A Tea Addict's Journal

Entries categorized as ‘Teas’

Yet another mystery cake

September 18, 2007 · 2 Comments

Mystery cakes abound in Taiwan. I found another one this weekend, and since it looked good enough and is cheap enough, decided to give it a spin.

First let’s take a look at the mystery cake in question:

The shadow in the bottom is a lighting thing — the cake looks quite even throughout actually

As you can see… lots of tips, furry, and light in colour. I thought, when I saw the cake, that it looked pretty good. The leaves look robust (at least in person). When I tasted it at the store…. it was a little bland, it seemed, but the guy used very little leaves. I thought I should buy one and try it out in person, so I did.

I used a gaiwan today, so as to not have any interference from the teaware in the preparation of the tea.

The tea is interesting. There’s a surprising smoothness early on, even though I used quite a bit of tea. The tea still tastes very new — at most two years of age, but perhaps even less than that. The taste is mellow. Some bitterness is there, but on the whole, not very bitter at all, but also not too sweet either. I couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but I think this is probably Lincang tea.

There’s some throatiness as well as some qi, and the tea generally held up very well over the course of the afternoon (holed up with a minor typhoon — mostly rain and not much wind). The under-the-lid smell is that of a properly made puerh — no aroma, really, aside from the normal smell you’d come to expect. I find that if a tea is odd in some ways, the lid will be aromatic instead of neutral or even has a bit of that “green” odor.

The leaves of the cake, when wet, is the most impressive part

They look very good. I wonder if I should get more of this thing. I’m really unsure, at this point. Perhaps it’s best to sit on it and try it again some time down the road….

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

Laocong rougui

September 17, 2007 · 5 Comments

This is one of the acquisitions over the past weekend — a laocong (old bush) rougui.

This is what I will say is a heavy roast. It has been aged a bit to mellow out the “fire” taste in the tea, but there’s still a bit of it left. The tea’s not particularly cheap, but I’ve been wanting to try some of the stuff available here in Taiwan to compare with stuff I’ve got from China, and this store sells basically every kind of Wuyi Yancha imaginable.

Although rougui is supposed to have some sort of cinnamon aroma, I have never in my life found that to be the case. I don’t know … is it just me?

The tea brews a darkish coloured tea

This is with a 80% fill of dry leaves in the rather small pot that I use.

The first few infusions were quite good — very good, actually. Deep, full flavours that coat the mouth, and the lingering aroma lasts quite long. Sniffing the dried cup yields a pleasant sweetness. Some qi, although perhaps not as much as I’d like, given the price. The aroma in the cup lingers for quite a while — I can still smell it distinctly from the fairness cup hours after the last (rather weak) infusion has left it. It lasted easily for 10+ brews, and can keep going if I wished. Of course, the tea turns to a sweet, mellow flavour after about 5-6 infusions, but one of the things about yancha is that they keep going, and going, and going….

I am rather curious to try some of this guy’s other offerings, since this initial one is not bad at all. There are some rarer varietals that are on sale there that aren’t usually found elsewhere. Prices range from medium to high, but if the quality is good… getting 100g isn’t that much of an investment. These teas generally keep pretty well, and aren’t too fussy. If only the store is not so out of the way. Yancha is very pleasant as a regular drink, as opposed to young puerh, which, despite my frequent intake, is never really quite pleasant, necessarily speaking. One reason I didn’t try one of the new cakes I bought is precisely because I feel like I need a break from that young stuff…

I still can’t tell much from wet leaves for yancha. Leaves here seem a little smaller, perhaps an indication that more tender leaves are used (thus better). Roasting is obvious, but not so much that it becomes black. Honestly, of all the kinds of tea, I feel that yancha is perhaps the most difficult to understand. It’s easy to appreciate, but to be able to figure out the ins-and-outs of any one particular batch…. I should probably go to Wuyi again and spend a few days just observing their processing. The tea requires so much skill — from picking, processing, roasting — it’s extremely complex and the factors that go into the final product are many.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged: ,

A short shopping trip

September 16, 2007 · Leave a Comment

Yesterday I went to two shops, both of which were relatively unexciting. I bought a little bit of stuff, but mostly of curiosity and not because they represent what I really see as very high quality stuff.

I was a bit dissatisfied, and seeing that there is a store in my neighbourhood that I haven’t visited (the Chinese version of puerh-teapot is probably most useful for that) I decided to go there and take a look. They even have a website, which is rare especially for a store in my neck of the woods, since they don’t seem to be a huge operation. (Website in Chinese, and I linked you to the puerh page which is more easily navigable).

I walked in, and there were already a good three or four people at the store, sitting around the big table in the middle. The decor of the place falls into the “neighbourhood shop” kind of decor — rather dark, very unimpressive looking, with lots of pots lined on the wall and some puerh cakes in one corner of the store. They also had the obligatory bags of oolongs, but I get the sense those really don’t move much.

The person who was manning the desk was an old lady, who turned out to be the mother of the store owner. I was left alone to look at the cakes (I first quickly looked at the pots — some of which look very good). Most of the cakes on the website exist in the store. It was an interesting collection, and some of the stuff are even available in Western shops. I was, of course, rather curious that this unassuming looking store has this rather interesting collection of puerh — and all only less than 10 minutes walk from my place!

Meanwhile, some other guy walked in, and he started chatting me up. It seems like what I said was enough to impress upon him that I am not quite a complete newbie to tea, so I think that smoothed conversation. I eventually settled down at the desk, trying a tea that I picked out — it’s one of the cakes I’ve never seen before (page 6 of the website, third one from the left on the top row). It looked good enough, and I’ve never encountered it. It’s from “Zhang Jia Wan” or “Zhang family bay”. It’s a village in Mengla, which is part of the Mengsa mountain, a bit away from Yiwu, but not too far. Some will fuddle and say this is a Yiwu tea, but it’s not quite.

The dry leaves are dark, and the taste interesting. It’s very mellow, but there’s something there, something that penetrates down the throat. She brewed it in a tasting set — those white cups with the lid. It wasn’t an ideal way to try it given that she wasn’t doing long brews. Nevertheless… interesting tea.

I tried the other cake that is under that private label (the one on its right on the website). It’s from Youle… even mellower, and very smooth. It’s harder to tell if this cake is really good or really bad. I can’t quite decide. It tastes less aged than the first one, which is in and of itself an interesting thing. I don’t know how that can be the case, since they’re both from 2005 and made by the same folks and stored in the exact same way. I suppose it’s all a function of the raw materials and the processing. Food for thought.

Meanwhile, conversation continues. Obviously, everybody at the store know each other well. What also became obvious is that this place doesn’t just deal mostly in teapots.. it deals mostly in high end teapots, and has deep connections in Yixing. She knows quite a few of the craftsmen. She also seems to know most of the more famous personages in tea in Taiwan. You would never be able to tell by the unassuming store and the location.

She was quite generous and let me try another tea, made by Ta Culture Tea of Malaysia (website still under construction, it seems). She said the owner of the place, or at least one of the owners, is actually Taiwanese, and he gave her quite a few sample cakes of different provenance. The one I tried was a Bulang. It’s obviously made of good material. I don’t know how much, but I suspect it won’t be cheap. Very durable tea, made of mostly spring tips. Interesting…

I ended up leaving the place with one cake each of the two teas I tried, since they are not too expensive at all and are rather interesting in their own right. I want to try them more thoroughly before deciding if they’re actually good or bad, as the conditions at the store made that a little difficult. I also seem to have found a connection to a Pinglin farm while there (one of the other people there is from a tea farmer family), so maybe going to see a tea farm will now be an easier thing come October, when they start harvesting again (fall pick was just done, apparently). Obviously, today was a good day.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged: ,

Weird cake revisited

September 14, 2007 · Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I tried this tea. It was brewed lightly, and the reuslt was ok, pleasant, not too offensive, but not too much to write home about.

I decided to try it again today, with a heavier hand.

Some of the same things remained. The most noticeable thing though, is that the odd smell coming from this tea — a bit of a slightly weird, perhaps fermenting smell, is very strong when brewed heavier. The way the leaves smell, the tea smells and tastes too. I don’t think it is a particularly good taste. I do think the taste will eventually fade, but right now, it is very strong.

The tea is medium bodied, with some sweetness, but still bitter for the most part. Rough, not too rough. It’s a bit like a younger version of yesterday’s tea, although with a bit better longevity and also a bit more sweetness later on, which yesterday’s tea sort of lacked. You can see the raw nature of the tea in later infusions, when it sort of returns to a more green cake state. The change in colour is noticeable, and the last infusion is sort of a golden yellow rather than a brown.

I’m not sure what to make of it. Perhaps this is just the smell of whatever storage facility it was in — and the storage smells a bit nasty? It seems to be the case, as the base tea seems quite ok, and underneath the smell I can detect some more floral notes. However, I do wonder why the tea behaves the way it does. I even wonder if it has been doctored a bit to appear more aged. I did comment last time that I don’t think this is a real Menghai. I did buy it mostly out of curiosity more than anything else. It will be interesting to see what happens to it… perhaps after a few months of airing out, it will change? Who knows.

The wet leaves look better than yesterday’s

But some leaves are oddly shaped — look at the one on the left

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a leaf with that kind of shape before — with a round, big bottom and tapered ends. Usually they are thickest in the middle.

Odd.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

Loose puerh from Off-Chaism

September 13, 2007 · 6 Comments

Before I start ranting for the day… I should apologize for what must be an obvious lack of attention recently on this little venture of mine. I’ve been spending whole days at the library hammering out data these days, so it’s been a bit… taxing on the fingers and the brain for me to spend too much time on blogging.

But still, a man needs his tea, and keeping a diary of what I drink and what thoughts occurred to me was and still is the primary purpose of this thing.

I decided to start partaking some of the things I have purchased since I got here. I’ve already tried that cake I bought once, but the other stuff, I haven’t yet. It’s high time to try them now, a month after arrival and two earthquakes later…

This tea is a loose leaf puerh, allegedly aged 10 years, that I bought from Off-Chaism, one of the shops in the Yongkang area. It’s a bit expensive for what it is, but I wanted to buy some and try it, because it was a bit…. interesting when I tried it in the shop. Packaging in these high end shops tend to be nice

The original box is the darker brown one, then inside is the light brown envelope thing, within which is the foil bag. The little bag of moisture-soaking pebbles was enclosed within the foil bag. A lot of packaging for 100g of tea, really.

The tea looks nondescript, but you can smell a bit of agedness from it. I should probably leave the bag in open air for a bit — it should help the tea.

It brews up somewhat aged looking tea

This tea is odd. At first it was really quite nice…. impressive aroma, great depth, pretty reasonable qi. It was not rough, still bitter, and overall quite decent. Somewhere in the middle, though, it starts to fade a little. Perhaps because it is loose leaf, it doesn’t last quite as long as compressed teas. The bitterness also stays quite constant, which was slightly annoying. I think it could be because it’s still transitioning, and perhaps if I air it out a bit it will get better, but I also think that the tea probably wasn’t a great tea from a great area when young — it reminds me of Lincang area stuff, or maybe even border tea of some sort.

The wet leaves turn out to perhaps prove my point

The leaves are large, but there’s a sort of roughness to the surface of the tea and a certain stiffness. Some of the leaves feel like yellow leaves, which are stiffer, rougher, as well as less flexible. Even the smaller buds don’t feel too great. This might possibly be due to storage too — I think the tea is a touch wet stored — but I don’t think wet storage in so light a condition would cause this alone. More likely, it was simply inferior leaves when it first started out.

I definitely won’t get this one again, although that initial few cups were quite ok. I think if I brew it with a lighter touch, I can get more of the aroma and less of the problems from the tea. At the price I paid though, I could spend some more and get a whole cake of stuff that’s probably better — or at the very least, with a lot more potential. Lesson learned, but it’s an interesting lesson nevertheless. Who knows, maybe give it another 10 years and it’ll be a fine tea, although I suspect the remaining ninety something grams won’t make it that far.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

Yongde 2006 Spring Organic

September 12, 2007 · 3 Comments

The other sample I received from iwii is this thing. It’s surface is pretty. The inside is less pretty

It’s also one of those cakes that have leaves that are layered on top of each other… when I peeled, it peeled right off, and didn’t offer much resistance.

I used a healthy amount of leaves today, and this was the result

A rather golden coloured brew. The tea is quite thick, actually, and has good body. It feels like you could chew on it. There’s a certain floral character to it, and there’s also an underlying bitterness there, although it wasn’t something that was in the foreground. The bitterness also turns into something else – that kind of minty feeling you get with some teas. It did get rough on the tongue after a few infusions, and doesn’t really right itself until very late. The tea has a clean taste — perhaps this has something to do with the organic claim? Although I really don’t know how seriously to take the organic claim of any tea factory in China, especially when it’s not certified by a body outside of the country.

I also don’t take old tree claims very seriously these days. This tea feels like it has genuine old trees mixed in, but for the most part, the number of cakes that claim old tree status probably far exceed the total amount of leaves that can be harvested from real old trees in Yunnan. I even think that were we to cut down all the old trees they still would not be able to produce all those “old tree” cakes out there.

Most of them, as far as I know, are mixed. Some have more, some have less, but even if it’s 10%, they’ll say it’s old tree. How many people can actually tell if it’s a half and half mix (or a 3/4 and 1/4 mix)? There’s also the question of what’s really old. I’ve had teas that are sold as “small arbor tree” that are about 60-80 years old. The guy who was selling it was saying this is not true old tree (normally defined as over 100 years old) but often sold as such because they fetch higher prices, and because they do look/feel somewhat similar. Prices for their maocha, however, differ greatly, and I remember the “small arbor tree” price was about 1/3 of the old tree cakes.

Unfortunately, unless there’s some sort of appelation control, this is never going to be fixed. One way some people defend against this is simply to only buy stuff that are labeled as plantation or from lesser regions — nobody sane would fake these. I know somebody who a few years ago insisted on buying Bulang cakes and not Banzhang (which is a small part of Bulang), because Banzhang prices were going up while Bulang was dirt cheap. That’s no longer true, but there’s still a huge difference between Bulang and Banzhang, and nobody sane would use Banzhang leaves to make a Bulang cake.

Is this cake made of pure old tree material? I think the answer depends on how you define old tree. It probably has some, but I doubt it is all of it.

The tea, early on, also has a bit of “watery” taste. It’s not that it’s weak, but there’s something people call “water flavour”. It’s not a good thing, and is generally indicative of potentially problematic processing, etc

Still, it’s a fair cake, and I was glad to have given it a spin since I was a bit curious. The price isn’t high for what it’s worth these days.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

Bangwei 2006 Fall

September 10, 2007 · Leave a Comment

I had something relatively benign today, after yesterday’s long tea session. It’s one of those samples from Beijing that are still kicking around. This is a tea from a guy who sells through Sanzui, and from whom I have bought a few things. He always sends free samples along after you buy stuff as part of the shipment, and this is one of those samples that I got. They come in very big chunks (50g or more in a few cases) so he practically gives you a free cake when he sends you 3-4 samples.

I remember I was pretty impressed by this tea — it had strength. When I tried to break it up this time, I noticed that the tea is well massaged when they were rolling it in the cloth, readying it for compression. Rolling it around a little is essential, because otherwise the leaves are not intertwined and the cake will fall apart easily. My sample is one solid piece, and when I tried to pry it apart, the leaves stuck together pretty well. Not all cakes are like this — sometimes the leaves are basically layered and can be peeled easily. Not this cake. After some breaking:

It yields a golden yellow liquor:

Ever so slightly smoky, but otherwise, a bit floral/fruity in its aroma, and has good strength overall in its qi and depth. I still like this tea. I didn’t buy it though — I bought the spring version instead. Some people say Bangwei tea is no good, but I’ve found at least this particular one to be pretty decent, and it’s much cheaper than more famous mountains, which is also a plus.

The leaves are large, stems long, but all very soft and not much of reddishness (a little bit here and there).

Leaves don’t all unfold, which I actually think is not a bad thing. I have heard of problems of tea makers trying too hard to make sure the leaves are whole and unfold, and end up doing too little rolling during the making. Since the rolling is essential to break down membranes and also induce fermentation, etc, when it doesn’t happen enough the tea really suffers in the future — slower aging, or problematic aging. More rolling also makes it more bitter/astringent. I wonder if maybe that’s partly why they say things like the Yellow Label were nasty to drink when they were young.

The cup you see in the picture, by the way, is one of the things Aaron gave me yesterday

I don’t know if it has a name. The most interesting thing about this cup is that it will right itself if tipped. Obviously it will tip over if you’re determined enough to push it, but it does have the tendency to right itself, even with water inside, so even if you tip it over, you will only spill about half a cup — it will not pour everything out like most other cups of more conventional design will. I like bigger cups, and this cup is on the large side. I’m going to use it for a while and see what happens 🙂

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

The dangers of unlabeled samples

September 8, 2007 · 5 Comments

Rummaging through my box of samples, I found a clear plastic bag with no labels and a bit of tea in there. Why not? So I took it out and weighed it — 7g. Ok, good for one sitting I guess. It smells like Banzhang. I can’t remember any Banzhang that hasn’t been accounted for…. so heck, I’ll just make it.

I went through the motions and it produced a nice looking golden tea.

The tea is quite smooth, obvious strength, and decent penetration. Hmm, I think I know which one this is. This is the Xizihao 2005 Banzhang that I removed from the paper bag and put into a plastic one. The paper bag was giving the tea a bit of a paperbag smell, and the plastic ones I used from Beijing breath a lot, and don’t smell like much of anything.

The tea is quite decent, and obviously Banzhang in its flavour and what not. I remember the first time I tried this tea I got really dizzy and didn’t feel too comfortable. This time… I paid the price in an upset stomach. It doesn’t happen with all Banzhang, just this particular tea, for some reason. I’ve had other old tree Banzhangs that don’t do anything like this to me. I really don’t know why this is special, but it is.

Oh well, I will have to remember to label them next time.

The wet leaves are quite a mix of things — stems, big leaves, small buds, bud systems…. you’ve got a bit of everything here

I tried an experiment with the leaves after I was done drinking. My friend L, when he went to Yiwu, talked to some guy there who makes cakes. He said Banzhang teas are no good, and that the current craze over it is misguided. The reason is that the leaves of the Banzhang teas are really not very good leaves at all. As an example, he said that if you put a wet leaf of any Lao Banzhang tree between your fingers and rubbed it — it will turn to nothing. All you will be left is a bit of the leaf’s stem, and everything else will be gone — rubbed away. Yiwu, he said, won’t do that.

I tried that today, and hmmm, it’s true.

Now, what this means, if anything, I don’t know. After all, it might be a good thing for a leaf to be easily destroyed by your hand — would that mean more things are soluable in water, thus making a better cup? I don’t know. What I do know is that in China, if you talk to somebody who makes tea, they will always have one conclusion — their own productions are the best. The reasons vary, but the conclusions are always the same. So I will take that comment with a large grain of salt.

Any botanist out there who can shed some light on this?

Anyway, I’m off to bed as I have to get up early to catch a train to Miaoli to see Mr. Aaron Fisher. I’m sure I will have things to report tomorrow 🙂

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

Xiangshu 2004 Anniversary cake

September 7, 2007 · 1 Comment

I got a sample of this tea from iwii yesterday, so I tried it today. I’ve been curious about this tea for a little while now.

I’m not entirely sure this is actually from the Mengyang Guoyan factory. On the wrapper it says “Xiangshu Tea Enterprise” and it says it’s commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Xishuang Banna Mengyang factory, and also the establishment of the Xiangshu Tea Enterprise. No mention of Guoyan anywhere, which makes me think this might not be linked to the Mengyang Guoyan we’ve been hearing about recently.

But it doesn’t really matter.

The tea is buddy. Quite a few tips in the leaves, and not many big ones. The colour of the dry leaves are more or less consistent with the picture shown on ebay — maybe a touch greener

The tea brews a golden colour, slightly reddish

It’s quite smooth, thanks to the tips. Even at its roughest, around infusion 4-5, the tea is still acceptably smooth. The Menghai characteristics of the tea shows quite prominently. It has that bass note that is quite characteristic of the area, and that finish is quite typical as well. Iwii thought it’s a bit bland, but I like it. It’s not something to jump up and down in joy about… but it’s not too bad either.

The tea’s been pretty dry stored, but I’m sure it can use a few more years before drinking again.

The leaves… as you can see, are mostly buds

With some bigger leaves mixed in. I need to try this tea again, but first impressions are not too bad.

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

Water issues again

September 6, 2007 · 6 Comments

Before I get on to the topic of water… some unfinished business from yesterday.

This is what yesterday’s tea looked like when I brewed it this morning

This is what it looked like late afternoon

The top cup is yesterday’s tea. The bottom is today’s Wuyi…

And this is how the leaves look when I finally cleaned the teapot

So, yes, suspicions of cooked tea still remains, but the longeivity of the tea itself, and the fact that he has really no good reason to lie to me, makes me think that he’s not lying. It doesn’t matter much, because the tea tastes a bit cooked. I can probably boil it with water and get a few more cups of rather tasty tea out of it, actually.

Anyway, water. I’ve been fiddling with my water here, since I am starting with a new supply and not the steady Nestle water I used in Beijing. I have noticed over time that filtered tap water here is slightly acidic… just a hint of acidity. I don’t know why that is the case, but it is. The building is new. Will new pipes lead to a slightly acidic water?

The effect on tea, however, hasn’t been really obvious until today when I brewed the Wuyi that I thought was slightly sour. I thought I should drink it up, so I made the tea again. Only today, because of a water supply problem (something broke in the building so they shut down water for a few hours) I bought a big bottle of water from the convenience store across the street. The water is light in minerals and quite sweet in its taste. Not a bad water. I used about half tap water (I still had some left in my filter) and half of this bottled water. The effect is dramatic… the Wuyi tastes better than last time, and the sourness? Gone. Absolutely gone. There was perhaps a tinge of it somewhere in the first infusion, but it is so faint that it could very well be placebo.

This of course reinforces the well known fact that water is very important, but since the water itself doesn’t taste sour when drunk, I was surprised that the tap water did that much damage to the taste of the tea and the manifestation of sourness. I always knew that water will do a lot of things to the body of the tea and the way it acts in the mouth, but I didn’t think something like whether or not an oolong will turn sour is so affected as well by what must be a small shift in the ph of the water.

Well, lesson learned. One of these days, I should re-do my water experiment from way back…. when I first started the blog, I drank the same tea for four or five days in a row, each day using a different kind of water. I remember the differences were big, but these days, I think I can probably better discern and describe the differences.

Categories: Information · Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged: ,