just from the brewing time difference shifting balance (brewed for 20 seconds or so, drawn out a little to account for not maxing out the proportion). The feel has a pleasant thickness, just nothing like the other version. The warmer range depth isn't different, just less intense. There is some light mineral tone to this, characteristic of Taiwanese high mountain oolongs, but that seems to have softened with the aging process, along with the bright, intense floral range that always reminds me a little of new car smell. Right, like plastic, but more pleasant in effect, and somehow similar, in a way that I'm sure most people wouldn't see as associated. 

It works well; it's clearly very good tea. I personally probably would've liked this better when new; trading out that front-end intensity and brighter range for depth just doesn't improve things, to me. It is interesting experiencing a slightly different version though. This is amazingly clean and smooth; the character is just different. It's not "plummy," the flavor range that more aged oolongs tend to pick up (per limited exposure to those and hearsay input). 

Dong Ding: more of the same; very pleasant. Again warmer tones and cinnamon stand out in this. It was definitely roasted more, and while I'm guessing a well-balanced higher level of oxidation also led to this positive outcome. It is just a guess but I'd expect both contributed to this character, with anything remotely like a "char" edge having dropped out years ago. 

Again I'd probably rather try this as a slightly rougher-edged new version, trading out this smoothness and unusual depth for front-end intensity, even if a bit more astringency and some slightly rougher flavor comes with that. "Rough" is within relative standard range, of course; this had to start out very drinkable as sheng, green, and black teas go. I'll go back to giving these a longer soak for the third round to ramp up intensity (30 seconds), since there are absolutely no negative aspects to "brew around" in these. 

Third infusion: 

Ali Shan: floral range shifted in character. That will be hard to describe, since I've not even grappled with breaking down distinct floral tones so far. This seems closest to lotus flower in nature to me. Before it was complex enough that it probably covered a range, and two or three flower-type descriptions would've been required. That's still true, but that one lotus flower range aspect bumped up. It's not so different than orchid, and given how there are many types of orchid that's already a range, that must cover some scope, but lotus flower has a sweet, rich depth to it, and a unique character. 

It's interesting how this bridges over to spice range as well, with some warm, more neutral floral tones filling in the space between those. A hint of dry mineral gives it depth, but that's adjoining slightly warmer tones that drift into aromatic wood, towards cedar, just not exactly like that. It's odd how this comes across as somewhat simple and approachable but really there is a lot going on, when you focus in on noticing it.  Versus this being interpreted as covering a broad floral range with some mineral and spice I think that fruit tone interpretations would make sense too, related to ripe fresh peach or dried apricot, but it all integrates well enough and covers so much flavor scope that it's hard to break apart.

Dong Ding: straight cinnamon might have picked up a little. Again at first "glance" (in the taste-sensation range) this isn't so different than soaking a cinnamon stick for a minute or two, but really a lot more goes into underlying that experience. There is floral tone supporting that, and a creamy feel that teas almost never exhibit, never mind spices. Vanilla is an exception; real vanilla bean gives an infusion so much texture that it's almost too creamy, like a custard in mouthfeel, and this overlaps a little with that experience, except for the "going too far" part. That liquer / cognac / perfume like aspect isn't pronounced but it also rounds out the rest. 

I'll give these one more longer soak, up towards a minute, and leave off, because I'm due at a lunch today. 

Fourth infusion: 

Ali Shan: not so different than last round, so I'll just say that it's not transitioning much. 

Dong Ding: this also seems to have leveled off, and may even be fading a bit, with those longer infusion times taking a toll on it. These teas are far from finished but they may be declining from here on out. Transitioning aspect range through longer infusion time and more roasting seems to come at a cost for the number of infusions a tea can produce, so it wouldn't be that unusual if this was a round ahead of the other in terms of progression through a cycle. 

Conclusions: 

Excellent teas, interesting in style. Aging seemed to have brought on the changes I would've expected, with the teas picking up some depth at the cost of higher end intensity. They were interesting, novel, and pleasant, clearly very good quality teas, as I would have expected. For someone interested in owning truly aged oolongs, versions aged to older than a decade, buying some like this in a mid-range and hanging on to them might be a great option. Time passes quickly, and any 10+ year old oolong version is going to be really expensive. I didn't check yet what these are selling for but at a guess it's on the moderate side, for what they are.

(Back later) ok, they're $20 and $25 per 50 grams; how to place that?  I'd expect that's about what these would typically cost when new, based on an informed guess about quality level, and you just can't find aged versions like this easily.  When tea types relating to any factor are all but impossible to turn up supply and demand concerns become strange; if there is significant demand the price is whatever the vendor wants it to be, and the type could no longer be available at some point even given high pricing.  I reviewed a comparably aged Oriental Beauty version once and said roughly the same thing, but that was selling for an order of magnitude higher cost than this, several dollars per gram.

To me aged oolong is a strange thing to begin with.  Letting well-roasted Wuyi Yancha settle makes perfect sense but I don't completely "get" aged light rolled oolong.  That said, why not consider an opposing viewpoint from people who do get it.  James of TeaDB writes to advocate the general type here.  He never really gets far with describing that appeal, limited to this statement:

I enjoy drinking pu’erh and happen to own enough that I’ll be aging it for a very long time. But I I also really do enjoy aged oolong… And for partly inexplicable reasons have hardly even a pu’erh cake worth of oolong put away for the long haul.

Liking it is the thing, I guess.  He mentions his own criteria for what he considers as aged in that post:  15 to 20 year old versions.  Buying these particular teas, that I just reviewed, and waiting another 9 years would be a long term project.

Looking back through their earlier posts there isn't much describing what is commercially available for aged oolongs.  Those would tend to come and go, and be found in one-off examples that later disappear, many of which wouldn't necessarily be that exceptional anyway.  James reviews a lot of versions in this post, most contributed by friends, with this conclusion:

Sorry guys. I can’t really wholeheartedly recommend any of the available teas from this report. The western landscape is barren, even more so than matured pu’erh. It’s littered with re-roasted oolongs which can be OK and overly tart/mis-stored teas but aren’t really the same thing as un-reroasted oolongs. There are some OK options (Everlasting Teas, Floating Leaves, Chawangshop, and Tea Urchin) but you’re guaranteed to pay more and expect less.

With that advice being offered in 2016 all of the versions he mentioned as commercially available, and less interesting than the others he tried, would probably no longer be available.  Then again I just pulled up one of those vendor pages and found Tea Urchin still does carry a 1985 Dong Ding, selling for $1 per gram; a steal, if it's a good version.  It's a commonly encountered theme that storing an average quality tea for a long time never tends to convert it into an exceptional aged version, and anything short of relatively optimum storage conditions can turn out a lot worse than that, regardless of the starting point.  That Tea Urchin version description sounds great, and also addresses this point:

After first infusion, the gaiwan lid wafts with sweet notes of honey, toffee apples, salted fluffy white butter popcorn, mixed with heavier aromas of sandalwood, camphor, leather, musty herbal medicines. The tea liquor is a dark amber with the aroma of dried orange peel. The tea floats on the tongue - light bodied but viscous, with a smooth clean mouthfeel. There is very little sourness often found in teas of this age. 

Right, I like teas that are not so sour.  A comment on the first TeaDB post mentioned by Shah (one of those few real tea experts who turn up) covers all this in a short space:

Speaking as that proverbial hard-bitten veteran, who isn’t a huge fan of aged oolongs in the first place, a few comments:

1) Anything that can be said for oolong, can be said for hongcha and baicha. In my experience, hongcha is a better age-performer as a whole. Ie, my home aged hongcha is much tastier than my home aged oolong, for me.

2) Twenty years is not a realistic view of a hobbyist’ perspective of time. Not for puerh, not for wulong.

3) Initial quality matters. As a practical matter, given that aging rich and bitter/astringent puerh makes it more drinkable, you can start with somewhat lower quality and end up with better tea. Aging seems to erode an oolong’s harsh qualities much slower than it does for properly processed sheng. I have not enjoyed some 70’s yancha because of this. Which leads to the next point…

4) For me, age-worthy oolongs have only gotten in rough comparison to puerh within about the last four years. Cheaper yancha is much better processed than it used to be. And puerh is much more expensive than it used to be. I do not typically like aged oolongs much because they tend to be very one-dimensional, and if I want mellow, then I want high quality shu, usually. If one is going to age anything on purpose, it’s best to buy a kilo+ of the highest quality yancha/balled oolong you can afford...

Related to that last comment, then it's back to the same to waiting-game problem, that of setting something aside for 15 years.  I plan to still be alive in 15 years but I'm not setting aside anything but sheng to hang out for a long time and drink later.  Even for that type the quantity and range of what I have on hand is pathetic; I just don't have the tea budget to set aside some extra tongs.  I can buy a little more than I drink from year to year but that's about it.

Related to "setting aside a kilo+" it doesn't really make sense to buy a 100 grams of any tea to age it.  If you try it a few times to see how that's progressing only half would make it through the process, and then it would be gone soon once that extended time had passed.  Sinking $200 or $250 on an aging experiment to buy a kilo of these (or $225, to buy half of each) would be a reasonable expense to some, but for many it would make a lot more sense to set aside 4 or 5 $50 sheng cakes instead.  That would amount to a kilo and a half of tea that wouldn't just become a bit mellow and plummy, although depending on selection some versions might just fade over the long term.

Preference is a funny thing though, and I can definitely relate to the value of pursuing different experiences.  It was interesting trying these very moderately aged oolongs, and they were quite novel and pleasant.

that lunch; decent Thai food, great company

for some reason I don't remember seeing her in jeans.  she often wears dresses.

one part of that play area

I gave up the "second pandemic wave" look