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. 

Yunnan Sourcing

Do you know Yunnan Sourcing? Do you drink Chinese tea?  Do you live outside China?  If you answered yes to all 3 questions, I am sure you are familiar with Yunnan Sourcing (YS).

Scott Wilson is the owner of Yunnan Sourcing. He primarily operates out of Kunming China. He started YS about 20 years ago. He is an American. His online store comprised of mainly pu erh and other tea from China. He also sells tea ware.  He is unique in that he sells Chinese tea in China to customers that live outside China. He was an early pioneer  that he made use of the internet and made his tea easily available worldwide. 

I am one of his customers. I started buying tea from him since 2009. When I placed an order from YS, it was a thrill to see my tea order arriving at my doorstep a few weeks later.  It was quite addictive buying from YS.  

I had just befriended a new tea buddy last week in Singapore. He had purchased a huge bag of tea samples from YS and he proudly showed off his purchase to me like a trophy prize. 

Pix showed a purchase I made in 2011. The pu erh was a 2011 Ai Lao San sold under the YS brand. The teapot was another purchase from YS as well.  Made from Da Hong Pao clay.

Well, being a hardcore Chinese tea drinker, I made a trip to Kunming specially to meet Scott in 2009. I even bought a tong of tea from YS as my souvenir when I was there. Scott was very hospitable (more bald now).  He was in a good mood and taught me how to age tea by holding a tea cake on top of my head. 

I hope to make another pilgrimage to Kunming next year and visit Scott to attain more enlightenment about tea.    

Plukt Fireweed Tea

 

I was at the Paris tea festival last month and had bought this tin of tea. This tea is from Latvia produced by an outfit called Plukt.  When I sampled the tea, the tea tasted familiar like the black tea I am drinking at home. The tea reminded me of black tea produced by Yi Yuan Long. This Latvia tea has quite similar aroma and taste. I proceeded to buy a tin of this tea. 

I was told by the seller that this was fireweed tea  A quick check on the internet revealed that the leaves of the fireweed plant were harvested, dried  and fermented and used as a beverage in Northern and Eastern Europe. 

Plukt described the tea as - Imagine the taste of black tea that was born on Northern Europe.  Or just try this infusion-you imagined right, didn't you?

This was an accurate description and I really thought it was black tea. It was a happy discovery and adventure. A fun tea.  

2005 Hong Tai Chang Ripe Pu erh Tea

 

This is a 2005 ripe Hong Tai Chang pu erh tea  A 400g tea cake, this tea was wrapped in brown paper instead of the white rice paper used by other pu erh tea factories. 

I found this ripe pu erh unique in that the tea has that extra herbal taste, like a faint herbal Chinese soup. It was an interesting but very  pleasant tea to drink. There was also a nice hint of a leather aroma, like you are walking into a leather shop.   It does gives the impression, to me, that I am drinking a very old raw pu erh tea. 

This is where a few naughty teashops I had visited (Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Malaysia), displayed this tea naked in a clear plastic wrapper and claimed this tea is a very old raw tea from the 80s and 90s.  A couple of these shops even have sampling sessions of this tea. If you are not familiar with Hong Tai Chang tea, you may be duped into buying a ripe tea thinking it was an aged raw pu erh tea. 

 I would recommend a purchase of this tea if you are a hardcore ripe pu erh tea drinker like me.  

Banzhang - Lao Man Er Brand

 

This is Lao Man Er's offering of BanZhang raw pu erh tea. A large 500g raw pu erh tea brick, this tea had been in my storage for more than 10 years.  The compression of this 2010 tea brick is quite hard and I had to use a tea knife to pry open the tea. 

This pu erh tea is strong. It has a very strong and bitter taste.  No sweetness but a nice mouthwatering aftertaste. I enjoy the bitterness in the tea which added to the complexity of the taste......woody, bitter and slightly medicinal. This tea is good for about 10 good infusions.  Quite addictive.