Halmari Orthodox Assam and Earl Grey tasting

orthodox Assam; full name HALMARI Gold GTGFOP1 Clonal

Halmari Earl Grey

I didn't get to the last two of the Halmari Assam tea samples, one their highest quality orthodox Assam black tea, and I'll try an Earl Grey along with it.  As I've often repeated combined tasting makes more sense with similar teas, and these aren't that.  The main point is wrapping up trying them, since I'd like to clean the slate of what I mean to get to, but comparison could turn up something interesting.

I'll try to prepare these in a hybrid style in a gaiwan, more or less in between Western and Gongfu, or probably as a light version of Gongfu style, which isn't traditional.  The idea is to make small quantity infusions, adjusting for the unusual proportion as I go.  It's not ideal for tasting to use an unconventional brewing approach but it's not that atypical for me.  Related to informing background I've got a touch of a cold.  I'll probably re-try this orthodox tea version later this week to double check how a standard Western brewing approach works out, and hopefully I can shake this cold instead of it getting worse [editing note:  I'm adjusting the draft while I have a throat infection; that didn't work out].


I'll mention a little about what the orthodox tea is first.  It's listed as HALMARI GOLD GTGFOP1 CLONAL.  I don't keep up with those letter terms but I could swear that first "G" should be an F (which I won't explore, but the Wikipedia article on all that is a natural starting point).  I looked to their description to shed light on the "clonal" part:

Leaf : Long, selectively plucked and delicately rolled leaves with a generous sprinkling of chunky golden pubescent buds. Very exclusively made only during the 2 months of second flush season... 

One of our most iconic teas, the GTGFOP1 Clonal has won the North American Tea Championship is 2012,2013 and 2015.


Not much for detailed description, but winning awards is a good start.  Clonal is a reference to propagating the tea by cuttings to preserve consistent genetics, versus using seeds, but I'd expect that's related to a hybrid or other selected tea plant type with characteristics they want to preserve.

Review

I went too long on the first infusion, even though it was only for around one minute.  This really is a hybrid style of brewing, in the middle between Western and Gongfu, but some people would see it as a light proportion variation of Gongfu brewing instead.  Not that a brewing approach label really matters.  Part of that error--preparing it a bit strong--might relate to using slightly higher water temperature than I usually tend to for black tea, close to boiling point versus down between 85-90 C instead.

These teas would be fine across any temperature range, I'd expect, still making ok brewed tea at lower temperature more typical for green tea brewing, but hot water would probably be more standard, and variation would shift aspects balance slightly.  I'm often using slightly cooler water to accentuate sweeter flavors and de-emphasize astringency / feel elements, but for some that wouldn't be preferable at all, and different teas would work out differently.

first go, brewed a little strong (Earl Grey left, orthodox right)

Brewed a little strong I can only get the general range for the orthodox version; it's nice.  It is normal to brew on the slightly strong side for comparison tasting, using the standard "ISO" approach, for two reasons:  to set one level of parameters to use across many examples, and to help with identifying flaws in the stronger brewed version, which is said to highlight those (along with practice in trying tea made that way).  Nothing negative stands out.  The feel is a bit strong, and the taste is a little intense, leading towards dryness, but I'd guess this is exactly how a very good Assam brewed a little too strong should be, the right attributes in the right balance.  The malt is intense but I don't think it's going to take over the tea, back in the normal balance, and even brewed strong the flavors are still quite clean.


Brewed strong the Earl Grey is also a little intense, of course.  The balance of the bergamot (a type of orange essential oil) is the main thing, then after that the input from the tea itself.  I'd expect it will level off nicely, related to the proportion and how they're coming across a bit strong.  This won't be a bergamot-intensive version where you just can't tell what black tea is under that, although brewed strong the black tea isn't contributing lots to this flavor.

It won't be as distinctive and pronounced as the orthodox version, the black tea input, likely quite a bit more subdued.  It doesn't include bud material as the orthodox version does, which would change the effect a lot.  I'm not tasting anything "off" about it, but at a guess it will be a mild version of a black tea, as Assam goes, with no off flavors.  That mildness might be as well, since intense malt might not pair as well with bergamot.

Next infusion

Prepared more typically--in one sense, at least--the orthodox version is great.  There is plenty of malt but it doesn't take over the tea.  A lot of nice sweetness balances that out, and there's more going on than malt.  Mind you if someone didn't like malty black tea they still wouldn't like this version but if typical Assam seemed one-dimensional, a bit rough, or unsophisticated and not well-balanced this version resolves all that.  The flavors-list style description is going to sound a lot like for any better Assam, I'd think, but how those elements come across, the exact expression of them, and more so how they balance is what defines this tea as being on a higher level.

Beyond malt a cedar or redwood like wood aspect fills in flavor depth.  The taste extends into a nice citrus element at the finish, nothing like the bergamot in a flavored tea but not completely dis-similar either, maybe in the orange zest range.  I'll work on pinning down another flavor aspect or two as I try a few more infusions.

lighter, a better infusion strength (Earl Grey left, orthodox right)

The Earl Grey is nice, of course with bergamot as a central flavor theme.  It's hard to separate out what the black tea is like aside from that, but I guess describing the mix is more valid.  Malt isn't intense, but it's there.  Some degree of wood-tone also comes across.  It might have sweetness and some citrus without the actual citrus added but combined it certainly does.  Mineral isn't as strong as I'd expect it would be if this were above average Ceylon instead, but there is some acting as a base for the other flavors.

It works; to me it's better than typical commercial Earl Grey versions.  Earl Grey isn't a page I've been on much in the past year, more so in the first half of last year, as I recall, but I can relate to it.  My favorite Earl Grey version so far was from Vietnam, from Hatvala, but then it was based on a plain black tea I liked alone, and I've not tried that recently enough to compare it to this from memory.

To me this type of tea works great as something you don't need to focus on, as a breakfast tea, more than one that would excel in a comparison tasting session.  The flavors balance is nice, just lacking subtlety of a better plain tea.  It would go with all sorts of foods very well, with enough sweetness and fruit to offset savory foods, and enough earthiness and body to offset sweet pastry.  Per my preference this tea works better drank with food than alone, even if it's something neutral like a butter cookie or biscuit, to help offset that bergamot orange tone, to reset from it while drinking.  A chocolate digestive is more or less exactly what I'm talking about, on the sweeter side, like a graham cracker with chocolate.  If you've never tried them life has at least one more re-affirming surprise in store for you.

the other British contribution to food, besides fish and chips (credit)

Third infusion

Brewed just a little stronger the orthodox version shows just a little pine-resin character, which is nice, even if it may not sound it.  The actual flavor range is a bit complex; it wouldn't be wrong to describe it as relating a little to cocoa, and with minimal imagination related to some sort of fruit (tamarind?).  The citrus is strong enough that would be more natural to flag.  The feel is cool too; a bit on the dry side, seemingly related to that pine flavor.  And as black teas go the aftertaste is quite pronounced.  Surely all of this relates in part to the very high proportion of buds in the tea.

Related back to those three Dian Hong (Yunnan black teas) that I compared awhile back this is definitely closest to the buds only version (golden tips).  I suppose personal preference would dictate how good a thing that is but I can at least definitely relate to this tea.  I suppose my absolute favorite for an aspects set might be more like a Chinese black tea, shifted more towards cocoa, a subdued dried cherry range, with just a touch of roasted yam, and a molasses sweetness background, but this tea works well for me.

The Earl Grey is still mostly bergamot; that's really as it should be.  The flavors are really clean, and the earthy complexity beyond that makes it work well.  It's in the malt, cedar / redwood, touch of pine range too, but it seems a quite different black tea, the balance is completely different.  It has a lot less pine going on, and probably less natural citrus, but of course that's just a guess.


I'm in a hurry today--always in a hurry; kind of how life goes these days--so I won't get through more infusions, although brewing these twice more I'd probably tease out another aspect or two, and notice how they work out for being stretched for infusion count.  These might express slightly more complexity brewed Western style for more of that coming out in a three to four minute soak, it just wouldn't work to experience flavors evolving layer by layer, as a Gongfu approach allows.  I'll try these teas again Western style and check in related to what turns up.

Second try, conclusion

I did try the orthodox version again brewed Western style; the results weren't so different.  I brewed the tea twice using a standard light proportion and 3 1/2 minute then around five minute second steep, brewed to a typical infusion strength.  The flavors range was the same:  malt, cedar, pine, and citrus, with good sweetness and a bit of fruit aspect that was harder to pin down for being more subtle, per my take close to dried tamarind.


I was curious how this would seem in comparison to their other orthodox version that I reviewed and to be honest it seemed similar.  Both are complex, clean flavored, and full in feel but not really astringent, both well balanced, a bit intense but moderate on malt.  I would expect those similar aspects are balancing a little better in this orthodox version, that it's a little cleaner in effect (likely related to very slightly different feel and overall flavor effect), with a bit more fruit, but a difference would be clearer trying them side by side.


I actually posted a version of this before considering mentioning value, a subject bloggers tend to avoid but one I've been drifting into more lately.  As in other cases of direct sourcing buying this tea from Halmari would be an incredible value related to buying anything remotely like it from a resale vendor.  Don't take my word for it though; check the prices on their website and Google search similar alternatives. 


I didn't do as much with describing subjective preference in this post as I sometimes do, but related to what I prefer in teas of theirs I really liked their oolong version.  As I mentioned in that review post it shared some space with Darjeeling second flush teas and Oriental Beauty Taiwanese oolongs, which cover two nice and related ranges for tea aspects.

recharging to cause more trouble later

Silver needle compressed white tea cake from Jip Eu

fuzzy silver needles, loose (separated from the cake)

compressed silver needle cake (it is as black and white as this)

I mentioned dropping by my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop (Jip Eu) to pass on a few samples, to try to draw even related to them sharing tea samples, but they gave me even more in return.  I didn't say what it was in that earlier mention:  one tea was good sized sample of compressed white tea cake, a silver needle by the looks of it.  The other was a Da Hong Pao, but that means a range of different things.  I'll need to check back in on details, but based on what they said that sample is probably a more interesting version than most people even know exists, something along the line of the Bei Dou story, if that rings a bell.

The one I'm reviewing here is a white tea from Fuding, China, where such white teas typically originate; they did mention that.  I also didn't catch an age.  I didn't get the impression this is supposed to be aged tea but from the looks of it it's not brand new tea either (from some darkening occurring).  I bought a fresh silver needle once and after about a year the "needles" (buds) had darkened to around this much, or maybe even slightly darker (I misplaced the bag in that case; that wasn't intentional aging).

Time is tight so I'll just do some quick rough notes for this review.  That's how I'm living now; some errand is always pressing, or we go to a vet or the hospital a lot.  Related to brewing approach, I'm going with a high proportion of tea--it seemed that would work well--and relatively hot water, what comes out of a filtering and heating / cooling unit as boiling point water, but probably slightly lower than that.  That reminds me of talking about tea mineral content in water recently, and water sources (with a cool reference on measuring mineral content in different bottled and municipal water here).  Multiple-stage filtered Bangkok city water probably isn't ideal, but that's what I'm using.


I let the first infusion go a little long (30 seconds-ish) so I don't run through an infusion saying that I'd actually taste the tea the next round (as I said time is tight; I've got a doctor's appointment pretty soon this time).   This tea is sweet, full in feel, and creamy.  That extra creaminess I sort of didn't expect.  I've been drinking shou mei and aged shou mei (and other compressed whites, something random and gong mei, with a comparison review of four here), and none seem exactly like this, or really even all that close.  Those are nice for having a broad, full range of subtle flavors.  All those teas were based on a mix of leaves and buds, and aging changes things, gives the tea a richness, "darkens" it a little, and per those descriptions adds potential for evolution of flavors.  Mineral is nice as an underlying context in this one, and the sweetness-related flavor range is hard to pin down.  That could be spice, or might relate to a mild form of fruit, something like dried apricot.  I'll check again as infusions go on.

On the next infusion it deepens quite a bit, picking up lots more strength and complexity.  That infusion was more like 20+ seconds, which is actually a bit long for as packed as this gaiwan is and as intense as this tea is.  It helps draw out a lot of the feel and tons of flavor, but a ten second infusion would work as well or better to preserve the effect in a lighter form.  Being a little strong as this emphasizes that mineral undertone, a bit towards flint, like a good bit lighter version of the slate range that keeps coming up, with different minerals.  A part of the flavor that's hard to catch does remind me of a spice, a little towards nutmeg, but the fruit is easier to sort out, more on the surface.  It seems like dried apricot combined with fresh pear, just a light, dry version of a pear.  It's definitely not Asian pear (which are really sweet and bright), closer to those in the US, the normal version (bosch?).

Brewed lighter the next time this does work a little better, the balance.  It may be transitioning; hard to separate those factors.  Mineral is a good bit lighter, which one would expect from a lighter infusion. and that dried apricot / pear range seems to shift towards a mix of dried fruits, similar to how a fruitcake comes across, minus a cake-like range.  Or maybe with a hint of underlying spice tone not all that far from that, but it's definitely still missing the cake / pastry part.  This tea seems better than all the other compressed white teas I've been drinking.  I usually like buds and leaves versions of white teas better, because even good silver needle style teas give up some complexity for being made of the one material type, but this is on the next level.  It could relate to quality of the tea as well as style difference.

Of course it did cost a good bit more than the white tea cakes I've been buying, but then those were in a value-oriented range, so that's not saying much.  I just bought another from Sen Xing Fa shop on this Chinatown visit, a 357 gram cake (supposedly 8 years old, and it probably is), for on the order of $20, kind of on the low side.  That would seem odd in some places, but since there probably aren't very many people in Bangkok for whom "shou mei cake" means anything at all the demand side of the equation is probably a little out of whack.  I also don't think they're trying to match the ramping up of pricing for aging teas that would be typical in most places, or they might not even be aware of an online market range for that aging factor.  Vendors really don't need to earn 15-20% for holding a tea cake per year anyway, even though in some sense that might be fair, in most sales contexts.  They do bear the cost incurred if something going wrong in storage, in addition to getting paid more for intentionally holding inventory, and setting up and maintaining a good storage environment.

that Gong Mei cake; a different look (reviewed here)

Sticking with that pricing discussion, the cake from Teeta Talk cost about the same, $20, but for 200 grams instead, so approaching double.  That gong mei cake was in the range of double that again, maybe costing just a little less than the two others for a small 100 gram cake.  This was on the same order, as a per-weight price, something like $40, maybe just over (I've lost track, but they did say).  I guess to work back to a clear price it makes a big difference if this was a 200 or 357 gram cake.  White tea cakes vary, but being that smaller size seems more common than for pu'er, if my vague impression is right.  $10 for 50 grams of this tea wouldn't be outrageous (how $40 for 200 grams works out), but $6 would also make sense, given the price break that tends to come with buying tea cakes versus better loose tea. 

I did ask by message; it's 300 grams (and they passed on a description:  it is Bai Hao Yin Zhen, silver needle, produced in FU-DING, Tai Laoshan 800 meters above sea level).  That price puts this around $7 for 50 grams; quite one the low side as loose teas go, still low for a compressed version, a good deal.

On the next infusion mineral seems to pick up again; that's probably related to not paying close attention to timing, and letting it run slightly longer.  Even though the aspects are very positive in this tea and the complexity is good there is just a limited set of aspects going on (to give a fair assessment, to weigh out limitations as well as strengths).  Feel has some thickness to it but nothing like the pu'er I've been on, even shou, which tend to just be full versus more complicated and interesting.  But then I never drink "good shou," which would be out of my budget range, since for me part of the appeal of that type is value.  That initial creaminess has faded some but it's still full, it just lost some of the effect of being a lot like cream, in both texture and taste.

On the next infusion the tea isn't fading, more than a half dozen infusions in, and the flavor isn't really going "off" in any sense, it has just lost a little of the initial brightness and complexity.  Without tasting that first 3 or 4 infusions this might seem a lot better, probably still better than those other compressed white teas I've been trying, although it does give up some richness and earthiness to those, some of which inclined a little towards a light version of coffee.  It's just within a different range, and again the aspects scope might be slightly "narrower."  I don't want to say the tea has moved to a woody aspect range, but it's something along that line.  It's a bit towards bamboo shoot instead, versus the dried and fresh fruit and spice range it had been on.  There are hints of spice, fruit, maybe even a trace of citrus beyond that, so it's still complex, just not in the same sense of other tea types being complex..

On the next infusion that citrus reminds me of a dried peel, or maybe a zest range, or possibly in between the two.  The tea is still evolving, not fading away (up towards 10 infusions, but it's not finished yet).  Rushing the tasting probably didn't help; I might go back through tasting this for two hours instead of one and pick up another set of details I'd missed.  It's a nice tea; a bit different than others that I've tried before.

It occurred to me during editing this tea would probably shift in aspects quite a bit depending on making it in different ways, at a minimum related to the relative proportion of the same aspects.  Of course trying Western approach versus Gongfu would come to mind, but this would brew nice tea "grandpa style" (with leaves remaining in the water while you drink it), and would work for cold brewing.  Some people have mentioned simmering white tea instead of infusing it in hot water recently, and without any negative aspects to work around no matter how much or little that changes the effect it would be fine.  I'd expect there would be ways to emphasize the fruit and spice, not that there wasn't enough of that prepared this way.

they grow up so fast (both are November babies)

Farmerleaf 2012 Nanzuo Shengtai (Jing Mai sheng)

Farmerleaf sent a sheng pu'er sample with that last order of Dan Cong, so I'm onto trying another semi-aged version (with more on that categorization to follow).  This will work well with a longer term project of exploring sheng pu'er, helping keep me calibrated.

There is another "vertical" tasting coming up that I should attend, LBZ this time, and some interesting samples are on the way, so it won't have to wait until I see how much tea I run across on a trip to Russia next month.  I was thinking about doing a post about that, even before I go, about asking around about tea and shops there, and what has turned up initially.


I'll let part of Farmerleaf's description introduce this tea:

This tea comes from Nanzuo village, a remote village on Jingmai Mountain. It was made by Chen Xiao Hua, our friend from Nanzuo...

...When it arrived in Puer in late Spring 2017, it had a bit of that mountain wetness, this trait has toned down and now is left a sweet and mineral tea, aged in moderately dry conditions. It features a decent huigan that comes after a couple of brews. It was processed on the redder side and this trait can still be found in the tea nowadays, the fragrance is on  the fruity side.

A very brewable and inexpensive tea that makes a great daily drinker if you like semi-aged Pu-erh teas.

separated leaves

Review

It does look quite darkened, and the dry smell is rich and earthy, along the lines of old leather with a bit of spice.  I can't really judge if it seems more aged than would be typical in 5 1/2 years, or guess at storage effect from the scent, and I won't have lots of baseline for estimating that from brewed tea either.  I'll just describe what it's like to drink it, starting with the first infusion after the rinse step.

It's definitely not young sheng (in the sense of a new tea' "young" is a bit relative), although it still has some of the characteristic bitterness, which is just subdued.  I'd expect the tea to loosen up over more infusions but it's already approachable.  It's mostly a bit woody in effect, more complex compared to the woody effect of a brewed-out light oolong late into an infusion count.  A soft richness extends out from there into an autumn leaf depth, and that trace of edge might be more like biting a live tree branch tip, but a mellow version of that.  Spice and other leather, tobacco, or fruit range isn't coming out, but it is still the first infusion.  The feel and aftertaste of the tea are both nice supporting elements, for the early going of tea offered as a modest version, adding depth to the experience.

On the next infusion the tea does soften a little, and pick up even more depth.  The woodiness extends a little into tobacco.  For pipe smokers or cigar smokers that still wouldn't be a very specific reference, but I'd have to leave off at guessing some variation of cigar tobacco.  It's hard to describe why but the aspects work well together; the balance is nice.  If the feel was thin, or the aftertaste limited it wouldn't work as well.  More sweetness and some version of dried fruit would be nice, but I'm assuming that would tend to pick up in a more aged version of tea, that 5 1/2 years isn't supposed to be there yet.  

The next infusion isn't far off the last, perhaps a little sweeter.  The hui gan might be picking up too but that effect was already noticeable in earlier rounds, not as intense as in some other sheng versions, but significant.  The tea doesn't need extra intensity to show a lot of aspect complexity but I'll let the infusion time go a little longer next time just to check out the effect of the variation.

On the next infusion the feel is a little much, prepared that way, out of balance with the flavors.  The flavor range doesn't pick up intensity as much as that astringency edge, which is pronounced throughout the mouth.  It's not so noticeable on the front of the tongue but along the rear, sides, and even the top of the mouth, transitioning to a feeling in the throat at the end.  I tried that trick with tasting water after, to see if it tastes sweet, and it works, just not nearly as well as with the one Yiwu sheng we tried it with during that vertical tasting.

not really darkening much yet, compared to the dry leaf look

Flavor-wise the tea still mostly in a wood range, extending that to autumn leaf and tobacco; I'm still not noticing a move beyond that, to dried fruit or spice.  On the next infusion, brewed back in the normal infusion strength range--light for any other kind of tea, normal for sheng--the feel and flavor balance a lot better, and it might be transitioning towards a different kind of sweetness, not too far from fresh sugar cane juice, but the flavor part as much as the sucrose part.  That's related to molasses, since if you boil the sugar cane juice down that's what you'd get, but the cooking darkens the flavors into a richer range.  Or it might hint a little towards date, or both could just be alternate interpretations of the same thing.  The other wood / light tobacco, autumn leaf range is still more pronounced, but how those balance has shifted.  A lot of the bitterness has faded, although there is still some countering that other range, it's just not as pronounced.

On the next infusion it's not really transitioning further but it's definitely hanging in there, not really losing intensity, even though the infusion count is getting on.  I stopped making notes at this point but it went further, it's just that nothing more novel occurred with transitions.

leaves after finishing brewing

Sheng aging perspective from other references

I'm not sure how I feel about this tea.  The general type and this aspect range is not unfamiliar ground at this point but not exactly well-known, or a personal preference.  I'd probably be most interested in having more to see how it changes further, which is something I can't predict, based on limited prior exposure to that transition process.

I talked a little about looking forward to exploring pu'er, related to aging, and related to ongoing online discussion in this post (which is really about a Dian Hong comparison tasting; not great organization).  One starting point there was a TeaDB blog post discussion of vendors selling mostly "young" sheng, versus mid-aged or aged sheng.  One might reasonably ask, where is the cut-off?  They list semi-aged raw pu'er as greater than 7 years old, so this tea is still young (although in the data a shou from 2011 is listed as semi-aged; that's either a mistake or they see aging of shou as a different thing, on a different time-frame).

It doesn't really work to put the pressure on one reference source to set a definitive guideline, and given preferences for aging vary and fermentation itself depends on storage factors blocking out years as clearly young, semi-aged, and aged on a fixed time-frame might not work.  But to go a step further into their definition (TeaDB's) in a more recent post on Strong, Burly, and not too Expensive. Semi-Aged Xiaguan, MX-Tea Report [Feat. Garrett] the teas listed spanned 2003-2006, so 14 year old teas were not yet considered aged.  Then again tuochas probably would age more slowly due to tighter compression, and that rating could well be a commentary about preference for aging them versus other tea types.  Paging around their blog I found an answer to this specific question in a "Pu'er for Beginners" post, about the category division:

What qualifies as aged pu’erh? This really depends on who you ask and the storage. A tea can develop much quicker and differently depending on the conditions it’s stored in. Things around this range 7-20 years should show their age and generally fall into the semi-aged category.


So this sample was "young sheng," not semi-aged, as they define it, but they've built some openness into that description.  Again the categories seem not to matter as much as the actual attributes of the tea.  This reminds me of another favorite blogger weighing in on that time-frame, Cwyn of Death by Tea:


A ten year old or younger tea is not aged, nowhere near done with its cycle of fermentation...  Quite honestly the fun I have with sheng puerh lately is more about the process of fermentation and aging than with drinking...  

How can anyone know what a tea will be in twenty years when it is younger than ten? I am here to take the pressure off you. Everyone is so anxious about a process that will take two or three decades. If your tea is less than ten years old, you have no idea what will happen and yet the tea itself is far more resilient than you think. A little mold here, a little dry air there, a bit of everything will happen to each tea, even those in so-called ”ideal” conditions. Most of us will not see the final result of our teas, but then most of us will not get to see our great-grandchildren either, unless we started early with both endeavors. 


I read a half dozen blog posts from A Tea Addict's Journal on aged pu'er but none of it condenses down to a simple guideline about time-frames.  And really, why would it?  Storage conditions vary, preferences vary, and the starting point of the actual teas, and so on.  I only mention it here since some readers may not be familiar with that blog (although most would be), and they probably should be.  To mention just one post from there this is a favorite, on how pu'er tends to change with age, and when to give up on potential improvements due to aging, as cited:


It’s true that sometimes teas do go through an awkward phase. They have lost that initial sweetness/floral fragrance that are characteristic of new teas, but have not yet developed old tea taste. It’s that weird in between state where it’s really a pretty bad thing to drink. However, I also think that there are many teas out there that simply cannot and will not age. This is mostly because of bad processing to start off with. If your tea was processed like a green tea, bad news, it’s not going to get better. Aged green tea will never develop that complex and rich flavour of puerh that you should be striving for (and if you are one of those people storing tea to preserve its flavours and fragrance, you’re in the wrong business). A telltale sign of a tea that is processed like a green tea is a beany taste – think a fresh biluochun, a classic beany tea. If your tea smells like a longjing or a biluochun, it’s time to drink it fast because it’s not going to get better.


This reminds me of a good bit of reading up on pu'er processing not so long ago, about the difference between sheng pu'er and green tea, but all that back-story gets to be a bit much.  A short version--of my understanding--is that sheng pu'er is heated during a fixing step but the processing temperature is lower, retaining some of the enzymes (flavonols?) that allows for fermentation to continue.  This Tea Geek article does a good job covering those basics, but that main difference only comes up in the comments discussion, and the basic processing steps for sheng aren't treated in detail, never mind enough to mention a temperature range as being critical.  This part of that is about something else, process naming, but it's still particularly interesting:


Just like the term “oxidation” in chemistry, “fermentation” has a slightly different meaning in microbiology compared to everyday English. Fermentation isn’t just any process that microbes carry out—it specifically describes the way microbes get energy from their food when no oxygen is around...

So what do microbiologists call a food that is made by microbes but not by true fermenting microbes? Ripened foods. Salami, brie cheese, and katsuobushi (AKA bonito flakes) are all examples of microbially ripened foods where exposure to oxygen is necessary in production.¹ On the other hand, kimchi, sauerkraut, and kombucha are all fermented under limited oxygen exposure... 

If we want to be really specific and geeky, we can call this process microbial ripening which naturally lends support to calling shu puer “ripe” or “ripened” puer in English.

Conclusions

Per my current impression ("understanding" would seem too strong a description) the bitterness remaining in this tea I described is a good sign, a potential indicator the tea can continue to age and transition in positive ways instead of just fading away onward from here.  But it's not false modesty for me to claim that I have no idea what this tea would be like in another five to ten years; I really don't.  I also can't really evaluate the level of bitterness as meaning anything in particular, or the rest of the aspect (thickness in feel, type and level of flavors, etc.).  Maybe it's not even possible to look around the corner in that sense.  Exploring how that works out takes a lot of time and exposure, and I'm barely getting started on it.

I would drink this tea aged to this level if I had more of it but I'd probably save more than I'd drink, checking it a couple of times a year to see if it was improving versus just fading.  According to the TeaDB perspective I'd need to wait another 15 years to experience it as aged sheng, a time-frame Cwyn also seems to endorse.


I'm not so sure about that level of patience.  It does match up with my thinking that I should get the process started by stacking up some cakes now.  I don't really have $1000 set aside to do justice to even beginning that kind of project, to buying a good bit of tea I don't plan to drink much of within the next decade.  But I'll see what kind of balance I can strike related to that over the next year.  I have most of three sheng cakes set aside from what I've bought this year, I just need to not drink too much, and go easy on sharing samples from them, and pick up the pace or acquisition.

Loy Krathong, 2017; the little "boats" carry away your sins