Golden flower Fu-style fermented white tea

This tasting experience was unique because I didn't even know the tea type when trying the tea.  I'd initially guessed that it must be a hei cha variation, but then it wasn't clear if that was right when trying it.  

This is from Oriental Leaf, a vendor source based in China that I've tried teas from before.  It was sent for review; many thanks to them!  Their other teas have been pretty solid, some a very good value, so it will be interesting to see how this works out.

It turns out it's white tea, a Fuding Shou Mei made with a secondary processing step, with a reference to golden flowers (the hei cha-specific type of fungus, that is usually intentionally inoculated).

Oriental Leaf's product description adds some detail:

Golden Flower White Tea Single Serve Packs (ten 3 gram individual squares, for $15.50, so around 50 cents a gram)

This exceptional tea redefines the Fu brick category by using premium Fuding Shoumei white tea from Fujian province as its base, creating a truly unique sensory experience.

Key Features:

Innovative Base: Crafted with high-quality Fuding Shoumei white tea, known for its delicate flavor and numerous health benefits.

Extended Aging Process: Meticulously aged for 1095 days (3 years), using 2018 Fuding Shoumei, packaged in 2024 for optimal flavor development.

Dual Fermentation: Undergoes both golden flower fermentation and traditional Fu tea fermentation, resulting in a complex flavor profile.

There's more description, that's just the main points.  It's interesting that this is both an aged tea, now 7 years old, with an atypical secondary processing used.  One main thing is always how it comes across, here reviewed without knowing any of that background.

this looks like pressed black tea, to me, Dian Hong

Review:

1:  malty!  This is nice.  It's probably some kind of hei cha, I'm just trying it completely blind, so I don't know the details.  Versions that get sold as Fu brick are often similar.  It's been awhile, but I think Fu brick might translate to "brick brick."  

This has so much flavor that there's lots more that I could add.  It's creamy as well, and very clean in effect, with good sweetness.  On the flavor list side warm malt notes are present on a base that's not so far off cocoa (or cacao; cocoa is the hot chocolate drink made from cacao).  Other warm tones are towards woody, but not quite wood, more like the warm base scent from well-dried wicker or palm leaves.  There's just a touch of a sour edge, but it wouldn't be natural to interpret this as sour, in terms of primary aspects.  It's quite pleasant.

I'm pretty sure that I'm brewing two 3 gram small square tablets, so 6 grams.  It's a good match for my typical Gong Fu brewing approach.  I'm in a hotel room, a Hop Inn, so the lighting is a bit directional from the window, not exactly ideal.  On the third round I'll try moving it right under the window, instead of beside it, since I've just taken a picture for round 2.  I brewed this a little longer than it really needed, in order to get the two tablets to open up.

that hotel, with an unusual light streaking effect

#2:  much lighter, because I used a long minute-plus steep for round one to get it started.  It's pleasant like this but a typical 10 to 15 second infusion time seemingly isn't ideal for this, since there are no negative aspects or high intensity to "brew around."  20 or 25 seconds is probably better, and it would be fine to drink brewed 45 seconds, quite strong.  Shou / shu pu'er is like that, that stronger is kind of better, but this flavor range is quite different.

Malt still stands out.  Not the harsh edged, mineral intensive malt in Assam, I mean like a malted milk ball, or chocolate malt milkshake.  There's some mineral base to this, but that warm sort of in between woody and spice range note is secondary to the malt, and limited cacao.  It's not completely different than the flavor of cooked bamboo, to switch it back to food flavor range, just one that lots of people may not encounter so often.  It's a normal food item here, in Thailand.  This is actually pretty close to that.

#3:  malt and cacao drop back a little and the bamboo / wicker / dried palm effect picks up.  This is still nice.  A slight sour edge some might find objectionable, but I don't.  This reminds me a little of how some Dian Hong comes across.  This could even be that; it's closer to it in style than to just about any hei cha / Fu brick I've tried.  It's too sweet, complex, and clean to resemble the other range.  My guess is that it's an atypical hei cha, unusual for being a bit better, and closer to how ordinary oxidation changes tea.  

That Dian Hong range can come across as slightly sour too, but it's easy to miss that interpretation, because it's so minor in intensity, and it integrates with the rest of the flavors, which are what you'd expect more.  If I tried this thinking it was black tea I'd probably be mentioning dried fruit; funny how that works out.  It's not exactly like dried tamarind, but along that line.

#4:  this is probably going to "brew out" relatively quickly since I extracted so much of it in a long first round, as much as two early rounds might have using shorter timing.  To me this tea would work well for brewing a smaller number of good and strong rounds, setting aside an expectation to drink 8 to 10 rounds, which applies to other types, and just get 4 or 5 good and strong versions out of it.

The flavors more connected to astringency (which is limited in this) extract more now, in part from using a 45 second or so round instead of around 15.  It's a little towards rust.  I mean that in a positive way; framed more positively it tastes a bit like some forms of bark spice, just forms that people wouldn't tend to be familiar with, not cinnamon.   Or maybe it overlaps some with cinnamon, but lots of the range is beyond that.  The feel changes, and the part like sourness picks up (or it is just sourness, but a moderate and well-integrated expression of it).

#5:  even for stretching this a bit, using those towards a minute brewing times, this is still pleasant.  It's thinning a little already, the character range.  Feel is still nice, and some sweetness still stands out.  It's pleasant.  For a sheng drinker maybe the limited intensity could be an issue, but there's a lot going on, and complexity is good.  A Dian Hong drinker, someone preferring that black tea type, might relate to this especially well.  It would be funny if it is just that.  Malt is heavier than is typical for that type range, but then that's not exactly a typical Fu brick / hei cha marker, that I'm familiar with.  Flavor falls in that general range, for sure, but I'm not sure if it's often exactly that. 

I'll leave off notes here and probably stretch an extra round or two out of this.  It should keep thinning, and that one edge should stand out more.

Conclusions:

Really nice, interesting and pleasant.  Apparently it's a sort of one-off for tea style, a hybrid form, so there was no way I was going to place it trying it blind.

I'm a bit skeptical of vendor site reviews, since those could be made up, or at the least they could filter everything negative off there (some vendors do), but I suppose those people's takes might fill in how others experience it.  They liked it.  The first one is an example of that, and maybe the most detailed input:

The dual fermentation process creates a complex flavor profile that is truly unique.

Was it though?  I guess; the review description had trouble placing it.  And it was very pleasant.  It's a little pricey in relation to standard Fu brick hei cha, but I suppose evaluating it within the range of Shou Mei might make more sense, or really it's not exactly that, given the extra processing input.  It's something novel.  There is no type-typical pricing point for a tea that doesn't exist elsewhere.  

I guess most people would know if they favor repeating experiences with their favorite type and style range of tea, or if they want to explore further in that same direction, if they're still exploring basic ranges, or if very novel experiences are appealing.  This didn't remind me of only white tea or Fu hei cha experience, and sort of combined in some typical black tea aspect range, so it was very unique.

That covers that part; I'll share some more of that limited travel experience, going out to Chonburi, a smaller community an hour's drive outside of Bangkok.

sticky rice as something like a rice pudding, at a local market

dried squid and mortar and pestles; lots of options

looking for stone goods at a local outlet

you don't normally wai to Ronald McDonald; she was a good sport about the photo op

four people ate all of this, a lot of food

back in Bangkok, on Ban That Tong road

the picture version that she told me to delete

2015 aged Peony white tea mini cake

I'm reviewing one of the last samples from a set by Oriental Leaf, sent for review (many thanks).  This is described as Peony, also known as Bai Mu Dan.  Often Fujian (Fuding area) pressed white teas are Shou Mei instead, made mainly from older leaves, with Bai Mu Dan a mix of buds and finer leaves.  Typical processed style seems similar, between the two, but overall effect, the aspects, can vary a good bit in relation to the different material type used.

I'll keep this simple, citing their description after making notes, and writing what I think of it in those.  9 years old is a suitable amount of aging input; often 7 years is cited as a somewhat full transition level time period.  It would depend on storage conditions, and the tea would keep changing later, but 7 years is long enough for a lot of the basic changes to occur, picking up depth, warming in tone, etc.

2015 Aged Second-grade White Peony White Tea Mini Cake  ($6 for two 5-gram samples)

White peony tea  (Bai Mu Dan), a type of white tea characterized by its large, open leaves, is typically picked in the spring when the young leaves and tea buds are most tender. Peony tea has a light, delicate flavor often described as floral or fruity and is lower than silver needle.

This tea is made with second-grade tea leaves, which are slightly lower quality than first-grade tea leaves, but at a more reasonable price. The tea has a more complex flavor and a more prolonged aftertaste.

The tea has been aged since 2015, further developing its flavor. The tea has a rich, mellow taste with notes of honey, flowers, and nuts. The aftertaste is long-lasting and refreshing.

This tea is perfect for experienced tea drinkers who appreciate the complexity and depth of flavor that comes with aging. It is also a good choice for those who enjoy the mellow taste of white tea. The caffeine content in white tea is relatively low. Different types of white tea may require different water temperatures for brewing. White peony tea can be like loose-leaf tea or compressed sheets. The quality of white tea depends on factors such as the source of the tea plants and the processing methods. 

So far so good.  I think that's more a myth than actual reality that white teas are lower in caffeine level, but it's not that much of a red flag that the vendor shares that.  Some people still think that.

The description works, matching the tea experience.  The cost seems ok, $6 for 10 grams, or 60 cents a gram, even though that's on the high side in relation to buying in higher volume.  You can brew two rounds for those two tablets worth of tea, at $3 each, and it wouldn't change that much if it cost $2 instead.  It's on the high side for Shou Mei, but it's not Shou Mei.  Samples tend to cost a bit more per gram; it's just how that often goes.  They do sell these same samples for less when you buy more of them, so you can scale up purchase amount and reduce cost, if that's of interest.  It's as well to just try teas first though, to see what you make of them, before committing to buying much.  

Different vendors bundling more mainstream, common types and grades into sets that are quite moderate in cost doesn't contradict all that.  Here we would probably be looking for uniqueness, for an aging input making this tea more interesting than a standard white tea offering, and I'll return to whether or not that shows through in the conclusions.

Review:

#1:  I gave this a nice long soak to get infusion started, about a minute.  It will still probably be a bit light, since tablet or disc shapes take time to open up.

Yep, it's light.  Flavor that does show through is positive, quite promising (a hint of floral tone, and a hint of cinnamon spice).  Often this range of white tea forms can be too subtle, so that I tend to never buy pressed Shou Mei versions.  Maybe for this being Bai Mu Dan it will include more sweetness and floral range; we'll see.  

The tone for those should have warmed over 9 years, but if this was stored completely sealed in that multi-layer material sample package it might have been relatively preserved, unchanged no matter how long it spent in there.  I think the transition process is different for white teas than sheng, not involving the same degree of bacteria and fungus input, actual fermentation, but I'm not sure if it can change with essentially no external air contact input.

I'll give it another minute, to make sure this gets going.

#2:  thickness, sweetness, and intensity all pick up, but it's still not there yet.  One more long soak may only get the tea fully wetted, so the fourth infusion may tell more of the story.

One interesting type of background enters in that people can sell aged white tea that's not really aged.  How?  It's easy enough for producers to let white teas oxidize more during processing, to give them a long wither (let them sit), then the color will change, and flavors will deepen, in a vaguely comparable way to what 7 to 9 years of aging would cause.  Could I identify the difference?  Maybe, maybe not.  It would help if I'd been drinking a good bit of aged white teas over the last half dozen years, instead of very little of it.  I can still describe character, and if it's quite positive, even though "artificially" achieved, then it's still quite positive.  

"Real" aged white tea can still lack intensity and complexity, it seems to me.  I suppose that more dried fruit range should evolve, versus a partially oxidized white tea version just increasing warm tones a little.  Real aged versions should probably be a little sweeter, but when teas are subtle to begin with making that determination can be problematic.

People say that you should "use trusted sources," but then they never seem to move on to what kind of vendor profile or backstory is likely to indicate that they are trustworthy.  A vendor can be very convincing and still ingenuine, or provide very limited background information and story and still be telling the truth.  You need to be able to judge the tea itself, and that requires a lot of experience.

#3:  in a sense this is really nice, but in another sense intensity is so low that there isn't much to experience.  That's normal for a lot of white tea.  If I were to say that it tastes like warm floral tones, cinnamon spice, and rich autumn leaf scent, with a mild toffee-like sweetness, that wouldn't be wrong, but it's all just so light.  Some vendors would add another 3 or 4 flavor aspect descriptions, varying them over rounds, all but guaranteeing to you that flavor complexity and intensity are positive.  Then the tea might still be subtle like this, expressing a hint of this or that.

Bear in mind that I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, and oolongs tend to come across as limited in intensity to me; my expectations are dialed up a bit.  Acclimation can lead to that.

I'll let this brew just over a minute again, and it might show more intensity, since it's finally in the range of being fully wetted.  Four minutes of total brewing time is a good bit, but while half of the tea isn't soaked through yet that part hasn't been releasing much flavor.

#4:  the cinnamon evolves a bit more than the rest.  This is pleasant, just still on the subtle side.  You could have a comparable but more intense experience buying decent Oriental Beauty (relatively more oxidized Taiwanese oolong, that comes across as fruity, with some spice).

Since preference is always a main yardstick I can't necessarily clearly identify limited intensity as a flaw, but to me it's like that, a limitation.  Of course it's possible to push the tea, to use full boiling point water, higher proportion, and a longer infusion time, and intensity will pick up.  I'm brewing something like 5 or 6 grams in 100 ml gaiwan, it looks like, so using a minute for infusion time isn't as much when you consider this is using less material than I typically do (more often 8 to 10 grams, with proportion maxed out, even using much more intense types of teas).

I'll give this a two minute soak and then leave off the notes.  It's fine; it's ok.  People on this page for tea character would enjoy it.  People getting rocked by sheng pu'er intensity most days would probably see it as a miss, more often.  Even a black tea or oolong drinker could see the limited intensity as a problem, but that would just depend.  It's normal for white teas though; this is in a normal range.  I would have a standard Shou Mei version from 7 or so years ago stashed somewhere; I could keep going with comparison.  There wouldn't be much point though; there would always be the question of just how good that version really was, if it expressed the best of the range or if it was below average.

#5:  Since I hadn't ripped the pressed sheets apart even after infusing for nearly 6 minutes now the innermost layers aren't completely soaked through yet.  Getting the most out of this version probably relates to messing with it, to doing that.  I did just break it all apart and re-added the water, giving it two infusions with the same liquid, but brewing temperature must have dropped way off, since this has been soaking for well over two minutes.

It's slightly more intense, richer in feel, with deeper, warmer flavors showing through.  It's nice.

Just how nice, though?  Does it seem definitely "real," tea that actually has been around for 9 years?  Is the flavor distinctive, complex, and compelling?  To me it's just pleasant, none of all that.  But then I don't love aged white tea that much.  It always promises to deliver on deep, rich, complex, varied, sweet tones, and then when you try it it's fine, and those things are there, if you look for them, but intensity is limited, and complexity occurs across a relatively narrow range.  It always seems like maybe there's a different, better example out there, that you just aren't sourcing right to find it yet.

I can go a little further with that.  In 2017 I did a combined white tea tasting that didn't necessarily make sense, this one:

Comparing compressed white teas, shou mei, gong mei, and one freestyle

Those teas ranged from 2008 to 2015, so the oldest then was supposedly 9 years old, as with this one.  One is Gong Mei, the style of white tea that contains even more bud content than Bai Mu Dan, if I've got that right.  Probably it's not quite that simple, and there is more to typical background themes and typical style, but it works to say that both are represented as not being made from mostly older leaf material.

I've drank most of all those teas since, just not all of them.  I think a chunk of the Gong Mei is at the bottom of a storage box somewhere.  I use aged white tea to drink while fasting, to get a break from shu pu'er, since those two types work best on an absolutely empty stomach.  I'm not sure any changed all that much in relation to aging another 7 years since, which would make the one 16 years old now, but I think it's already gone.

That older version had been kind of so-so in quality level, so the aging status is less meaningful.  Maybe they were "faking" aged shou mei versions even back then, 7 years ago, and it was just more oxidized white tea, not a version that old.  Who knows.

I didn't frame that as a selling point but aged white tea can be great to drink when you are sick.  It has a depth to it, and sweetness, and it's quite mild and approachable, and all that fits perfectly well when you are too sick to appreciate stronger versions of teas.  I would've been happy to drink this when I had the flu last week.  

Or day to day preference varies; maybe just for a change sometime.  I wouldn't be open to spending much on having this kind of experience; white teas like this tend to not cost all that much, and to me there isn't enough distinctive about the experience to justify that.  Then again if someone had never tried decent aged white tea and wanted to that would increase the draw quite a bit, and this probably wouldn't turn up for 20 or 30 cents a gram either.  It'll be interesting to see a listed price.

Conclusions:

So it's 60 cents a gram; a bit more, probably related to this being a sample, and tied to the distinctive aged version and Bai Mu Dan parts.  It's fine as an experience, and fine for trying this kind of tea, but I think someone would come away from it questioning if they had the best range of this kind of experience.  

What about the "second grade" part; couldn't it be better as the highest grade?  Would the aging input be clearer to identify and stronger if it hadn't been quite as completely sealed from all air contact?  White tea doesn't necessarily ferment, like sheng pu'er, but limited air exposure might help it transition, being stored in a cake in a wrapper that's not well-sealed.

As with trying lots of other samples lately I think this is fine for an entry into this kind of experience, but for people already further along the path this would be similar to what they've already explored, and they'd probably be interested in seeking out even more exceptional ground.  Or at least an inexpensive aged Shou Mei from a Chinatown market shop, sitting all but forgotten in a basement section, would be so inexpensive that it would be worth buying 357 or so grams to have an easy to drink white tea around.  

If this had "popped" just a little more, extending into dried fruit range, for example, then it might justify being a next level experience better.  As it is it's fine, pleasant for this kind of thing, just a bit unremarkable.