Moychay sun dried compressed Dian Hong (Yunnan black)

Only partly connected to visiting two Moychay shops in Moscow and St. Petersburg over New years that vendor sent quite a number of samples to try, including this 100 gram compressed Yunnan black tea.  I really love a Nan Nuo sheng cake I picked up in St. Petersburg so I'm excited to try more of their sheng, but this tea goes along with an earlier connection to another similar version so I tried it first.

It turns out that the owner of the chain I had talked to is not just a tea merchant but also a tea enthusiast (Sergey; maybe I'll do more of a profile on him at some point since I've been considering tea culture in Russia quite a bit).  About more background on that, most of the Moychay and tea background content is in Russian but there is one blog video in English on their site with updates in Facebook and Instagram about tea themes and sourcing trip images.

Pretty much all tea vendors are tea enthusiasts, you might say, but it does seem to come in degrees.  Maybe it's as well to say that he's also a student of tea, although that brings up the same implications. There seems to be a divide--which I won't say more about--between tea vendors who are true tea lovers, and those who are certainly very interested in the subject but don't seem to know much about it, and others who seemingly would as soon be selling rat poison if the profit potential was there.


For whatever reasons I really loved a compressed Yunnan black tea I bought a brick of, from Teasenz.  Because I will say more about that tea version too, and sundried black tea aging potential, this post fails to stay simple; oh well.  I was just mentioning that tea and subject theme in an online discussion so I'll cite that vendor description here (with my own review here):

that other compressed Dian Hong; photo credit Teasenz vendor page

The colour of the brew looked like something between a black tea and a ripe pu erh tea. Pretty intense dark red, though we brewed it for only 10 seconds. Not strange, because our gaiwan was fully filled with leaves once they expanded.


The taste was really interesting and was 'confusing' because we couldn't really place it. The first sip told me it was the aroma of a Yunnan black tea, but then the after taste was kind of like a ripe sheng pu erh. The texture was indeed thicker as the grower told us, something that also reminded us of a shou pu erh. The smoothness is amazing and probably due to the 2 years of aging. We also noted that the aging allowed us to brew the leaves up to 9 brews, which is pretty amazing for a black tea. The aging seems to result in more yield. If the brick was made of full leaves and buds, the yield could even be higher.


It wasn't the texture that stood out so much to me as the flavor complexity but it was a thick feeling tea; that layer of rich mineral acting as a base for other dried fruit range seemed unique.  It did seem in between a Yunnan black tea and some sort of hei cha, all the more interesting for trying it blind, for not looking up what it really was before the tasting for that review.


The subjects of pressing teas and aging them tend to overlap.  I'm not sure how many kinds of teas beyond pu'ers, other hei cha, white teas (mostly shou mei, but also others) it makes sense to compress into bricks, cakes, or other shapes.  Doing the same with oolong isn't unheard of.  Traditional forms include Korean dokk-cha, which I can't draw a parallel to related to other types, and haven't tried any version of yet.  Falap (phalap) is a Northern Indian compressed tea that seems to just be a version of bamboo sheng pu'er.  I'm not sure where I'm going with this; just rambling a little there.  Teasenz no longer sells that other version as a pressed tea, but I'm not sure if that makes much difference in aging anyway.  Pressed tea cakes might seem cool; there's that.

I've mentioned before that sun-dried black teas are said to improve with age, as pu'er, hei cha, and white teas do, so with that as a common theme compressing Yunnan black tea makes perfect sense.  As chance has it there was a recent discussion of the subject of black tea aging in a Reddit tea subforum.

Review:

The look is dark with some bud material, and the smell is sweet and rich.  I tend to not review teas by dry tea scent much, so I'll move onto describing how that worked out infused.

The initial infusion I went a little light on; the next one will open up more.  I'm brewing it using a Gongfu style approach, in a gaiwan, with proportion just a little lower than I tend to use for sheng, and I'll see how timing works out best related to that.

It's nice and rich, sweet and earthy, with a touch of tartness.  I've mentioned in other reviews that I don't particularly seek out tartness in black tea but in the right balance a little could be nice.


I'll let the next infusion brew to a more typical black tea strength, more intense than a typical sheng or even oolong, the way I most prefer black teas of this type.  They work well very light too; the flavor range doesn't change much, and there is no astringency to be problematic.


In discussing brewing with someone they mentioned the practice of trying one infusion at higher strength could be seen as related to the Indian cupping practice of brewing teas uniformly and on the strong side, versus drinking tea for enjoyment, to "push" the tea and become more aware of flaws.  I sort of see it that way and sort of don't.  It's just a different look at the same tea, loosely based on that theme.


The tartness stands out more brewed stronger; I wouldn't be surprised if this falls into a more positive balance brewed lighter, in a more standard infusion strength.  A hint of dryness joins in with the fullness of the feel of the tea, in a way and a level that's positive, it complements the rest.


There is a bit of that same unusual character I noticed in that other compressed Yunnan black tea, an earthiness that's not necessarily easy to describe.  I'd go with richer versions of dried fruit as a main description for the most pronounced taste elements, but I'm talking about an underlying mineral layer instead.  It's nice.

I was going to look up how I described that mineral in the other tea version (not typical practice for me), which I'll cite more completely here:


One part reminds me of toasted pastry, another fruit, but so heavy and complex it would  have to be a mixed fruit jam.  The way minerals layer in is interesting; maybe that part is like volcanic soil.  Some of the interesting earthiness is out towards leather or even crude oil, just nothing like shou pu'er where those might be primary elements.  It has a nice thick feel too, thick in an interesting sense.  That fruit aspect may have been similar to dried persimmon instead of raisin, with some of the other complexity hinting towards spice range, just not cinnamon or something familiar. 


This tea is a little like that, maybe just a bit more tart, and not quite as earthy.


I definitely love the tea.  I'd probably like it even better if that slight tartness was swapped out for more of a richer, sweeter tone, but it's nice as it is and still early in the tasting; it could transition.  This tea will also probably develop a bit over the next couple of years, although I'm not sure how much I'll have around then; maybe I'll get another mini-cake at some point to hide from myself.  That other tea I keep referring to was two years old (or maybe even three between delay for them posting that reference and me trying it), and this may well evolve in a similar direction.


The feel is nice, and the overall fullness of the aspects together.  That one underlying mineral tone makes for a really nice drawn out aftertaste experience.  No flaws really come across, to the extent that was possibly one point to the brewing choice of doing a longer infusion.


I will guess at that mineral type:  it's somewhere in between artesian well (iron compounds) and Southwestern US slickrock, with just a hint of struck match.  It works better than it might sound because of how it pairs with the other flavor range aspects.  The dried fruit range is hard to specify but there's a rich, sweetness to it similar to a pipe tobacco.  When I'm describing older sheng as tasting like tobacco usually that reminds me more of cigar, but this is different, sweeter and more aromatic.  Then again there are surely much better and more interesting cigars out there than I've ever tried; that was never my thing.

I went lighter on this next infusion, only for around 10 to 15 seconds.  It all does balance much better brewed lighter, and doesn't give up much for intensity.  It's an intense tea for not having much time to infuse for that round.  I'm sure this wouldn't be that different brewed in a more straight Western style but I'd definitely recommend messing around with parameters the other way.



It could be just the infusion strength difference or maybe some transition but the tartness drops way back, and the sweetness and other complexity doesn't diminish much at all.



While I'm doing tangents in mid-review I'll mention the vendor's description (added mixed in with the tasting notes later):


The bouquet of brewed tea is warm and bright, woody-herbal, with biscuit, fruity and honey notes. The aroma is deep and warm, viscous, fruity-spicy. The taste is juicy, saturated, sweetish, a bit tart, with a light citrus acidity and spicy nuances, transforming into lingering finish.

Brew tea with hot water (95°C) in a gaiwan or a teapot made of porous clay. The proportion is 5 g per 100 ml. The first infusion should last for 6-8 seconds. After that do short steeps (just for 1-2 seconds), increasing steeping time for each subsequent step, if necessary. You can steep the tea up to 9 times..


Right, a bit off boiling point is good.  I'd agree with all of that description.  In agreement with this vendor description and the Teasenz directions related to that other compressed tea version a bit cooler yet might work well.  I messed around with it for this tea and the flavor profile just shifts.  I'll often use hotter water later in the cycle to draw out more flavor but it's easy to misjudge when this tea is fading; it just keeps going.  Really short infusions did work well.


Related to the rest of those details there is a good bit of fruit to it, in the dried fruit range, which is a little harder to sort out due to the rest of the overall complexity.  It would surely be interpreted differently by different people.

Conclusions

I stopped taking notes but I kept on brewing more infusions until I lost count, at least 10.  The tea works really well brewed lightly and even after fading and requiring longer steeps the character doesn't transition much.  It doesn't move towards tasting woody as most blacks tend to when more brewed out.  I lot of teas don't go "off" as you brew lots of infusions, if they even can keep producing flavor, but the results aren't necessarily positive, but this tea was pleasant even in very late steeps.


I love black teas, and Dian Hong in particular, and there's something unique about sun-dried versions I really like.  This tea could potentially be much better in a year or two, but per my understanding it's not typical to keep them around for more than a few years to draw out further transition.  I tend to not say much about value in posts but with this version costing just under $8 for 100 grams it's a great buy related to that.  Other Dian Hong do span a broad aspect range and judgment of how good any one version is depends on preference but I'd certainly recommend this one completely aside from that value consideration.


On the personal update side, my son has been pretty excited for about a week over seeing Infinity War.  My daughter started ballet lessons too; I'll have to add photos of that later.  For now I'll leave off with one image related to that movie instead.

the Infinity War happy ending that they didn't show

Comparison tasting 2007 and 2010 Yiwu gushu sheng

This follows on something like 9 months of ramping up exploring sheng, with a lot of that related to Yiwu Mountain Tea samples of different types and ages (that links to other posts; the vendor site is here).

Now that I think of it trying a set of boutique producer versions from the Golding shop in Kuala Lumpur back in 2016 was probably a related start, or trying a series of Thai versions of sheng from Tea Side prior to that.  In a sense this is one form of culmination, of this later round at least, trying two moderately aged versions of considerably better than average, familiar style and region sheng.

These are both still youngish by some standards.  Decades old aged pu'er qualifies as truly aged versions by everyone's expectations, with 15 to 20 years as a more moderate consensus for the beginning of that threshold.

One point of this broader set of reviews was to see what's out there for different sheng pu'er, and to get some feel for the input of different production areas and aging / fermentation related changes.  I tend to not try to place any of the sheng I'm trying on a scale, either of how good it might be related to other similar teas, related to a range of all sheng or to some subset of what I've tried.  These teas I'm reviewing were good teas, and I did like them, but that's about as far as I usually go with expressing that, more focused on describing aspects instead.




An online tea friend mentioned that it's probably time to drop hedging opinions as relative to limited experience and just get on with expressing them, but there are a lot of factors related with this particular tea type.  It's not mostly about modesty related to judging based on only a few years of tasting experience (which isn't that much, to me).


Sheng is more complex than a lot of versions of tea, with a broader range of those inputs (origin, processing, age, storage, etc.), and with more related aspects to sort out.  Preferences would vary a lot, and there is less of a singular standard, true-to-type better quality range to compare to.  I'll say more about how that after the detailed review.

Review:

2007:  this tea is still loosening up but already shows interesting complexity and depth.  That taste range is familiar but it's going to be a challenge to break it down.  It's earthy, with all the former brighter mineral tone and bitterness converted into that earthier, "darker" range.  Mineral in a completely different sense than found in young sheng grounds the range.  The feel has a fullness to it but the overall intensity is dialed back compared to younger sheng versions, with aspects covering a depth of different range instead.  I'll add more specifics in the next infusion, I'm just laying out the general impression here.

both teas are a bit darkened by aging (2007 left)

2010:  this is similar, with even more of dark tree bark sort of range filling in where the other tea is grounded by warmer, deeper mineral.  The floral range in both (what presumably would've been much more pronounced in younger versions) has also given way to that transition.

This reminds me of tasting a number of Thai versions of sheng quite awhile back in an earlier round of exploration, maybe between 2 and 3 years ago.  I did buy a favorite of that set, a Hong Tai Chang cake from 2006, an apparently identical tea to a version that Olivier Schneider sent two months ago (which I reviewed here as a sample three years ago, and re-reviewed here two years back).  It raised the question, where does this tea stand related to other Chinese sheng?  Of course that kind of question comes in levels, about if the input of growing conditions varied character, or how processing was typical within a range of different choices and skill levels, and about aging.  Some of that will be resolved just a little more in comparison tasting the two versions together, but related to the basic theme I just needed significantly more experience for comparison.

Initially that tea tasted a bit like tobacco to me, until I tried another version that really did taste a lot more like tobacco, and I realized how far off that comparison was, at least related to the aspect describing an overall flavor range effect.  Mineral and dark wood worked as partial description, but never really captured it.  I'm not sure I'm prepared to get much further here.  It may be that in addition to lots of exposure tea drinkers who have went through more of a formal training and initiation process, a sort of ordination process, in traditional tea drinking circles, may acquire not just exposure to a broad range of teas but a conventional vocabulary for describing the experience.  I'm not exactly eating foods that remind me of deeper mineral tones, tobacco, obscure spices, and tree bark.

the 2007 tea (left) brews darker, but is more subdued

Second infusion:

2007:  the last infusion I let go for towards 20 seconds, to get the process moving, and the intensity was a bit much.  For this one I didn't use a flash infusion (in and out) but closer to that, around 10 seconds.  This tea is quite pleasant at this light infusion strength.  Flavor description is elusive; I might end up only describing these further in contrast, mentioning how one differs from the other.

2010:  again this tea has more of a darker wood / tree bark / spice intensity to it.  The other older version is well balanced and more subtle, but this has those edges to the character, intensity in different specific flavor ranges.  The aftertaste might draw out a bit more too.  In both cases the intense mouthfeel of a younger sheng has given way to a depth to the experience that's much less pronounced.  Those other elements remind me just a little of tobacco, all not that far off what I'm remembering of that older Hong Tai Chang Thai sheng version.

In a Yiwu tasting last year differences in storage transition input seemed notable, as an extra layer of flavor and feel that was expressed as both a distinct additional aspect and as a form of change in the rest.  Of course those teas were of varying ages, and they weren't the same to begin with, not from the same producers, although they were from the same narrow village area.  It made it hard putting it all together, to know what led to what for final results.  Clear patterns seemed to emerge, like Malaysian stored teas having a specific softness and deeper underlying funkiness, a touch of root-cellar character.  These teas are clearly transitioned but the overall tone and aspect range is clean and clear; no funkiness.

It is nice getting back to teas it makes sense to comparison taste, that are similar enough that it's not just about managing the challenge of trying two different teas at once.

Third infusion:

2007:  it's interesting that the color of these leaves are darker, and the brewed liquid is darker, and the flavor range is slightly more subdued, or even the aftertaste.  The flavor range is really complex for me not getting very far with describing it.  It's towards that char one encounters in roasted teas, it's just not quite that.  To me it comes across as mostly mineral, like the deeper complex tones I've mentioned before in comparison with an artesian well, or very old rusting oil well equipment.  It has some sweetness to it but I'm not really reminded of dried fruit, at least not much.  There's a dark wood / tree bark range to it as well but the main range is more mineral.  It's complex in the sense of experiencing a lot going on, a depth, but not complex in the sense of that experience spanning a lot of range.

2010:  again this version is more focused on the dark wood tree bark and spice range.  That deeper mineral tone is there but less pronounced.  This version expresses feel across the middle of the tongue, versus the other tightening slightly across lots of your mouth, but as I've mentioned I'm not attached to specific feel aspects beyond those adding depth to a tasting experience.

Fourth infusion:

Let's skip the split tasting format this time.  I went with a really fast infusion again since the teas are pleasant that way, and the 2007 isn't really transitioning.  It's a bit subdued, although the experience is pleasant.  I guess this could easily represent tea aspects going a bit quiet as one hears of.  It goes without saying but these differences may not relate mainly to aging exposure differences; I really don't know.

The 2010 shifts aspects proportion, with darker wood tones and tobacco shifting more towards the spice, almost picking up a bit of rosemary.  The feel thins going really light but the 2010 tea retains a nice long aftertaste.  It doesn't remind me of what I think of as hui gan, a bitterness-related sweetness tied to feel experienced in the rear of your mouth and throat, but it does linger in a positive way.  I'll try a slightly longer infusion time next but I don't expect that to be more positive, it's just something to try out.

2007 left; a bit darker after brewing

Fifth infusion:

One 2007 tea aspect comes across more like char when infused for more like 20 seconds.  I'm not completely sure what to make of that, or if it implies anything, just pointing it out.  It's not like that roasty range in medium roasted Taiwanese oolongs, or the stout edginess in Wuyi Yancha, more like a slightly burned Tie Kuan Yin (a mild version of that), not so different than inexpensive shou pellets often express.  Of course it's a completely different effect as a minor supporting element along with deeper mineral range, where those cheap shou versions just taste a little like brewing cinders.  Woodiness joins the mineral and trace of char, like a well-aged hardwood, or maybe even a tropical hardwood.

The 2010 tea hasn't changed.  The balance is nice, pleasant in the early infusions too but nicer in the last couple.  It occurs to me that part of the depth of this is not just mineral tones but a bit of what I was calling an old furniture taste in reviewing a medium roasted oolong not long ago.  It's a little towards nail polish but it's not fair to say the tea tastes like a chemical; it doesn't.  I guess as standard pu'er descriptions goes maybe calling it a touch of camphor works, just a mild version of it.  After thinking of it that way that matches the 2007 version too; it probably would be natural to have been using that as a clearer description.

Sixth infusion:

The teas are losing strength, at the point where longer infusions are required to draw out the same intensity, which shifts how the balance of different aspects come across.  In general the same trends in aspect range and difference is occurring; the 2007 is more subdued, more in a mineral range, with the 2010 slightly more intense with a bit more tobacco / tree bark / spice.  What I've noticed of wetter aging effect seems more pronounced in the younger tea, a faint echo of root cellar dampness.

Of course these teas are far from finished, so from this point additional description would cover how aspects transitions continue, in part related from brewing longer.  In order to keep reviews moderate in length (or really long but not completely unreadable) I typically just leave off describing every infusion round, as I will here.

Initial Conclusions

These were interesting teas, good examples of this type and age, compared to what I've tried.  I'm still not far enough along to judge preference in aging effects or put decade old aged versions on a relative scale but they at least seem to be in a typical character for decent versions within that range.

In that Yiwu vertical tasting event last year it was interesting how the teas became less intense throughout the progression through tea ages, beyond the other aspect range change.  The brighter, more intense character in the younger teas transitioned to deeper, more complex, earthier range.  Thaneadpol, the guy hosting that session, mentioned that it may have made sense to vary proportion instead of keeping all the parameters completely identical to allow for a more balanced, even comparison by doing so.  The overall intensity of those older versions (a 2008 and 2005) was relatively muted.

I can't completely connect that to the idea that shengs tend to "go quiet" at some point in their aging process but to some extent it would seem to relate to that.  That might lead one to guess that this 2007 version could potentially improve further once it ages further, it might move through a less intense phase.  Based on more experience with aging progressions one might instead conclude that it would likely just fade from here.  Either way it was interesting to try at this stage.  I've not reviewed all the teas I have in this sample set, and I'll continue to use them as references in comparison with other versions that come up. 

One might go further with comparison against similar teas, to narrow down the location origin for further comparison, or to reach further into the tea age issue, to sort out how these match up with others of similar type (specific place and plant source).

I just ran across an interesting Farmerleaf video on determining tea tree ages, relating to that "gushu" designation, on "how to estimate the age of ancient tea trees."  The answer was a little anticlimactic:  William said you have to cut a core sample to obtain an older bit of wood material (or actually he just said to test the old wood sample; he didn't mention how to come by it), and that tree size isn't a very good indicator, because the trees can grow faster or slower depending on conditions.

That said Philip Lee included a lot of pictures of older trees in the Yiwu Mountain Tea blog article "How big are wild arbor Gushu trees in Gaoshan?"  There is probably scattered references of age estimations in their other site content but it seems as well to not do a tangent on tea tree ages anyway.

Placing vertical tasting, other related approaches

This still seems short on conclusions, given all that context, doesn't it?  I kind of leave off with "that's interesting."  I don't mean to undersell just how interesting it actually has been trying this Yiwu origin series.  Check out this aged sheng sample pack contents sold by Yiwu Mountain Pu'er for reference to that, described as 6 samples included, 20g each:

2015 Yiwu Gushu Huangpian (yellow tea or "farmer's tea")
2005 Yiwu Gushu Huangpian
2016 Yiwu Qiaomu ("wild arbor trees," about conditions, not a tea plant age claim)
2012 Yiwu Qiaomu 
2017 Yiwu Gushu 
2010 Yiwu Gushu


It would difficult to seek out similar teas spanning that connected range of types and ages, and nearly impossible to do so related to purchasing samples.  Some vendors do sell samples, of course, and as some have been following the "Liquid Proust" vendor (Andrew Richardson, interviewed in this post) has ventured into selling sample packs of pu'er, as much a variation on group buys as typical vending (covered in this interview post).  But I've not ran across an equivalent to this type of bundling as a standard offering (which is not to imply that what I've seen fairly represents all that's out there).


It has also been interesting experiencing some degree of preference transition.  As often noted sheng can be an acquired taste, partly related to appreciating a broader range of flavors, and in part related to appreciating aspects beyond flavor, feel and aftertaste effects, or even qi.  I'll say more about that part in other sheng reviews that will follow.

at International day, representing Japan (my daughter is on the left)

Wild tree Feng Qing hong cha (dian hong, Yunnan black tea)

I've been trying a good bit of sheng lately, for the last 9 months or so, and the one contact who sent some interesting versions to try, Olivier Schneider, also included a Yunnan black tea with the samples.  The picture includes that description:  a 2017 wild tree varietal black tea from the Feng Qing area of Lincang, Yunnan.  Sounds great.

I tried looking up references for this tea in his main pu'er reference page (puerh.fr) and his blog page (blog.puerh.fr) but that didn't work; not surprisingly most of the content is about pu'er.  He's been exploring tea areas in a few other countries outside of Yunnan so anyone with an interest in exploring pu'er further or other regions should take a look around those.

Tea preference:  Chinese black teas versus sheng pu'er

It's been great trying different versions of sheng, from different areas, teas processed differently, from different plant types and growing conditions, of different ages.  I've really enjoyed those teas, and even beyond that level of appreciation it's been fascinating experiencing that range.  It might still work to say that better, more interesting, and more complex Chinese black teas are still more closely matched to my preference in teas. 

At least in the past year I've been trying more Assam than Chinese black tea, and more on Darjeeling before that.  I've never really let Chinese black teas drop (my favorite broadest origin for black tea), the general types just tend to cycle, and what I'm drinking follows broad patterns.  I bought and reviewed three vaguely related Yunnan black teas last year (Dian Hong from Farmerleaf), so I never completely left that page.

In general black teas give up a lot in terms of complexity to sheng, since the feel and aftertaste aspects just don't span the same range, and transitions across different infusions are less varied, and the flavors expressed fall within a narrower scope.  But I really love that set of flavors, complex and balanced teas exhibiting cocoa, roasted yam or sweet potato, sweetness in the range of sugar cane or molasses, and other supporting earthy aspects.  It's not really just about flavor, as much about how it all comes together.  And to be fair it is still a lot about flavor; that's still the main page I'm on related to what I appreciate most in teas.

I've written about different forms of natural preference curve evolution before, about how people tend to move from liking simpler, basic teas (or maybe even tea and tisane blends first) to appreciating different range, including feel and aftertaste aspects.  But I'm not there related to moving on from mostly appreciating how a tea tastes.  It's not my impression that everyone would follow the same path related to natural transitions, although it must be the case that typical patterns emerge. 

It's probably as well to limit the philosophy of tea rambling to that and move onto a review.

Review

I went a little light on the first infusion, adjusting to brewing a black tea much closer to Western style, but using a gaiwan set-up, so really a hybrid approach.  Preparing teas like this isn't at all brand new to me but I've been drinking a lot more sheng lately, and more shou, oolong, and white tea than Yunnan black.

The first infusion is promising; the tea is sweet, rich, and complex.  There's a good bit of molasses sweetness and other dark flavor range depth, a soft, deep type of earthiness.  It's probably as well to break that down further on the second infusion instead.  This kind of tea is all about maximizing preference in brewing approach, but not in the sense of brewing around challenging aspects in the tea.

I think almost anyone would like this kind of tea, although preference for what people like most does vary a lot.  A friend just mentioned trying a unique black tea with a bit of sourness, and he'd recommended a tart black tea to me to buy before.  I did try that second version, this Guangdong province black, or "Dan Cong" black, as those get marketed, reviewed here, with a YS vendor page here.  I can relate to those but don't care for tartness or sourness in black teas, at least not as much as this other type of flavor range. 

At an introduction to tea tasting event I held last year I brewed comparable style Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea) for participants, and after one taste someone commented "now I know that I like some kinds of black tea."  Her world--tea-world, at least--had changed that fast, in a sip, and it was cool being a part of that.

The intensity level of the second infusion is perfect, and the tea is probably brewed about as effectively as it would be, showing around as much potential as it will.  One more infusion will be just as good, perhaps slightly different, transitioning some, but it will probably keep going in similar range from there.

leaves still unfolding

The tea balances really well, that rich, soft, complex feel and aspect range, with just a hint of dryness in the feel range.  I mean something completely different when I usually say that though; this tea is "juicy" feeling, full and thick, and smooth, so I mean that the complexity extends to give it a trace of structure that balances the rest, not that the feel is based on that sort of range. 


I'd go with cocoa as the main taste aspect, which works perfectly for me.  Beyond that a fruit tone is along the line of dried tamarind, but it's not so far off some sort of berry or cherry that I'd reject that sort of interpretation.  Maybe interpreted that way it's closest to dried blueberry, which is nice.  Or it probably works best to say it really is both, a complex range of fruit tones including dried tamarind and dried blueberry.

The earthiness is hard to pin down, but molasses is a good start.  I usually don't mention flavor aspects like wood or leather for teas anything like this but it has complexity that could be described in different ways.  That part is subdued, and well integrated, clean and balanced as a much lighter contribution than the cocoa, fruit, and molasses.  It would be odd to make it through a sheng review not mentioning "mineral" but I'm not sure if much of that as an underling base lends to the tea's complexity or not.  It's not tart or sour, at all.  Of course there is plenty of sweetness, which would be implied by that flavor list, but I hadn't actually said that.


The next infusion isn't transitioning much; it's roughly the same.  I went slightly faster on the infusion time (a bit under a minute; I am using a lower proportion for this tea compared to how I usually prepare sheng or oolong), in order to draw out the process as much as to optimize it.  This tea would work really well brewed twice as strong, and which experience someone would prefer would just be a matter of preference.  Upon reflection that mild molasses taste range seems as much like a caramel.  It's possible that brewed on the strong side it would resemble molasses, adding a slight earthiness edge to the tea, going along with more feel-structure, and brewed lightly it would drift back to caramel, perhaps shifting how flavors are perceived based on intensity.

after a number of infusions

Of course I'm starting to guess in this range of interpretation, or subjective impression might be coming into play.  It's simpler and maybe more accurate to say it's between a medium level cooked caramel and molasses and leave it at that. 


It seems clear to me that using water off boiling point would increase the fruit tones while dropping the earthiness and feel back (what I'm calling "structure," today at least), and going with full boiling point water would maximize those.  Which someone prefers is probably more a matter of preference than anything else.  I suppose a different balance in different teas could lead to one approach being better for one tea but the generality being inconsistent.

later brewed leaf appearance

I did use slightly hotter water on the next infusion and it did draw out a good bit more of that dark caramel aspect, shifting the balance from sweeter and lighter and more fruit oriented to earthier, doing more with the molasses tone, a bit towards a spice-range tree bark (not necessarily cinnamon, but maybe closer to Vietnamese cinnamon). 


It would work to use a range of temperatures, as I just did, and go with cooler water originally (not below 90 C; I'm not talking crazy) and bump it up boiling at the end to get more flavor out of the tea at the expense of giving up some of the earlier aspects balance.  Then again I guess I'm so far invested in the "following subjective-preference is fine" that if someone wanted to brew their black tea at 85 C I'd have to be ok with it.

that same reviewed tea, brewed slightly lighter

Revisiting brewing parameters

Brewing temperature just came up in yet another tea group discussion, so I could go further with that tangent, but I should probably cut that short here given how this has rambled on as it is.

The starting point comment someone made is that teas can be brewed to emphasize sweetness by using cooler water to brew them (that link).  It was within a specific context, so I'll just cite it to avoid summary errors:


If you crave something sweet but don't want to ruin the quality of good tea or intake higher levels of sugar, your best bet is White Peony/Bai Mu Dan, and you can typically get respectable quality at relatively low prices.


If your goal is sweeter tea, that probably means you'll want to use more leaf than directed with cooler water and a longer brewing time. depending on the variety (some are a bit stronger, others are naturally lighter), I use about a 2-4 tablespoons and brew for 2.5 to 5 minutes with relatively cool water (about 60-70C or 140-160F is a good place to start).  If you get it right, you'll have a brew with full flavor, intense sweetness, minimal bitterness and a floral, honeysuckle bouquet.


So he's really mentioning that related to a specific white tea, using Western style brewing, and cooler water than is usually recommended for that type (although white teas are a general type example where recommendations tend to vary).  Perhaps critical to the recommendation is that the idea is to get the best results out of value-oriented medium quality level tea.

The last post I talked about brewing temperature at length in was just about oolong.  In that a general divide occurred between a more common acceptance that using boiling point water is always best, with intensity and aspect character adjusted by varying infusion time and proportion.  On the other side some temperature range variation was also accepted, or using cooler than full boiling point temperatures in general.

I'm not saying the two issues are identical; white teas clearly aren't the same as oolong.  But I will go ahead and claim that I've noticed the same trend in preferences and best-practice claims occurring across a lot of tea types, with one recommendation for using full boiling point water for green teas cited in that post.  In discussing that issue with that FB group post author I ended with this conclusion:


I could see why people claimed using boiling water for oolong was best.  Based on their preference and what they drank it was.  Those are both not a given for everyone else though, and to some extent relate better to assuming use of a Gong Fu brewing approach.  Of course I can see why drinking higher quality tea does seem like an objectively grounded improvement.

I just couldn't get on board for giving up personal preference as a factor. But I do gradually use boiling point water more universally myself, so I can see where that preference comes from.


I didn't mention it there but I don't tend to brew any oolong Western style very often either, mostly only for moderate quality versions at work, when not really getting optimum results doesn't matter.

It would seem too strong a claim to say that across a lot of tea types everyone would naturally move from preference to using cooler water to preference for adjusting final aspects range using other factors (proportion and timing), and brewing with full boiling point water instead.  Some of that might work as a typical general trend though, paired together with how optimizing better teas is different than the experience of brewing around flaws in lower quality teas.

I'm not sure all that makes any other less developed preference less valid, or one that just lands in a different place, but based on what I'm saying there is a limited scope case to be made for that.