Is there one best oolong brewing temperature?

This is about there being an objective best case versus subjective preference variation related to water temperature used to brew oolong.  That's not catchy, is it?  Let's try the popular media version:

Do you like your oolongs steeped in boiling point water, or use water that's a bit cooler instead?  Some people claim there is one right answer.


Of course personal preference relates to some degree to every choice and sub-theme related to tea.  Or does it?  Are tea bags generally inferior to mid-range quality loose tea?  I think so.  I guess you could still put those teas in a bag and they wouldn't turn out so differently, but that's complicating the real issue, the actual generality.

Would most people agree that green tea should be brewed using water at less than boiling point temperature?  Sure.  Even an issue like that one, selected to have one clear answer, might not be as objectively clear as it first seems. 

As a bit of background, different references say different things about what temperature to use for oolong.  Check out this version from the Reddit tea subforum page:

There it is then; brew oolongs at 85 C / 185 F, we're finished.  Or maybe not.  That guide may apply better to Western style brewing than Gongfu style, even though one doesn't typically encounter the idea that temperature choices would vary uniformly between the two approaches.  They can, though; along with using a higher proportion of tea to water using much shorter infusion times can serve some of the same purpose as moderating temperature, related to offsetting astringency or other aspect range that could be experienced as negative. 

Since this subject came up related to a tea group discussion let's start from there instead.

Brewing oolong at boiling point temperature

Someone asked about staff in Taiwanese tea shops universally brewing oolong using boiling point temperature water in the Gong Fu Cha FB tea group.  This triggered an interesting discussion of whether or not water at that temperature really is best for preparing oolongs or not.  There are lots of references and tables out there related to standard brewing parameter suggestions (I wrote about that awhile back) and those vary for oolongs.  To summarize, several different opinions emerged:


-brew oolongs using boiling point water temperature, obviously (about half the responses, or maybe just over that).


-only flawed oolongs will give better results at lower than boiling point temperatures, related to offsetting flaws; use boiling point temperature water for every high quality oolong type.


-only brew the lightest versions at lower temperatures (the least oxidized, in this context, although the styles discussed also tended to be less roasted too).


-brew oolongs at whatever temperature you prefer the outcome related to; subjective preference for specific aspects is the ultimate guide.


The argument for the "only use boiling point" option is that tea components extract differently at different temperatures, and for better quality teas--combining the first two answers, sort of--that's really the optimum.

I was arguing for the last, more or less, but probably as much related to defending people's option to prefer whatever parameter they want.  I do tend to brew most oolongs using boiling point water, although I also shift parameters quite a bit, to see what happens related to that.  Per my understanding it does just vary the aspect range a little if you use slightly lower temperature (90-95 C, 195-205 F).  When experimenting with different oolongs--they come in quite a range of types--some do seem better prepared at slightly cooler temperature. 

Of course it is hard to exclude quality level and flaws in specific teas as a factor related to that, and it's impossible for me to taste a tea using someone else's aspect preferences (their sense of taste, in the one sense).  I guess it's conceivable that I'm just not drinking good enough tea, or that my own flawed preferences are a problem.  That sounds like I'd be joking (and it can be hard for even me to tell when I am or not), but preferences do tend to shift over time, and I'm definitely not claiming to have arrived at a God's eye perspective on tea, just somewhere in between only getting started and having sorted some things out.

all different oolongs, but only part of the range

For Dan Cong it depends on the character of the version; some tend to be softer, and boiling point water is fine, and if that characteristic astringency is a bit more intense using slightly cooler water moderates that (versus using flash infusions; both will work, but the results aren't identical).  I'm not so sure that would be a case of a tea considered as flawed, since those teas vary by lots of factors, but of course teas come in a range of quality levels, and it does seem like less of an issue for better versions, so maybe it really is that simple.  I've tried versions sold more as commercial, mass produced Dan Cong that were different in quality and character, but they vary by plant type / aspect range in better versions too.  Ya Shi (duck shit) tends to be softer and more subtle than Mi Lan Xiang, for example (or also aroma based versus flavor intensive, per a different way of using some terms, but that also introduces a second set of concerns).

One comment by Thomas Smith attempted to explain an actual difference in using slightly cooler water, about changes that go along with variation:


[Brewing at boiling point] Definitely pushes more taste to the forefront, bringing it more in line with the intensity the aroma can provide. The cost seems to be a reduction in the ease of distinguishing taste characteristics, a skew of sourness over sweetness, a move to flavors closer to darker leafy greens and citrus in the lighter oxidized teas (as compared to romaine/endive crispness and a fruitiness closer to pomes and drupes), and a slight comparative dampening of aroma in secondary and tertiary infusions. Can provide more heft, though, which can be pleasant.


Interesting!  He added more to that, within the context of additional discussion:


Hotter water can relinquish more solutes more readily, but can also more rapidly force volatiles out of solution, leaving the aroma potentially less complex by the time it is consumed. Certainly not a huge issue for many wulongs, but a factor in some. And, as indicated earlier, oversaturation can diminish one’s ability to actually perceive the full complexity that can be achieved. The compounds that are soluble at appreciable levels with 100 degree water when steeped at typical short brewing times are also soluble at 85 degrees, given slightly more time. There is merit to experimentation.


A couple of those are subtle points that could easily be taken the wrong way, extended to mean something they seem not to intend, or to reach specific conclusions that really aren't being argued.   As I took it he's not really making a case for or against brewing at any temperature in those comments, instead talking around related factors.  Anyone interested in running through all the points made on either side--or the various sides--can take a look at the discussion, since individual comments and points would be in response to the others.

Related to green tea brewing in Vietnam

The grounding of any optimums in tea preference is problematic.  Even for that same point related to green tea, for which almost no one is ever going to advocate use of full boiling point temperature, it's my understanding that it is completely conventional to brew green tea at that temperature in the Vietnamese tea tradition.  The idea is that some people there love the astringency and bitterness that results from that practice (or so I take it).

Of course you can't generalize a whole country like that, and it's likely that not only are some people influenced by lots of factors (foreign traditions, personal experience, and whatever else), there are also regional variations in both teas and brewing conventions.  I just talked to Huyen about that (that friend who sent some Vietnamese tea samples), and she confirmed that there are really two schools of thought about green tea brewing temperature there.  What she actually did say:

green tea brewing at boiling point in Hanoi

With green tea: there are 2 ways brewing. First, if you want to focus about the flavor, you can use boiling water at 95-98 degree.  But if you want to focus about the taste, you can brew at 80-85 degrees.  The time to steep tea is 20-25 seconds.  That’s my way to brew tea.



Someone might justifiably claim that flavor and taste are synonyms, so opposing them doesn't work (or the same would apply slightly differently for the Chinese description opposing flavor and aroma, really, since taste is tongue-based but most of flavor is really aromatic component based, that is, aroma). 


I think what's going on in both cases are references to real, valid distinctions, just framed in these other cultural and language based contexts, which aren't translating well.  Once you try two versions of the same tea, one described as flavor-intensive and the other aroma-intensive (not related to Huyen's comment, still on the Chinese descriptions framing), then you know exactly what that means, and it makes sense.  My take is that there's probably more of a translation issue going on, that these are extended from use of Vietnamese terms.


If the distinctions in what we taste with our tongue versus what's picked up through aromatic compound sensation--and the related terminology--isn't familiar I'd recommend Barb Stuckey's video reference (the author of Taste What You're Missing; that would also work for further reading).


Related to it being one of two common conventions to use boiling point water for green tea in Vietnam (per this account), then could we claim that a broad part of the entire local tradition and those individual shared preferences are somehow wrong?  If the benchmark is inter-subjective agreement among Western tea enthusiasts then maybe we could; it might be that they're doing it wrong.

Or maybe not.  I ran across a reference source claiming that green tea should be brewed using boiling point water not so long ago (not expressed quite that simply, in a Tea Master's blog post on green tea).  This could be just be my impression but there seems to be a broad, general divide in tea preferences between people claiming that any tea should be brewed using boiling water, and very short infusions, with others holding more to the ranges expressed on charts and such.  It may be that the generality correlates quite a bit with regions or branches of tea traditions.

really nice Assam oolong (reviewed here); but as well to not complicate this

McDonald's hamburgers as an analogy for rejecting subjective preference

An influential and experienced member of the tea community provided an example of a broad inter-subjective agreement that we could define as wrong:  if a group of people were to choose the objectively best burger alternative between McDonald's versions and a high-quality fresh-ground version (Angus beef or the like), and some chose McDonald's versions as their favorite (which would actually happen), couldn't we say their preference is wrong?  Phrasing for that gets tricky, doesn't it?  It's hard to express "best" in such a way that it's clear that you don't mean "according to personal preference," since that is one thing that would tend to mean.

Why is McDonald's burger version clearly inferior?  Let's start with the beef itself:

Thankfully, McDonald’s and several other chains recently stopped using the “pink slime” in their beef. But the vast majority of fast food beef comes from CAFO (concentrated agricultural feeding operation) cows. Not only is this horrible for the animals and the environment, but eating meat from sick animals will only make you sick.  Eat a McDonald’s hamburger and you might be getting a mouth full of antibiotics, hormones, and dangerous bacteria.


Beyond all that (some of which you may not actually be able to taste) there are over 50 questionable chemicals and additives in a single burger (including the other ingredients), per that article, and it's not even possible to order those cooked to specific temperatures.  They're just not great.

As I interpret this we're not comparing McDonald's food to the local steakhouse burger version, per the tea brewing temperature analogy; it maps closer to the "best burger in Bangkok" debate that never completely stops in a local FB foodie group.  Maybe somehow one of those burgers really is best, but it seems more likely that most could agree some of the outlier opinions are based on an odd preference range, or perhaps limited exposure to the others.  Maybe it would be possible to come up with a short list, to identify some answers and preferences as more correct.  No one even jokes about McDonald's being best in that group; if they were having a bad day the admins might ban you.


I'm not really finished with mapping out all of this oolong brewing temperature issue, but as I see it there is no end to it.  It seems likely that as with exposure to a broad range of foods--corresponding to McDonald's foods lovers trying a range of fresh food alternatives--people would gravitate more towards consensus opinions.  I can't say if everyone would only use boiling point temperature water for oolongs, with enough brewing experience, and if using the highest quality tea versions.


A friend brought up a related point when talking about tea-houses in Taiwan a couple months ago; to him they tend to brew tea too strong, seemingly appreciating the feel and aftertaste aspects in the tea more than the flavor, and ruin the effect of the taste by over-brewing, per his preferences.  That was seconded by a relatively identical comment in that discussion.  That doesn't map directly onto the hot water versus slightly cooler debate for oolongs, but some of the same concerns could just be playing out a different way. 

Another friend added a thought that muddies the waters just a bit further:  a cigarette smoker would be more inclined to favor stronger flavors, perhaps even flavors in a certain range, and this could push them towards distinct preferences (eg. oolongs brewed at boiling point, versus liking some types of oolong brewed cooler).  It's sometimes mentioned that a lot of exposure to tea leads to preferences skewing in certain directions, not just related to being more right, to fine-tuning awareness, but also to natural progressions occurring.  I've discussed this in relation to de-emphasizing flavor as a main factor in the past, but I've seen it mentioned related to flavor range too.

another interesting non-standard oolong, from Toba Wangi in Indonesia 

Conclusion

To me there is an interesting tension between two competing ideas: 

1)  personal preference ("taste") is individual and varied, and differing opinions can be valid

2)  with enough exposure and progress along a natural preference curve there are consensus right answers related to patterns of agreement (objectivity in the sense of inter-subjective agreement). 


I'm not really arguing for or against either, I just don't see one simple answer as identifying the facts of the matter in most cases related to tea preference.  Sometimes it works better to say "beginners tend to like that aspect range, more experienced tea drinkers this other," but for any one outcome it's rarely that simple.

Since lots of people gave a lot of great input it's also worth reading that group discussion, in light of these sorts of concerns, of course also based on one's own experiences in brewing oolongs.

Vietnamese snow tea (Ha Giang province green tea)

More about that online friend in Vietnam sending teas to try, tea shared by Huyen Dinh (which will be a tea exchange, once I get around to sending some back).

Huyen, with a cool little teapot (which is quite old)

I thought I might have tried snow tea before, a tea I picked up travelling around the Hanoi area, but that may correspond more to another version Huyen labeled as "ancient tree," from the Son La province instead.  That earlier ancient tree version reminded me of pu'er; a bit bitter, a little dry, and interesting.  Looking back at that post it seemed a little rough, from March 2015; I was still working out some basics related to both tea and blogging (and it may not have been similar; that part was just a guess).


This version was labeled as both green tea and snow tea.  There was no reference to ancient trees, as on the other sample, but I think this may be from "wild" (feral) old shan-type trees in the far North, but that really is as much a guess as anything. 


Again I'm not going to have a specific original source to share, but Huyen does work for a local gift and local-goods sales company that does sell some teas.  Maybe this one, but since it's not a conventional tea business contacting them to review specific tea versions could be a challenge.  The company is Trà Việt (their website contact here), which has gift-shop / souvenir sales locations in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  It really doesn't look like they're set up for international tea sales through a website but someone could still try out paging through an automatically translated site version to see what turns up there; there are tea gift sets on the site.

locating Ha Giang (credit Hatvala site, a different vendor)

For tasting context, at time of tasting I was well along the way of wrapping up being sick with a throat infection.  My sense of taste seemed almost completely normal again, but I was still a bit off in general then.  I passed on a Lao Ban Zhang vertical pu'er tasting today, held by the same people who did a Yiwu tasting session version (mostly Bank), because it seems like drinking 20 or 30 small cups of intense tea might not be a good step towards being finished with all that.  It's funny how when you're sick even if the illness isn't so bad there's that focus on being done with it.

Review

The tea looks whitish-grey, a bit curled, not exactly like other teas one tends to run across (although a "fish-hook" sort of style is normal for Vietnamese green teas, just not this color).  The initial infusion does taste like a green tea, sort of, but not all that close to other green tea versions.  The pronounced mineral aspect does match that in the standard Vietnamese green teas (Thai-Nguyen region green teas).

It goes without saying but I'm using water below boiling point for brewing, just not on the low side for green teas.  It might be typical to brew this using boiling point water in Vietnam, to really allow the bitterness to come out (funny how that came up again in talking about oolong brewing temperatures; I'll probably pass on more about that later).  Of course I'm really talking about the flavor being bitter, not mis-labeling astringency, as does tend to come up.  A Gongfu approach is also probably not standard, but really using Western brewing with hot water isn't going to change things entirely, it just shifts aspects balance a little.


A second infusion, also on the short side, is similar, maybe warming up a little and picking up a little depth.  Bitterness stands out, then the mineral base after that (towards flint / chalk / limestone; a lighter version).  Beyond that there is some vegetal range, along the lines of kale, and some sweetness.  That sweetness seems to bring in a trace of a richer depth, something minor, buried in with the other complexity, along the lines of sugar cane, or maybe even maple syrup.  The tea has a lot going on.  The bitterness doesn't make it an automatic favorite but if that fades just a little and other range picks up the balance could be really nice.

a bit light in the early rounds, but with plenty of flavor

On the next infusion I let it go for about 45 seconds, not intentionally checking a stronger infusion, typing an idea at the start and not paying attention.  One might wonder, how could I have developed an internal clock, and to what extent are those times ever really accurate?  It wasn't from spending years brewing tea with a timer.  I worked as a waiter (restaurant server) during an earlier life-phase, and that entails converting your consciousness into a timing device, along with picking up a few other capabilities (multi-tasking, reading people, not freaking out when you're in a hurry for hours on end).  And I used to cook, a lot, and it more or less has to become natural to access an internal timer for that.  It was natural for me to just time brewing based on estimation when I first started on loose tea, probably 9 years ago now, and by the time I became more serious about it around half that long ago I'd already been estimating timing for awhile.

This tea is nice and bitter brewed stronger; it's interesting to experience that way.  It crowds out the rest a little but there is plenty to appreciate about the range, and I think it's transitioning a little too, "warming," if that makes sense, probably moving into a light spice range as much as anything.  Flaws in this tea would be more evident brewed this strong but the balance is good, and the feel is nice, with an interesting aftertaste (quite strong, brewed stronger).  Is it hui gan?  Maybe.  I'm going to guess yes, but I suppose at some point I'll just start winging it and saying that aspect is that when I think it is, as others tend to.  I should send a little of this tea to my Chinese-Malaysian friend for a ruling.

Back to normal infusion strength the next time (four--I'll count them); the tea hasn't changed a lot but the balance of the same aspects is shifting.  The bitterness isn't dropping out but the tea is falling into a more even balance, and although it does seem to be "warming" slightly there's more added in vegetal range than something else, at this stage.  Kale may or may not sound nice in a tea; I guess it depends on how someone relates to the taste of kale.  My main natural preference is for black teas and roasted oolongs, so richer, sweeter, more cocoa / cinnamon / fruit / baked yam flavors, but I can still relate to this; I can appreciate and even like it.  The style may not be a close fit for everyone--and to some extent that's where I am--but somehow this seems like "good tea," in some odd, objective sense.  The flavors are clean, the feel is nice, aftertaste pronounced and positive, and it balances.  It is a little bitter though.

Bitterness keeps easing up in the next infusion (5) but that mineral expands to even include some metal range.  Now that does sound odd; a tea tasting like a spoon that you can taste, when you shouldn't be able to.  On the next infusion (6) the tea has softened into a more typical green tea range; the bitterness and mineral tones have faded back, leaving more vegetal character as dominant, and room for other space.  A bit of woodiness adds some depth, which does track a little towards spice, it's just not close enough to that range to really pick out one (cinnamon versus something else, etc.).  I suppose the kale is expanded too, as much green bell pepper now as kale, which probably was already evident an infusion or two ago.  This tea version definitely seems more like a traditional Vietnamese green tea than any other type but it's also clearly not identical to those.  Of course I can't speculate if that's because of a varied plant type input, growing condition, or processing step; how would I know that.

Infusion times are up around 30 seconds now just to get infusion level strength up to a normal level, and it seems to be fading, that it will require closer to a minute from here on out.  It didn't exactly fade quickly since I'm on infusion 7, and it would easily brew several more.  It hasn't changed much, but the current aspects range (in relative order) are green pepper, kale, mineral, wood, metal, and bitterness, with a good bit of depth suggesting added trace aspects beyond that, the complex range from sugar cane, with a bit more warmth seemingly related to that.

Or maybe an aspects list isn't familiar to everyone, and some strange comparison instead would help.  This tastes a bit like biting a tree branch bud.  I don't keep track of those (the tastes of different trees, or different parts of trees), but in earlier rounds it was like a more bitter version of a tree branch bud, and in later infusions just complex, and not as bitter.

I'll wrap this up for now, at least the notes part, although it will keep going.  I'm sure there will be some deep thoughts and conclusions to add in editing, but in general I liked the tea, it was interesting, and had a lot going on.  Bitterness could really put someone off, but although that's quite far from my favorite flavor-aspect range (along with the kale and green bell pepper) I still liked it.  The overall complexity made it work for me, which extended beyond flavor aspects, and the transitions made it more interesting.

Post-script

In talking to an online friend with lots of experience with Vietnamese tea he mentioned his take on bitterness in tea; he sees it as flaw related to processing that could be improved upon.  It's hard to say if that even could be the objectively correct fact of the matter, but it stands to reason that processing may be a related factor, and that leaf characteristics prior to processing are another.  My understanding of his point is basically that the same leaf could be processed differently to not be bitter.  Personally I have no idea about that, just passing it on.

Of course sheng pu'er is the main tea type I've tried that includes pronounced bitterness, not always, but it's not exactly atypical, more the opposite in younger versions.  Some people seem to be ok with sheng being bitter, and per my understanding both bitterness and astringency may not be seen as negative in green teas in Vietnam, which is why it's not a given to use slightly cooler water to offset at least the astringency part.  According to Huyen there are two schools of thought on that, and two different preferences, either using near-boiling point water (even for green tea) or water down around 80 - 85 C instead.

I hadn't intended to pass on much for sources but this tea is almost certainly from local variations of Assamica tea plant types.  Since I've just talked to a number of people involved with selling tea in Vietnam about it and that was taken as a given by all of them, that tea from this region is typically local Assamica plant types, it seems quite well established.  It would probably be identical or else closely related to the "shan" tea types listed in this reference (a plant-type study conducted in Taiwan), but that conclusion is just speculation.

Vietnamese black tea from an online friend tea exchange

Partly related to co-founding and being an admin for an international themed tea group (this one) I tend to talk to lots of people about tea.  After discussing teas with a contact in Vietnam (Huyen Dinh, her profile here), with her showing pictures of some amazing looking and sounding teas, she and I decided to swap some teas.  If you meet the right tea enthusiast, someone really into tea for the love of the experience, then it's not that unusual for them to just share some with you, to want to spread the awareness.  But a trade sounds nicer, to maintain balance, and I have some tea around that will work well for that.

I was already planning to send tea back to that friend in Kuala Lumpur (and still haven't; related to a glitch over someone being around to receive it).  I bought that Dian Hong--black tea from Farmerleaf, from Yunnan--partly related to the idea, and also related to just liking it.

I'll try a tea labeled as "black tea #1" first.  That friend works in a tea related business (in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, Vietnam) but my impression is that this is a personal exchange, so I'll only cite original sources to the extent that's relevant and available.  I'll go with calling her a friend from here on out since she did just send me a bunch of tea, but she was on the borderline before anyway.   As it turns out that's all the detail I'm going to have for this version, that it's a black tea from Vietnam, so the potential goals of supporting vendor marketing or others being able to track down this tea drop out.  If it wasn't an exceptional tea there would be no point in even talking about it, but it is.

Review

The tea has a rich dry leaf scent, sweet and complex, malty with a good bit of raisin (or along those lines; that could be a different dried fruit).  The look is nice, with long, twisted leaves, with a good bit of bud material.  I don't know what it is but the appearance reminds me of other sun-dried versions of black teas, with the look not so far off one of those Dian Hong.  It seems possible the color variations could relate to also using yellowed leaves but I really don't know; I guess variations in oxidation in the leaves could be causing that.

The initial taste is intense, in a range that's familiar, but in a complex presentation that's still a bit unique.  This tastes like a Chinese black tea, it's just a matter of which one.  It's going back a bit but as I'm remembering it tastes more like Golden Monkey than that Dian Hong (but don't hold me to that; I've not been drinking Golden Monkey for quite awhile).  At any rate it's whatever Vietnamese version of a black tea it is, and aspects description would seem more informative than a type-mapping attempt.

It is a bit malty, but nothing like an Assam, not even related to Ceylon.  I usually contrast malt that's more like ovaltine, like a slightly fermented grain, close to cocoa, with versions that are sort of towards a mineral effect from there, "dryer" and more intense.  This isn't really either one.  It would be typical to describe the main flavor component as cocoa, I think, and that wouldn't be wrong.  I'm seeing it as a complex range, as cocoa, and an unusual expression of malt, one that is richer and sweeter, combined with a roasted sweet potato aspect.  There is next to no astringency.

It's hard to say if the body (feel) is actually light or if that's just because I'm only on the first infusion.  I'm preparing this Gongfu style, so the count will probably get to well over half a dozen.  It definitely expresses lots of fullness in terms of aftertaste; it doesn't just vanish from your mouth.  I'm tempted to start passing on subject impression; I like it, but more about in what sense, which parts work better versus my preferences.  But this is still just the first infusion, so first things first, I'll try the tea for a few rounds.

I went pretty light on the next infusion to see how it works made that way, since flavor intensity was already pretty good without upping infusion strength.  I brewed it for around 15 seconds; not long, given that the tea is probably still opening up.  It's a bit counter-intuitive but sometimes a light infusion can make sorting out flavors a little easier, although a stronger than average infusion might tell more of a story about the aspects as a whole, inform about what's going on with body / feel and aftertaste better.  It still works quite light, and the sweetness is still very pronounced at this infusion strength.  That set of aspects didn't change:  cocoa, roasted sweet potato, and range I'm interpreting as malt.  Really that could be better described as an aromatic version of a root spice instead, now that I think of it, earthy and sweet, but more subtle.  Or it's not that far from sandalwood, as in the incense versions, it's just subdued, layered in with other flavor complexity, and one might tend to think of that as overpowering and dominant in that form, as an incense scent.

On the next infusion the tea is really coming into it's own.  I went longer, around 30 seconds, and the aspects set didn't change but the proportion and effect really did.  It will just be hard to explain how.  Cocoa seems more pronounced, and that spice tone I wasn't exactly pinning down shifted a little towards cinnamon.  There is still roasted sweet potato, and still plenty of sweetness, but that trace more complexity is nice and the balance really works out.  Related to body it's not exactly a full-feeling tea, not rough in any way, more flavor intensive, with a hint of dryness giving it a little bit of an extra dimension.  The very long and pronounced aftertaste is nice.  It tastes sweet after you drink it; those spice tones and the cooked sweet potato remain.


I went longer on the next infusion to give that a try, around a minute.  The tea wasn't really fading yet, it was about trying it at different infusion strengths, although it may be leveling off a bit.  It's plenty intense still, shifting again just a little in terms of flavors proportion.  It's still plenty sweet but a darker form of cinnamon joins in with the roasted sweet potato and other range.  It's a bit like that one taste aspect in Rou Gui, the Wuyi Yancha (Fujian roasted oolong, or rock oolong, as the translation goes).  But there it tends to be a main flavor, and pair with a medium or even medium high roasted effect context, but here it's joining into a range of other flavor aspects instead.


That mix of a darker form of cinnamon and other spice range starts to invoke a dry, earthier version of autumn leaf scent.  The incense part, I had called it sandalwood, but it could as easily be frankincense or myrrh; my hippie days are getting pretty far back there.  I don't mean the rich, complex, slightly vegetal smell when the leaves are still falling, I mean the late fall / early winter smell when the piles of well dried leaves are all over the place.  Again that aftertaste just trails off; after a minute it's half gone, after another minute half of the rest lets up, but it never really completely ends.

It might have made sense to cite these infusions by count; I really didn't expect the flavors to evolve in this way.

On the next infusion the tea is fading a little.  The complexity is still there, scaled back a little, and the range is still nice, but it will take over a minute to draw out the same flavor range.  Where I was using water down around 90 C / 195 F now I'm going with full boiling point.  Not that being precise about it matters, or that using boiling point water wouldn't have been pretty the same all along, since there is no astringency to brew around.

Related to parameters, I'm using a small gaiwan relatively full of tea (sorry about the lack of measurements on that, which is not really how I approach tea; maybe 6-8 grams in a 100 ml gaiwan).  Using a reduced proportion doubling all those times would make more sense.  To me that's the beauty of Gongfu style brewing; you don't need the tea producer or a table from somewhere to tell you how to make the tea; each last infusion tells you what to adjust to match your own preference.  This tea would be ok brewed Western style (putting two grams of tea in a cup of hot water and letting it sit for 4 or 5 minutes instead, more or less), but it would seem a shame to miss the transitions, to narrow it back to drinking two infusions of it.  I'd at least double that proportion and go with three shorter, stronger versions myself.

Even using a two minute infusion this tea is still faded, but I hate to let it go.  I'm tempted to go boil it and see what comes of that, but I'll give it one more long soak to see how that works first.  This next one will have to be more than a half dozen infusions anyway, and that's sort of how it goes with better black teas that don't brew out very quickly, prepared using a higher proportion and shorter brewing times.

Conclusions, the rambling on part

With this tea being so good this set of samples--some aren't really samples, substantial amounts of tea instead--is going to shift what I've experienced of Vietnamese teas.  I've tried some really good versions, from my favorite supplier Hatvala, and other sources (one black tea I found in a Hanoi shop I really should have bought a pound of), but a set this good covering this much range changes things.  I knew better Vietnamese teas were out there, and I've tried Vietnamese teas that were this good before, but trying so many at the same time is something else.


I was just talking to Huyen about teas evolving and changing character across infusions (who sent the tea), related to discussing tea in a tea group oriented towards beginners.  Obviously I have nothing against people new to tea, and I'm not putting myself on a level above them.  The point of this blog is to help share what I experience, to help others move through their own tea exploration, which of course would take a different form than mine (everyone is different).  If someone only ever drank Twinings they wouldn't experience a lot of the things I'm talking about in this post.  I mean a tea transitioning aspects range across infusions, or a pronounced aftertaste, tasting cinnamon and other spice, and roasted sweet potato in a black tea.  Not that I'm picking on Twinings; they are the producer of some of the best commercial mass-produced tea I've tried.  And lower-medium level quality commercial tea is not a bad thing, even if drinking it never leads someone past it to better teas.


I've been talking about karma lately--this is going to connect, just stick with me--about how it doesn't have to be a mystical force that keeps a score.  I suppose I never mentioned that I was into Buddhism for a long time, although I did mention that I was a monk once, but probably passed over a decade of self-study.  I don't think I've brought up getting two degrees in religion and philosophy after that part (I'm also an industrial engineer, my current day-job).  Anyway, my point was that we live out our experience as who we are, and to some extent the fruits of being a decent person are expressed as good things happening, and positive connections, and just experiencing being decent, versus living a life of manipulating and deceiving others.  It might seem like being a corrupt, dishonest, despicable business-man or politician--or both--really does reward one for cutting those corners, but such a person lives out those lies; that's who they are.  Would it be worth it to be one of the most powerful people in America to also be the most hated person in America?  To some, yes, but in terms of the context of immediate experience I would expect there to be unusual levels of draw-backs.

the whole family is devout (not me, so much, I'm more pragmatic)

Moving on, it's nice that my karma, or at least random chance, has allowed me to have such a kind and generous online friend who shares amazing teas with me.  I'm not going to get any more mystical or sappy about it; that's the whole point.  Of course I appreciate other things even more than tea, especially my family, but I am really into tea.  I want to pass that on, to help others experience versions like this one, but even when online Facebook group discussions provide an opening for that it can often come across as me saying "my tea is better than your tea."  I suppose to some extent that's true, at least today, related to comparison with people drinking grocery store tea, but I intend to frame that as pointing out options, not putting myself above others. 


A chance online contact shared this tea; I can take no credit for how nice it is.  Someone visiting Bangkok might be able to look me up through my FB blog page--named after this--and maybe I can even out that karma a bit, and pass on a sample.  Not of this tea; whatever else is around.  No guarantees, but it couldn't hurt to check.

Kalani as Tinkerbell

the daughter I never talk about; probably a case of speciesism

while I'm sharing pictures, with the other one