Anodyne on TeaSpring's Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun

Geraldo has already written of the TeaSpring Bi Luo Chun as he experienced it Filling in the Green Spaces (May 28, 2007). I certainly don't dislike the TeaSpring 2007 Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun, but I haven't found this as enchanting as ones I've had in years past. Perhaps I've just not unlocked the magical brewing parameters as this can be a tricky green to get right. It's certainly a pleasant enough tea--nutty and vegetal and quite a solid and substantial tea experience. It falls into that category I think of as "nourishing." Not as ethereal an experience for me as in past years…

…such as my fond memories of a 2001 Competition Grade Bi Luo Chun from Silk Road Teas:

The dry leaf is delicately and freshly green, with underlying very light meadow floral note and nutty scent. Those same delicate aroma notes tiptoe into the cup. This is not an aggressively aromatic green, but a contemplative one. Subtle, yet still complex. The aroma holds a lovely scent of fresh green, light nutty notes, and a soft floral that isn't heavy but akin to the delicate aroma of a wild flower. The taste is also delicate and subtle—a cleansing green quality with slightly sweeter nutty flavor and that ethereal sweetness that hovers between floral and nectar. In addition to the meadow floral/green, there is a nice fruity and nutty note wafting up in the aroma and also migrating into the taste.

I've had only sporadic excitement from Bi Luo Chun, but this one is a love match. I really like the delicate floral against the balance of cleansing green and now this light fruity note. The dry leaf aroma of this tea is quite amazing, so fresh and delicate. The meadow floral sweet note really lingers into the finish. This tea is deceptive at first experience as there are so many layers of subtle aroma/taste in it. The level of sweetness is like nibbling a bit of clover or honeysuckle. The finish is very delicate but very refined and elegant.

The above Silk Road Tea Competition Grade Bi Luo Chun was vastly different from the more aggressive High Grade Bi Luo Chun (#G-BLC-8) I tried in 2000 from Silk Road Teas:

A fellow tea drinker noted the very nutty/roasted character of this particular High Grade Bi Luo Chun from Silk Road Teas. It's very unlike other Bi Luo Chun teas I’ve had as I've never encountered one this nutty/roasted before. This quality is apparent when you first open the Ziploc bag and sniff the dry leaf—a gorgeous fresh and sweet green/floral aroma, but you surely catch that hint of roasted. While steeping, the roasted notes do very prominently show forth, almost with a popcorn kernel-like scent. Light vegetal. Underlying this is that elusive floral I call orchid for lack of a better term. The roasted aroma makes it into the taste as well, but underlying this is the floral. This is a more aggressive Bi Luo Chun than that oh-so-delicate-and-elusive Imperial Tea Court offering Bi Lo Chun (see comments below).

And further musings on the #G-BLC-8: While steeping today, I had the intense aroma of roasted ham, the outer crusty layer. Indeed, even post steeping, this tea is richly reminiscent of a ham, even down to a slightly salty note. The High Grade Bi Luo Chun was very different today than I encountered it on previous trials. There is nothing delicate about this cup or ethereal; it's rich and full but not at all harsh. Quite tasty, but it is vastly different from the Imperial Tea Court Bi Luo Chun with those delicate and ethereal notes, hints of lemon and what another reviewer referred to as “ocean.” Now there is a sweet aroma wafting out from under the ham. It is sort of floral, but the sweetness is close to a ham's sweetness, too. I have encountered greens that are what I think of as: nectar sweet, floral sweet, root vegetal sweet, nutty sweet, creamed corn sweet. This cup is producing a hint of baked honey ham sweet. The empty cup aroma is deliciously sweet and full.

And, an entirely different Bi Luo Chun experience via Imperial Tea Court as noted above, also in 2000:

I took out a small loan, mortgaged the family homestead, sold a few head of cattle and ordered an ounce from Imperial Tea Court. The tiny packet sat here half a day before I worked up the courage to brew it. The soft downy oh-so-tiny buds (which simply must be appreciated as part of this whole experience) smelled incredibly sweet and fragrant. This is the first time I've had the dry leaf of Bi Luo Chun smell this way. The cup aroma is lightly vegetal, sweet, nutty, and has that elusive nectar type aroma. The taste has many nuances. First a vegetal note pulls forward, but it trails off into more delicate nectar sweetness—almost whisking in and out of your perception like catching a hummingbird or butterfly in your side vision. The aroma in the cup is slowly blooming and coming forward with layers of sweetness. I love the way the taste slyly takes you at first in one direction, and then zips off into an entirely different direction with the sweet surprise at the end. It's a tea I need to appreciate quietly with no distractions. It whispers in your ear and doesn't speak loudly as some other greens do.

And back to the TeaSpring 2007 Bi Luo Chun: It’s not as aggressive as the 2000 High Grade Bi Luo Chun from Silk Road Teas. But neither does it engage me as fully or express the nuances (at least as I’ve brewed it so far) of the 2000 Bi Luo Chun from Imperial Tea Court or the 2001 Competition Grade from Silk Road Teas. Obviously the tea impressions of years past aren't useful in making current tea purchases. They do help me begin to separate out what range of flavors and aromas I might find in a tea. And they so often give me a set of flavors and aromas that send me on that Holy Grail Tea Quest, hoping to repeat an experience of some long past year.

Sources:

www.imperialtea.com
www.silkroadteas.com
www.teaspring.com

Anodyne In the Company of Greens

Geraldo has been Filling in the (Green) Spaces (May 28, 2007). I see that we've been drinking a few of the same teas while I also am in the company of China greens and a yellow tea. I tasted a few 2007 harvest sourced via TeaSpring. All but the Meng Ding Huang Ya were new teas to me, so I have no real point of reference for them in seasons past and thus no past notes to jog the memory. My tasting impressions mostly reflect that first time immediate reaction.

Xu Fu Long Ya is also known as Xu Fu Dragon Tooth or Xu Fu Dragon Bud. This spring 2007 green originates from Yi Bin City, Sichuan Province and is a second flush harvest. It has a very fresh sweet spinach-vegetal aroma to the dry leaf that carries over into the cup. It is definitely more vegetal forward than some greens but quite pleasantly so for my own tastes.

E Mei E Rui, also known as Pistil of Mount E Mei or E Rui Zi, comes from E Mei Shan, Sichuan Province and is a spring 2007 tea. The dry leaf has a nutty aroma, and the cup is very fragrant with some sweet floral against the nutty-vegetal.

Yang Yan Gou Qing or Yang Yan Green Hook is another 2007 green from Lin Hai, Zhejiang Province. The leaves are downy little curls. The dry leaf aroma is softer and yet registers higher on the aroma scale than the previous two greens. This tea does not have the forward vegetal notes of the Xu Fu Long Ya and is not as nutty as the E Mei E Rui. Once brewed it is very sweetly fragrant with more floral-nutty notes. It has a more ethereal green taste, but that is not to say the taste and aroma are subdued. It has a delicate nutty/creamy-sweetness against a pleasant light green nip as I made it today. Of the three tasted so far, this might be my favorite. The empty cup really retains the nutty sweetness.

Meng Ding Huang Ya or Mt Meng Yellow Sprout is a yellow tea from the spring 2007 harvest from Meng Ding, Sichuan Province. The dry leaf aroma has that piercing green edge but with some nutty notes. The nutty notes do come into the cup itself. The aroma is full, fragrant, sweet, and surprisingly deep given the piercing green edge of the dry leaf. It combines a richness of flavor (without crossing over to savory or brothy) with that kind of cleansing note I find in some green teas. I quite like that contrast.

I tried a Meng Ding Huang Ya from TeaSpring in 2005 with similar favorable impressions. From old notes: The dry spear-shaped leaf smells very deeply sweet in the bag but with a sharper fresh vegetal note. It’s not what I think of as brothy since it doesn't have the salty-ham rind quality (think of bean and celery soup just staring to simmer). I get a very fresh artichoke-vegetal hit with a deep sweetness that I associate with vegetal-nutty (nutty artichoke/nutty asparagus). There is indeed a brisk edge to the cup that balances out nicely with the other characteristics. The brisk and almost grassy edge (more pronounced with more leaf/longer steep) is going up against that full sweetness. In today’s cup, there is even a hint of floral. But behind that floral note, there is the very rich and nourishing vegetal-nutty characteristic.

But back to the 2007 Meng Ding Huang Ya. That piercing or grassy quality against the richness is very appealing to me. This yellow tea along with the E Mei E Rui green are probably my favorites of the four tasted, although I found something to enjoy in each one.

I had taken a cup out to the screened-in porch. It turned out to be a rather appropriate tea choice as there was a thumb-sized spring green frog sitting on the exterior of the windowsill basking in the green from the nearby ferns. Perhaps he/she was drawn to the water chime fountain just inside the porch, s subtle mix of gurgling water and pinging chime. The frog is very much the color of the infused leaf of some of these teas, and the brisk but pleasant grassy note in the Meng Ding Huang Ya is not unlike the pinging sound from the fountain chime.

It is good to be in the company of greens again. Frog. Ferns. Spring 2007 green teas.

Source for teas: http://www.teaspring.com/

Filling in the (Green) Spaces

[[EDITOR'S NOTE: This memorandum from Geraldo was furnished to CHA DAO at my special request, as I knew he had been surveying the field of lu cha for some time now. With his customary enthusiasm, he has begun to get a sense of the lie of the land. With his customary generosity, he shares his findings with us here.]]

Friends tell me I pursue tea with abnormal fervor. They even evoke “insatiable.” In the early days of my enthusiasm, I hunted tea from India and smaller countries in that huge region. Next, for a long while, I preferred Keemun. During one lengthy interval, I convinced myself that Taiwan’s Oolong was superior to any other tea. As my friends attest, I keep a special area in my heart for Pu’er, and I have explored the exotic realms of Heicha. I dote on Chinese Oolongs (loving in particular Dancong and Wuyi). Since 2004, I’ve been hopelessly hooked on Sencha and its expensive cousin, Matcha. Further, I have endeavored to learn through experience all I can of Hongcha. Often I kick against the daily impediments that rise like mountains between me and the tea I want to brew and drink, impediments such as a career, family, writing, motorcycles, reading, gardening, sleep, eating, the cinema, and insufficient hours in a day. But one vast region of tea escaped me thus far: Chinese Lucha. Late this past winter, I determined I would learn at least a little about green teas from China. I’d tried them on several occasions, but never seriously enough to remember from year to year their names or how I reacted to them. This spring I’ve kept a list, and I undertook the happy task with a modicum of thought. As green teas became available, I bought them.

The impetus for this was a gift from a good friend. Last fall in Shanghai he bought some 2006 Yang Yan Gou Qing (YYGQ) and sent it to me. This tea originates in the Yang Yan Mountains of Zhejiang Province. As I learned to brew it, I came to love it. It is vegetal and satisfying, delicious and calming. After awhile, my stock dwindled, and I grew twitchy at the prospect of having none on hand. (For a fuller understanding of this, you may want to substitute “murderous” for “twitchy.”) I wrote my friend and commanded he return on the instant to Shanghai and comb the alleys to find and procure more. He did return to that city, but replied to say he could locate none of the treasure I so ardently desired. I peeled myself from the ceiling and wrote to Daniel Ong of TeaSpring asking if he could source it for me. His business partner is a devotee of Lucha, and so it came to pass. They ordered it (they are saints), and I had nothing to do in late winter as leaves grew in Asia but wait and wonder whether other green teas were like my beloved YYGQ.

I have learned (and you, kind reader, no doubt already knew) there are many green teas and many grades of each. Some are fried in a wok and others steamed. Some are bud-laden and others full-leaf. Some are small and delicate, others huge and imposing. Some Lucha leaves are fuzzy as caterpillars and others flat as paper. My recent explorations have been enlightening and fun.

Anodyne recently posted here a wonderful review of three Long Jing green teas. Compared to her excellent report, my own notes are brief, truncated, and coarse. I tried fourteen different green teas, and for several of those, two or three of various grades from different vendors, totaling twenty.

Before I list the teas, I’d like to remark upon a discovery I would have thought anti-canonical. This has to do with freshness. I learned from the ’06 YYGQ that as time elapsed, the tea improved. Many teas improve with age, either maturing or mellowing. We know that as decades pass, Sheng Pu’er undergoes a marvelous metamorphosis. Some Oolongs, if carefully reheated over many years, take on a fine and distinguished character. Shu Pu’er benefits from two weeks in the air, and even Matcha is better forty-eight hours after I open the tin. Scott of e-Bay’s Yunnan Sourcing likes to add “Aged just enough” as a by-line to some of his Dian Hong listings. I’m certain there are other examples of this phenomenon, and there are just as many teas that quickly lose some of their best qualities when exposed to air. From my experience, First Flush Darjeeling serves as a prime example. But I can say my favorite green teas are those that improve over time. I hesitated at first to mention this to friends who know more about tea than I do, but at last I screwed up my courage and blurted my observation to one who has long been my tea-teacher. Given all I have read on Lucha vis-à-vis freshness, I expected a fiery retort, but he agreed whole-heatedly. He carefully ages his green tea, much preferring it when it has some maturity.

I like writing about tea because I do not have to claim any expertise. I can skip down Layman’s Path and write what I think. If I err, it matters not. My next observation might illustrate this. I’ve decided that Lucha comes in two basic flavors, one sweet, delicate, and narrow, the other soft, hearty, and wide. Of those two—perhaps resulting from my love of Sencha and Matcha—I prefer the latter. By no means do I dislike the more delicate green teas with their light honey and citrus notes, but I do love the green teas that carry the heavier, rounder, bigger, softer flavors and aromas of an herb garden, almost the effect of drinking vegetable bisque. Now I must stipulate I am no connoisseur of green tea by any means—most of these types of green tea I’ve tried just once. I have almost no experience in the genre. For example, I cannot judge one parcel of Tai Ping Hou Kui against others of its ilk, having had that tea from just one parcel arriving just this season. My criteria of comparison are, to put it simply, incredibly limited.

Here, then, is the list. I began it as a mnemonic device to trigger memories next spring at re-ordering time. Seeing it, ancient corax asked me to share it with you. The items are not in preferential order. I disliked only one. Asterisks by five of the items denote those I love especially and want to buy again (if I ever run out of green tea). Initially I drew the line at three asterisks, then four, then five. Many are deserving.

1) Yang Yan Gou Qing:
a) Harvested in 2006. Gift from friend. Shanghai purchase. This one's my favorite. It sparked my interest, and age does not seem to hurt it. In fact, I think it tastes better now than when it was fresher.
*b) Harvested in 2007. TeaSpring. Not as sophisticated, complex, and flavorful as 1a. As with the 2006 version, this tea has improved markedly in the few, short weeks I’ve had it here. Wonderful, delicious, refreshing green tea. Smooth. Addictive.

*2) Meng Ding Gan Lu. TeaSpring. It has many flavors and is not too subtle for my crass tongue. Yum!

3) Bamboo:
a) 2007 Supreme Emei Mountain Zhu Ye Qing. Dragon Tea. It's a yummy bamboo, my first of the genre. Excellent.
b) 2006 Supreme Emei Mountain Zhu Ye Qing. TeaSpring. More buttery, less astringent than 3a. Very tasty. Better than 3a.
c) Premium Bamboo Shoots. Yunnan Sourcing. Some vacuumed and frozen/ refrigerated. Some vacuumed un-refrigerated. Experiment in storing. Good value for price.

4) Ding Gu Da Fang. TeaSpring. Pungent, hearty, strong. Vegetal. Very yummy.

5) Bi Luo Chun.
*a) Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun. TeaSpring. Many tiny hairs. Vegetal and sweet. Brewed strong, it has a great flavor. Definite favorite. Hard to praise is sufficiently.
b) Early Bi Luo Chun. JingTeaShop. Light but flavorful. Not as full and delicious as the superb 5a.
c) Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun in a can. Awoono. An e-Bay auction win for $1.00 plus exorbitant shipping from Canada. This is an eminently drinkable beverage, but it does not compare with 3a.
d) Supreme Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun. Dragon Tea. Extremely furry leaves with many silver hairs afloat in the liquor. Actually clogged my Zylindro filter. Use a teapot or gaiwan, not a brewing mug. Very close second to 5a, but not quite as vegetal and satisfying. This tea may taste even better in a week or two once it acclimates to its new environment.

*6) Meng Ding Huang Ya. TeaSpring. A yellow tea (huang cha) I re-ordered. I tried it last year. Yummy but subtle. Many delicate nuances. Inviting aroma. Rich aftertaste. A wonderful tea, much better than last year's crop from TeaSpring—and last year’s was good.

7) Emperor Long Jing. TeaSpring. Sweet and lemony. Again, very delicate. The flavor band might be too narrow for me. I prefer a bigger initial flavor-burst with more complexity, but I’m guessing aficionados (which I am not) would enjoy this tea very much.

8) Xu Fu Long Ya. TeaSpring. This tea has a very nice bouquet, but it is one of the milder teas. I'm learning I like green tea with oomph. By “oomph,” I mean big body and flavor, not bitterness. Let me hasten to add that only #9 (below) seems bitter.

9) China Yunnan Green Silvertip. Upton's. This is inexpensive and brusque tea. Gave it to my office-suite neighbor.

10) Silver Strand Premium Green Tea. Yunnan Sourcing. Some vacuumed and frozen/refrigerated. Some vacuumed un-refrigerated. Experiment in storing. Good value for price. Taste has markedly improved in the month I’ve had it.

11) Liu An Gua Pian.
a) Liu An Gua Pian. TeaSpring. Very nice, oolong-like green tea, all leaf. Vegetal aroma with wine flavor. Floral. Big flavor.
b) Supreme Liu An Gua Pian. Dragon Tea. Somewhat more sour and less refined than 11a. This may improve as a little time elapses.

12) Yong Xing Huo Qing. TeaSpring. Tightly rolled into pellets. Slight smoke at first. I’ve been using slightly hotter water (175°F) for this Lucha. This is not a favorite. I suspect there is a method to brewing it that I am not approaching.

*14) Tai Ping Hou Kui Monkey King. Dragon Tea. Impossible not to fall instantly in love with this beautiful tea. The huge leaves with crisscross patterns are gorgeous. The tea’s aroma is piney and vegetal, and the flavor is cedary, floral, vegetal—not too sweet and not too sour. The tea as I brewed it has a big flavor. Most excellent.

— Geraldo (geraldoxyz@charter.net)