Taking up yoga; sucking at it

It will be nice writing about something other than tea or the end of the world.  I think there are general lessons to be found in my latest health venture, taking up yoga, which relate most to someone at my age maintaining health or starting something new (I'm 51).

My wife had asked me to join her in getting into yoga before, and I had always declined.  She asked a couple of weeks ago if I would go to a class that day (here), and I said no, before I realized that it was February 14th, Valentine's day.  If that's what she really wanted instead of some dinner outing what could I do; I went.  Oddly I had practiced yoga a little when I was younger, used for stretching and getting focused before snowboarding.  Not in a class, just doing positions from a book.

my hair is on the way out too

It felt strange, being in that studio environment, with mostly women, all wearing the typical sort of uniform, stretchy tights and a functional athletic-tech material top.  So far so good though.

The instructor, an Indian guy I had met once before (who is really nice--that helps a lot), came in and mentioned that it was an advanced class--not ideal.  I was there already, ready to pose and stretch; it was a bit late to kill the planning.

It didn't go well.  Half of the positions I could do no problem, even for them being called out relatively quickly.  Most of the other half I wasn't even close to being able to do.  If it was just similar to not being able to touch my toes--one form of limitation that came up--that would be fine, but in lots of cases the basic starting point was beyond me, or I would just get lost in the pace of following along.  An example of the first:  one pose involved grabbing your big toe and pulling your leg up to something like a standing split.  Not happening.

those two in the bottom right are my kids

I thought that would be it for my yoga practice, but over the next couple of days I noticed that I was really sore in some odd places.  Not only did that session highlight unconventional limits to my flexibility, it also turned up that yoga would "work out" supporting muscles that weren't accustomed to being used at all.  Both were probably exactly what I needed, to turn back the process of my posture resembling a question mark due to sitting at a desk for a work-week (I work in IT), and to regain a higher level use of controlling muscle function.  I signed up for more classes, and went back the next week.

I just saw this, captioned "When you become a living golden ratio"

Maybe I never mentioned here that I took up running a bit over a year ago.  I'm not exactly fit, but I can run about 5 miles / 7.5 kilometers in around 40 minutes.  That's not helping my flexibility though.  And the learning curve process seemed a lot more comfortable, if a bit physically unpleasant.

The next week I attended an intermediate class instead, this time relating to "deep stretching."  Again I could do justice to half of what came up, and again severe limits came up.  It's hard to place what it's like experiencing a failing effort in a class setting like that.  My "classmates" were almost all tiny Asian women, who were much more flexible than an average person.  It almost seemed like cheating, them being so thin.  The idea is not to score yourself based on what the people around you are capable of, to focus on your own progress and experience, but it's still a bit frustrating.  It has to cross your mind:  what am I doing here?

tree pose, I think

I'm reminded of the idea that we don't chose sports based on a match to our likes, but rather to our aptitudes (which would naturally match up).  Tall and lanky people might tend to like running; short and heavy built people lifting weights.  Snowboarding was the sport that clicked best for me, and my body size, mechanics aptitude, and mental approach seemed to click for that.  I'm not a naturally gifted runner; I ran track and cross-country in high school and I was never going to do well in running sports, even with better than average training.  It would help to be thin framed and lean to do yoga but in general physical aptitudes would seem to matter less.

Exercising after 50 is nothing like starting those pursuits back at age 35 or so.  I noticed in taking up running that recovery time was really slow, and being prone to injury came up.  I was only ever injured once in nearly a decade of fairly intense snowboarding, in a crash, which my shoulder took a few years to self-repair.  I never had a calf strain, anything like shin splints, sore quadriceps or hamstrings (beyond normal conditioning issues).  I never took 2 or 3 days off any activity to heal in order to do it again.

Living in Hawaii in grad school I took up biking for transportation and never really even thought of that as conditioning, even though I spent an hour a day in transit on a bike.  Contrasting that with now, the last time I was injured was from crawling around a play area with my kids, hyper-extending my knee and experiencing what a doctor informed is called a "Baker's cyst," a minor joint fluid leak.  It's not as bad as it sounds.

I can kind of fit in those crawl spaces but it's a different experience than for my kids

The "lessons" parts here seem obvious enough; things get harder as we get older, and starting something new can involve a learning curve and acceptance of being terrible at an activity in a public setting.  Somehow people walking then running slowly, putting that lack of conditioning out there, doesn't seem quite as pronounced as a limitation.  I'd probably fare better in an actual "beginner level" yoga class, but in the center I've been attending that particular class instructor is Thai, so I'd be "training" via instruction in a language I'm not fluent in (to say the least).

My wife has some weight issues, and knee problems that make my own really seem like nothing, and she's regained a lot of body function, starting out in a more appropriate lower level and building up, as one would.  It's nice that she gets to assume the role of the better athlete between the two of us, for now.

I intend all of this as a warning to those who read it who are around my age, and getting out of shape (or better yet only around 40 instead).  Your body is going to degrade a bit, but there is time to counter that.  Just walking can help a lot, if it's down to doing that or doing nothing.  When I took up walking quite a bit more about 2 years ago I never expected it to lead to running, and then yoga, it was just a measure to see if I could resolve knee joint stiffness.  It worked, although that same knee isn't exactly 100% right now, slightly tweaked in two different ways.  I checked if it can support running nearly 4 km / 2 1/2 miles doing a short loop this morning; it can.

Related to the running, and one rare clear measure of progress, my resting heart rate dropped from the 70s to the 60s in the past year; maybe I'll live longer.  My cholesterol level, another main reason I took up the running, never did drop, still at the upper borderline.

One might wonder, how does any of this relate to tea?  I think it doesn't.  Maybe I'm holding up better for drinking lots of tea or maybe I'm not, but I kind of doubt it.  It's definitely not granting me joint flexibility, and drinking really significant quantities of sheng for two years also hasn't resolved that cholesterol level issue.  Maybe it's not "green" enough?

I still have faith that drinking tea is probably quite healthy, but one has to be practical about these sorts of issues, and take a broader approach than relying on just a beverage choice input.  Being in relatively poor health is definitely an option, but what that means in terms of limitations tends to change at different ages.

About the yoga theme conclusions, maybe I'll check back in after a few months and write from a different perspective than that of an absolute beginner.  It would make for a nicer story to talk about how it was all really working out.

Is specialty tea having a moment?

First published in TChing in two parts, here and here.


This theme comes up so often that I had to check if I've written about it here.  Nope; I wrote a blog post about tea popularity and tea cults some months back, and only drifted into it a little there.

This article from that time frame claims that "Artisanal Tea in America Is Having a Moment," which I think has been addressed here at TChing by different authors across varying scope.  This more recent article claims that "There is No Craft Tea Movement in America (Yet)."  So which is it?

It's possible that both could be right, seen from two different points of view.  My input in that blog post was that it's not the case (no "moment"), but from within a narrow interest group, related to increasing exposure among a small set of people, awareness and demand is ramping up.  Probably some vendors are experiencing good sales growth, and new sources certainly keep entering the market.  I write about new developments and options all the time in my blog, and people read that (Tea in the Ancient World).

compressed black tea from Laos; new forms keep turning up

There won't be space here to break apart both sets of claims, to fully place all that.  It would work to only consider the "why not" side, from the second article cited:


...Walk into your local grocery store, and you can choose among Fair Trade Certified, single-origin beans from Ethiopia, Costa Rica or Peru. Now in its third or fourth wave, depending on whom you ask, craft coffee culture is everywhere.

Whither craft tea? While many Americans do indeed brew and drink tea, it has yet to experience a 21st century “craft” revolution, the kind that launches national chains and inspires financial analysts to rant about millennials’ spending habits...


So there's the difference; at the local specialty grocery store level tea is very likely to be under-represented, while coffee isn't.  That's probably accurate.  To cite a related example, the main national tea outlet chain, Teavana, owned by Starbucks, was closed about two years ago.  More recently Unilever has been reported as considering getting out of the tea industry (owner of Lipton, PG Tips, Tazo, and the T2 chain), although they did just officially deny other related reporting two months ago, so who knows.

Where I live, in Bangkok, the limitations in demand and awareness stands out more than development of that range does, but there are a few specialty cafes that serve as exceptions.

bubble tea and elaborate pour-over flavored tea versions are more popular in Bangkok

That article cites awareness as the main issue, along with prepared tea not being as well-suited for fast production and distribution, or as high in caffeine level.  The awareness part seems right; even among tea interest groups on Facebook some people explore broadly and deeply related to tea types and culture (as in the Gong Fu Cha group), and others emphasize focus on flavored blends or tea-bag version consumption (as in the Tea Drinkers group).  I comment in both, and also helped co-found an even larger themed group there, International Tea Talk, so that continuum is familiar.  Artisianal or craft tea demand (or specialty tea, how I tend to phrase that), probably isn't as common as interest in blends and flavored tea.

I founded a Quora Space about tea too, answering questions (here)

From the perspective of a tea enthusiast maybe more people should learn about and appreciate better tea, because it is a diverse, pleasant, healthy, and exceptional value beverage choice.  Or maybe they shouldn't, according to some; for rarer tea types only so much is produced (or had been made in the past, related to aged teas), and increasing demand may increase pricing levels.  I tend to also support producer interests, and think that expanded production could accommodate higher demand, so I don't worry about that part.  General interest and demand ramps up so slowly that it's largely a non-issue anyway.


I'll keep supporting tea awareness, and it seems likely that at some point it will "take off," and seem more like a movement.

2008 Dayi V93, 2018 Bulang shu pu'er from King Tea Mall

Dayi V93 left, Bokuro gushu shu right

On the King Tea Mall website--where these are from; samples shared for review, which is much appreciated--John mentioned he is shipping teas again, as of today.  I'm not sure how normal things are back in China just yet but it's good to hear that some normalcy is returning.

It's a little strange to review shu right after writing a long intro post about exploring sheng, but of course these tea types are related.  Aged sheng never really completely resembles shu, but that is kind of the general idea, and the character difference informs a lot about both; the overlap and the differences define both.  I'll get into all that, probably more so for just considering sheng basics that much.  I've been re-tasting a lot of what I reviewed last year (just not mentioning it in detail here), which also includes shu, just less of it.

It's not as if I have an endless supply of old samples but I do have enough to keep reviewing them once a week for awhile.  I could live with this blog going quiet instead but it's also nice reviewing, even if experience and themes just tend to repeat.  I expected these to be pretty good shu, and experiencing and placing good versions of tea types is different than the same related to examples that are only a bit above average.

Per standard approach I only knew what was on the labels when tasting these, but did look up and copy the descriptions here after.


2008 Dayi V93  (listed at $66 for 5 100 gram tuochas)

Origination:  Started from 2005 year. Made from high grade tea materials and decently fermented. 

Taste: Well balanced on thickness, mellowness and other taste factors. Aromatic and fragrant. Soft tea soup along with smoothness. 

Storage:  Guangzhou dry and clean storage.


That price looks a little steep related to it being for a set; when you divide it back out to $13 per tuocha it seems quite reasonable.  At least I see it that way after trying the tea.  The description works, that could just be taken in different ways.  They list similar 2007 and 2009 versions but for as nice as this seems maybe better just to go with it.

That still doesn't seem like a lot of background; maybe checking in with Yunnan Sourcing's related offerings will add to that:


2017 Menghai DaYi V93 Premium Ripe Pu-erh Tea ($7.50)

This is a classic Ripe tea blend, called "V93", it was most recently released in 2006 and quickly became one the most expensive ripe teas on the market. To this day the 2005 and 2006 V93 Ripe productions have commanded very high prices due to the fact that this is one of the most sought after Ripe teas for everyday drinking. It is smooth and full in the mouth. It is fermented just enough to break down the bitterness of raw pu-erh while lightly fermented enough to preserve the stimulating cha qi and hui gan of a raw pu-erh. After-taste is sweet and thick.


So it's a relatively classic shu blend; that's it.  It's really not that expensive to buy a newer version of it, but that might be better for sitting around another couple of years.  Or it's probably just fine as it is; three years lets a shu settle quite a bit.  I never mentioned aftertaste in these reviews, I don't think.  I suppose it is notable but not so much in comparison with how that goes with sheng.


KingTeaMall "TONG QIN" (Guqin) Puerh GuShu Shou Cha Ripe Tea  ($18 per cake or $86 for set of 5)

This tea was made from tea leaves picked up from GuShu tea trees in BuLang tea mountain in 2015 year and processed into shou cha in the same year. Then it had been kept into ware house in MengHai county, YunNan province to wait for smell off.  We pressed that into cakes in May, 2018 Year.

High ratio of tea buds which are covered by many golden tea hairs.

Medium fermentation.  Mellow and smooth.  Clean and clear taste feeling.

Storage: From July. 2018, it has been stored in Guangzhou. Dry and clean.

I think that is an in-house label, Bokuryo.  I tend to put more stock in how a tea comes across than branding or even background descriptions anyway.  It being Bulang does matter, but that means a different thing for shu than sheng, since even if the starting point is quite common shu fermentation changes everything.

Interesting that this 2018 tea was really produced in 2015.  It does seem really clean in effect, which isn't unheard of for tea that's not quite two years old, but for a version that's nearly five it makes more sense.  The high ratio of tea buds part you can see.  This being a small cake instead of a tuo it doesn't matter so much, but lower level of compression for cakes can make them age slightly faster and be less hassle to break off chunks from.  There are probably more low quality tuochas than mini-cakes out there but that broad generality doesn't mean much; you're only drinking the one or two versions at a time.

Review

I brewed these for up towards 20 seconds to get the process started faster, to skip an infusion that just points toward what the teas will really be like in the second.

V93 left, in all photos; the other is a bit darker, maybe just opening up faster

2008 Dayi V93 Tuo:  quite nice.  Deep, rich flavors, very smooth character, pleasant intensity, and rich, thick feel.  The overall balance is great.  Flavor range spans dark wood tones into aromatic spice range, frankincense and myrrh or whatever else.  Any hint of rough edges from fermentation process, if any had been present, are long gone.  Sweetness is nice; everything balances in this.  It's even a bit creamy.


2018 Tong Qin gushu:  interesting for including a pronounced flavor aspect that's not completely unrelated from what I described in the other sample, but not the same.  Oddly that same description would probably work about as well as any other anyway.  It's slightly lighter, just a little towards a balsa wood tone, or aromatic cedar, or both. 

This gives up some of the deeper, heavier underlying tones and richness present in the other.  For being on the "young" side it's quite clean in effect [or since it's really a 2015 version not so much, what one would expect], it's just that the overall balance hasn't evolved to where the other is.  Intensity is still good, just across a different range.  I suppose it comes across as trailing over into root spice range instead of the aromatic, "deeper," and different bark spice.

I had been thinking that the amount of the first tea looks to be slightly lower (dry weight), not by much, but enough that it might require adjusting infusion time.  Maybe not.  It is hard to judge dry tea amount with compression level varying, so these really could be exactly the same.  You would assume they were weighed; it probably just was about not appreciating compression level difference.  Even if they're not the intensity of the first sample is very good (or both really), and it would work well brewed lightly. 

Second infusion:

color more even this round

I brewed these a bit over 10 seconds, longer than they would need to get into a normal infusion strength range, but I tend to like shu a little strong.  It would work to drink these on the inky side, brewed for over 20 seconds, but for reviewing them that's not ideal, drinking them at a higher than average infusion strength.  If anything trying teas on the light side lets you identify both individual aspects and general character a bit better.

2008 Dayi:  the creaminess picked up; that's a really cool effect.  It's like how that comes across in Guiness Stout, just missing a lot of those heavier flavors in that, and of course the alcohol.  This has a lot more depth than a Guiness, but to be fair it also gives up a good bit of high end for flavor range.  The flavors are dark wood tones, with the other range I talked about, leaning towards spice.

Related to aged sheng this isn't as refined (versions that don't just fade to nothing), the way those layer together a lot of scope, even long after the astringency and bitterness drops out completely.  This is probably somewhat close to how a 25 year old relatively humid stored sheng would come across, something I've tried not so long ago (ok, really 30+), just still different.  Still pretty good though, for the range it covers.


2018 Tong Qin:  not bad, not really changing.  This version looks a bit redder (the dry leaf), as versions with bud content tend to (I never read descriptions before writing the notes; maybe they'll say more about that).  That tends to pull the flavor in a lighter direction, that cedar-wood range, but oddly the shu tends to gain an unusual type of depth too.  I'm using "depth" here in a couple different senses.  The first tea covers smooth, rich, broad range that extends to mild, warm underlying mineral content; one type of depth. 

My take--worth keeping in mind it's a work in progress--is that buds heavy shu tends to gain flavor range for including that mix of material content, and it lends the feel a texture that isn't necessarily rich or creamy but still has a more limited form of extra thickness.  This post goes into all that, about a Gong Ting shu.  I've got a Moychay version that's probably an even better quality example; it would take some doing looking up what that was, and the review, but I might get to it [not what I was thinking of but these work as an example].

It's interesting going back and forth between them and seeing which is better, and just how good both probably are.  I think they're both quite good examples of shu, there's probably just still another level or two, just a bit more complexity or depth both could express.  The Tong Qin doesn't come across quite as positively to me, for being a simpler tea, but the flavor range and intensity across a narrower range is good.  Neither have any negative aspects, since I don't see limited complexity as that.  I'll try another round and get back to that. 

I suppose it is odd that a version made of gushu (old plant source tea) is less complex, and less intense, but starting point depends on a lot more than plant age.  Most likely this V93 had significant rough edges that all rounded off.

Third infusion:

2008 Dayi V93:  more of the same; I really don't expect these to evolve and change all that much.  The warm mineral range (like what is often present in Liu Bao) picked up a little.  This tea is nothing like Liu Bao, the rest of the set of aspects, and overall character, that creaminess, but mineral range overlaps.  There's still a catchy warm wood tone, off redwood and mahogany.  It's a bit less like Guiness for creaminess tapering off a little.


2018 Tong Qin:  still about the same as last round.  Wood tone might have shifted just a touch, but it won't work to break that down for as vague as the description had been.   This would seem more well-balanced, pleasant, and complex without direct comparison to the other, which age probably helped contribute.

To be clear I'm skeptical that aging shu makes anywhere near as much difference as people often claim.  Of course that seems to contradict this entire review.  There's an exception, that some tar-like or petroleum aspect range can really smooth out and become creamy over time, or funky fermentation related range can smooth out, or really drop out.  Maybe both happened in the case of this 2008, so the "rule" about shu improving with age was born out.  I'm not so convinced that this 2018 version would be all that much different or better in another 10 years.  Then again I'm not basing that on enough evidence and experience; maybe it will be.

It also runs against some strands of conventional wisdom that a shu could be as pleasant, balanced, intense, and free of flaws as this 2018 version is.  Really lots of examples disprove that, even across some degree of quality and cost range; anyone who has drank a good bit of shu would already be clear on that part.

Fourth infusion:

2008 Dayi V93:  not changed much; I'll leave it at that.  Dark wood it probably picking up more, creaminess is still leveling off.  It hasn't lost much for complexity yet but I'd expect it to narrow quite a bit over the next 2 or 3 infusions, since I have been letting these infusions run a bit long, over 10 seconds.


2018 Tong Qin:  again transitioning slightly but the same general description still kind of works.  This probably always did have a little more "high end" then I've been doing justice to.  I had said the wood tone was a bit bright, like redwood, but that extends a little towards orange zest, it's just not quite there.  It makes for an interesting contrast with the other, since it leans in an opposite direction.  I often wonder if lower or medium level fermentation level shu doesn't have a lot more aging potential over the longer run, after 15 years or so, but I can't really guess where this stands in relation to that.

Conclusions

I tried a long brewed round next; that's a pleasant way to drink shu that doesn't contain any flaws to work around.  These still had plenty left to produce a really thick, creamy, intense round, and are still far from finished.

It's hard to say just how good these versions are.  To me--and this is just my own impression--shu tends to level off quite a bit at "well above average."  I have reviewed a number of distinctive exceptions to that, that were different in lots of interesting and positive ways, but this is where a lot of relatively good shu lands. 

That's not a bad thing; these were quite pleasant, and not at all the same tea experience.  They're both not all that expensive.  As I see it shu is more of a comfort tea, a type that's great with breakfast, or with food on a work break.  There's less to focus on, and in a couple of senses less to appreciate, but good versions are quite positive, and hard to screw up in relation to brewing.  It's also easier on your stomach; I could probably get away with drinking these without food first thing in the morning, that's just not how I start my day.

For people who focus in and see shu as their own preferred end-point I guess that personal likes factor in.  I never had any problem appreciating buds-heavy shu, in the way it took time to really get black teas like that, but they're different.  One concern with shu is slight or even significant negative aspects, a bit of extra off flavor from fermentation effect, and that's definitely not a concern for both of these. 

I'd buy shu like this but I'm a bit too hung up on sheng.  It's the same story for oolongs; I really like those, but it's not where I am for main preference just now.  Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea) preference is never going to completely drop out; I keep mixing those in.  But I can only cover so much scope, so I've been setting aside those types, and for the most part also Indian and Nepalese teas (which are great), whites, and whatever else.  It also seems like it might be almost time to pull through this 2 1/2 year sheng cycle but I'm not quite there yet. 

I don't know what will be next; take a break from tea, maybe?  Some new theme will come up.

where I'm editing this, but that was last week

maybe the last day in that outfit; things keep changing

lots of sweet kids for friends, wherever she goes