Gong Ting Pu-erh

I sampled the first of the mini pu-erh tea cakes this week. This was one of the 8 varieties of pu-erh which came in a container of 40 mini cakes. 

Pu-erh is one of the 6 tea types (white, yellow, green, oolong, black, pu-erh). It is produced exclusively in Yunnan Province and has been since ancient times.  Its popularity spread when Mongol horsemen carried this tea across Asia under Kublai Khan during the 13th Century.


This tea is named after Pu-er county which used to be a trading post for this tea during Imperial China.

What makes this tea unique is its secondary (or post) fermentation process it undergoes. (Those The exact nature of the process is a carefully guarded Chinese state secret. What is known is that a bacterium is applied to the tea which allows the tea to age in a way no other tea does. Thus, the tea improves with age and it value increases. Some pu-erh tea cakes are over 100 years old and are worth thousands of dollars each. Pu-erh tea is often compressed into bricks or cakes, whilst some is left as loose leaf. 

There are two main types of Pu-erh tea, cooked (shou):

... and raw (sheng):

The shou type refers to those varieties that have gone through an accelerated post-fermentation process,while the sheng types are those in the process of gradual darkening through exposure to the environmental elements.

Pu-erh develops very strong, unique qualities, with an aroma of rich garden soil or an autumn leaf pile. The flavours are earthy, smooth and roasted.

Using trusty Google translator, I could ascertain that the Pu-erh tea I sampled...

...is Gong Ting (which translates as Imperial Court). This is a popular Pu-erh title and does not in itself reveal that much about this particular tea.  The other information provided for this tea is that it is a 2003 vintage, is manufactured by the Ancient Tea Industry and that it is a cooked (shou) tea (as are all the pu-erh teas in this package)...

Our tea in question is formed in a 'tuocha' style, meaning bowl tea, referring to the form into which it is compressed:

Weighing around 5 grams, I placed the entire mini-tea cake into the gaiwan, added freshly boiled water (Pu-erh tea needs water at as close to 100 degrees Celsius as possible to draw out its deep levels of flavours) and allowed to steep for a bit under 2 minutes.

By this time the cake had mostly broken up, but the leaves had only begun to reveal the depth of their character.

The aroma was classic cooked pu-erh earthiness - fresh topsoil and forest floor.  The flavour was remarkably rich - reminding me of the roasted nature of a stout.  Again, the earthy character is obvious in the flavour, but there was no mustiness.  The mouth-feel is very creamy - one of the signs of a well-aged pu-erh.

By the third infusion, the leaves were revealing how much depth of flavour they contained.  (The second and subsequent infusions were short - 40-50 seconds each).

After seven infusions, this pu-erh tea showed no signs of letting up, with a deep coffee-coloured liquor still being produced.

I was very pleased with this tea.  I did not have high expectations of this tea to be honest, as the 'gift pack/assortments' products can sometimes be a way of selling off products that otherwise wouldn't sell very well.  It was evident from the earthy yet smooth aroma and flavour of this tea, and particularly creamy mouth-feel that this is a fine pu-erh which has benefited well from nearly 10 years of aging.  I think I will keep a few of the mini toucha cakes aside to see what a few more years will add to the flavour profile of this tea.


One variety down, seven to go.  Will keep you posted on the other seven at some stage.  But must write a post or two first about some of the other teas in the Dragon Tea House order, including a fabulous Ba Xian (Eight Immortals) Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong.

Tai Ping Hou Kui

As promised, a post about this inimitable tea - Taiping Hou Kui (pronounced tie ping ho kway).  Taiping refers to the county in Anhui province where the tea originates.  Hou refers to Hou Keng village where the highest grade of this tea is made, whilst Kui refers to Wang Kui-cheng who made this tea by improving the processing of a local green tea - Jian Cha - in around 1900.  Literally, Taiping Hou Kui translates as Peaceful Monkey King and the title of Monkey King is often added to the tea by tea sellers.  This tea won the 'King of Teas' award at the Chinese Tea Exhibition in 2004.

This particular Tai Ping I purchased from Dragon Tea House.  As mentioned in a previous post, the leaves are huge.  In fact, they are the longest leaf of all tea plants and come from the Shi Ye cultivar.  Here are some of the leaves - placed in a traditional Chinese 'origami' vase design I made (fitting I thought...)

For $20.99 for 100grams, this is on the lower end of the price range for Taiping Hou Kui.  Falsified Taiping's are apparently common and without visiting the tea farm itself it is difficult to ascertain the authenticity of this particular batch.  One of the signs to look for is that the majority of leaf sets should consist of one bud and two leaves.  Whilst there were many such sets in the infusion I prepared there were also some single leaves:

Nevertheless, I was happy with the quality of the leaves overall.  You can see from the above photo there was a considerable size range between leaves (the one on the right is 11cm long!)  With such large, flat, straight and delicate leaves, the way this tea is processed takes great care.  I was concerned about how this tea would handle the journey from Shanghai, but allmost all the leaves were intact when I opened the package, indicating care had been taken by both the tea producers and the people at Dragon Tea House.  

This tea is group on the northern slopes of Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) range...

...where the combination of rain and mist and clouds, together with the shade of the northern slopes, provides ideal conditions for growing this type of tea.  Thanks to James Norwood Pratt and his Tea Dictionary for this info.  N.B. Future post to review this and other tea books...

This tea is delicate, with a fresh, sweet aroma and a mild vegetal flavour which is balanced by floral notes.  I used more leaf in my second attempt at this tea yesterday and was rewarded with a more satisfying result - greater depth of flavour without bitterness and just the faintest astringency.

The opened, relaxed leaves, swirled around in the gaiwan like a school of emerald eels (perhaps not the best visual image to ponder before drinking, but that was my instant impression so I have to go with it I guess!)

So, a pleasant, relaxing, subtle green tea which is a pleasure to prepare and consume.  My tip - be generous with the amount of leaf you use.  The size of the leaves suggests that you should only use a few, but I found that quite a number can be used in a small vessel like my gaiwan (which is around 150ml) without it becoming too strong.  Keep the water temperature at around 80 degrees Celsius. Any lower and I found the full flavour wasn't drawn out of these large leaves. 

One last thought - I wonder if anyone will ever be mad (or evil) enough to attempt to produce Taiping Houkui in a teabag form.  The bags would either need to be the size of hair-nets or the leaves would have to be broken into hundreds of fragments...but could they still be rightly called Taiping Hou Kui in that case?

Shuppin Gyokuro

Was treated to some Shuppin Gyokuro at Chado - The Way of Tea on Thursday.

Gyokuro (pronounced gee-o-koo-row)- meaning Pearl Dew - is a Japanese green tea which is shaded from direct sun for the last 2-3 weeks before harvesting.  This shading alters the chemical structure of the leaves, reducing  polyphenol content, making it sweeter and milder than regular Japanese sencha tea.  The shading also increases chlorophyll, making the leaves darker.  Gyokuro makes up only 1% of  Japan's total tea production and is one of world's costliest teas.

I was served the Shuppin Gyokuro in a houhin, which is a handle-less teapot used predominantly for gyokuro and sometimes high quality sencha teas.

Shuppin is Japanese for 'exhibition' and refers to the the pinnacle of gyokuro which is examined by the highest tea evaluating authority in Japan.  The emerald-coloured leaves were a delight to behold...

...and an even greater delight to taste.  This tea is an amazing harmony of grassiness and creaminess.  The mouth feel is incredibly smooth and the lingering aftertaste is herbacious and sweet.  Low water temperature (often around 60 degrees Celcius) is used to delicately draw out the flavours and aromas of this tea.


Thanks again, Varuni for a wonderful tea experience!

An Ji Bai Pian

Made my first pot (gaiwan actually) of An Ji Bai Pian today.  Anji refers to the county in the northwest area of Zhejiang province (area famous for bamboo and the location of much of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon film).  Despite the term 'white' (Bai), this is a green tea.  The white refers to the pale colour of the infusion and the minimal processing the leaves undergo, usually being half baked and half fried.

Whilst I have bought Anji Bai Cha before, this is the first Pian variety I have ever tasted, and so was interested to try it out.  The harvest of this tea occurs in late April to early May and so this is a great time of year for this tea (and indeed most Chinese and Japanese green teas).

DRY LEAF:
The freshness of this tea was evident as soon as I opened the packet.  Bright green leaves and a fresh, grassy aroma.

The first thing I noticed was that the leaves were not completely uniform in style or colour.  As you can see on the photo above (although until I invest in a decent camera, rather than using the one on my phone, the photo quality will be limited), some of the leaves are twisted quite thinly, whilst others are almost entirely open.  Also, the colour range is from bright, light green through to an almost purple at times.  To some extent I expected this as I ordered the regular quality as opposed to the premium or supreme.  One would expect these two higher quality cousins to have greater uniformity in leaf/bud shape and colour.  This being said, however, most of the leaf/bud pairs are in tact and do not show signs of poor handling or damage.

WET LEAF:

The first infusion brought out much of what one looks for in a spring Chinese green tea, including a pronounced vegetal and fresh grassy aroma off the wet leaves.  It is always worth taking a moment to watch the leaves floating in the pot or gaiwan as they unfurl and release their magic...

After the second infusion, most of the leaves had unfurled, giving me the opportunity to examine them in more detail.  The photo below shows one of the many two leaf-one bud sets that I found in this batch, which is what is sought after in this tea style, often (somewhat erroneously) referred to as mao feng. 

The two leaves are completely in tact, and the bud is still unopened, thus being picked at the optimal time.  There were also single leaves and twin leaves without a bud present as you can probably make out from this photo:

CUP:

The colour in the cup was pale yellow, with just a hint of green. The aroma of the tea liquid is reminiscent of a field of tall, new season grass.  Sweet floral aromas are also prominent.   The taste matched this in many regards, with an initial vegetal briskness evident but with very little astringency. I kept the water temperature down to around 70-75 degrees Celsius as this style of new harvest green tea can become quite astringent if the water is too hot.  I prefer my teas quite strong and therefore try to bring out some astringency in most of the teas I brew - it's just a matter of controlling the water temperature, amount of leaf and infusion time to draw out all the desired flavours (which will vary from one person to another).  I increased the water temperature on the second infusion and much of the sweetness still came through.

CONCLUSION:

So, overall, I was pleased with this tea.  As the lowest quality of the three An Ji Bai Pian's on offer at Dragon Tea House (selling for around $20 Australian per 100grams) this is a very decent tea.  It has the sought-after spring-freshness and clarity of a good quality Chinese green and its considerably sweetness (which lingers for some time) is a highlight.  It held up well to three infusions - the fourth lost much of its sweetness and started to taste a bit thin.  As noted earlier, the leaves lacked some  uniformity in colour and style - the effect of this on the aroma and taste is difficult to discern, although with a higher percentage of brighter-green leaves, one would expect an even fresher flavour.

I hope to write up my tasting of the Lu Shan Yun Wu (Mount Lu, Cloud and Mist) soon, as having just finished my second tasting of this tea (after sort of ruining the first one yesterday with too much leaf and heat) I am excited to share my findings...

Not to mention two amazing new-season gyokuro teas I had today, thanks to Chado - the way of tea!  Too many teas, not enough time...

Fresh teas...fresh blog

With the arrival of my tea order today, I thought it was time to visit my long-neglected tea blog.  So, after giving the page a fresh look I plan to post more regularly from now on.  Will this eventuate?  Time will tell.  I hope to post some tasting notes on the 10 plus teas that have arrived from Dragon Tea House. Whilst typing this I am drinking the Tai Ping Hou Kui.  This is one of the (10) Famous Chinese Teas and originates in Anhui Province.  This tea has the largest leaves of any varietal (I measured one of them at 11cm).  You can see from the photo below that the leaves did not fit in my gaiwan - until the 'agony of the leaves' softened them that is.

It is a delicate and wonderfully sweet green tea. I will provide more detail in a subsequent post.

And the little tea cup which you see on the left of the photo was a gift included in my order by the lovely people at Dragon Tea House!