A Tea Addict's Journal

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.

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.

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 🙂

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 🙂

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.

This is a sample I received from somebody on a Chinese forum. The guy was generous enough to send me two samples of Yangqing Hao teas. One of them, the 04, was once available on Hou De but has been long gone. This one, the Baisui Xiangcha, or “Hundred Years Fragrant tea”, I don’t believe has ever been sold there…

The leaves are quite dark when dry. It’s supposed to be a mix of six mountain tea, so not all Yiwu like many of his other cakes. I think this is a lower grade cake, relatively speaking.

The tea brewed a golden colour — quite pretty

The first cup was extremely smooth and soothing. There was a fair bit of bitterness, in a very subdued fashion, in the first cup. It’s an interesting feeling — the bitterness is simultaneously there and not there. The smell on the bottom of the lid was a reassuaring grassy/green smell, while the fragrance lingered in the bottom of the cup. The tea, however, gradually got a little more rough as time went on. There was not a lot of qi, and the aftertaste/throatiness varied in degree, depending on which infusion. Sometimes it’s stronger, sometimes it’s weaker. It started turning sweet around infusion 5, and then got sweeter, while still remaining a bit rough.

The wet leaves are …. interesting

They come in all shape and sizes and colours

The blending is obvious, both in the way the leaves look but also in the cup. While it does taste like the six mountains area, there is a fair bit of change going on in the cup and in that sense, the tea is quite interesting. I don’t, however, believe the leaves are of very high quality. I think it is a blend of old and new tree teas, and while the body is fair, the strength, in terms of aftertaste, qi, and that kind of thing, are not quite there. The blending part can does make up for some of the deficiencies in other areas though…

This is a sample I bought from Hou De probably a year and half ago. I remember trying it once, and then forgetting about it while it sat in Beijing. I discovered it today while looking for things to drink… so I pulled out a few grams of it

The leaves look big and are quite long, not too hardly compressed and easily broken off. The leaves are on the reddish side of things. They look very clean — dry stored.

I brewed it normally

(Still trying to figure out the lighting, sorry)

The tea has a dry stored taste for something 6 years old, with a lot of high aromatics, a bit of that sweetness, some roughness, and in the second infusion, a clear flash of sourness. The tea is not very thick at all — in fact, I’d say it’s a bit thin. This is a bit of a contrast to what I remember from my last tasting, when I thought it was quite good. It could be the fact that much traveling and a year of Beijing storage in a paper bag did some damage to the tea, or maybe a year more of drinking teas actively and thinking about what I’m drinking has made me notice these problems. I have noticed that by blogging about the teas I drink, I’ve gotten more sensitive to things I see in tea — perhaps because I actively process them while drinking, rather than just drinking them.

The leaves of this tea are quite green, still

And more importantly… they are a little on the thin side

As well as oddly shaped, I might add.

I still have more of this. Maybe I’ll keep it and see what happens after another year and half.

I bought this cake a week and half ago, and haven’t tried it yet since my purchase. Given that yesterday I had a 90s tea, I figured it would be a good thing to do to compare it with this cake. I know they’re not very comparable — this one being younger by a good bit, but it’s good to have a reference point sometimes.

The wrapper is a CNNP one — since I’m no wrapperologist, I am not sure what it is. The owner of the store said it’s a special order cake from Menghai. I have my doubts based on the way the cake is shaped. For people like us who are only buying the tea for personal consumption, factory provenance doesn’t matter too much as long as the tea is fair (and the price too, since Menghai and other big factories command a premium).

This is what it looks like unwrapped

With a closeup

And the bit that got bitten by the mouse…. no, it was me 🙂

It’s odd, but under this lighting it looks better than when I am staring at it live.

The tea is probably around 5 years of age, or thereabouts. I’m not sure.

The first thing I notice is that the aromas are “higher” than the tea yesterday. It being younger and less aged probably has something to do with it. The liquor is also lighter in colour

The initial infusion was very sweet, with a bit of an aged taste showing. It gradually got a little rougher as I brewed it on, but the aroma also intensified. In fact, it took a good 3-4 infusions before the tea really hit its stride and I could feel the strength of the tea that I remembered trying in the store. The bitterness was kept well under control, but I know if you overbrew it (as the owner of the shop deliberately did) it will come out quite bitter. When it was good, it showed me some throatiness as well. It’s also got some qi, as I could feel my body reacting to the tea.

At the same time, there were a few infusions of this tea when I felt it was a bit watery — not thin, but watery as in lacking an obvious taste. The roughness was also a downside, although I suppose that can be remedied. The tea did eventually return to a sweet water state with no roughness, which is good, and after 10+ infusions.

So I don’t know exactly what to make of this tea. Maybe it’s in that transition phase between different stages of aging, and so tastes a bit like an awkward adolescent?

Here are some wet leaves

The cake comprises leaves of all sizes…

It might be interesting to drink this again after a few more years. I can see it changing, although I’m not sure in what direction.

When I was organizing things in my apartment today I found a sample bag of puerh from last year, a fall 2006 Jingmai that I got from this guy who operates a shop in Kunming and who sells through Sanzui. I bought a few cakes from him, and he always gave generous amounts of sample with the cakes purchased.

The cakes this guy makes are all very pretty. He claims they’re all “pure material”, i.e. single mountain, and all using big old trees. For the most part, I find that bang for the buck, his teas are really quite decent. This Jingmai actually happens to be one of the lesser teas both in terms of quality, and especially in the price/quality ratio.

What’s wrong with this tea is that it is very rough on the tongue and the mouth. After about 3 infusions the tea turns extremely rough, and never really recovers. Unlike yesterday, this has nothing to do with water becuase I’ve tried it a few times before with different water and brewing methods, and none of them have gotten rid of this roughness. Today’s no exception. The flavours are actually quite decent, and one can feel a good bit of qi from this tea. If you’re going to store this thing in a regular home storage though, the roughness is not giong to go away given its prominence. Funny enough, the spring production does not have this problem at all. There, the roughness is very subdued and the tea is quite lovely. Since they’re about the same price (although now sold out, I’m sure) there’s almost no reason to buy the fall. This, I think, is one of those cases where one problem in the tea completely destroys it. Drier storage will never remove roughenss entirely — that requires more moisture and microbial action. Given that… it’s a no go.

The tea looks quite nice when dry, and wet

Notice the colour difference

I probably need to get a desk lamp. The lighting in this apartment is not quite ideal for tea picture taking….