Shenzhen tea market witch's broom style Da Hong Pao

sheng bundle top, Da Hong Pao lower two

includes a few sticks, otherwise looks fine

We visited Hong Kong and China something like 6 weeks ago (a trip summarized in this post), and I've only reviewed a couple of the lower cost sheng picked up from there so far (here).  I've made notes on a couple other sheng tastings I've not posted yet but it seemed about time to mix it up and write about something else, since I've been relentlessly posting about that tea type for a long time.


This is definitely something different; what I expect to be moderate quality Da Hong Pao (Wuyi Yancha, rock oolong), presented as a bundle instead of loose, twisted leaves.  There was a bundle of sheng pu'er we bought at the same shop; eventually I might mention that here, although maybe I won't too.  It would probably be more going on about the scope moderate quality sheng can cover, as in the only bundled sheng review I've written, about a local version from Vietnam, which they call trà chít or trà bó.

anyone know what I bought?  a 2005 sheng version?

Review

The flavor is ok, nice. It gives up the subtlety some versions possess for mostly covering that one characteristic sweet caramel or toffee range some versions express. Beyond that there's the typical warm leather earthiness. It's not "good Da Hong Pao" in the same sense unusually high quality or well balanced versions are, like this one would be, but this is the characteristic simple profile that gets people hooked on exploring the type. It would almost be a shame to lose appreciation for it due to discovering other range, what better versions are like.

For going with a lower proportion (and not brewing sheng) this will work better at a longer infusion time. The initial round I brewed for over 20 seconds but I'll go a bit short of a minute on the second round, in order to try it in a different form.

Second infusion

Cardboard picked up a little; that doesn't help. I'm still not ready to say that I don't like this. I've been off of mediocre quality Da Hong Pao for so long, or even the better versions range, that it's a nice break. There's still plenty of toffee sweetness and rich leather flavor, so it works, still pleasant. It's simple and basic in effect but that can be a good thing. The feel isn't thin, just not particularly structured, and the aftertaste isn't extended but also not non-existent. It's better than I would have guessed it would be.

The bundled presentation is just a novelty, and not one that adds more function than it eliminates by making you tease apart a bundle to brew part of it. It could work like a tea bag, to brew the whole thing, but that's a good bit for a single serving. Throwing it in a ceramic teapot for a few people to drink a few rounds from would work.  These would be cool for gifts just because it's not how people usually see tea presented, and it's a very reasonable quality version, which I wasn't able to judge with any confidence by sniffing the dry bin of tea.

Third infusion

Still nice, but already fading a little. The next round brewed significantly longer might do it. It's funny how this tea could be so many different things for different people with varying prior exposure. For someone new to Wuyi Yancha it could be great, a positive start of a new chapter. Unless their natural preference didn't go that way, then it would probably just seem like a strange tea. Someone further down the path still might like it, or look down on it for being too basic a version. For a breakfast tea this sort of aspect range and quality level is perfect; something you don't need to brew carefully to get exactly right, but still pleasant enough to compliment lots of foods well.

I really like it; to me it's the tea equivalent of comfort food. It's like a steak lover eating meatloaf and mashed potatoes; it's not that other thing but still pleasant in its own way.  Eat enough meatloaf and you'd want to set it aside, but take a few years off and a good version is an experience of nostalgia beyond taste and the rest.  And sometimes you'd feel like having meatloaf instead of steak.


It makes me wonder why some of these versions can be this sweet, since that really stood out, especially in the first round. Without any trace of char or roast effect that input of roasting the tea to ramp up cooked-sugar flavor and sweetness would seem to not be it, but then that char range does fade over time. This version might be a fortunate case of a tea hanging around awhile and improving, which is not always how that goes.  The leaves being that tightly twisted probably enabled it to endure more air contact than really good tea should ever be exposed to, again seeming to work out to somehow balance overall character in this case.

typically a high roast level blackens leaves this much; char must have faded

The fourth infusion is also pleasant; that bodes well for extending to a fifth. The dark wood tone (which gets described in different ways in reviews, I think) still has a touch of cardboard edge to it but the sweetness, toffee flavor, and overall complexity make it work. It all extends a little to malt range, not like Assam black tea, but how malted milk balls or the shakes are, that mild, rich, almost creamy flavor.

On the next infusion it was spent, and not as pleasant as the fourth, with char ramping up due to longer infusion time required to draw out intensity.


I'd have bought more of these if I knew it was this pleasant.  I was just focused on sheng, and it was hard enough snapping out of that tunnel vision to grab these samples. I stopped short of exploring chen pi, the shu stuffed tangerines / oranges, but those were around too, and a vendor gave a sample of a couple with some sheng.  My wife bought a good bit of chrysanthemum, which seemed odd at the time, since it's here too and we tend not to drink that much, but it's really come in handy since my kids have taken a recent interest in tea (or tisanes, in that case), and they can drink as much as they like.

dim sum restaurant a half block from the market, with fishtanks out front

I'd definitely recommend visiting that market to anyone visiting Shenzhen, and beyond that anyone visiting Hong Kong to set aside time to stop by that other nearby mainland city too.  We dropped in using an on-arrival visa, not exactly the ideal process since who knows how long the queue that day would add to travel time, or if worsening relations with China due to a senseless trade war would narrow back approval of those.

As to travel time Shenzhen is an extra hour by train up the local Hong Kong rail line, easy to access.  Just make sure to download a local version of a Shenzhen Google Map, if that's even possible, or to switch over to an app version that will actually work online inside of China (or set up a VPN; you get the idea).

a chrysanthemum "tea" party; they can both use a gaiwan

Teasenz Da Hong Pao Review

I'm just getting over a cold but I'm guessing that I'm at 90% functionality for tasting, so I'll get back to it.  Reviewing a familiar type will make it easier, Da Hong Pao, one of the basics, the Wuyi Yancha type everyone knows about.  This version is from Teasenz, a sample provided by them.  I went over what that type is not so long ago, about how it's typically sold as a tea plant type and final version, or also commonly made as a blend of teas.


The flavors range is nice, and typical, what I'd have expected.  The roast stands out, maybe a bit upper medium related to level.  There's a nice woody basic flavor range.  The roast effect doesn't come across as char, as really heavy, just quite notable instead.  There is nice sweetness, and layers of flavors, also typical.

Two questions come to mind: how typical is this for the type, and how good is it compared to the range of other versions?  I'll get back to that.


More on separating out a flavors list:  dark wood does stand out.  There is complexity but it's hard to separate out other elements. A list would include stone fruit and spice but it's difficult to be more specific.  It might be harder to separate tastes due to my sense of taste being a little off.  It's also possible that the tea is a blend, which would lend it a balanced profile but at the same time give up specificity of aspects.

the typical look

A third infusion is consistent, not much transition, with that roast effect and clean wood tones still standing out. There is some aromatic range but that's balanced with flavor components,  not as pronounced as in tea types that emphasize that.


The feel is on the full side, and the aftertaste is pronounced, and lasts a long time, both nice aspects.  It brews a good number of infusions, a half dozen very consistently, stretching a little to go past that, but it will keep going.  Not fading quickly, as some related versions can, is another good sign.

I'm having trouble separating out the flavor aspects.  One could be a mild stone fruit aspect, but then it seems reviewers tend to say that in part to explain that they can't be more specific, since there is a range of different stone fruits.  It could be floral instead, or maybe a combination of the two.  It is possible to taste individual elements even when the basic tones are earthy, around dark wood, layered over mineral base, with other aspects mixed in, but it doesn't always work to.

Evaluating the tea, beyond flavors review

All of that is in the right range, just also all relative, both to personal preferences and to how those compare to other versions.  I think it's nice, but of course it's hard to pin down a range, how nice.



Part of judging how good a tea is overall relates to what it's being sold as, in a sense leading back to both the description and the price.  Lets check the Teasenz description (the summary version):


Enjoy a sophisticated, complex flavour with woody roast, aroma of orchid flowers, finished with subtle caramelised sweetness. Up to eight steeps when applying Chinese kungfu brewing as you can expect from a true Wuyi rock tea.



Sounds about right, I just had trouble separating out orchid.  It wasn't nearly as aromatic as Qi Dan and Bei Dou versions I've tried, more balanced between that effect and flavors, so at a rough guess it may not have been one of those plant types, or if it was perhaps blended.


My take on this tea is that it's a good example of an upper-medium level version, or compared to buying teas randomly in Chinatown shops probably a little better than that, a "good" tea (a term that is very relative).  For teas in this price range it's probably a great value, a very good example; for teas sold as rare versions that never typically make it out of China not quite as good.  That level of roast could be a bit much for some but it's typical of what I've tried of other versions, and per my understanding that is how Chinese people tend to prefer this tea type prepared.  A lot of tea enthusiasts seem to favor lighter roasts, but all that is really just personal preference.

Puakenikeni flower at the house (pronounced Poo-ah-kay-knee-kay-knee)

It might not be quite as nice as the blended version I tried from Cindy not so long ago, but that's not a fair comparison, judging directly across different tasting at different times, and against a tea from one of the nicer producers in that area (all relative, that).  It's in the same general range, which is a very positive judgment, perhaps just not quite as specific in terms of individual aspects.  Since her version was also a blend--the one I'm talking about; the Qi Dan reviewed in that post could be considered a single-type Da Hong Pao--that tea also showed less specific individual character than a single type would tend to.


I've recently tried another tea from them (Teasenz) that is something much more unique, a first for me within a general range I'm familiar with, something I'll get back to writing about.  But this tea is as it should be, a good example of a standard type.

hot season in Bangkok

Making rock oolong (Wuyi Yancha): an interview with Cindy Chen

originally posted as:  http://www.tching.com/2015/12/making-rock-oolong-an-interview-with-cindy-chen/

The following relates to asking an online tea friend questions about tea, Cindy Chen.  She lives in Wuyishan, the village area beside the mountains where amazing Wuyi Yancha / rock oolongs are grown and produced.  She makes this tea; it’s her family’s business.  And what a business it is: Cindy Chen’s family just won two different awards for best Wuyi Yancha teas produced in one of the main Wuyishan competitions recently. Their Rou Gui was judged 1st place, and Shui Xian 2nd place, among over 100 local producers.

Actually Wuyishan is the city, and she live in the Tian Xin Yancha village, but there are complications related to tea growing areas versus where people live and how cities and villages are designated, perhaps varying with how terms for districts and counties are used in other countries.  I've written about a few of her teas in my blog earlier this year, a Rou Gui, a Da Hong Pao, and a Shui Xian.

I've been drinking Wuyi Yancha teas for awhile but to be honest these teas are probably better than I can fully appreciate with my current sensitivity to the other aspects, so I have to make due with enjoying them to my current potential.  A follow-up review of a Da Hong Pao will say more about the more subtle and interesting aspects of these teas beyond taste components, some of which Cindy goes into here.

Cindy is very kind but of course there is a limit to how many questions she could answer, so this is just intended as discussion of some interesting points, which really leads to a lot of other questions.

Cindy, making tea

Interview with a tea grower about making Wuyi Yancha:

The content is edited slightly for verb tenses and such but it's amazing that she really can write like this in English.  She starts with a little about the area and teas in general:

The reason why the rock tea from Wuyi Zheng Yan Circle Mountain cost so high a price is that they have the best appropriate environment for growing the tea, with moderate sunshine and humidity.

Another important factor is the land, the soil type.  The soil in the Zheng Yan Circle is very rocky, and the land is not so hard, so the plants can have good air and water circulation.

The soil also has plenty of  mineral composition, so the high quality rock teas have a mineral feeling.  I do not know how to use the words to express about this mineral feeling, but if you drink Wuyi Rock teas for a few years your mouth can appreciate the feeling.

How old are the oldest tea trees?

It is a pity I really do not  know the exact age, but in Wuyishan the early documents about Wuyi trees are from the Song dynasty,  about 400 years ago.  My family Laocong Shui Xian plants we normally understand to be about 100 years old.  Yunnan is where the older tea trees might be; those used for making pu'er [versus the Fujian Province, where she lives].


In some follow up discussion Cindy talked more about prior history with tea in the area, so this isn’t really intended as a full historical account, just her immediate simple response to a question.  She also later noted separately the Camellia Sinensis var. Assamica plant type is grown in Yunnan versus the var. Sinensis type in her area, also not really a detailed part of this discussion.


It's interesting that no teas in Thailand are processed the same way [relating to me currently living in Thailand].  All are typically produced as lighter oolong, almost always rolled, like Tie Kuan Yin [I actually wrote about exceptions recently, other Thai tea types, but this is true in general].  I'd assume that relates to plant type.

Could the teas there be made into green tea instead?

No.  Any kind of tea in my family normally has three different baking styles:   lightly--roasted, middle--roasted, and highly--roasted, according to the tea characteristics.

Technically it would be possible to make different teas out of them, as she goes on to explain:

I think it is possible to use other types of tea leaves to process into darker Oolong tea.  A few years ago the rock tea market tea prices went up sharply so some tea business people in Anxi started using the Tie Guan Yin leaves to process into Wuyi Oolong.  It looks ok, very similar to Wuyi rock tea, but the taste is quite different.

There are only two styles of this tea, one very light, almost like water as a brewed tea, and another style very high roasted, with nothing in the brewed tea except a charcoal fire feeling.


So the idea is that technically other plant types or tea from a different area can be used to create a similar processed tea but it’s not the same, not nearly as suitable, with a much different final product.

Do the tea plants need direct sunlight?

I can use Rou Gui as an example.

People think the Rou Gui grows in a tea land like a valley, which doesn't have abundant sunshine through the whole day, and the land where the tea grows is high in humidity.  The Rou Gui style of tea produced from land like this is like this:  the tea soup is soft and sticky, and the Chaqi comes out gradually [also referred to as Qi or Cha Qi].  The tea can stand a least eight infusions, and the tea soup can keep a good balance, without sharply changing in taste and aroma.  We always bake this kind of Rou Gui in middle--roasted style, which can help keep the aroma, like a flowery aroma, or fruit aroma.

Some Rou Gui grows in a tea land like flat ground, which has abundant sunshine the whole day.  The Rou Gui styles from this type of area are like this:  the tea soup is very strong; some people cannot stand this style.  Chaqi come up very very quickly, in the first few cups, and you will turn hungry and it will increase body circulation.  Most of the time, this kind of tea changes sharply after 6 infusions.  Most of the time, we bake this kind of Rou Gui in highly-roasted way, and most Chinese people like this style very much.

In Wuyishan we bake the tea according to characteristics, like Qilan, Huang Guanyin, Baijiguan, and Huanmeiguan, these all are high aroma teas, so it is better to bake them in the middle fire, not too high, to retain the fragrance.

But some other varieties like Da Hong Pao and Rougui the teas have a very very strong body, so we need to highly-roast them, and keep them to sell in the second year [as she already mentioned, with variation for growing area difference that changes leaf character].


We discussed a number of other issues, some of which will be included as a separate post about tea cultivars, plant types used to make different teas.

The issue of aging of Wuyi Yancha is particularly interesting to me but it’s only introduced here, as saying for more roasted versions it’s best to store the tea for a year for the “fire” to subside and other elements to become more pronounced.  Of course the issue of aging is more complicated than that, as she covered in further discussion, but this is a good place to stop for now.

Comparison tasting Wuyi Yancha teas, Dahongpao and Rougui

A chance vendor contact (Cindy,  FB contact here) recently sent me some samples of different teas, yancha or "rock oolongs" from Wuyi, China, and since I've already been trying similar teas lately it seemed a good chance to try different types of tasting approaches.

I reviewed the Rou Gui (or rougui) in the standard format in the last post so this is about me reviewing one other Da Hong Pao (or dahongpao), and about trying combined tastings to sort out more details about the teas.  Part of that worked.

2011 Dahongpao

2012 Rougui (reviewed in an earlier post)

Dahongpao tea from Cindy (same provider as last Rou Gui): 

The Dahongpao from Cindy was a smooth and balanced tea with great flavors, feel, and complexity.  It had the typical distinct earthy,  mineral, complex dahongpao flavors.   Good sweetness, good earthy tone,  towards leather.  The tea had a nice feel to it, very rich.  Evenly balanced flavors combine but a cinnamon spice note stands out.  There is so much sweetness it almost seems like the earthy flavors correspond to a fruit element, something like dried apple, or maybe towards apricot.

As I tried these different teas it became clearer and clearer to me that a list of flavors or even feel or "body"--sense related attributes--don't really describe the teas well.  In some ways other reviewers that don't start towards trying to fully describe what individual teas are like, and instead just communicate a couple details and a general impression, might do the tea more justice for saying less.

The complexity in these types of tea is a different thing than the experience of a black or green tea, where that might work better, as a list of flavors and a little about feel.  Someone else might venture some analogy with pu'er, but what do I know of that; it's likely a bit more complicated yet.  Back to reviewing anyway.

On the second infusion flavors shift towards the earth elements, leather and wood, with  the spice and sweetness diminishing.  Still plenty of sweetness but less, a more normal level.

Third infusion:  still good tea, just less complex and sweet, earthier yet.  In some cases dahongpao can shift to some more unusual musty flavors an infusion or two in but this tea didn’t.

Other Dahongpao from the Buddhist temple (see separate post):

Not bad in comparison,  but quite different.   A rich toffee and coffee flavor element stands out, which I'd essentially missed in the first tasting.  It was much easier to pick up in comparison.  The tea seems sweeter and less musty than I remember,  possibly due to variance in brewing.

this dahongpao

The coffee / roasted flavor element is a bit towards charcoal, which could relate to an effect of aging the grower and vendor mentioned, that a smoky or charcoal effect will diminish over time.  The next question is if this relates to any use of smoke, which seems unlikely,  or to the effect of the oxidation process,  the roasting process, which seems more likely.  It was a nice element that complimented the tea but I'd need to remember the taste and try again in two years to really see the difference.


This tea could be slightly more oxidized than the other dahongpao, but difficult for me to determine given both are relatively oxidized in the oolong range, towards a black tea but not that much.  The question is related to the typical dahongpao range, a finer distinction than I usually try to make or really could make.  With the right kind of training and experience it should be easy enough to factor out other flavor influences and estimate a percentage accurately enough; I'm just not there yet.

Combined tea type tasting notes:

I tried tasting the two teas from Cindy at the same time, the dahongpao and the rougui.  It sort of didn’t work.  When tasting the two dahongpao together it made it easier to appreciate the differences between the teas, separating individual taste components, and to some extent even what was common to both, the shared context, the nature of the dahongpao tea type.

In tasting two different types together instead of specific flavor elements becoming clearer it was just too much.  I could appreciate both were nice teas in different ways, and shared some common elements, but in general both were quite different.  Instead of it becoming easier, for example being able to compare the earth or fruit elements, my palate just got overwhelmed and confused.

tea apprentice palate-training with an oreo

I never really did get any closer to pinning down that one taste component in the rougui tea.  It tasted like perfume smells, quite sweet and aromatic, except it seems like perfume would probably taste terrible.  It wasn’t exactly floral, or spice, or something I could specify, although then again it seems possible it was really floral or spice (or a mix of both).  It doesn't help that I'm not that great with knowing the smell of lots of different flowers.


There was some sweetness, earthiness, good feel to the rougui tea, flavors that inclined toward fruit or floral components, but it came across as one continuous flavor range, and really nothing new from comparison tasting.



In the past I’ve had the experience of learning how to taste a specific unfamiliar component by trying the tea a few times, and then it would just hit me what it was, even though it was always right there in front of me.  Part of that relates to a number of different flavor and other elements coming together in the tasting.  Also sorting them out takes practice, so even something that should be obvious like malt or cocoa can seem to blend in at first.  This might be a different case though; not sure.

Conclusion

Nice teas; I liked all of them.  It's probably as well to not get too swept up in descriptions, interpreting feel, concerns about aging and grading, and so on, and just enjoy the tea.  Which I did, along with a good bit of that other stuff.

Rougui, a different Wuyi yancha (Chinese "rock oolong")

A chance vendor contact recently sent me some samples of different teas, "rock" oolongs from Wuyi, China (thanks much!).

Since the vendor isn't a tea company, but rather an individual involved with tea growing and sales, I'll just refer to her as Cindy.  This might be a good time to point out that it's not uncommon for Chinese people to pick up Western nicknames if they end up in contact with Westerners.  She doesn't have a tea web page to reference, but she can be reached through this Facebook page link.

2012 Rougui

Rougui 2012 tasting notes:

Good tea!  Interesting and powerful first impression.   General profile is in the range of dahongpao--appearance is similar, oxidization range likely similar, some of the flavor profile is common--but the character is quite different (relatively speaking).

Rich flavors, soft with natural sweetness.   Caramel and floral tastes extend towards cocoa with a very subtle but rich underlying range of earthy elements, mineral and wood.  One particular taste element, the first thing that stands out, is hard to pin down,  almost like a perfume, maybe tying to something like a mahogany wood taste.  It's strange having the impression of one primary taste element I just can't describe, especially since it seems like there is probably a reference I'm just not familiar with, maybe floral or maybe not.

Second infusion is still wonderful but flavors diminish.  It seems the general type of tea is not suited to brewing a lot of infusions or a lot of tea.  Multiple infusions are still nice but as seems typical the flavors are more intense and different in the first infusion, brighter, more towards cocoa and floral elements, then earthier and more subdued after.

The feel of the tea is nice, rich, even though there is no astringency element which in some cases can interrelate with the "body" of a tea.  I'm curious what age has done to this tea, what it would have tasted like two years ago.  Cindy claimed the taste changes to diminish a smoky or charred effect, which sounds familiar related to the dahongpao from the Buddhist temple in a recent post, or that could be something else.

Rougui research:

I've went on about dahongpao enough in other posts, but I'd like to try and explain what rougui even is, and cite some background reading.


Wikipedia says almost nothing:  it's from Mount Wuyi, in Fujian Province in China, and it has a distinctive sweet aroma.  They say the name literally means "cassia," relating to "cinnamomum aromaticum," surely related to cinnamon but not the same plant.

Makes you wonder about cinnamon, doesn't it?  Time for a nice long tangent;  Wikipedia says this:

Cinnamon ... is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods. While Cinnamomum verum is sometimes considered to be "true cinnamon", most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from related species, which are also referred to as "cassia" to distinguish them from "true cinnamon"

and then later:  Cinnamomum cassia (Cassia or Chinese cinnamon, the most common type)

So cinnaomomum aromaticum = cinnaomomum cassia, which is not exactly standard or "true" cinnamon, but still a common type of cinnamon.  Getting way off of tea here but if you're a health nut eating cinnamon to prevent diabetes you might consider this WebMD input:   

In many cases, the cinnamon spice purchased in food stores contains a combination of these different types of cinnamon. So far, only cassia cinnamon has been shown to have any effect on blood sugar in humans. However, Cinnamomum verum also contains the ingredient thought to be responsible for lowering blood sugar.

So there's that.


A "Tea  Spring" vendor site fills in some details:   Rou Gui is the latest tea added to Wu Yi's famous five bushes (previously only four consisting of Tie Luo Han, Shui Jin Gui, Da Hong Pao and Bai Ji Guan; referred to as Si Da Ming Cong)....  They are also called Yan Cha (Rock tea) due to the pristine rocky areas where the tea bushes grow.


Steepster reviews of  Yunnan Sourcing (vendor) tea:  nothing so novel about the reviews, tea descriptions, or the source reference but interesting for further reading, especially the variances in what people say.  One might judge from the moderate price of the tea that it's a lower grade but really paying a lot for a tea, or not paying a lot, doesn't necessarily mean anything, although on the higher end one would hope they would at least be getting "relatively good" tea.


Grade level and other subjective preference concerns could even be two different things, but that's a longer story.  For these particular types of teas demand seems to be high so issues of cost, quality, and grade all become more important, as prices go up and consistency of products can vary, with the higher than average costs essentially always being justified by the grade level of the tea.

I've read descriptions of different rougui teas than I've mentioned here and the basic character and taste profile doesn't sound so similar, but then adherence to some standard type is sort of a different thing again.

It's probably not the conclusion that everyone draws but for me the most important thing is if I like a tea, echoing my old wine guru's assertion that subjective preference is the final determining factor.  Contrary to that, but not completely so, I do find myself appreciating different things about teas more as time goes by, so although I can't imagine I'm gravitating towards some universal objective perspective some loosely typical experience curve might be a factor.

Conclusion

Nice tea!  It's not everyday you get to try a new tea that becomes a new favorite.

Holy tea: Dahongpao from a Thai Buddhist monk

I recently visited a family friend / counselor / astrologer Thai Buddhist monk and before I left he gave me some tea.  A bit unusual?  It really does never work out like that, so I'll explain.

People give things to Thai Buddhist monks.  A monk can't own much at all:  two sets of robes and a pair of sandals, a few personal items like a toothbrush and razors (no need for hair styling, except for a monthly haircut, in that sect).  Some tend to need access to computers for their work, and there are usually some Buddha statues around--that's about it.  It gets a little odd related to "borderline" necessities like sunglasses and cell phones, but in general monks can and do use cell phones, and they typically wouldn't own sunglasses at all.




The main thing people would give a monk is food.  Every day starts with an early alms round at about 6 AM, and monks collect food offerings as the only food they'll eat that day, none of it to be consumed after noon (there are lots of odd rules like that).  The idea is to limit dependency on all material and physical concerns so they eat what's given, and don't eat at all after noon, so the excess goes to people working in the temple or to the poor.  It's not begging; people want to offer the food so they do.


People can give other things to monks.  Usually that would be limited to required items like soap, or paper towels, or "luxuries" like soy milk (they can drink that later in the day).  It's a nice, simple life.  If someone wanted they could also give a monk tea, which I do every time I go to the temple.  Someone gave this particular monk a good bit of tea; decent dahongpao at that.


You might wonder how this relates to the general theme of poverty, not owning anything of value and such.  The tea is of value, even if it is a consumable.  People can donate what they want to the monks, or to a temple, or a specific monk, which they can then distribute it from there.  It really couldn't be anything inappropriate for a monk to own (like jewelry, or a car, and cash is a touchy subject due to specific restrictions about that), but a good bit of tea would just distribute out from there, for other monks or even anyone else.

All this makes more sense related to one other concept:  merit.  If you give food or something of use to a monk you get merit from that act (good karma, essentially, with some specific ideas on how that works out).  If you receive and eat the extra food, or tea I guess, that also has the special (near-magical?) property of being a blessed item, so with extra value and benefit.

It was strange to me visiting a monastery in Hawaii (on the West side of Oahu) where the monks would take us on a nice walk and give us things from their grounds, edible leaves that Thais use in foods or fruit.  It seemed backwards.  But it was part of a larger cycle of the monks receiving support from the community and giving some back, and those items would be much more significant than store-bought foods to a Thai.  And about the tea, it was already good tea to start (with "good" always a bit relative).

Review part:

the tea!  looks like a dahongpao; sometimes leaves are longer

I didn't initially know what the tea was but it reminded me of the different dahongpao I'd drank a number of times before (see several earlier posts).  It was definitely from China, and a dark oolong, so it had to be at least related.  Turns out it is dahongpao, per a Chinese friend's translation of the labeling.



It was good tea, maybe not really high grade but a decent version of one of my favorite types.  It had the normal cocoa / cinnamon spice / mineral / earth front note, with an interesting woodiness, a light softness (zero astringency--the usual), and nice complexity of other subtle flavor tones.

Or I suppose someone else might insist those minerals were really standing closer to the front.  Complexity can be like that.  Per usual the taste changed after a couple infusions, with cocoa and cinnamon spice dropping out and the wood elements picking up, then a third infusion was about it.


It reminds me of people claiming similar style oolongs can taste like rocks.  Maybe...  I'm not sure that's what the category term "rock oolong" is really supposed to mean, so I could read up as a reminder.  The way those predominant flavors mix together it's hard to identify just one, and there is an earthiness and / or mineral element that stands out, it's just hard to pin down the flavor.  Maybe a rock does taste like that, much as one could taste a rock.  It wouldn't be limestone, granite, flint, or sandstone; maybe it tastes like a rocky meteor would taste.  There is also an earthy component that blends in with it, also hard to explain, somewhere between a light hardwood, cardboard, and moss.

As always funny I mean by all this that the tea tastes good.  I imagine a higher grade version would come across a little differently in terms of flavor elements, a bit "cleaner," but this is decent tea.  As luck would have it I just got some new teas from China today (Fujian Province, Wuyishan City; if you don't know what that means it's "!!!"), so I'll get back to all that.

For someone who loves that flavor profile any limitation in comparing quality level to another tea was hardly a limitation.  I could live on it.  If someone else loved grassy or vegetal green teas or full textured pu'ers, or whatever else, maybe it wouldn't seem quite as nice.  The normal criticisms are that such teas taste like rocks (maybe...), or they are thin-bodied.  As my wine guru has pointed out taste preference is a subjective thing, or related preference for elements other than taste instead, so to each their own.


Did it work to magically transform my sense of calm?  Not in the first couple days, but maybe it will if I keep drinking it to let the effect sink in.  Too bad my wife doesn't drink tea.

foreigner version of a Thai monk holding a cat.  look familiar?

Can you go to a Thai temple and pick up some nice tea?  Of course not.  But look me up before you get to Bangkok and maybe I'll bring some and set up a tasting at the monastery for us.


Of course you really don't need tea to feel a calming, relaxed, magical vibe in such places; it's already in the air.

Comparison tasting dahongpao (and golden monkey, sort of)

I comparison tasted two different dahongpao teas recently.   Both were so similar that a description of a typical taste profile might have fit either:  a more oxidized oolong with a distinctive mineral flavor as a main component,  along with earthy elements (towards wood), and pronounced cocoa and cinamon elements.

One tea I bought at the Tea Village shop (see last post) and the second was sent as a sample along with other tea I bought (lapsang souchong) through an online contact in China, Linda Lin.

Of course I had written a post about this type of tea before, here.

Comparison

Both teas had a relatively similar flavor profile that I would associate with the tea type.  The tea from Tea Village (hereafter the "first") had a more distinctive cocoa taste and the other was closer to cinamon, and the vague woody flavor in such teas differed.


In the first it seemed to relate to an undertone that was almost orange citrus,  but not quite that,  and the other was closer to the woody element that reminds me a little of fresh cardboard.  It sounds like a negative thing but I don't mean it that way, since I like that flavor.

Just putting it a different way, as by saying it reminded me of a fresh-cut hardwood scent, perhaps hickory, would turn that back to more of a positive description.

Being from a rural part of Pennsylvania I did cut plenty of firewood as a child and many years ago I might have remembered what different woods really do smell like but for now I've sort of lost that.  As I recall cherry wood is nice, sweet, but then one would expect that.


I'd like to say that one tea was better, or at least something semi-descriptive like "cleaner" but I can only say I preferred the Tea Village tea.  I think with even a few days between tasting it would have been hard to distinguish those minor taste differences because the teas really were similar.

Description.  As for pricing conversion, let's just say if you stop by then buy this tea

Teas like this make me think about how personal preference causes some elements that would be negative for some to be favorites for others.

An opposite extreme,  it seems to me,  is a tea like tie kuan yin.  Higher grades are more floral and sweeter but any typical example is a very agreeable lightly oxidized soft oolong  (although it is possible to prepare is as darker tea).   But in contrast a tea like dahongpao, at least the grades one might ordinarily run across,  one might more naturally like a lot or dislike since the taste is a little more unusual.


I recently tried a golden monkey tea that seemed to share this, an unconventional taste profile that would seem to turn one towards really liking it or not liking it, although the taste elements didn't click as well for me.

Aside about a different tea, golden monkey (bonus review)

The golden monkey tea was sold as a red tea, or as I understand it what we call black tea, with the color difference essentially referring to black teas brewing to a reddish brown color.  I always held out hope "red" could relate to some sub-genre but per every online mention it's just black tea, essentially completely oxidized, described by a different color.


That tea tasted naturally sweet, with plenty of stone fruit flavor, peach or maybe apricot, and some earthy or spice undertones.  It seemed to be quality tea, and quite interesting,  but some component didn't work so well for me.  It reminded me a little of cantaloupe,  the only fruit that I hate, along with other melons beside watermelon, so maybe that alone explains it.

Or it just could be an indescribable preference inclination.   A friend in China gave me a very similar tea once, perhaps the same but with packaging only in Chinese, and over time I've come to appreciate the tea more, but it wouldn't be a favorite.

Some others might see shou pu'er as possessing a strange range of ways for tea to taste, a little towards dark wood elements, or even root beer or charcoal, but I like what I've tried of it.  Most tea types work for me to some degree, even that golden monkey tea, maybe just less so.  I do also love lapsang souchong, with a post in the works about that since I just tried three versions.

Other aspects beyond taste

Of course appeal could also relate to the quality of the tea, in ways beyond taste profile issues.  Minor variations in the two dahongpao teas related to aspects that seem to me to identify a tea quality level other than taste:  the feel or body of the tea, the way the flavor lasts, which I think of as "finish" from wine tasting,  or how the tea varies across different infusions.

Better quality tea seems to not only make more tea but also remain more consistent, or at least change in ways that still relates to appealing tea.  Sometimes a lesser quality tea seems to shift flavor after an infusion or two or just fade out quickly.  This also seems to relate to tea type, but that's as well saved for another post.

Those two teas were so similar (with only minor differences related to these) that I left them out of the review.  But then for someone else that valued different aspects of tea more or was able to determine them more clearly that might not be the case.

Da hong pao oolong tasting; a Wuyi yan cha (rock tea)

New favorite tea shop

I recently visited a tea shop I've been hearing a lot about, and picked up a few nice teas.

The picture of me with the owner doesn't really show how the shop is sort of a large booth in a wide mall walk-way.  But there is space for a small tasting area, a nice glass display cabinet, shelves of tea-ware and tea figures, and of course lots of tea.  I think the name of the store is Tea De Zhang, definitely located in the Seacon Square shopping mall, with the Facebook page here.

They essentially specialize in pu'er, but depending on preference and what else you find that you like there that might not matter.  

I was there to buy two teas:  a well-known pu'er I'll share with a tea friend, and another loose tea recommended by another.  He said the tea was a Wuyi yan cha (rock oolong), related to da hong pao, and per the labeling one of two separate yan cha teas was a da hong pao.  The owner's wife was in China, overseeing old tree leaf sources used for a limited edition of a less commercial pu'er production--a tea for another day.

As routinely occurs in this country language was a bit of a problem, but with some help from a third party I bought the teas, in spite of a review process by my wife who was on the errands with me.

My wife had insisted I finish "all" the tea in the house before buying more--definitely not reasonable, a project I only mostly completed--and this purchase added up to a lot of tea.  

All the same it was a steal at not so much over $100 for over a kilogram of tea (3 pu'er cakes--on sale; see later blog entry).

Tea tasting:

To keep this entry readable I've decided to experiment with using the form of tasting notes, edited to be less messy, but all the same thoughts on the tea as I experienced it.  

I tried tasting by comparing Western style brewing against tea made in a gaiwan, and the results were quite similar, the flavors just changed over subsequent infusions differently.

-appearance:  long twisted dark leaves, tea brewed to brownish amber

-initial flavors include cocoa, wood and earth tones. Maybe teak and slate (I'm not so well trained with such flavors), with a malty undertone.

-smooth taste with relatively higher oxidation, without flavor profile starting towards even a soft black tea; no tannin / astringency.

-cocoa flavor stands out initially (a favorite), hits the palate first


-some natural sweetness, but hard to relate that to a specific fruit element and definitely not a floral tone.  If there were a fruit element it would probably be something like apricot, but the wood and mineral elements really stand out, so I wasn't really "getting" fruit.

brewed leaves

-not so much difference between gaiwan and Western brewing initially, but this could relate to technique, or could change based on variables, ratio or timing.

-the western brewing taste changes by second infusion; "brighter" cocoa fades a little and taste elements shift to different wood tone, balsa or even cardboard.  Not as negative as it sounds, still delicious, but not as good.  The gaiwan brewing seems to preserve the initial taste profile for 3 infusions better; "cleaner" flavors.  Even later infusions are pleasant using both brewing types though; tea tastes nice until it fades, consistent except for that change.

-the taste elements combine well, are very continuous, with a nice rich feel / body to the tea


In summary, the tea was quite nice, with the types of flavors I prefer just now.  It seems like a higher grade version of the same tea might hold the taste better over multiple infusions with a little more complexity, but the tea was very good and an excellent value.