Assam green and silver needle teas

 

Not long ago I reviewed an exceptional quality version of Assam whole-leaf black tea, sent by a producer friend Maddhurjya to enjoy and to review.  These were sent with it, a green and silver needle version.  They look amazing, and they should be amazing.

As with the first post I'll keep the back-story here to a minimum.  Maddhurjya started working on exploring better quality tea production, new types of processing and equipment use, and organic tea production quite a number of years ago.  He might've been somewhat new to it when we first met, something like a half dozen years ago, but he was making quite good tea then, and it has only improved since.  There's more on him and that project is on FB and Instagram.

It's now on a level with better teas from anywhere else.  The highest end Chinese teas tend to draw on an older and more developed tea tradition, with the absolute best tea versions the result of many decades of tea growing and processing, or really centuries, so the absolute highest quality Chinese teas tend to have an edge on others from elsewhere, but that matters more for some tea types.  Black and green teas are more basic in general style (as I see it), and white (the silver needle) is the least processed broad type, so it might vary a little less.  Differences related to terroir and plant type issues might stand out more than processing being dialed into optimum for these.  But we'll see.

I haven't been drinking much green or white tea for years, but many cycles of trying many teas from a lot of different areas over a decade give me confidence that my judgment will be reasonably informed.  Related to brewing process I'll go with a Gongfu approach, and a pretty high proportion, as is normal for me.  Brewing water temperature might be a little high, possibly around 90, or maybe down into the mid to upper 80s as a thermos I'm using sheds some heat, which is probably not optimum for the green tea version.  But I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, so if it includes a little extra astringency edge, extra mineral base, or if a heavier vegetal tone stands out a little I'll be fine.  It would be sweeter and lighter brewed 10 degrees cooler, which I'll probably be able to comment on a little as I go.

I should mention that some people consider silver needle a certain style of white buds-only tea, and often silver tips is used as a more general term.  Silver needle is often used for the English derived name for a Fuding, Fujian tea version, based on plant type and growing conditions that result in a larger bud form.  I don't even get caught up in naming issues people far more often consider important or restricted, like pu'er (although I do respect the registered Yunnan-origin only convention by awkwardly calling other versions "pu'er-like), or Oriental Beauty, which isn't registered to describe only Taiwanese teas.  I don't have any conclusively grounded opinion on whether this is truly silver needle or instead should be called silver tips, but I'm pretty sure that silver needle is closer to the Oriental Beauty example, not a registered and restricted naming convention, so I think it's fine.

Review:

green tea:  I brewed this round a bit fast, not trying to compensate for the tea needing time to become soaked, instead going with a first light introductory round instead.  Range is pleasant so far, light and sweet.  This tea could have far less of an astringency issue related to being in a mostly whole leaf form.  Umami already stands out, even though the tea is brewed quite light.  I'll save adding a flavor list for next round.

silver needle:  a lot of mineral base stands out in this; interesting.  Often buds-only white teas can be subtle to the point of not tasting like much, with some vague floral sweetness coming across.  That's not how this is.  Sweetness is still pronounced, and there's plenty of floral range there, but at least right away a mineral base stands out most.  It reminds me of how Nepal white teas often strike an amazing complex balance, including all that I've mentioned, and maybe even a bit of citrus.  For people familiar with good Nepal white tea that's clearly very high praise.  This should be interesting.

green tea, second infusion:  I brewed this more like 20 seconds, if anything perhaps slightly over optimum, but it will avoid another comment about these needing another round to get started.  Umami, underlying mineral, and heavier flavor range really stand out in this.  I think it's already to the point where using nearly 90 C water is pulling flavor range to a heavier, less bright and sweet range.  I'll cool the next round to experiment on that, mixing in just a little room temperature water (not sciencey, or optimum, but it'll work).  Floral tone is a main input, along with umami, and from there heavier vegetable range stands out.  It's hard to place, non-distinct, maybe as close to cooked okra as anything else.  I'll keep working on a more detailed flavor list.

silver needle:  warmth, sweetness, and depth really bumped up in this tea.  It's not really that close to Nepal white, which is lighter in form, with flinty mineral, light floral, towards a light citrus edge; that was only similar to the early round profile, it seems.  A much warmer range of floral tone and citrus both really kick in, but it's more like a warmer orchid scent than a lighter version of that, and more like a tangerine than a sweet and light orange.  Rich feel rounds out the experience; for still developing this has a lot going on.  There's even a hint of drier edge, relating either to oxidation input or to a natural mineral flavor tone (feel and flavor ranges tend to naturally couple in standard ways).

green tea, third infusion:  cooling the water (mixing it) did shift results a little, but not too much.  Heavier mineral and vegetal flavors still stand out, along with sweetness, and rich floral range.  I brewed this for a bit under 10 seconds; infusion strength is fine for both even brewed fast.  I won't pin down floral or mineral range much, which are hard to describe, but I will attempt to say more about the vegetal range.  There's a grass aspect to it, but it's complex, and not mostly that.  Vegetable range could be fairly close to okra still.  That gets odd because it's not a heavy, cooked vegetable flavor, but who is familiar with eating raw okra?  It seems like what is happening relates to a lot of range combining.  Rich and lighter floral tones seem to mix, along with a lot of mineral base, grass, some vegetable, and some holy basil spice range.  It's intense, but it's pleasant for being such a clean effect, with decent balance.

I've mentioned many times that green tea isn't my absolute favorite range, which I suppose could seem odd given that I drink mostly young or slightly aged sheng pu'er, which is closest to that.  I don't hate the entire flavor profile range, I just don't like the straight-grass effect, or more one dimensional vegetable flavor inputs.  Sheng often tastes floral, and essentially never like grass or vegetables, although characteristic astringency and mineral base can overlap with some green tea range, and unusual pine-like aspect can enter in (which I just noticed in a Jing Mai version two days ago).  For this green tea being complex, generally positive, and balanced I like it.  I'd probably like a sheng version that's this high in quality and distinctive better, but that's how type preferences and acclimation works.

silver needle:  this is richer, sweeter, heavier on rich floral tones and warm citrus fruit, and thicker in feel.  I think this would naturally appeal to a broader range of people; there is no conflict with aspect preference range to get in the way, it's just good.  It's definitely not subtle or wispy.  This was even brewed for 10 seconds or less; pushing it would draw out even more intensity, although lighter flavor balance would give way to heavier range if you did that, to some extent.  I should push the next round a little to check on that, since I've just brewed these quite light.  It will be more of a test of the green tea; I don't think that you could easily ruin this tea with brewing variations.

green tea, fourth infusion:  I cooled the water even more by mixing one third room temperature version; this will be brewed quite cool, maybe even under a 70 C relative optimum (160 F or below).  Ordinarily that would impact intensity, but I've let these brew for more like 20 seconds, probably just under that.

It's lighter and sweeter, for sure, with feel range not diminishing at all, or the heavy mineral base flavors.  Interesting!  If someone absolutely wanted to keep the heavy grass and vegetal range in check this is the way, use fairly cool water, maybe even dropping slightly below 70 C.  I'd probably see using 75 to 80 C as an optimum, and might even go with 85, accepting some heavier flavors that I don't love as much as a trade-off for bumping intensity way up, even brewed fast.  Sweet floral tone does come across well in this round, with an even stronger mineral base, so it's not overly light, but for being a sheng pu'er drinker I'm accustomed to intensity, which sticks around even with fast and light infusions.

silver needle:  not changed, really; the last description still works.  Heavy floral tone might be bumping up as the sweet citrus drops off, but it's still similar.  I'll probably do one more round to check on changes, back to brewing the green tea hot, and leave off taking notes.  These teas are not half finished yet though; cutting off writing is about keeping this length moderate, and about later transitions not being as interesting to me as describing the basic character of the teas.

green tea, fifth infusion:  the heavier flavors punch is back, related to using quite hot water again.  I suppose it's nice that the flavor can be that dialed into different ranges like that, if one likes.  Other tea types tend to not work out like that; you can shift the range of experience, but not necessarily the basic flavor profile.  The grass and vegetable might seem a bit much to some but to me it's balanced well enough with heavy mineral base, umami, and equally pronounced floral range input.  I like that feel structure too; it has an edge to it, brewed hot and somewhat intense, but again I'm familiar with teas including intense feel along with intense flavors.  

In discussing what I like about sheng with a Yunnan producer friend he guessed that people might just adjust to liking a little more complexity and intensity, then a little more again, until they need a lot of both to get their fix.  Oolongs are plenty complex and interesting, with full feel, but once you follow that pattern it might not be enough, since they tend to give up both--related to sheng--in exchange for exhibiting refinement and flavor aspect range that's a more natural fit to ordinary, unconditioned preference.  Bitterness alone is a big part of that (which of course I've not mentioned in relation to this green tea; they tend to not be bitter).  People new to drinking beer would probably love a mild amber more and then later on IPA and pilsner can somehow seem more appealing. 

It's interesting the bag it came in has a common type of orchid on the front, and the "flavour of Assam" branding.  There is plenty of floral range in both these teas.  This seems to be transitioning more to green beans in later rounds, so there's other range too, but it works better for it all balancing.

silver needle:  not transitioning too much, but a little.  The gradual, subtle drift towards warmer floral tones might be leading into a light spice-like range now.  For this tea being so approachable, while still being complex and intense, you could try out pushing it with full boiling point brewing water and see what that changes.  

It might work as an optimum to start cooler, maybe in an 85 C range, and then keep bumping temperature as intensity fades just a little.  This is still plenty intense, and you can add more to that just by lengthening brewing time, but drawing out warmer tones and a touch more astringency could be good--in the form of feel depth at this lighter level--as the tea softens further and narrows in flavor range.  At five infusions in it's far from fading away, so I'm talking here about messing around to experience change and an optimum.  Or it's great like this, or surely brewed hotter; this is the opposite case of when I'm describing how one might get a decent but mediocre tea to give up a bit more intensity, more about how one might try out a finer level adjustment of brewing process just to highlight what is already present.

Conclusion:

I liked the silver needle more; that really stood out for complexity, intensity, and flavors being in a very positive range.  I liked the green tea more than I like an average good-quality green tea version, and if I was a green tea drinker this would all be framed in completely different context, much more positively.  It's a green tea version that a sheng pu'er drinker could appreciate, but they would still probably like sheng pu'er of equivalent good quality even more.  Drifting off the subject a little, I tend to like sheng versions that seemed to have been heated a bit too much, spoiling a lot of the long term aging potential, and shifting the aspect range, but they can be nice as very young / new versions.

It's interesting considering if these were better than I expected, or different in any way.  I thought that they would be quite good, so that matches.  This white tea intensity was a pleasant surprise; fine bud content white tea can be intense, as this was, but often that comes with negative or neutral aspect range trade-off, for example the mineral tone not integrating as well as this did, or giving up brighter floral and fruit range.  You usually don't get that kind of balance across a range in white teas; it's either mostly a very pleasant sweet and floral high end, or a deeper base joins much less of that.  That's why Nepal white teas really stand out, but they often express a brighter, lighter-tone range, light floral, and bright citrus, not the warm and deeper range.

Probably I'll come to love this green tea more as I try it a few more times, and automatically dial in brewing better, versus messing with it round to round.  To me green and black teas can tend to be more basic in range expressed, which can still work out as a positive experience, in a way that can work really well drank along with food.  I still drink sheng with breakfast almost every day, or black tea, oolong, or shu if I feel like it, but that's not really about setting up an optimum pairing.  I eat plain foods, breakfast cereal, toast, or fruit, and the sheng is often out of balance related to intensity, even brewed light.  I probably should buy more black tea than I tend to, but I often end up reaching for sheng anyway.  It'll be nice to have a couple more options to mix in, while I have these teas.

Specialty whole-leaf Assam from Maddhurjya

Maddhurjya Gogoi, a tea producing friend in Assam, recently sent me some tea to try and review.  It's been awhile since I've tried Assam on this level, or any Assam, really.  I've been through a few cycles of checking out teas from there, so the range is familiar, but I've been mostly on sheng pu'er for a number of years now.  I've already tried this tea, before tasting it to write review notes, so I know how it works out; it's pretty good, as I would've expected.

I met Maddhurjya on a visit here once before; he's such a nice guy.  Their tea production theme and philosophy is a familiar one, moving to create much better quality, organically produced teas from plants that were producing more ordinary versions earlier on.  They've been at it awhile, allowing time for experimenting with different processing techniques, changing processing equipment use (much earlier on), or even changing plant type inputs.  We didn't discuss all that again; this will just be about the tea.

Maddhurjya is second from right, beside Kittichai, the Jip Eu shop owner

The packaging mentions a number of branding and company names; it's described as Lu Ma Whole Leaf Assam Orthodox, Hand Crafted Black Tea, from MG TE, produced by Chah Bari, operated by Gogoi and Sons, under Assam Teehaus.  The last one is familiar.  They're in Dabohibil Village (Assam, of course).

In the past their tea versions have held their own against any other highest quality Assam I've tried.  Next one might wonder about placing that in relation to Darjeeling, or Chinese teas, or from elsewhere.  Assam is interesting and novel for including a variation of maltiness that comes across much differently in whole-leaf, higher quality versions than in relatively ground leaf tea forms.  The astringency drops out almost completely, reduced to a fullness of mouthfeel effect, so that flavor input stands alone more, combined with better sweetness and other range.  Flavors tend to include dried fruit along with a mineral undertone base.

I've still not covered if the quality level or general appeal can match that of good black tea elsewhere.  Style and aspect variations stand out more than quality level, which varies within any kinds of categories.  To me it's fair to either associate or separate whole-leaf tea production from other quality inputs, depending on what you mean, how you want to use that umbrella term (quality).  Broken leaf tea tends to not be as good as whole leaf versions, although there would be plenty of exceptions to that on both ends, just amazing broken or cut up leaf tea (like most tea from Japan, for example), or plenty of whole leaf versions that just aren't that good. 

Beyond that, comparing like for like, more whole leaf versions from Assam versus Darjeeling, China, Taiwan, Thailand, or wherever else, quality can vary, but in general aspects shift by local plant type, growing conditions, and processing inputs, more than some from a location tends to be better or worse (as represented by the best versions, of course).  Darjeeling doesn't express the same flavor range, or as much intensity (at least in one sense), but refined and very pronounced fruit flavors with good sweetness can stand out more.  Nepal teas can be fantastic in a different way, maybe a little closer to Darjeeling in character, but also just their own thing.

This tea description will help place all that.  I'll brew it Gongfu style, which is a normal approach for me for higher quality, whole leaf black teas.  Water is not far off boiling, and proportion higher than most people would use, probably 7 grams for a 100 ml gaiwan, brewing in less water than that, since that measurement tends to relate to the volume to the top, not how much you use.

Review:

First infusion:  malt hits you first; the usual.  Of course it's a soft and mild version of malt, not the type with a bit of edge, that seems to somehow pair with the astringency.  The depth of this tea is nice, the way layers of aspects combine to provide a really complex experience.  Warm mineral tones seem to support it as a base, but there is range one might interpret as either aromatic tropical wood or spice.  Mind you this tea is just getting started; it's not even fully wetted yet.

Fruit isn't as pronounced, at least yet, but one part tastes a little like dried tamarind.  Even though this first round is brewed a little light the feel is already rich and full, and aftertaste lingers on.  It's hard to describe why that matters in tea experience; how it supports a more complete experience.  The tea drinking experience can seem more limited without those extra dimensions, as a quick flash of a few positive flavors, versus an experience of more depth, when they're present (fuller feel and aftertaste).

I just reviewed two Chinese oolong versions, presented as being two different quality levels by the vendor, or at least that was implied in a cost difference.  A Tie Guan Yin version didn't include any more aftertaste experience than this, even though usually that's more noteworthy in that range of oolongs than in good Indian black teas, and then the other, a Dan Cong, compared more favorably.  

some color difference is from inconsistent camera settings, which I'm not editing to correct

Second infusion:  depth picks up, which wasn't exactly a limitation that first round.  What I'm describing as warm mineral tones, working as a base, combined with dark tropical wood or spice range, similarly more a context background than forward element, really needs even more unpacking, but I'm not sure if I can add a list of extra descriptions or concepts to help with that.  It's interesting how really good Darjeeling can seem to dazzle you with a complex range of pronounced, higher end fruit and floral tones, with pleasant deeper range supporting and balancing that, along with great sweetness, and then this is the opposite; the depth itself stands out.  The higher end might be drifting some to a warm dried citrus peel aspect, with dried tamarind fruit still present, but not overly pronounced.  Then that deeper range is more complex and intense.

I hadn't really thought of all this in those terms before but this may relate to what I love so much about Dian Hong, Yunnan black tea, that it covers both ranges equally.  Some versions can have a nice forward aspect, with less base, and it's more common for others to include a lot of warmer, deeper structure, mineral tones, mild and deep fruit elements, earthy range, etc., missing balance in what I'm describing spatially as a high end.  But often it just balances.  The different flavor range of roasted yam, roasted sweet potato, cacao, and mild spice is well suited for expression as pronounced aspects and deeper tones.

Back to this version, it's not unbalanced, because sweetness and lighter flavors are also present.  But one more cacao element, a touch of raisin, or a little extra other fruit or spice would balance it to expressing forward notes just as much as depth.  Often the more forward aspects can fade while depth picks up over rounds; it will be interesting to see how this changes in relation to that, if the deeper tones really dominate more later, or if the opposite somehow occurs.

third infusion:  the more forward flavor aspects transitioning round to round offsets some of the pattern I'm describing here, the depth standing out more.  There is still a faint edge of warm dried citrus in this, and more that relates to something like dried tamarind (more to place that range; it might differ slightly from that), but more of an autumn leaf tone is picking up, a sweetness and richness across an unusual vegetal range, that's really in between fruit and vegetal ranges.

Permit me a tangent about fallen leaves; the scent of tropical tree and plant leaves is much different than the range of those I experienced living in places like Pennsylvania and Colorado.  PA had deep and rich, very complex, tree vegetation range, so the fragrance of walking in the woods in the fall, or even spring and summer, was very layered and complex.  It's drier and less heavily forested in the high mountains in Colorado, so more spice-like, subtle, lighter fallen leaf scents would stand out.  Since you adjust to the scent range you happen to be in, just as your eyes can relate equally well to a broad range of light levels, to some extent all this would become transparent, just the intensity range you're within just then.  

The tropics are something else.  Vegetation has a sweeter, more floral oriented scent range.  It gives up the depth of a heavier, richer PA forest tone, and doesn't settle on the same lighter, almost spice-like range of CO forests, but in one sense fragrance is much more pronounced.  Sweeping the leaves in the driveway almost makes you want to brew that and try it out.  Some of that is from a range of types of flowers thriving at different times, or aromatic components of trees covering more range.  Back in Hawaii that tied to seed pods seemingly related to tamarind or other fruits, but here in Bangkok the gardens at the house grow dozens of kinds of plants, papaya, banana, lime, and mango, flowering vines, palms, basil, and so on.  

The depth of this tea ties to all that; in a sense it might be a mix of layers of tones that comes across as a base due to the diversity, since it's not that 3 or 4 of those stands out to seem more forward.

fourth infusion:  I brewed this a little lighter, not varying infusion time to see how results vary, but it did work out like that.  Brewed light the lighter flavors stand out more, and the warmer depth is less pronounced.  I think this is more in line with how a lot of people brew most Chinese teas, to try to be clear.  Intensity is still fine, but it would be easy for someone acclimated to mild black tea to like theirs brewed stronger.  

Getting back to a flavor-list approach a round later might help keep this reading length in check, and describe transition patterns better.  I'll get back to a 20-some second infusion time next round, brewing it on the stronger side again, since that works better as an experiential optimum for me.

fifth infusion:  fruit range seemed to shift the most.  What had been dried tamarind with some dried citrus peel might have transitioned a little towards plum.  Of course heavier flavors picked up too, from increasing brewed strength, back to warm mineral tone standing out.  

I'm not mentioning malt so much, for starting out by saying that's the main flavor aspect, right?  It's there too, but it settles into more of a mid-range background context; all the rest stands out in relation to malt.  Malt in CTC Assam seems to link to very dry flavor and astringent feel range, to astringency experience, and that's not present in that form here, since this has good feel structure but not that kind of edge.  Here it's a little more like malted milk ball range, or the malt that gets added to a milkshake (not often enough; I miss that from my childhood), or in Ovaltine.  That blends in better than the stronger and harsher variation; it's easier to almost miss it as one part that integrates with the rest.

sixth infusion:  probably a good place to leave off; this is long enough, and it won't be as interesting a story how this fades over the next half dozen rounds.  For brewing it strong it won't make it far past a dozen infusions.  The more forward, higher end range is definitely not dropping out; there is plenty of fruit left in this, and other more vague but complex aromatic range.  

Conclusions:

This is a really solid, high quality tea.  In terms of a general quality level I don't think this is giving up much to other black teas anywhere.  Flavor range and other character is different, varying naturally along with a range of inputs, but it's "as good" as any other black tea I've tried.  

That's a real accomplishment; it can drop into the background as a natural outcome, that of course any tea can be really good.  But so many inputs had to be controlled to go just right for that to happen.  The tea plants themselves, growing conditions, processing choices, processing equipment used, storage conditions; it all had to go really well.  Weather had to contribute positively; it's not as if all the conditions were something producers can control.  Maddhurjya and his family did a great job.

There is always going to be one more version out there that's distinctive in some other way, or finer and finer quality level steps to climb.  I'm not trying to say that this is the best possible orthodox Assam that could reach the market.  It's pretty far up the scale; interesting, distinctive, balanced, and refined, lacking any noticeable flaws.  

Sometimes I'll mention that pricing relates to the assumed quality level, that teas can be presented as one thing or another, like a Tie Guan Yin oolong version being sold as upper medium range, or a Dan Cong oolong selling as a similar thing, implied as better since the standard type quality range doesn't match directly, the scale of typical offerings.  I don't keep up with how higher quality Assam maps out, or how many alternatives would be anything like this, or some even better (there always is more range).  I suspect that awareness and demand for teas anything like this in both Indian and international markets is still limited, with the same being true in very different senses for Darjeeling, better Nepal versions, good Chinese black tea, and so on.  For whatever reason sheng pu'er awareness and demand "blew up," just in a very limited sense, and oolongs have always been a favorite category of many.  

Someday maybe specialty tea will have its moment, or maybe it will always be a niche interest.  Either way in the meantime this is a good example of what most people are missing out on.  That's too bad but not so bad, given how good Darjeeling and Chinese black teas, and the rest, all are in their own ways.

the last time I saw these guys, just a few days ago, with more separation to follow

Meeting Susmit and Maddhurjya, Ketlee vendor and Assam tea farmer

 

Back to India for a meetup series, a sort of exercise in networking and idea sharing.  This was interesting for combining a vendor and producer perspective.  A vendor who sells tea directly is both (Maddhurjya does, but he mostly sells wholesale to other outlets), but they are really different things.  Per usual I'll go through what we covered that stood out to me, but not really summarize everything.  A short bio introduces both people who joined first (with Ralph, Suzana, and Huyen also hosting as usual).

Susmit:  founder of Ketlee tea, an online vendor based in India, selling unique Indian teas.  These include an Indian version of sheng, which is particularly unique, and also smoked teas, Indian oolongs, and other range.

Maddhurjya:  Assam tea farmer and producer.  I've met Maddhurjya visiting here in Bangkok, so I've already written about him (in an interview post about development issues, beyond the reviews).  He is trying out new processing methods and equipment, based on traveling and training in China and Taiwan, and importing tea processing equipment.  The main sub-themes seem standard enough now but they are still quite timely and important, developing a small producer based alternative to larger scale tea production, and moving towards organic, whole-leaf, higher quality tea production. 

Maddhurjya is beside me in blue, beside Kittichai, the Jip Eu shop owner

capture with cats

Susmit and Indian sheng development

Before most others joined Ralph, Susmit, and I talked for a half hour about Ketlee's sheng, about how it is, and how development of a type new to India worked out.  As far as he knew sheng--not "pu'er," according to most, but the same type, just without the name that's reserved for Chinese versions--was never produced in India, and I'm not aware of it existing elsewhere either.  We discussed how Singpo falap might be similar, ending on agreeing that it's not the same at all.  I've tried only one version and it was good though, and not so different than a bamboo sheng version from Yunnan (not that everyone would use that type description there), and really not so far off sheng style, even though processing isn't the same.

what it looks like, photo credit the Ketlee site

To summarize, the version Susmit sells is from wild, old-plant sources, plants for which he couldn't identify a clear history.  And he sells other wild origin Manipur material teas, and Indian region versions that aren't so common, from Sikkim and elsewhere.  Good accounts and records go back 250 years or so but the plants were almost certainly there before that.  With better dating attempts some of the living plants there might be older than that; kind of an odd way to revise a limited historical account.

As to that tea version character he said that it's not bitter like Yunnan sheng (maybe just a little?), different in aspect character.  That comes up for wild teas even in Yunnan, and also for variations in South East Asia (a recurring theme in this blog; I've written about that at least a dozen times).  Beyond that we didn't get far for a review flavor list description, or speculation about aging potential, the kinds of issues people would experience by trying the tea.  He did mention how processing development worked out, that making "dragonballs" had been breaking up leaf material so they switched to small cakes.  And producers needed to iron out other processing details along the way, like processing the tea leaves fast enough to limit natural oxidation.

It really makes you wonder how it will age, doesn't it?

A venture in producing and selling local versions of specialty teaware is interesting, especially for including gaiwans.  These are porous clay versions, raising a conditioning issue (some people would use only one tea type per device related to that form), but it's a smoothed finish porous version, so I don't know how that interrelates.  Helping develop a new teaware tradition is a good match with exploring new tea types.

Indian and foreign demand for higher quality--and more expensive--teas

This was a really interesting theme, how ramping up awareness goes.  It's bit by bit, according to Susmit (and Maddhurjya, to some extent, but his less direct consumer exposure narrows experience down to one producer's sales case).  Within India it's developing; that's something I have relatively little feel for, even though I hear a little about how that goes about every other week.  From the sound of it his business being viable at this early stage also depends on foreign sales and demand, since few Indians are open to changing tea types and consumption habits.  But the process has started.

2019 versions of Maddhurjya's tea, or maybe that was 2018

We discussed how to develop that, drawing on examples of other cultures where it either moved faster or was also slow to take.  Susmit's impression is that physical shop infrastructure in countries like Russia--the Moychay case I keep writing about--enables them to support customer tasting, or events, and facilitates learning about brewing and gear.  Selling tea online he can just post descriptions or images, or discuss themes in groups, which only goes so far.  That make perfect sense, and matches my experience, that discussion and posted content can only have a limited reach or impact compared to helping people prepare and try tea.  I've tried to support the same function in holding local tasting events, even setting up a Bangkok based Facebook group for that, but it was inactive even before the 2020 pandemic shut down social gatherings.

Ralph shared how in Germany there are layers to tea interest, vending source scope, and types demand, which is how that would more or less go everywhere, just mapped out differently.  Here in Thailand there are specialty tea enthusiasts, but so few that businesses based around catering to demand are slow to develop.  Outside of Chinatown I'm familiar with two higher end specialty tea vending businesses, with two other exceptions, Peace Oriental (a chain now relying on pre-made blends sales) and Monsoon (a long story; a Thai tea producer making something novel, mostly blends and also wild-origin tea, so it overlaps).  

There are other mall shops, or booths, so maybe we're not running so far behind other places outside China, Taiwan, and Japan.  That one level of German small vendors selling familiar high quality teas (Wuyi Yancha, sheng pu'er, Taiwanese oolongs, etc.) is probably much smaller in scale than the first levels of more mainstream outlets, just perhaps more developed there than here.

Assam tea production issues

I won't do justice to conveying everything Maddhurjya shared, but I'll mention some highlights.  He makes high quality whole-leaf tea, versions of which I've reviewed here, but it's been a couple of years since I've tried them.  He says that he's still adjusting technique and improving them, which I don't doubt, but they were already pretty good then.  That approach is a somewhat small movement in Assam but other producers and vendors have also been headed in that direction.  The awareness and demand side trails that direction, it seems, so that producers also need to develop foreign sales channels to make the business viable (so the same issue for producer level and direct retail sale level).

Related to production, needing to use the same types of equipment foreign tea producers do has been a limitation in the past, rolling or drying machines and such.  To some extent more hand made tea is potentially better, but it's not practical to make tea completely by hand at significant scale (even low volume compared to main plantations), and for some steps results are better from machine processing.  This Farmerleaf reference on processing Taiwanese style oolong adds detail to that.  Maddhurjya encountered significant personal expense in traveling to places like China and Taiwan to study production methods, and to import equipment, and per his account he's not quite to the point to where established volume of production and sales covers that earlier expense.

This is a good place to clarify a broader point: developing a brand new range of tea products is cost intensive.  Kenneth of Monsoon Tea has discussed this with me in the past (the Thai wild tea producer that I mentioned).  Years of exploration and work can precede profitable product development.  It seems this must skew the early supply and demand factors relating to cost of those new-form teas.  Market rates are going to limit what they can be sold for, unless teas are so novel that there is no established market rates, and even then demand patterns have to match up for sales to occur.  

I'm not necessarily saying that Ketlee sheng and Maddhurjya's teas are more expensive now than they will be once ramped-up production covers initial investment and overhead better; demand will shift and increase along with supply-side cost issues leveling out.  I'm just pointing out that if a tea seems a bit pricey that doesn't necessarily mean that a producer or vendor is making a significant profit on it, at least initially.  Or maybe any profit at all, depending on those early expenses.  

To tie all this back to basic economics, as any given producer or vendor gets initial expenses sorted out pressure from market entry from other sources should moderate market rates and set prices for the related goods.  Other factors can disrupt that.  A spike in demand, for any reason, could support keeping prices high, and entry of a large supply of products identified as comparable could drop market rates, potentially making sustainable business difficult.  In an odd twist specialty tea sold as high cost versions can sometimes imply the product quality is high, shifting demand pattern positively just by raising pricing.  I guess that part is marketing, not economics.

We also discussed organic production issues.  It's problematic that certifications can really mean less in places like India and Thailand; testing steps can be avoided, replaced by personal payments.  Maddhurjya knows that he isn't putting chemicals on his teas (pesticides, at least; we didn't discuss fertilization), but for having large plantations located around his farm that doesn't necessarily mean he could pass the most strict forms of testing, due to incidental contact with sprayed compounds applied nearby.  For real forest grown tea the issue more or less drops out; it wouldn't be practical to apply pesticides to plants already growing in a stable and natural local ecosystem.  Per discussing testing with Jan in the Netherlands awhile back completely naturally grown tea may not be completely clear of any tested compounds risk, since some natural compounds can be identified as posing a health risk, and levels of those may vary still based in natural growing conditions.

Maddhurjya cleared up some points in later discussion, about how they stopped using any chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers since 2002 on their farm.  It originated with a practical concern, his family putting any available funds toward his father's medical care when he had cancer, and education expenses.  Then later that negative turned into a positive, since they learned exactly what the trade-off would be in terms of production impact, and moved on to supporting organic and limited input growth related to potential health impact concerns instead.

Maddhurjya also mentioned that he is developing limited direct sales, just not on the scale or form of setting up a webpage, or exploring in-person channels, opening a shop or attending markets.  At first demand for higher priced tea versions had been a significant limitation, he said, but the relation to other forms of food expenses and potential for a different form of tea experience has opened some people up to the experience of orthodox specialty tea, even at significantly higher costs than for CTC tea versions.

Next steps, future direction

Maddhurjya is helping other local farmers develop their processing capabilities, both in relation to processing steps and equipment use.  At least some; we didn't discuss details, but seemingly in the sense of limited knowledge sharing versus co-op development.  He's focusing on making narrower plant-type input tea versions related to his own production, tying to previous mention that the plant types his farm had already been growing were mixed.  He mentioned potential for new areas of wild tea development; it's not limited to where it is already known and in limited use.

Susmit is really at the cutting edge of sourcing unusual types and new source area products (new to some markets; local teas have been around in India), so his business model is already about new directions.  To the extent possible, increased Indian awareness of other tea range and demand will support further developments.  The sheng is already somewhat well received, but per his account demand in places like the US and Singapore leads demand from other places, with that balance related to India not so clearly narrowed down in this discussion, to be clear.

In discussing these things, and pricing issues, and comparing that to my own preferences and buying habits, it makes me consider to what extent specialty tea is a luxury good, and what that means.  I've posted in an online group about specialty tea types recently and met with comment about how the cost is really high in comparison with tea-bag tea.  For the average person, maybe even in the US, this could be a factor.  

A tea bag can sell for significantly less than 5 cents, and moderate quality loose tea might cost 20 cents a gram, with someone often brewing 3-5 grams per session (with 5 grams producing several cups worth of tea).  $1 for two large mugs of high quality tea (or a dozen tiny cups) seems pretty good to me, but it's not as if this is a limit. 50 cents to $1 per gram really represents the higher end cost of higher quality teas, and it keeps going from there.

Where am I going with this?  None of those numbers is quite to the level of a $20 bottle of wine, or even $10, but it's worth keeping an eye on to what extent people may not have access to this form of interest.  It seems possible that perception is as much a concern as the actual cost.  

Susmit mentioned that with higher end coffee appreciation the equipment costs can really add up, specialized grinders or espresso machines, or even the more basic pour over devices.  In some online tea groups there is a natural acceptance that to really have the full experience you need to buy a tea tray, several $100 or more clay pots, a number of cool looking cups, and so on from there, onto using charcoal to heat a cast iron pot.  You really don't need all that (no offense intended, to people on that page), only a way to boil water and a $10 porcelain gaiwan, which I buy for less that that in the local Chinatown.  But a shared group acceptance that you should own it all is potentially enough to set it as an implied requirement to play a normal role in that specific subculture.  You might need some handmade natural fabric clothes too, later on.

I doubt that cost is main concern.  A lot of people might need a more direct motivation to explore a beverage range, and accept the costs, beyond "it tastes better."  It has to be a relevant part of a culture, or at least regarded as a somewhat mainstream option.  Once it enters personal experience scope, once someone sits down and tries better quality tea, that could become less relevant.  Then specific starting points for types become important, and introductory gear issues, brewing approach, and so on.

Assam Teehaus orthodox Assam versions

orthodox Assam (left) and blended orthodox Assam

more sharing tea than samples in this case

I'm reviewing two more of the Assam versions passed on by Maddhurjya Gogoi, related to his cousin Chittaranjan recently visiting here to drop them off, and the earlier review of two others.  There's more on what they are doing, and photos of tea growing and production on his related Facebook page, and a vendor profile in this review post from last year.  The short version is that they're focusing on changing over to organic production methods, and using a local co-op style processing model.

I don't have more to share as an intro; these are presented as orthodox Assam and blended orthodox Assam.  Teas are ordinarily grown and processed by relatively small origin local lots and harvest seasons, and that must be what's going on here, just without those specifics.  They could as easily be presented along with invoice numbers or brand names, as the Enigma version was, but that doesn't change how they come across when brewed anyway.  Maddhurjya is probably selling more of this tea in a small wholesale vendor capacity than as an end-point seller, which would naturally relate to doing less with an online sales outlet site and branding themes.

Review:

blended orthodox right

Orthodox:  pretty good orthodox Assam.  Malt stands out, of course, but as is typical for better orthodox Assam it's moderate in intensity, balanced by other flavor aspect range.  A pronounced dark mineral tone grounds the flavors.  Sweetness, balance, and complexity are fine.  I'll do more with splitting out an aspects list next round.


Blended orthodox:  this is similar, it just has a different flavor aspect to it, some sort of spice or herb range.  It's hard to tell if it's identical to the other wild version I had already tried, which struck me as closest to fennel seed.  It might be that, or it may not be.  This version seems a little drier than the first.  The mineral effect is similar but the feel aspect is different.  Dryness is moderate for both, the way the feel structure extends to include that.

Second infusion:

Orthodox:  it's quite nice; the level of malt, feel structure, clean flavors, and overall balance.  It could be a little sweeter and a little more complex.  The flavor intensity coming across as malt and a warm mineral undertone is pleasant but more range would be more positive. 

At some point these descriptions and interpretations end up splitting hairs, pitting quite good versions of teas against the best versions that I've ever experienced.  This tea would be a revelation for a lot of black tea drinkers, breaking into new ground for striking the overall balance it does.  It's much better than any blend, Assam, or Ceylon that ever finds it's way into a mass produced commercial tin or grocery store shelf.  I'd probably like their Enigma version better, at a guess; I should try those two together sometime.

Blended orthodox:  again a different flavor aspect in this stands out, something else along the line of herb spice, which may be towards green wood, or really could be something closer to the fennel seed notable in the other tea.  It's not strong enough to be easy to identify.  It makes it seem like this might be slightly less oxidized but that flavor shift could come about in other ways (using a different tea plant type input, for example). 

The body seems lighter than the first in this round, as if part of the structure and dryness is common and another part is missing, so softer.  It's odd that I'd interpret that feel difference in two completely different ways across subsequent infusions.  This round I brewed a bit lighter, and that would shift how both come across, but it shouldn't relate to any secondary aspect inversion like that.  That could be tied to review error, or maybe just related to one brewing slightly faster than the other.  Bud content shifts feel quite a bit, along with changing flavor; that may be a difference between these.

Third infusion:

I'll try slightly longer to get a feel for how these come across at an infusion strength that might be more conventional for most people.

Orthodox Assam:  flavor complexity is really nice for this; the description so far hasn't done that justice.  Beyond the malt a citrus-like aspect seems to be picking up.  It's on the sweet and warm side, so may be in between tangerine and red grapefruit.  Warm mineral range still stands out.  Feel has softened just a little, with that moderate dryness easing up, settling into an even better balance.  Now it's more just full.  An aftertaste effect rounds out the experience, a trailing on of the malt and citrus.

Blended orthodox:  wood picks up; that herb spice like aspect seems more solidly within slightly cured hardwood range now.  A reasonable amount of sweetness offsets that, although a bit more sweetness and flavor complexity would really shift how this comes across.  There is a warmer spice aspect that seems to be picking up, not the "greener" or more herb range fennel seed as prior, towards an aromatic wood tone, or related bark spice.  It's not really cinnamon, or towards frankincense / myrrh, somewhere in the middle. 

Fourth infusion:

Orthodox Assam:  not so different than last round; citrus might have bumped up just a touch.  This is much nicer than in the first two rounds, with that touch of dryness shifting to rich fullness, and with sweetness and flavor complexity evolving.  Even a warmer touch of spice tone adds a bit of extra range.  This is on par with the better versions of Assam I've tried, probably with final judgment about it relating as much to personal preference for aspects and style as to quality level.

Blended orthodox:  also not different.  I don't care for the pronounced wood-tone as much as the added sweetness and fruit in the other version, but to some extent that's probably about preference too.  Feel still gives up just a little, with decent fullness and richness, just slightly less so in comparison with the other version.


Of course the teas were far from finished there, four rounds in using Gongfu style brewing, maybe about halfway through a typical cycle.  A couple of rounds later it seemed like I probably should have been adding cocoa to the flavor description list, but that doesn't change the overall account by much. 

Usually transitions vary less in the second half, so only covering the first four infusions gets the general idea across.  A tea brewing a large number of positive infusions is one sign of quality, and these did keep going, but it's a fine point trying to judge count and late steep changes as that kind of indicator. 

Conclusions:

I'm thinking that trying two of the best Chinese black teas I've yet to experience yesterday is coloring this interpretation (a Fujian Lapsang Souchong and Jin Jun Mei).  These teas are good, just not on that level.  There's no shame in that; almost no Chinese black teas are on that level either.  Those expressed incredible complexity and balance, novel fruit and honey flavors, and a really refined nature.  They were the product of generations of selection of plant types, growing and harvesting inputs, and processing skills, and also relatively ideal growing conditions for those plant types.  These two Assam versions probably stand head and shoulders above almost all the Assam tea versions produced a decade ago, helping set a new benchmark, holding their own ground against the progress other better local producers are making.

To some extent that's comparing apples and oranges anyway, since Assam tea styles are just different.  It's also true that I'm most attached to Chinese style teas, even though I can appreciate and enjoy Indian tea versions, black teas from Assam, Darjeeling, and other areas, and what other South East Asian countries produce.  One might wonder to what extent I'm mixing up "objectively better" and personal style preference, and I may not be able to draw that line myself.  These Assam versions would be perfect with food, a great breakfast tea, and are good enough that thorough experimenting with optimizing brewing results would still make sense.

I think it will help trying these alongside other Assam versions, to really place them.  I'm not going to review these samples every weekend for three weeks in a row but at some point it would be interesting doing a direct comparison, or maybe with a Darjeeling sample I have yet to get to. 

I'll try to get back to that, but there are some other really interesting teas around to try as well.  I picked up a really novel Thai version of a sheng ("pu'er-like tea") about a month ago, and I've had some aged sheng and shu to get to, and a Yunnan Dian Hong Chinese black tea version.  That might be interesting to use for comparison too.

I was talking in the last post about how people seem to fear tea supply running out too much, keeping sources a secret so that what they like is there to buy when they get back to it.  One part of that was the idea that other tea growing regions are developing better and better processing methods and tea quality output.  These teas represent part of what I was talking about.  These versions are really pleasant now, and given where they stand in relation to the last I tried from Maddhurjya--which were already quite nice--they'll probably just keep getting better.  Anyone who hasn't tried Assam in awhile probably isn't familiar with what the better orthodox version range is like now.

Assam Teehaus Orthodox Enigma and Wild Origin Assam

I'll add more photos in the next samples post; this doesn't show much

I'm trying two interesting looking Assam versions from Maddhurjya Gogoi of Assam Teehaus, dropped off by his cousin Chittaranjan, who recently visited Bangkok.  I've reviewed teas of his earlier, and have reviewed a tea and told some of his story. 

I passed on a little of this to the Jip Eu owner, Kittichai, to try when Chittaranjan and I visited recently.  It never works out like that, trying a tea sample before I actually review it.  It was malty, definitely Assam, but light and soft in character, along with being sweet and complex in flavor.  It was really good. 


It definitely seemed to match a typical Assam flavor profile, but at the same time backed off the astringency as better orthodox versions tend to do.  From there quality relates to getting the growing conditions and processing issues right, bringing out intense, complex, positive flavor, the feel working out, etc.  It checked all the boxes fairly well.  Since I'm trying the same tea again for review I can go through more detail about that.

This was a remote tasting, held at my kids' swimming class area beside that pool; that's different.  I didn't even start an early Sunday morning tasting session due to using the time to cook French toast and bacon instead, and eating some of it (without tea; odd being in a rush and passing on that particular morning routine step).  Priorities come up, and it was my daughter's birthday yesterday, so she deserves just a little more focus than usual this weekend, and tea gets bumped if the two sets of demands conflict.

later that morning

Review:

on-location reviewing; photos aren't what they normally would be

Enigma left; it looked redder, less dark

Enigma (first infusion):  it's nice.  Malt stands out as the main flavor aspect; that's normal.  Malt really spans a range of different flavors, as I understand and use the concept, crowded into a dry-mineral sort of version (the one in Assam, this one), and the malt in malted milk balls or Ovaltine, a little closer to fermented grain animal feed, which smells a lot better than it sounds.  This malt aspect isn't dry, rough, limited in scope, towards how rocks come across (maybe just a little like a reddish colored sandstone, I guess that would be), but it is the mineral intensive malt, just a soft, complex version of it.

I like brewing teas Gongfu style to adjust how far I push them for timing and infusion strength round to round, and to see how the flavors transition, and then later rounds I tend to skip making notes for.  I brought a Western device this time so I'll only be doing two infusions here.  That limit relates to how much water I brought too; I can't imagine the hot water they supply at this pool doesn't taste a lot like drinking water out of the pool.  I just did a water tasting experiment yesterday, but I really don't want to drift too far into that, so I'll leave off saying more until I finish that post editing.

The flavor has good complexity, but it's hard to extend that to a list.  Construction noise nearby is a part of that; funny how a high level of background noise limits what you pick up.  Of course I'd forgotten about that from last weekend.  Malt extends into cocoa, which isn't so far from that flavor.  Really those two flavors, with malt first, are most of what I'm picking up.  Beyond that might relate to a warm, aromatic wood tone, hinting a little towards cedar or redwood, just not strong enough to stand out as that.

Kittichai mentioned that he thought this wasn't fully oxidized, as black teas go, that they'd backed off that range a little to give it a different character.  Maybe.  It looks pretty oxidized as wet leaves.  Some bud content always ramps up dryness, and shifts flavor profile a bit towards even more mineral, and this contains that.  That kind of thing occurs in Yunnan black teas too, not limited to a change based only in Assam.  Oddly buds-only black teas can tend to be really smooth and subtle instead; I'm not sure how that maps out, since those two ideas seem to imply a bit of contradiction.


Single Origin Wild Seed Varietal (first infusion):  much, much different; this just turned into a contrasting types review.  A lot of the base flavor is common but there's a front end aspect that hits you hard, something quite novel, which I interpret as being pretty close to fennel seed.  Malt isn't pronounced at all; strange.  Beyond that other warm, rich tones do fill in complexity, and this might be slightly sweeter.  Cocoa doesn't stand out either, so there is mostly only overlap in the base flavors range, the aromatic wood tones.  Probably a mild, subdued version of malt and cocoa are mixing in with that, since it comes across as complex, but very limited malt as most Assam goes, next to none.

The effect of that spice is unusual.  It works well; it's clean and well-integrated, just really novel.  It shows up a lot stronger in the initial flavor, so that it tends to shock you a little in the first half a second, then the rest of the flavors come on strong and it fades back to being a mild supporting element, almost hard to pick up.  I don't remember a flavor working like that before, so strong as a front end, then dropping way off in part of a second.  I'm not even in the habit of talking about that kind of range of experience, temporal flavor effect order, beyond aftertaste splitting out as a different thing than the taste while teas haven't been swallowed yet.

Overall balance is important for teas like this, especially when drank this way, as a good-sized mug worth.  Both these seem to work.  They are brewed a little on the light side, intentionally so, since that makes identifying flavors a lot easier (to me).  The proportion is probably slightly high per conventional Western brewing but timing was only around 2 minutes.  Made like this these teas would prepare three good, strong infusions, and probably stretch to a fourth, if one preferred.

Ordinarily I'd guess the amount of tea and the brewed liquid, since I can estimate that, but it seems to work well to leave it as a vague kind of thing, since experimenting to get to what you like best either involves making teas over and over by look and feel or else carefully weighing and measuring amounts.  I do the first; I must have prepared 1000 cups of black tea this way before.  It would be a shorter process following the second approach instead, being more precise; the learning curve would narrow faster.  Since different teas work out differently, even if they look the same, you can't arrive at an optimum based on past experience and expectations.  The look and source patterns only tell so much of a tea's story, and soaking the dried leaves in hot water tells the rest.

Ok, I will guess the amounts; this was probably about 4 or 5 grams of dry tea used to make about 8 ounces or 240 ml of brewed tea (so a lot).  At a normal infusion time that would've been way too strong.  Put one way I tend to prepare black teas as a hybrid version of Western style, adjusting that a little.  Water temperature factors in too.  Since I brought water here by thermos it lost some temperature, even the second it hit the thermos, even though I pre-warmed them.  The edge to this version would be stronger at full boil, and it would've brewed a little faster, making this infusion stronger. 

Some people would say that only using full boiling point water would bring out these teas' potential, and some would think a good bit off boiling point would be optimum, down around 90 C, not far off how these were prepared.  The right answer probably depends on preference.  I'm sympathetic to both preferences; drawing out more flavor and intensity at higher temperature is nice, even for adding a little more astringency edge, but a softer, sweeter, milder version also works.  Since these are relatively mild feel-character Assam versions I think hotter might be better, per my preference.  Both are a little rounded-off in character as I'm experiencing them.  1000 cups of tea in you can sort of see how those factors come into play, and I don't think I've really optimized these.

Enigma left; redder, less dark leaves as well

Brewing tea Gongfu style is much different, giving different results, but one main advantage is the ability to "see" the tea from different angles, using a slightly different approach round to round.  Brewing temperature can drop a little if you use a slow process, because the leaves will keep cooling between rounds, but running through two infusions in a row fairly quickly can even that factor back out.

Another aside (this has turned into a really conversational post):  they're making Loi Krathong krathongs at the table next to me, the small flower "boat" type things used to float for the holiday coming up soon, tomorrow.  Supposedly those carry away your sins, not so different than how Easter works out, as I understand it, except that Jesus is on top of that on a more ongoing basis.

Second infusion:

I'll go a little longer on this round, maybe slightly over 3 minutes, to draw out a stronger infusion.  Really using less tea and a full 5 minute brewing time is the standard approach, the ISO process version.

This will be it because I only brought this much water.  If I do a third round it will be using the water here, which really should be awful.  If it's well-filtered tap water it could be exactly the same, but even then warmers can build up scale in them, and that adds a lot of mineral flavor to water while heating it.

Scratch all that; I ran out of water halfway through the last infusion, and had to blend in some from the pool-staff heated water source.  This is a bit heavy on mineral; I can smell it in the water as it pours.  It's tempting to draw on experiences from that water tasting yesterday to talk about that but again it's too much.  The short version:  the right level (and type / proportion) of minerals works much better than too much or too little.

Orthodox Enigma:  I'm tasting that water input in this, but I think mineral might've been likely to ramp up for brewing it stronger anyway.  That just happened in the other, and I used the water from home in that one, and a mixed version of both water sources in this.  Warmer tones ramp up too; that is the brewing difference, along with infusion round transition.  It's a pleasant effect.  It does taste like rocks, not so much that red sandstone but onto dryer, warmer, even heavier range, volcanic rock types instead. 

The balance is the thing; all the aspects work well together.  Malt has dropped back, cocoa is still present but milder, earthier tones in the range of that warm mineral contribute more, and aromatic wood tones towards cedar or redwood contribute.  It's quite pleasant.  It's all very clean in effect, with no trace of anything off or muddled.  That doesn't happen by accident; people making tea have to get the steps right.


Wild Origin Assam:  brewed a little better; slightly stronger suits this. That hit of fennel seed (or whatever spice) is still unusual, the main thing that stands out, even though it drops out part-way through tasting it still in your mouth.  It's pleasant though.  A strong, warm mineral base stands out in this (not from that water input; I ran out brewing the second infusion, and made this one first).  It even has a slightly savory taste to it, definitely not in the range of umami / seaweed as in Japanese teas, but instead essentially not different than salt.

Conclusions:

Two very good teas.  The first, the Enigma, is a little closer to a standard Assam version in style, but a well above average version, even for decent orthodox range.  It's not that far off the Latumoni versions I reviewed not so long ago; I'd have to try both together to place differences better.  When you compare teas side by side very fine levels of differences stand out, and those could occur, different degree of complexity, slightly thicker feel to one, or other variations in body, etc.  For trying the teas a few weeks apart they're pretty close.

These are about as good as the highest level of Assam gets.  The other versions that I tried from Oiirabot seemed closer to Chinese black teas in style, really in between for some reason.  That related to flavor profile and feel more than quality level, since versions from all three producers were really solid.

This Wild Origin version is something else, a completely different experience.  It probably relates mostly to being an unusual plant type, but growing conditions would factor in as well.  People often claim that growing together with other plants changes the flavor of a produced tea, which could account for the atypical flavor range, especially that one fennel-seed spice aspect.  They'll even say a plant will pick up flavor of what grows near it, so a spice growing nearby would make a tea taste like that spice, or corn, or whatever it is.  Or that could be a plant-type / cultivar input.  "Cultivar" tends to be used to mean an intentionally replicated plant type, whether bred by mixing other strains or not, but the end effect isn't so different than that of tea plant types varying naturally, those are just not controlled.

I'll do a more careful, controlled review of some of the other versions Maddhurjya passed on (and Chittaranjan, his cousin, who just visited Thailand and actually brought the tea here).  These results are valid but tasting the teas under more carefully controlled circumstances would've turned up a few more aspect notes.  It would sound like the flavor was more complex, reading a longer flavor-list version, but really the teas were complex and exceptional as they were.  I was just tasting them under less than optimum conditions, out in public, brewed Western style, with a bit more background noise than is typical, introducing mixed water sources as a variable.

I did brew a third round of this tea there, and it was fine, the water wasn't as bad as I expected.  And a fourth at home, with the tea not diminishing that much in range or pleasantness for being stretched a little at that point.  Brewing a lot of positive infusions is a good sign for teas, one marker of quality level, although just one of many.  The tea tasting and feeling like it did was the main thing, balancing really well across all the aspects.

the finished krathongs