Sow Mee White Tea

 

Sow Mee otherwise known as Shou Mei is a white tea.  This 100g box is an inexpensive white tea that are sold in many Chinese grocery stores. I had seen them even in San Francisco and Chicago chinatown shops.  A very inexpensive tea. 

Shou Mei tea looked very unappetising. The tea looked brown and unsightly.  However when I brewed this tea, there is a light floral fragrance.  The tea tasted lightly and delicately sweet. This tea is good even when chilled as well. 

I had bought several boxes and the tea is already 10 years of old. An enjoyable drink. I recommend. 

2004 Xiaguan Jincha Mushroom

Once upon a time, Xiaguan tea factory started a brand called 'Tibetan flame', which produced pu erh tea specially for export to western China. This tea was normally brewed with milk and spices and this tea was an important dietary requirement of the people there.   With no proper transport in the olden days, this tea was delivered by horses that traverse the mountainous terrain.  Pu erh tea had to be compressed to shapes that make transporting these tea easily. 

Today tea is easily transported to these neighbouring areas.  However, we still get to see thsee various shapes of compressed tea today.  Tuo or nest shape, cakes and bricks and even mushroom shaped.  My guess mushroom shaped tea could be an auspicious shape to the people there. 

I opened a 2004 Xiaguan raw mushroom. This 250g tea was easy to break open. This tea originally came in a pack of 3.   This tea is woody with a nice medicinal aroma and taste. The tea is very dark amber in colour when brewed. Strong and mellow. Very nice.  Wicked stuff.  I will brew the tea for Christmas for my tea drinking guests.  

Tea of the year 2025

 

The tea of the year 2025.   It is a raw pu erh, a Banzhang. Unknown factory.   Produced in 2005, this tea was stored in the hot and humid climate of Malaysia. 

When I first sampled the tea, I assumed it was a from the Bulang region of Yunnan. The tea was very strong and aromatic. It had a light fruity aftertaste with a lighty bitter background.  I was shown the cake and it was a banzhang tea. Banzhang pu erh is located in the Bulang region. as well and there are many similarities in taste and aroma. 

The tea was produced in 2005 just before the pu erh price bubble broke in 2007 and just before banzhang became a craze in the pu erh tea market. 

20 years of storage is a long time to wait for the tea to ferment or age to a sweet and mellow drink.  A tea expert in USA.... in his own opinion thinks that a 21 year old cake stored in Seattle might only be a rough equivalent of a 7 year old cake store in Guangdong.   I am more generous as I think it is a 2 to 1 ratio. That a 20 year old USA stored tea is equivalent to 10 years of Guangdong storage. 

This banzhang tea had 20 years old of Malaysian storage. . It would meant that the tea would take 4 decades of USA storage to reach the taste and aroma of the local storage here. 

Too mind boggling. I am thirsty. 

Fukien Teashop Shui Hsien

 I had stored this tea for about 10 years and decided to start drinking this shui hsien this week.  Fukien teashop is an old tea shop located in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.  They are most famous for their Tie Kuan Yin, an oolong they roast for more than 40 hours. They also sell other teas like pu erh and white tea which I had written about in my earlier posts.

This shui hsien is also high roasted. I remember that when I had opened a newly bought Fukien shui hsien, the tea was a bit rough as the high roast was overpowering the taste of the oolong. Now with 10 years of storage, the tea has mellowed. I can sense the 'high roast' but it is does not take centrestage when I had a session of this tea. This oolong is mellow and mouth watering. This mellow smoothness; I believed can only be achieved through time in storage. This is the reason why old 'high roast; oolong are highly sought after by the Chinese tea drinking community.  

I think I will have another tea session of this tea tomorrow as well. 

Malaysia Tea expo

I was at a Malaysia tea expo over the weekend. This time, the expo was held in Johor Bahru at a convention hall at Mid Valley shopping mall.  This was an attractive location as this expo was just across Singapore and I needed an hour to travel from home to the expo. 

This expo was a food and Chinese tea expo. The food offered was interesting as many of the food booths were operated by young Malaysians. The food offering was refreshing to see as well.  There was fancy coffee, instant congee and desserts to even organic blended juices. I applaud these younger entrepreneurs that were willing to chase their dreams when the economic outlook remained uncertain. 

Back to tea. The usual suspects were all present. Taetea, Xiaguan and Wuyi Star brands were all represented.  The surprise to me, was that Liu Bao tea was back in the limelight. Nearly every tea booth has liu bao tea.  I was simply spoilt for choice in selecting a liu bao.  

I enjoyed myself at this tea expo.  Xiaguan had a variety pack of six raw tuos for sale with an average age of 8 years  (I bought 2 sets).  I managed to lay my hands on a tong of old pu erh. The bunch of dried leaves and stems in that pix is yiwu raw pu erh carefully processed to keep the leaves and stems intact. The 2 classic boxes of liu bao tea made by China Tea would be fun to drink. The boxes were made five years apart and it should be fun to compare this tea. I completed my purchase by getting some Dayi tea and a few tins of Wuyi Star.  A small haul.  And one teapot.   I am happy. 

Breaking up is hard to do

 

Breaking up is hard to do. 

I am talking about pu erh tea. Pu erh tea drinkers will have pu erh tea in their collection which are extremely hard to break apart. The compression of the pu erh tea cake, brick, melon or tuo can be very high. Dangerous too as a slip of your tea knife or tea pick can hurt your fingers. Xiaguan brand tuos and some iron cakes are some examples. Same for Dayi especially those raw cakes produced around 2005-2006. 

I had suggested that using a plier might help in the breakup of your pu erh cake. It is easier to use a plier on cakes but for tuo, it's another adventure for your fingers. 

Once you have broken up your tea, let the tea rest and your tea would be ready to brew in a couple of weeks time. 

There is still another problem. 

Some of these smaller chunks of broken up tea remain as chunks in your teapot after a few infusions. This may mean that for your tea session, later infusions of the tea may result in a stronger tea. These tea chunks may only start to 'open up' after 6 infusions making your tea stronger in taste. There may be tea reviews on the internet that ignored this phenomena misinterpreting that the tea was still very strong or stronger in later infusions. 

I would recommend to look inside your teapot or gaiwan after 3-4 infusions. Try to pry open the tea chunks with a pick. This would, I believe help you have a more enjoyable tea session. 

This tea chunk issue only occurs in those  pu erh tea that have a high compression.  I hope this observation wlll help pu erh tea drinkers to make the necessary adjustments when they brew super compressed pu erh. 

I looked forward later this year to visit my close Malaysian tea buddy for a meal and a traditional tea exchange.  

My two cents worth. 

Xiang Mu Hai Loose Black Tea With Golden Flowers

This is A Xiang Mu Hai production. 500g of loose black tea. There is an added bonus; the tea has golden flowers aka, jin hua in Chinese

These golden flowers you see as yellow specks on the tea leaves are actually a fungus that are found on the tea leaves. Scientifically known as Eurotium Cristatum. I had talked to Chinese tea dealers and was told that these fungus were naturally occurring in Hei Cha or black tea. This fungus is not toxic (I had been drinking and sampling such tea for many a number of years). Some tea dealers took advantage of this jin hua and promoted the tea as sweeter and has many health benefits. I personally cannot tell the difference when I sample a jin hua black tea or a non jin hua black tea.  It is my opinion that this yellow fungus were also 'killed' when the tea is infused with boiling water. 

I have a high opinion of Xiang Mu Hai tea and this 2019 production did not disappoint. The tea is smooth and has a sweet aftertaste. Easy to drink.