Shipping rest issue; re-trying a 2007 Bailong Jinggu sheng

I tried a 2007 Bailong Jinggu sheng pu'er not so long ago, an inexpensive version from Chawang Shop, reviewed here.  Part of that review theme was to taste the tea right away, just after getting it, without letting it rest, then to get back to it a month later.  This is that part 2.

I had liked the tea but it seemed a bit subtle, with a generally low intensity that would definitely be seen as a flaw in the character.  But then not letting the tea rest after shipping is said to cause that, which I have noticed before, but never reviewed in the form of doing a split review (like this).  On to it; I never will quote that earlier post, so if someone is interested they can read it too, or there is a summary take on it in the conclusions part.

Review:

First infusion:  a little rough; some dry mushroom and wood / cardboard mustiness.  On the positive side that dry character seems like it will probably fade and transition over the next two rounds.  The appearance of the tea could be a little clearer too, although it's not so cloudy, just not completely clear.  As for flavors beyond that some light molasses sweetness shows promise, and cleaner woody tones seem more positive.

To be clear I've tried this tea between the initial review a month ago and now so I know where this is going to go.  I didn't refer back to the old review notes first, but I have tried this in the last week so it's familiar.  It did improve; I'll mostly leave it at that.  As I remember it seemed like it might have room to transition positively with more age, or at least there was indication that might occur, which I'll add more about along with tasting details.

Second infusion:  much cleaner.  This will be in a more typical part of its cycle next round but it's much more positive that fast, which is a good sign.  I wouldn't interpret this as tasting anything like mushroom, although a woodiness close to aged wood or furniture picked up.  The main range is aromatic wood, cedar or the like.  That's close enough to cigar tobacco; an interpretation as that would also seem natural.

It's relatively clean in taste, although it will probably be even cleaner during the next round.  The main story of this tea will seemingly be how it will keep shifting over the next few years, finishing out age transitioning.  That and how someone relates to that aromatic wood or tobacco range related to personal preference; some people would probably really like that, and others would hate it.

It's my impression that it wouldn't be well-regarded by some experienced sheng enthusiast general convention, but I don't try to prefer what others like.  Such conventions seem to evolve based on both shared-experience preference development (influence within a group), and a natural pattern of preference evolution that occurs, so I'm mostly rejecting the former as important to me, but I must tend to experience the second, to some degree.

Third infusion:  that's even better.  It's completely clean now, with a much improved feel, only a little dry, but more along the lines of showing a pitch-like resin feel.  Tobacco and aromatic wood evolved a small step further towards molasses, matching the warm, rich sweetness and the warm underlying mineral tone.  The resinous feel matches up with a pine-bark woodiness in this round, missing that herbal sharp note in the pine needles but not completely unrelated.

As I remember a distinct lack of intensity was problematic in the first tasting, and that's not the case for this.  I'm using a high proportion (the usual, maybe 8 grams in a 100 ml gaiwan) and quite short infusion times, a bit under 10 seconds.  It's plenty intense at that infusion strength, and would work well using flash infusions at this proportion, or for using only 6 grams for the same timing.

on the green side for this age, normal for relatively dry stored sheng

Fourth infusion:  flavor range shifts a bit towards roasted chestnut, moving off aromatic wood a little.  The feel is nice, with a little room for improvement.  It's not thin but not as substantial as for many sheng versions at this age, with the resinous dryness giving way to a smoother feel, but one with only moderate structure.  Aftertaste is similar; it doesn't linger in a very positive fashion, or for an extended length of time, but the experience doesn't drop away either.

The most positive part of the effect (aside from the limitations) is the way the experience balances together.  The flavor is in a relatively positive range, with no negative aspects.  Intensity is good (reasonable, in a positive range), and feel works for me, even if it could have more richness and depth.  Warm mineral tone is a little towards struck-match character, but bridged between molasses and that; it works.

I get the sense that some of this aged wood, not so far off a greener version of aromatic wood, is close enough to or partly through transitioning to something else.  That fresh edge seems to be what some people value in dryer aged sheng, that it seems to never completely drop out, even though over a long time the sheng will keep transitioning.  I kind of get it; if this tea had spent the last 13 years here in Bangkok it would be relatively completely fermented, but the earthiness would quite likely resemble damp basement character or geosmin (like beets or dirt; with more on that general effect or aspect related to beets here).

Fifth infusion:  balance keeps improving slightly, but it hasn't transitioned so much.  I like the overall effect.  Warm underlying mineral stands out quite a bit, and decent sweetness, with the rest just shifting in relation to proportion of other flavors (pine bark or resin, tobacco, roasted chestnut, molasses, aromatic wood).  Feel isn't really dry, as it had been in the first three rounds, with that remaining more moderate resinous feel matching a seemingly paired flavor coating your tongue, and showing up as feel aspect in the rear sides of your mouth.


Sixth infusion:  this might be fading already, moving back to a slightly drier woody tone that's closer to where it started.  Or it might just be that feel and flavor effect vary by infusion strength, and dropping timing a little doesn't seem to work as well for me.  I'll check one more round and let this go.  Late rounds do tell a different part of the story, and I don't get the sense this is remotely close to the end.  But it seems like enough for this purpose, identifying how it changed due to resting for a month.


Seventh infusion:  I didn't really let this run longer, still trying it infused for around 10 seconds, to keep that consistent.  Intensity may be dropping off slightly but it's far from finished, and isn't into late-round transitions just yet, it would seem.  The same profile applies, not even really shifted in balance much from 2 or 3 rounds ago.  The character transition I had mentioned in the last round did seem to relate to using a slightly shorter infusion time.

Conclusions:

Again the idea was to compare the character to what I thought of it a month ago, reviewed here.

It didn't seem all that different related to flavor and other aspects description, but it did seem a lot more intense in this review session.  I've tried it again in the middle and that was my take then too; it didn't seem as muted as initially.  Feel intensity seemed to pick up a decent amount; per that description and my recollection it was a bit thinner then.  Of course interpretation is hard to pin down; what I've been drinking recently might set a standard benchmark, so whether it's in the better or worse range of what I own might matter.

Beyond flavor intensity ramping up just a little this might have picked up a trace more depth, a little more warm tones and underlying mineral.  This review mentions richness that borders on roasted chestnut, and that earlier version only talked about light cured wood tones, pine resin, and tobacco range.  In late rounds that shifted to root spice range in the first review, but I've dropped taking notes prior to that point here.

Within another year or two those warmer, more complex tones will probably pick up, as the green wood and lighter tobacco notes transition.  Or it could just go to straight tasting like a cigar; it's not as if the transition patterns are that familiar to me yet.  Often even faded flavor in more-aged sheng can pick up a cool root-spice effect, a depth that's not necessarily intense (in terms of flavor) but that seems pleasant anyway.  It's not completely unlike roasted bamboo flavor, mild but with pleasant depth.


It seems like people might use "menthol" in different ways in descriptions (and some even describe themselves doing so), as a way to place what isn't necessarily familiar, or to capture an unusual range that is as much feel as flavor, or in a strange place that relates to both mapped together.  I tend to not interpret aged sheng as tasting like menthol.  It's completely possible that I'm not drinking good enough aged sheng, or that I've not experienced some of the most positive range of potential age transitions.

That's going to keep being a limitation as I progress through more experience.  I won't be buying the standard, well-received, favorably stored $150 aged cakes that draw attention for combining good value and positive character.  My tea budget just isn't there to support that.  For that limitation this almost seems like a good place to leave off most exploration of aged sheng range.  The subject will come up again but all of the most obvious next steps I won't take, escalating quality level and expense of versions.

I really don't mind; it has been interesting to get as far as I have.  I have a bit of tea around, just not much as pu'er enthusiasts go, so I'll keep seeing how it changes over time.  That probably won't relate to doing many "progress check" posts, unless something triggers that.

There's more sheng on the way now, if it ever actually makes it here (transit time is drawing out), and there are always samples as an option, so I'll keep doing reviews.  The general point was more that a typical next-level direction seems to keep coming up, but I don't plan to escalate spending to pursue it.  Cakes like this are nice for enjoying variety and basic range, also covered by a few 2006-range CNNP versions I have, and a good bit of Xiaguan and Dayi cakes and tuos, and an occasional Yunnan Sourcing in-house production cake.

Pandemic theme photo sharing:

On a completely different subject I returned to working in my office (versus from home) at the end of last week.  The pandemic experience was interesting, but we're down to wearing masks a lot, and reducing group activities, with local restaurants facing an odd mix of restrictions that make it hard on them.  Bangkok malls aren't re-opened but that seems next up.  It's been different, and we've been really lucky that impact here has been minimal.  I'll share a few photos that cover what that was like for me.

beating the heat in a kiddie pool

me too

Kalani didn't let being shut in get in the way of looking fabulous

Keoni with a chalk image of me

growing a "pandemic beard" was a nice sub-theme

abstract chalk art

they made it back through a lot of their old toys, with focus on Duplo and also smaller Legos

visiting a grocery store in a closed mall

PPE overkill; I'm walking around like that when out now myself

that cat has mixed feelings about all the extra attention

Tropical fruit flavored "wild" Assamica Thai oolong

named after the river that runs past Bangkok

Visiting with a friend awhile back the owner of Monsoon, who made this tea, stopped by and shared some samples with us.  It's the second time that I've met Kenneth Rimdahl (that owner); he seems like a really nice guy.  He talks about the forest-friendly theme here.

I could be clearer on the "Assamica" part in this title.  Old, wild-growing tea plants in the North of Thailand are exclusively Assamica variety, per my understanding, but my understanding wouldn't always be accurate.  There are so many tangents to get to in this post, along with the review itself, that I'll not dwell further on it here, or say more about the wild and "forest friendly" aspects.

Kenneth in white; Sasha (right) hasn't been mentioned here for awhile

I've written a little about that in this post, which related to meeting Kenneth the second time.  In that post I downplay the overall impact making a limited amount of tea from wild sources will have on the industry, but if the impact is still positive that's a good thing, and it sets up a basis for expanding that over time.  This post relates to meeting him in my favorite Chinatown shop prior to that, and we did talk about that background there. 

Of course wild sourced tea is a very positive theme; old tea plants really are growing in a natural fashion in different places (organically, in a biodiverse environment), and the tea from such plants tends to be mild in character (low astringency), intense in flavor, and very pleasant.  It's hard to not notice that the tin presentation, the container, contradicts the conservation theme, but this isn't a critique of how it all works taken together.

three years ago; the time flies

On the subject of tangents, I wanted to also share which flavored teas I've liked best in this post.  It's a subject that doesn't come up often here, not for a couple of years in any post, and one I tend to discredit or downplay.  But to be clear I think there's nothing wrong with people liking all sorts of different teas (even Lipton tea bags), and flavored teas can be interesting in diverse.  To me natural, better-quality, loose-leaf versions are more interesting, in general, but citing some exceptions helps place my take on all that.

I think this is lychee and mango

Review

The first infusion is really fruity; it tastes like lychee and mango. Taste is clean, more natural in effect than flavored teas would generally be. A bright citrus aspect is a bit lemony but mango often includes something like that naturally, and lychee isn't far off that range either. Lychee is my overall favorite tropical fruit, and mango might be a close second. It's hard to get much read on the tea itself in a light first infusion.

More of the same on the second infusion, brewed for close to 20 seconds, a bit strong as other tea types go, for this proportion. Flavor is really clean; aroma is pleasant. Sweetness and other aspect balance is good. It's still hard to pin down what the tea itself is like beyond the flavoring but it integrates well. It's a light oolong, not dissimilar to a Jin Xuan, but since this should be Assamica it should be quite different.

Normally I'd only only provisionally like any blend or flavored tea, it could be fine for what it is, but this works as an exception. It's good.

Vegetal range is picking up as fruit drops off but this is still sweeter and fruitier than a plain light oolong. It's not vegetal in the sense of green beans or pepper picking up, more a floral range with just a trace of green wood. For as clean and pleasant as this is it had to be fine plain, but I get it why a lot of people would prefer it flavored. I'd have to try a plain version to know which seems better.

A touch of butteriness picks up; that might have been what reminded me of Jin Xuan, even though I didn't notice it in the last round.

The fruit flavor is hanging in there, two thirds dropped out, or so, but still a main component. The overall effect is still really nice, bright, sweet, fresh, and complex. These flavors must be extracts of some kind; there's no way chemicals would taste this natural. I should ask Kenneth but probably won't; blog posts take forever with Q & A back and forth as an input.  I'll do an interview post later if I get to it.

It's hard to do much with evaluating this as an Assamica based oolong, in part due to the flavoring layer input. It's clean, with good complexity and feel, a lot like a well above average Thai oolong.  This other post covers trying two of the very rare Assamica based oolongs I've ever had that worked really well, versions from Hatvala from Vietnam.  But those were more-oxidized in style, a completely different thing (what people often call "red oolong," a popular but less common style imported from Taiwan).


Later rounds:  3 more rounds stayed pleasant and well-balanced, with fruit tones fading and woody flavor picking up.  Even after 8 or so infusions the tea was still quite pleasant; interesting an added flavor would hang in there that long, even if greatly diminished.  I put the leaves in the refrigerator with lukewarm water after those rounds, to cold brew for an extra infusion; they still weren't done yet.

It would seem more conventional for people to brew this Western style, of course, for people more into flavored teas to just brew 2 or 3 rounds in a teapot or some infuser instead.  That would work.

I really liked it.  The color shows it's a very lightly oxidized oolong, which is either a good or bad thing, depending on how that suites the final tea aspects and character, and for this it worked really well.

Other flavored teas

There's nothing necessarily wrong with flavored teas, or liking flavored teas, but inexpensive, low-quality versions are often more a gateway to better tea than a final preference destination.  Artificially flavored, low quality tea based versions aren't like this blend, closer to how flavoring gas-station coffee with those artificially flavored non-dairy creamer cups comes across (which can be ok, for a road-trip caffeine fix).

I'll list a few flavored tea versions I've really liked, with these exceptions intended to fill in what I think represents the best of this category.


Earl Grey:  no need to go to far with describing this; bergamot essential oil (citrus) blended black tea should be familiar.  If not go try some.  Twinings loose version isn't too bad, but even better versions than theirs can be really nice.  I've reviewed a good bit of Earl Grey here but none of those reviews shed any more light on what it is, or how it is.  An interesting version from the Cordon Bleu cooking school was really maxed out for that orange citrus flavor, right at the balance point for being too much.  That seemed like a natural place to set that level, upon drinking it.  I think they stopped making it though; a later search about it didn't turn it up.


Monsoon coconut flavored black tea:  this really stuck with me (that post was from 2005).  This same producer made a relatively natural version (per my understanding) that worked really well as a winter / Christmas seasonal theme experience.  Some extracted, essential oil version of coconut really captured the flavor of toasted coconut (presumably it was that), combined with what seemed like a pretty decent black tea.  I'll drink that again someday.


Jasmine black tea:  my overall favorite flavored tea, probably.  To me jasmine works much better with black tea than green, and balances and complements it even better than bergamot essential oil.  A bad version might seem off, but even Indonesian grocery store versions were good.  Hatvala, a Vietnamese vendor, makes my favorite that I've tried (reviewed here), but Moychay also produced a really exceptional example.  It's hard to describe further than just saying that this particular floral range and good black tea work really well together, even better than it sounds.

the cacao nibs on the lower right; they work better ground a bit more, like coffee

Chocolate flavored tea:  I've not done much with this popular flavored tea sub-theme (maybe well represented by David's Tea selection).  Two Christmas themed blends, based mostly on a masala chai base, did use cacao nibs and actual chocolate.  Both masala chai and Christmas blends are promising directions for blends that aren't really typical of flavor-added teas.  The most basic version of the latter is something along the lines of black tea, orange peel, cinnamon, and mint, or just a twist on a masala chai recipe, maybe adding pine needles or something such.  Cacao husks would be a good way to add real chocolate flavor to any tea, probably as well balanced with a mild black version as any (the nibs, the actual "bean," can be hard to infuse).

fruit peels dried for one of those Christmas blends

That seems like a good place to leave off.  Blending other flavors into teas is promising, it's just that drinking single-type, narrow-origin, high-quality plain versions of teas is even more promising.  None of those blends or flavored tea posts are from the last two years; I've just not been exploring that lately.  I made a mostly herbal version of masala chai that worked well when I was sick last year; that's an exception (and tried chen pi then, from looking that up, tea stuffed in an orange / tangerine peel).  I really like masala chai, it just takes some messing around to make a version, and I don't get to it often.

2016 Myanmar Jingdong Xiao sheng

label is white, except for this sticker

I just wrote a post with lots of rambling on about tea settling after shipping, and later transitions, so I want to keep this short.  I'll drink it a bit soon too but won't say much about that.  This won't cover anything about relative value either; as well to just talk about the tea experience.

It's a "2016 Myanmar Jingdong Xiao Bing Cha 200g."  I was really ordering black tea from Chawang Shop to pass on to my niece at a wedding (which of course I'm now not attending, and may be delayed), and I only picked up two sheng cakes from them (or 3 really; two of this version).  I bought her sheng, but from another vendor, Tea Mania.


Straight to their description then, Chawang Shop's:


The raw materials of this cake came from Jingdong, Myanmar, just west of the Xishuangbanna. The tea is not expensive but does not come by easily. Nowadays border tea is very popular on the market, Myanmar tea is very good to be used for blending. There is a particular recipe for "Lao Ban Zhang" is blend Myanmar tea with Naka and Lao Man E. 

It tastes a little bitter with rich aroma of mountain flowers. Mellowness with a pleasant finish, no astringent.


This tea is made by Mingshan tea house.



Back to that "border tea" subject.  I'm still not going there though, I won't be drawn into repeating that discussion here, since I just went through all that in a recent post.

Review

First infusion:  a bit light, more about getting the tea to open up.  Very promising!  The tea is sweet and floral, bright, with good intensity, thickness, complexity, and depth.  And all that from a lightly brewed version, barely started.  Bitterness is present but moderate; this is a 4 year old tea, even if relatively dry storage will have slowed the transition pace.  Next round will work better for a flavor list and the rest.

Second infusion:  Bitterness did crank up a bit; this is more what I would have expected.  The overall balance is still really nice, and I'd expect after two more rounds and settling of initial transitions this will be even better.  Floral stands out, a nice, bright version of that (wildflower?; it seems a bit light in tone for orchid).  Mineral depth balances that well at the "other" side, a light mineral character, limestone or lighter granite.  Sweetness is good; that seems to link with the floral character, or maybe that's added in interpretation.  The degree of fullness and roundness fills in the experience; it's not at all thin.  

All the same this doesn't cover the same kind of scope of aspects that blends tend to; it hits a nice range of some positive notes fairly hard and there isn't other range beyond that.  I could see why this would work well in a blend, to support other teas missing some of those aspects.  

It's interesting how different this is than the other sheng I just bought from them.  That was made from a mix of inputs, from two different years, from 2006 and 2007 (so much more aged), a standard factory tea, a Jinggu Bailong.  It wass subtle, more so for me not letting it rest long enough after shipping yet (which I'll get to).  The same is true for this; it will pick up a little depth and intensity over the next two weeks.  It has probably been in Bangkok for over a week but time spend in local processing and sitting at a desk in my office doesn't count (I'm working from home, so a rare trip in let me pick it up).

Third infusion:  not so different, but mineral seems to still be increasing.  It's expanding to link up with other range, or maybe it's just really complex mineral.  The level of bitterness is pronounced but balanced.  Without that sweetness and floral flavor intensity it wouldn't be as nice, but with them it works.  The mineral isn't directly related, as I interpret the experience, but it adds depth, along with pleasant length aftertaste reasonable thickness of feel (which is structured in an unusual way, to be fair, full and rich but also with a touch of dryness).

It's as well that I bought two cakes of this.  I think this is at a great place now to drink straight through it, after another 2-4 weeks to settle more.  Then it will be interesting trying it once or twice a year, and drinking it later as an aged tea.  I'd expect this would be fine in another dozen years, and it would be interesting to see if that guess is right.  This tea is ten times more drinkable than the 2006 Kokang version from them, to be clear.  That tea has great intensity for being very pleasant in another decade but it seems between the relatively dry storage and very high compression it's taking a long time to age transition, to ferment.  I retasted that since making these notes, and cover at the end how it changed in the last year.

I don't tend to talk about color much but it's pale yellow-gold.  It's what I'd expect from dry-stored, 4 year old sheng.  This would probably be darker if it had spent 2 years here instead of 4 years where it did, and flavor range would shift to deeper, warmer, heavier tones, less bright and fresh.  If it had range that needed to transition to be more positive, as slightly harsher teas tend to, that speeded up fermentation would make more difference than it does for this.  To me it's fine.  For some bitterness would be a bit much still, but this is moderate as younger sheng goes (teas in the general range of 1 to 2 years old, stored in a more humid environment; this isn't really showing the typical amount of transition in character for a 4 year old tea yet).

Fourth infusion:  that mineral gaining depth has shifted to come across as including a spice tone now.  As I expected the balance is much nicer, really evened out, with flavor picking up more range, and feel settling to be broader and smoother as well.  It's still only hitting a limited set of aspect notes across a broad range, as flavor goes, but I like that effect.

Fifth infusion:  not so different than last round, but a gradual, continuing transition cycle is nice.  To me there is nothing negative about this tea; all the aspects balance well.  For anyone who doesn't like sheng the bitterness would still be too much but for younger range sheng versions it's quite moderate, and well-integrated.  That feel is nice, smooth and full with some structure, and aftertaste duration keeps increasing round by round.  It's still only noticeable a few minutes later, not the kind of experience where the taste is stronger after you swallow it, and not diminished that much minutes later.  Floral tone is probably just a little deeper, warmer, and richer, shifted a little towards lavender from the original wildflower.


Sixth infusion:  there isn't enough transition to say much more about; this might be a good place to only ramble for a round.  It's interesting how the tea yesterday (an aged, more blended, small commercial factory sheng) was lots less intense, at the opposite side of the scale, related to that and character.  I think that would work well for a daily drinker, as a tea to not pay as much attention to, but this might be a bit much for when you just want a tea with breakfast.  

I re-tried a 2015 Dayi (Tae Tea) Jia Ji tuocha a few days ago that might help place that idea.  It was good, softening and gaining depth to a pleasant and drinkable range.  It's still just as intense as this tea (the Dayi), maybe with a touch more rough edge, but more complexity for being a blend, and one that started out a bit harsh and softened to where it is now.  These share some scope (sweetness, mineral depth--but both are more pronounced in this) but this tea is more specific.


Seventh infusion:  I could swear a bit of berry sweetness is picking up in this; just crazy.  It's closest to dried blueberry.  That original bright floral range had been shifting to deeper floral tone, and it just kept going.  The warm and complex mineral had edged towards a spice tone but leveled back off as just being complex, and stayed more an underlying theme.  To be clear this isn't covering a lot of flavor scope, these are still a limited set of pronounced notes, but they're across a broad range, and the taste does keep shifting.  Feel and aftertaste range stopped transitioning as much; those are still where they were two rounds ago.


Eighth infusion:  right about now my patience for reviewing usually wears thin.  If there was a little less chaos in the house I'd be taking less breaks to settle a dispute over who plays with what matchbox car (not something I care about, but they seem to have strong opinions), or to see how many pull-ups the kids can do.  Then it would be easier to focus and meditate and bang this review process out in an hour.  

I think I went a little faster on that round; this is lighter.  I'm brewing these for just under 10 seconds, not for long, and it makes a lot of difference if that's down towards 5 or just over 10.  Intensity is still good lighter and the relative effect of bitterness drops.  It already had dropped a lot from the level of the first 3 to 4 rounds, as tends to happen, but it's easy to shift the relative effect using a shorter brewing time.  That trace of dried blueberry is still present; it's cool.  

I'll "push" the tea for a 15 second infusion time next round to see how that changes things.


Ninth infusion:  it changes a good bit; it's hard to summarize what though.  Feel is thicker, the moderate bitterness plays a stronger role in what comes across, and aftertaste ramps up.  I taste the mineral more than the now-diminished floral range, and the light dried blueberry gets lost in all that.  It's not really "too strong" brewed for 15 seconds but for me right around 10 might still be an optimum.  I'd expect that to change soon; it's nearing where slightly longer infusion times are necessary, not 30 seconds or anything like that, but bumped to 15 to get to the same intensity level.


10th infusion:  I think that's enough caffeine.  I tend to not talk about "cha qi" but of course I'm feeling this.  It's a nice heady buzz, with a bit of body dimension to even it out.  It's a clean and light feel, for the most part, but since I'm living feeling hazy that carries over.  Working from home has somehow bumped my workload and level of restriction a little.  At work if I'm there I'm doing the role, even over in the break-room, but at home somehow it seems I should be sitting right at that screen all the time.


11th:  crazy how this isn't thinning a bit; if anything it's better than it was for the first 5 rounds, for that shift in character.  An 11 year old, who isn't really supposed to be drinking tea, split this round with me, so the issue of too much tea exposure was cut in half.  I'll still probably throw in the towel after the next round.


12th:  it probably is losing just a touch of intensity; I'm now brewing it for around that 15 seconds to get the same infusion strength.  Mineral that had evolved to touch on spice is just starting to stretch out to seem a bit more like cured hardwood tone.  It's not finished but I'd expect that trend to become less positive over the next 4 rounds or so.  After another hour or so I could drink more to check but that's enough for now.


Conclusions


I tried this for another 4 rounds during an online tasting with friends in India and Germany, Suzana and Ralph.  For the first couple it was a good bit thinner than the first 12 but still fine, and for the last two it was getting stretched a bit too thin.  The character never really became unpleasant in any way, it just faded away.

A high infusion count like that tends to relate to using a high proportion as much as anything else, and short infusion times along with it.  Better tea will brew to be more intense, and will often stay more positive across late rounds, and hold up better for intensity (in addition to aspect range), but more than that just using more tea makes a difference.

It's interesting that the intensity issue that caused the last tea I reviewed to be subtle didn't repeat (maybe because it didn't rest long enough after storage, more likely more caused by where it is in fermentation transition, and relating to it fading with age).  This tea might fill in a bit more depth within the next month, but it had a lot going on, good complexity and positive character.


I re-tasted the 2006 Kokang Myanmar sheng over the weekend too, based on talking to someone about that tea online recently.  It's much more aged (transitioned, fermented) but it's not ready yet.  It's a lot more compressed, intense in character, and still slightly harsher, probably in part due to using more chopped material.  It's a bit like a Xiaguan version, as aspect range and intensity goes.  14 years old would typically be getting there for fermenting a good bit but again the dry storage slowed that, along with the really tight compression.  

I didn't take a photo; a before and after from a year back would be interesting.  It really needs a couple more years, where this version I just reviewed is fine now for drinking better as a younger version.

it's darker than this now, easier to see in broken off chunks and brewed leaves

that tea brewed one year ago; I'll have to do an update post at some point