What HeiCha are you drinking

[Chris]

@Balthazar, thanks for your response. I've been drinking more samples and am pretty enamored with some of them. I'm still getting used to the various styles and their characteristics, but have experienced all of the minerality, white tea fruitiness, and smoke you mentioned.

Toward the top of the list so far is another Gao Jia Shan, Cha Duo Tang fuzhuan from 2015. It's inexpensive and looks like it's going to be much weirder than it actually is, with tons of jinhua and distinct, flakey layers.

I almost never take tea-tasting notes, but I did for this one. I got through 9 infusions (plus rinse) before I ran out of water and didn't feel like waiting for the tetsubin to boil again.

My notes aren't interesting enough to type them all out here, but repeatedly mention things like thick, smooth body; rich, clear chestnut color; long-lasting aftertaste and scent; sometimes bubblegum-like scent; ultra-sweet seaweed-mushroom umami; and sitting-in-a-hot-tub feeling of relaxation. Also amazement that I can drink this at 8 pm and still feel confident I'll be able to sleep (I envy those of you who can do this with puerh and oolong).

Perhaps ironically, this reminds me of white tea in that it can be infused forever with no apparent ill effect on the tea. It just gets better and better. And keeps on going even with very long infusions.

I will definitely buy more of this tea. Is it worth it to get the huge bricks of this stuff or will it get flat and stale?

So far, I've been brewing mostly in a regular porcelain gaiwan with a few experiments with White Label duanni and Jianshui clay (mostly for its thickness), but it doesn't obviously improve the tea, nor does it really have any characteristics I want to change. I have a few zini pots I'm tempted to try but already use with different kinds of tea.

I really like this tea, it seems underappreciated.

[Balthazar]

Glad to hear you're becoming enamored with the fuzhuans

I'm sipping on a fuzhuan myself, the 2013 Heichayuan Jinhua MM that I've mentioned a couple times. I'm about halfway through the brick, and have already decided to "hit it hard with the hammer" (i.e., buy plenty of it while there's still any to be had) once shipping opens up again.

I will definitely buy more of this tea. Is it worth it to get the huge bricks of this stuff or will it get flat and stale?

How's your storage situation?

I don't have enough experience storing Anhua heichas to say for sure, but my impression is that they do well under the same conditions as puer (so you want to avoid low temperatures and RH). At the same time, they seem to suffer less from dry storage than is the case for sheng puer.

I have some of mine stored in mylar bags with Boveda 65% packs (for puer I use the 72% packs).

So far, I've been brewing mostly in a regular porcelain gaiwan with a few experiments with White Label duanni and Jianshui clay (mostly for its thickness), but it doesn't obviously improve the tea, nor does it really have any characteristics I want to change. I have a few zini pots I'm tempted to try but already use with different kinds of tea.

I've experimented with a couple different clays. For the not overly smoked fuzhuans, I typically opt for hongni (provided they are "clean" in taste). For stuff that has a bit of smoke, zini and dicaoqing often works well. Nixing too is usually a safe option for me, particularly if it's not a tea with a very complex and nuanced taste profile.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about trying these teas out on some of your zini pots. I think people get to obsessed over "one category of tea per pot" sometimes. A couple of sessions with something different is not going to "contaminate" the pot. Myself, I no longer strictly adhere to one type of tea per pot. Well, I make an exception for my mid-age sheng pot, but that's it. For instance the hongni pot I use for a lot of heicha is also used for hongcha and occasionally even roasted Taiwanese oolongs. It doesn't do any worse of a job with any of them than it did when it was strictly reserved for hongcha.

[cbrace]

Does this qualify as a hei cha?

Yamabuki-Nadeshiko 山吹撫子 is the only fermented Japanese tea. It is named after two flowers: the Kerria japonica and the Dianthus superbus. It evokes images of floral fragrance and feminine beauty.The process of fermentation used here is reminiscent of the fermentation of Pu Er tea. This tea is the product of several years of expert research into processes of fermentation with the Japanese alcoholic rice beverage Sake by Denbei Kawamura.

Yamabuki Nadeshiko

In any case... it's great. A small sample was included in my last order from Good Tea EU. Just now I prepared 3g in 150ml yixing pot, five minute steep. Love it, definitely going to order more. Next time I will try a gongfu approach, will see which I prefer. Sorry I can't provide a highly detailed taste profile, haven't gotten the hang of that yet.

[Victoria]

Does this qualify as a hei cha?

Yamabuki-Nadeshiko 山吹撫子 is the only fermented Japanese tea. It is named after two flowers: the Kerria japonica and the Dianthus superbus. It evokes images of floral fragrance and feminine beauty.The process of fermentation used here is reminiscent of the fermentation of Pu Er tea. This tea is the product of several years of expert research into processes of fermentation with the Japanese alcoholic rice beverage Sake by Denbei Kawamura.

Yamabuki Nadeshiko

In any case... it's great. A small sample was included in my last order from Good Tea EU. Just now I prepared 3g in 150ml yixing pot, five minute steep. Love it, definitely going to order more. Next time I will try a gongfu approach, will see which I prefer. Sorry I can't provide a highly detailed taste profile, haven't gotten the hang of that yet.

Sounds like an interesting tea to try. It seems this tea is a green tea, so not oxidized the way Heicha typically is. Also, the fermentation is fast (introducing specific fungi) and then halted, so it won’t continue to ferment. A discussion here.
Shikoku Island is traditionally know for its various fermented teas, which is being preserved by a younger generation, so the newer Yamabuki-Nadeshiko isn’t the ‘only‘ fermented Japanese tea. Some links to Japanese fermented teas in the Japanese Green Tea: Aged, Roasted, Fermented. Maybe you can share some tasting notes in that thread at some point

[cbrace]

@Victoria, thanks for the links! Lot of interesting information in those threads.

Would this really be a green tea? The leaf is quite dark, which is why I thought it might qualify (loosely) as hei cha. Here is an image from the vendor's website:

[Victoria]

Victoria, thanks for the links! Lot of interesting information in those threads.

Would this really be a green tea? The leaf is quite dark, which is why I thought it might qualify (loosely) as hei cha. Here is an image from the vendor's website:

Yes, looks pretty oxidized. As far as I know Heicha is oxidized prior to, and then also during fermentation, whereas this tea is green, fungi are introduced, after which fermentation and oxidation takes place. Just different processing. I’m not a Heicha expert though.

[wave_code]

recently I picked up a few teas from @YeeOnTeaCo to try out and have been slowly working through them. I got some of both their loose ripe and loose raw liu bao, their scented liu an, and a couple of pu's I'll put under that thread.

The orchid fragrance liu an is a very sweet tea. the buds actually maybe mask the liu an a bit too much for my taste, but I plan to put some away to see how it all settles in over the long haul. I don't know the age of the tea, but I'd guess its quite young both for the friendly price and also that there isn't much storage character and it has more of the fruitiness I've gotten from younger liu an. So far the best way to brew it up for me is making one or two long stacked infusions as a nice mellow morning tea. While you could do drink it more gong fu style I always find these little buds get super frustrating sticking to everything making the skirt on the pot a really hassle to get back in - use a gaiwan or something with a not so tight or recessed lid. At the price though its a great tea for everyday drinking.

I've only tried the raw liu bao once so far, so not sure I'm ready to make too much of a call on it aside from that I do like it. Its a really nice liu bao and its interesting to see what effect HK storage has on a raw liu bao. It seems to give a bit of the best of both worlds having more kept a lot of typical raw lb characteristics, but also with a bit more age and bite to it that makes it unique. The storage is present but it isn't overwhelming and there is nothing 'off' about it - again it is more like it has more age rather than a wet/humid character. I tried this after having it rest for only about a week and a half, and I feel like lighter fermented teas like this take longer to settle in than those with initial heavier fermentation, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else it has to say after another month or two.

the loose ripe I'm sure will also still continue to settle and change, but after a little over a week it was already a really pleasant and unique tea. the tea is very smooth and well rounded and very sweet. you get the initial HK storage smell more off the tea's package than anything else - theres nothing overly humid in the leaf or the liquor to me so its a really nice and balanced character. there was also this coconut character that stayed very present through all the brews - like raw coconut where you have the mix of the coconut meat with the nutty flavor of the husk, or like roasted young coconut. I haven't really had this particular flavor come up in other liu bao that I can remember, and while I do love my Duoteli often the focus is so much on betel nut characteristics it made this tea really stand out to me. my favorite of the batch so far.

[Balthazar]

Thanks for the write-up, @wave_code. Seems like I need to make an order while the 20% discount applies. Those coconut flavors in particular intrigue me. If I may ask, how was the shipping cost?

[wave_code]

cheers! I don't recall the shipping being too bad and it was quite quick. so you pay for it to not be slow boat shipping so its not worth it to buy like 100g of tea, but I think you can order quite a bit of weight without the price going up.

[YeeOnTeaCo]

recently I picked up a few teas from YeeOnTeaCo to try out and have been slowly working through them. I got some of both their loose ripe and loose raw liu bao, their scented liu an, and a couple of pu's I'll put under that thread.

The orchid fragrance liu an is a very sweet tea. the buds actually maybe mask the liu an a bit too much for my taste, but I plan to put some away to see how it all settles in over the long haul. I don't know the age of the tea, but I'd guess its quite young both for the friendly price and also that there isn't much storage character and it has more of the fruitiness I've gotten from younger liu an. So far the best way to brew it up for me is making one or two long stacked infusions as a nice mellow morning tea. While you could do drink it more gong fu style I always find these little buds get super frustrating sticking to everything making the skirt on the pot a really hassle to get back in - use a gaiwan or something with a not so tight or recessed lid. At the price though its a great tea for everyday drinking.

I've only tried the raw liu bao once so far, so not sure I'm ready to make too much of a call on it aside from that I do like it. Its a really nice liu bao and its interesting to see what effect HK storage has on a raw liu bao. It seems to give a bit of the best of both worlds having more kept a lot of typical raw lb characteristics, but also with a bit more age and bite to it that makes it unique. The storage is present but it isn't overwhelming and there is nothing 'off' about it - again it is more like it has more age rather than a wet/humid character. I tried this after having it rest for only about a week and a half, and I feel like lighter fermented teas like this take longer to settle in than those with initial heavier fermentation, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else it has to say after another month or two.

the loose ripe I'm sure will also still continue to settle and change, but after a little over a week it was already a really pleasant and unique tea. the tea is very smooth and well rounded and very sweet. you get the initial HK storage smell more off the tea's package than anything else - theres nothing overly humid in the leaf or the liquor to me so its a really nice and balanced character. there was also this coconut character that stayed very present through all the brews - like raw coconut where you have the mix of the coconut meat with the nutty flavor of the husk, or like roasted young coconut. I haven't really had this particular flavor come up in other liu bao that I can remember, and while I do love my Duoteli often the focus is so much on betel nut characteristics it made this tea really stand out to me. my favorite of the batch so far.

Glad you've enjoyed the Liuan and Liu Baos the age characteristics of the raw LB is what our customers really enjoy and hence it's one of our great sellers.

[Maerskian]

Double session today, mostly sheng - as posted on the parallel thread - and also some Ying Kee Luk On / Liu An ( "Ching Yuen Cha – Tea of 250 Year Old Man | Bi Jia Qing Yuan" ) which for reasons i still can't understand has become my wife's personal favorite... over any sheng she claims to be unable to barely tell apart .

Nice & oily, HK stored with that "old" fragance... although i still can't get that sudden energy rush my wife gets every time.

[polezaivsani]

@Maerskian, that's the one from 2009 i suppose? If so, it'd make me a notch more curious to try 2005 Sun Yi Shun basket from @YeeOnTeaCo. Also, couple shots of Liu An espresso always give me a good deal of head space buzz!

[Maerskian]

Maerskian, that's the one from 2009 i suppose? If so, it'd make me a notch more curious to try 2005 Sun Yi Shun basket from YeeOnTeaCo. Also, couple shots of Liu An espresso always give me a good deal of head space buzz!

2011 according to my spreadsheet, although i'm using the first bag i received ... maybe that one is from 2009 ( from GoodTea.eu, not YeeOnTea ; unfortunately european customs have become overly aggressive with everything coming from Asia, feels more like some undeclared open war, no longer dare to order anything from Asia since .... 2020. Not the same issues with stuff coming from the US which i guess it's not surprising ) .

[wave_code]

the one Ying Kee liu an I have also doesn't give me so much of a buzz or cha qi effect compared to the sun yi shun baskets I have had - which I actually kind of like since its a tasty tea and sometimes I do want liu an without feeling like I need to go bike 20 miles.

it sounds like you are maybe just pretty unlucky with your local post - I haven't really had such bad issues here in Germany. packages get checked but so far I've actually only had to go to the tax office once and pay. the people there were unpleasant about it, but thats just how bureaucrats or most people in general are here.

had some more of this 90s taiwan stored liu bao I got from my friend the other day. the humid storage is really almost totally gone now so its become a really mellow smooth and round tea. I actually miss a touch of the storage, but all the new other smells and flavors coming through are really nice and subtle. its become very herbal, not so much typical camphor or betel nut and pine, more like a very herbal soup broth like you would make a chicken soup with. the very fine small leaves and the slightly oily liquor add to that. its not so strong as to knock me down but it has a noticeable relaxing effect too. I'll miss this one when its gone and I hope I can get a hold of a bit more of it. I have to revisit some other teas for comparison but the complexity of this tea compared to what I remember getting from other 90s teas like the VIVE is so much better.

[Maerskian]

the one Ying Kee liu an I have also doesn't give me so much of a buzz or cha qi effect compared to the sun yi shun baskets I have had - which I actually kind of like since its a tasty tea and sometimes I do want liu an without feeling like I need to go bike 20 miles.

On a more recent session she didn't experience the same however ( using the same bag, same water, same specs... ), in fact it was late night and slept as usual.

it sounds like you are maybe just pretty unlucky with your local post - I haven't really had such bad issues here in Germany. packages get checked but so far I've actually only had to go to the tax office once and pay. the people there were unpleasant about it, but thats just how bureaucrats or most people in general are here.

Afraid it's the other way around: you're very lucky, and here's hoping it remains that way until ... whatever they do starting july.

If all i needed was a german address i'd just use my brother's and then have it reshipped here inside a big 20kg box as we've been doing for decades but this is an ongoing problem which keeps developing ( plenty complaints about customs issues everywhere within the EU since late 2019, same for the whole 2020; fun fact: i think the tip that was spreaded around about editing your invoice then print it with a lower value for customs originated on german forums, the step-by-step guide with screenshots was certainly in german , that was on late 2019 ) .

Back then Vahdam started removing european countries from the places they shipped to until it was just down to Germany & UK, now Germany is no longer an option and they focus mostly on the US market. AFAIK YunnanSourcing no longer ships to Germany, Jay ( TeaLifeHK ) reported growing issues on german customs too.