Balthazar wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 3:42 am
Currently away for what will be this year's only vacation. Want to make the most of the time spent with family, so only brought along two teas that are both good "office style porcelain mug grandpa brewing" performers.
One is Farmer Leaf's 2019 spring Jingmai sun-dried hongcha. I've found FL's hongchas very reliable and excellent for the price, but wasn't thrilled by this one when I first bought it. Three years down the line I'm finding it great. It's got just the right amount of astringency, good body and deep, lasting flavors.
Shai hongs are probably the king of office mug brewing for me. Excellent mix of qualities, almost impossible to brew totally wrong. Comfortable for the body in the all the year's seasons. And not as heat-greedy as some other teas I think do well grandpa brewed in bigger and lidded mugs but no so much in normal office size ones.
After Balthazar's intriguing mention of compressed black tea, something new to me, as
Balthazar wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 3:42 am
almost impossible to brew totally wrong
, I went scouting for shai hong tea, and didn't find a lot of offerings on my first few pages of google results. Although an order from Farmer Leaf is on the way, it won't include black tea cakes because they didn't have any currently on offer. I
found one on Teasenz and ordered several cakes to try it:
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Sun-dried black tea, also known as 'shai hong' is made based on a different processing method than mainstream black teas. Most black teas are made letting the leaves wither, followed by rolling and fermentation. However, for Shai Hong the last step is different. While the most common way is to roast the black tea leaves to stop the fermentation, for a sun-dried black tea, the fermentation is stopped by drying the leaves in the sun (as it's done for pu erh).
'Pu Erh Shai Hong' or 'Tai He Tian Cha'?
Because tea types are classified based on their processing method, a sun dried black tea can also be considered a type between black and pu erh tea. This is why it's not strange that sun dried black are also known as 'pu erh shai hong (普洱晒红).
The after taste of a Shai Hong is sweet and because it originates from Tai He, it's also known as 'Tai He Sweet Tea' or 'Tai He Tian Cha' (太和甜茶).
Note that the black tea cake on this page is however made from wild tree leaves from Yiwu.
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Dry leaf a bit smells a bit malty and fruity.
2.5 grams leaf in 100mL glazed gaiwan by
Inge Nielsen, water 205-210 degrees:
1 minute infusion is mild, a bit malty/earthy, has a scent that reminds me of a young puerh, herbaceous in a way that promises some bitterness but that is not borne out in the infusion because the sharpness is missing. The liquor is pale red-orange, but I didn't take photos because I was enjoying it from Inge's teadust cup, and the black finish suggests more than shows the color.
1 minute second infusion, because the first was just too light (normally would have done 1/2 time for 2nd infusion): more young puerh notes, lightly bitter, maltiness gone, earthy now
3rd is 2 1/2 minutes, strongly herbaceous, less earthy, hint of malty, but the bitterness still is very slight. This is interesting stuff.
4th infusion 13 minutes, more of the same, herbaceous/bitter notes stronger here, but still quite mellow vs the average young puerh or western-style CTC leaf.
5th infusion I just let go for many hours, and returned to it later at night, and while there was more astringency, it still did not cross over to bitter--quite remarkable.
As a final test, I took 2.5 grams of leaf and dropped it in a pint thermos with 205 degree water and left it for 8 or 10 hours. It was quite nice, with the plummy-fruity notes that the dry leaf scent promised finally coming to the fore, grounded with pleasing malty-earthiness, and no hint of bitterness. The plummy notes are very reminiscent of the Lao Cha Tou puerh nuggets from Norbu that are so mellow and fine infused for ages in the thermos for a long day away from my tea things. And this morning, I started my teaDay finishing that long infused tea, and the color is now a rich red, and the flavor quite pleasing as mentioned just above. It is a fine everyday tea for neglectful brewing.
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Now sipping from a Petr Novak shino cup to show off the liquor better.