Rah's Thoughts on Tea

(Tea Provided for Review)

MenghaiWangshuji Shou Seventh Grade 2008

Origin: Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Prefecture, Yunnan Province

Harvest: 2008

I decided to try tea from Wymm tea, this time a shou. I believe this is the second proper shou I tried for this blog, I generally don’t drink a lot of shou puerhs, but I’m always willing to try one at least once.

According to the description the leaves are from the mountains and this tea does feel more like a mountain tea rather than a plantation tea or a tea grown at a low elevation.

Dry Leaves: As you can see this is loose rather than from a cake, I’m not sure if this is a blend of different mao chas, while I have not encountered a lot of loose shous and I am not that knowledge about why a roaster decides to press mao cha into a cake rather than leaving tea loose, but I imagine loose teas and looser cakes are going to age faster than tightly compressed cakes. There is a little woodsy aroma to the leaves.

First Steeping

Temperature: 190^oF

Brewing Time: Ten Seconds

Aroma: Wet Mushrooms and Fishy

Flavor: Mushroom, Damp Earth and Sweet

Tasting Notes: Yes I know I should have used hotter water, but I didn’t, as always I am a little cautious when trying a puerh for the first time and use cooler water than I normally use. Besides that I did three quick five seconds rinses with boiling water, the liquor was a little lighter than the liquor from this infusion, but it became redish very fast. I almost was expecting the liquor to turn black fast, but it took quite a few infusions for it to get significantly darker than it is now. There was a slight fishy aroma to the wet leaves, not as strong for the liquor (none of the other samples from Wymm had a fishy aroma so far), but it was very slight. The fishy aroma of the brewed liquor disappears after the second infusion.

So far it is very nice, it has neither bitterness nor astringency and it feels a little like an aged sheng more than a shou. While the mushroom and earthy notes are prominent I did feel very brothy, not surprising I imagine this could be used to make a nice base for a soup. I was not expecting the sweetness, but it didn’t affect the tea negatively; while the mushroom and earth notes are present early on, the sweetness is a bit of an aftertaste.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 200^oF

Brewing Time: Twenty Seconds

Aroma: Wet Mushroom and Fishy    

Flavor: Mushroom, Damp Earth, Woodsy, Spice and Sweet

Tasting Notes: The fishy aroma is much lighter this time, then the previous, but you can still smell it on the used leaves. Regardless there were quite a few new tastes in this infusion. As I said before I am not a big shou drinker, so I was not expecting for so much to develop so fast. The woodsy and spice are quite nice together, but the mushroom and damp earth were the dominant flavors.

Once again I had quite a bit of trouble photographing everything this time, it seems anything above 190^oF affects my camera, but my photos have never been much to write home about so there really was nothing of value lost. The liquor is pretty similar to the last, although when the leaves were still brewing the liquor looked a little blacker. The liquor reminds me a little of a Ceylon or a Darjeeling more so than many Shous I had in the past. The liquor has quite a bit of red in it that reminds me a little of food coloring used in many Thai tea blends, although I am relieved to note this tea does not stain either my teaware or my hands.

Third Steeping

Temperature: Boiling

Brewing Time:  Thirty Seconds

Aroma: Wet Mushroom

Flavor: Mushroom, Damp Earth, Fruity, Woodsy, Spice, Hopsy and Sweet

Tasting Notes: The liquor is taking on a brownish tint, although the liquor once strained of leaves is still red (in later infusions it becomes very dark, the moment it starts becoming light the tea leaves are pretty much used up); a little reminiscent of coffee that has been brewing for a moment. The tea suddenly became fruity (which becomes stronger in subsequent infusions) and it has a little hop-y taste. It starting to remind me a little of beer, but this quickly disappear (I could only taste hops for another two infusions).

(Tea Provided from Review)

So I decided to try my Laohuangpian sample from Wymm tea before the others mostly because I found the description of it interesting:

The name Laohuangpian literally means “old yellow leaves” in Chinese. The picking standard of pu-erh tea has been 1 bud, with 3 to 4 leaves. Usually the 3rd and 4th leaves’ shape are not as ideal after processing. For the best aesthetics of final product to the consumers, tea farmers usually filter out these bigger leaves so that the remaining ones are neat and symmetrical when pressed into pu-erh tea cakes. These bigger leaves are often kept by the tea farmers themselves and are rarely found in the market. Unknown to the general public, these larger and plumpish leaves are more flavourful and sweeter as it has been grown on the trees for a longer period of time. Laohuangpian undergoes the same production method as other pu-erh raw tea we have and possesses the same quality. This tea is worth trying if you wonder what the local tribe and tea farmers in Yunnan are enjoying on their own.

While I am by no means new to puerh, I am not sure if I ever had a laohuangpian, or at the very least a tea that advertised itself as old yellow leaves; and I do have something of a bad habit of buying puerhs based on their looks. I’ve been burned much more than I am willing to admit on puerhs with beautiful silver leaves mixed with golds and greys, I’m trying to be a little smarter when picking out puerhs, but many stores have poor tasting notes and all I have to rely on are the photos. Regardless you may remember I recently had Crimson Lotus Tea’s Sheng Education Tasting Set where I tried four grades of the same tea and was surprised to find I tended to like the lower grades more than the higher grades; so I was really looking forward to this tea since it seems to be the kind of tea that is sadly overlook because of superficial buyers like myself tend to prefer “prettier” teas. What’s that old saying about eating what the chef eats rather then what they serve? I was really interested in trying a tea that is more often than not consumed by the people who grow the tea itself.

Dry Leaves: I love the rustic packaging, my sampler set was wrapped in a paper similar to butcher paper tied with twine and had a nice leather-like tag then the actual samples were wrapped in a thin onionskin like paper. Now onto the tea itself; the leaves are mostly blue and green, but there are a few fuzzy white leaves. It has an interesting, but slight aroma; mostly green grass and a little smoke. I was rather surprised to find a tea that looks to be so tightly compressed, I am not an expert by any means, but in my experience tightly compressed puerhs tends not to have an aroma to the dry leaves. I had to do four rinses (five seconds each with boiling water) before the tea started to break up.                                                                                                          

First Steeping

Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds

Aroma: Spinach, Hay and Honey

Flavor: Spinach, Honey and Hay

Tasting Notes: So I decided to start off at a fairly low temperature, I tend to do so with shengs that are new to me, generally I go for a higher starting temperature, but I am always a little cautious with teas that are new to me since I tend to prefer longer brews. The tea has a rather nice mouthfeel; it’s pretty creamy for a puerh, let alone for a puerh that is brewed at such a low temperature. The tea is a little light though, perhaps I should have done another couple rinses, as you can see from my horrible photography that the leaves are not exactly fully broken up (I rarely address how much tea I use when brewing tea, but I used seven grams in my 75ml gaiwan, these leaves are deceptively heavy! I know it looks like I didn’t use a lot, but trust me I did.).

It had a rather interesting taste, at first I didn’t get the spinach taste until the tea started to cool down. But other than that it is very smooth and simple, definitely leaning more towards a daily drinker.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 180^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute

Aroma: Spinach and Hay   

Flavor: Spinach, Honey, Hay and Mineral

Tasting Notes: I decided to double the brewing time, I had a hunch that this tea does really well over the longer it brews and I was right. The aroma is pretty much the same as last time, but much stronger than the last infusion. As for taste there is a new mineral-ly element now that is a rather nice addition, it reminds me a little more of rust, but not exactly. I almost want to describe it as wet stone, but there is a certain iron taste to it.

As the tea starts to cool the spinach becomes the dominant flavor and the hay is becoming greener.

Third Steeping

Temperature: 190^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minutes

Aroma: Hay

Flavor: Spinach, Grass, Mineral, Smoke and Honey

Tasting Notes: The honey taste has become weaker, but it is starting to linger a little. Other than that it is pretty similar to the last infusion, but there is a slight smoky edge now and the hay taste from the previous infusions have become grassy. In subsequent infusions I started to taste a lot of legume notes. As I said before I am not an expert on puerh, or any tea for the matter, but I’ve always been told that teas that have green bean tastes early on tend not to age well and are meant to be drank immediately. I am not one to age puerhs, I don’t have the patience to hide a way a tea for a couple years and let it mature, so I tend to buy puerhs meant to be drank immediately, as I said before this feels like a daily drinker and while I may develop more depth in a couple years if I were to buy a cake of this I’d probably buy it to drink immediately. 

I liked this tea, it lacked the bite that many young shengs have which was a little disappointing since I like those teas with very sharp tastes, but even without that bite this is rather nice. It feels like a nice introduction to shengs especially for someone who likes greener teas. And for $12 (CAD) for a sampler that includes three other teas this is too good of deal to pass up.