The Price Of Tea

Rambling about tea today. ;

The war.  Because of the war, everything is expensive now. Food, medicine, fuel and related transport costs had risen dramatically.  But I am wary that these elevated prices would remain elevated even when there is a resolution to the war.  

Chinese tea? Yes, it would cost more now.  You can mitigate this cost increase but drinking more from your tea stash. I know many Chinese tea drinkers own a stash of tea. It might be a small amount to a larger stash that can last a couple of generations. It is a good idea if we allocate our funds now for other more noble purposes than buying tea. 

The future of Chinese tea?  Chinese tea is considered a luxury and there a shift or evolution in drinking Chinese tea.  In my travels especially in China, it seemed to me that a traditional tea house or tea shop is a rare sight. A common phenomena would be tea cafes literally popping out in every corner like a convenience shop. Have your tea chilled with fruit flavours, fresh milk, boba or even have a cheesy foam top on your tea. High mountain fresh milk oolong with bubbles? Place your order and you be presented with a fancy cup, straw and even a pretty paper bag to take away your drink. People are drinking more Chinese tea but not with the gaiwan and teapot we are used too.  

I hope to travel to China soon. I can imagine many small tea shops in Fangchun, Guangzhou would have folded up in view of the higher costs of running a tea shop.  I will update my readers after this trip. 

Sea Dyke Ti Kuan Yin - Way Past Expiry Date

The printing on the box was clear. Best before 27 Dec 2013.  You have been taught not to consume food pass its expiry date. It will not be safe and may be toxic if you eat or drink such products. 

There are food where it will appreciate in terms of aroma and taste with time in storage. Wine, preserved meats and even cheese and chocolate.  Certain tea like roast oolong, liu bao, black tea and pu erh are highly sought after if these tea are stored properly with age. 

You will notice that this tea inside the tin are rolled tea. This may suggest that it may a few infusions before the full flavor to come through as it will take a few infusions to unfurl the tea leaves.  Likewise, if you are brewing pu erh leaves in small chunks, it may take a few rounds before the taste and aroma is more complete. 

This old 100g tinned Ti Kuan Yin by Sea Dyke is a delightful proposition. There is a gentle oily and long slightly sweet aftertaste. I am happy. A good tea need not be an expensive tea. 

2005 XingHai Raw Pu erh Cake

This is a 2005 Xinghai tea factory raw pu erh cake.  Composed of Menghai region pu erh tea leaves this 20 year old cake has been in my collection for more than 15 years.  This tea was a tea exchange with a tea collector in Guangzhou. 

I am happy that most of my pu erh tea are reaching the 20 year old mark. For newer collectors, 20 years is long time to wait but time will pass quickly.  Store your tea away in a clean and dry space in your house and leave it alone. Of course, temperature and humidity in the house would affect the aging results of your tea but nevertheless your tea will still age with time in storage. It will age vey slowly compared to those tea collections in hot and humid countries but you should still have a nice tea to drink. 

This tea after 20 years of storage is sweet, mellow and smooth.  Not smoky but a delightful mouthwatering tea. The signature menghai aroma and taste is really very pleasant in this tea. I am happy. 

Hong Kong Storage Pu erh

 

What is Hong storage pu erh tea?

This refers to puerh tea that were stored in Hong Kong where the storage conditions were slightly more humid than current storage pu erh techniques. 

Let me explain. Today we store our pu erh tea in boxes or bags and hope that our pu erh tea will age to a taste and aroma many tea drinkers enjoy in drinking old pu erh tea. This aging is actually decomposing but under controlled conditions. Don't be in shock; we eat many food that goes through 'controlled decomposition'.  Cheese, soy sauce, tofu and yogurt are some common examples. 

Chinese tea drinkers don't call this process decomposition but rather 'fermentation'. It a less harsher and kinder term. 

Older Chinese tea shops, used to store their pu erh tea in storerooms that has slightly  higher humidity. One must remember that pu erh tea only found favour with the Hong Kong locals there in the 80s to the early 90s. My guess was that pu erh was just stored in rooms without any control to the humidity. Most of the 'Hong Kong storage' teas sold now were from the late 90s to around early 2006.

Hong Kong storage pu erh taste really older than its age. There is a musty, lightly perfumed aroma and a lightly spicy aftertaste in the tea. The tea when brewed is very dark amber.  This is an acquired taste. I enjoy this tea and will buy some whenever I am in Hong Kong. These tea are getting very expensive. 

I would like to warn you that there are some Chinese tea shops that had stored the tea badly (I had seen some mouldy cakes) and try to pass them off as Hong Kong storage tea.  It is important that you try to sample the tea or buy them from reliable teashops there. I stress again that this tea is an acquired taste. It is not for everyone.   

Wu Dong Dan Chong

 

I got my Wu Dong dan chong from Ho Chi Minh Vietnam. The Chinese teashop was operated by Mr Kuek who hailed from Wu Dong China. His family members owned a tea farm in Wudong and he managed to get some Dan Chong shipped to him every year. 

Dan Chong from Wu Dong China are highly regarded by Chinese tea drinkers.  I managed to buy and bring home three grades sold by Mr Kuek. His family had named the 3 grades of dan chong as narcissus, eight fairies and silver bud. 

Readers would know I like my regular Fujuan oolongs strong. I would fill my teapot wth more than of the tea leaves before I commence my tea session. Not so with dan chong,   I have to use less leaves when I brew. Too much tea leaves would result in a strong bitter taste. My Malaysian tea master told me that I should use 1g for every 20ml capacity. (if a teapot is 100ml size, I should use 5g of tea). 

Dan chong oolong tea is so different from my usual fujian oolongs. The taste and aroma is so different.....almost like Taiwan high mountain tea. There is a nice bouquet of flowers and perfume. Long and oily mouthfeel. Aftertaste is very pleasant with a light sensation of nuts (like roasted chestnuts).  Easily good for 6 infusions from a tea session. 

An interesting tea. Worth a purchase.  

Sea Dyke Shui Jin Gui

 

Shui Jin Gui, aka water gold tortoise, oolong is one of the main oolongs produced in China. The 4 main oolongs, otherwise known as xi da ming cong, are Da Hong Pao, Tie Lo Han, Bai Ji Guan and Shui Jin Gui. Other well known oolongs you would be familiar would be Rougui and Shui Hsien. Yes there are many oolong varietal names and tea producing villages in Fujian, China might name their oolong with unique names to differentiate their tea. 

This tea is produced by Sea Dyke brand and came packed in a metal tin. This tin of Shui Jin Gui was produced in 2016.  Already with 10 years of storage, this tea is aromatic and fragrant. The tea is quite high roasted and has a decent mineral taste as well.  A value for money purchase. 

But I digress.  Many oolong tea drinkers had asked me how much  oolong I used for a tea session. There is no correct answer as during my tea travels, I noticed an extremely generous use of tea leaves filling the entire teapot for a tea session (in Ipoh, Malaysia) and while at a Hong Kong teashop, the owner filled half a teapot with tea leaves before he commenced the tea session.  I like my oolong strong and I will fill my teapot with leaves (more than half the teapot) for my tea session. 

Happy New Year

 

It is Chinese New Year tomorrow. I would like to wish my readers and all my tea buddies "Kong xi Fa Cai". Live long and prosper. 

Ho Chi Minh - Di Phat Teashop

 I am in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam this week.  I looked up the internet hoping to find a Chinese tea shop. My search yielded this shop, Di Phat teashop.  The images suggested that this tea shop looked very old and I decide to make my way to the tea shop. 

The shop is located at 122, Phu Tho, Phuong 1. Quan 11 HO Chi Minh.  This shop has been in business for almost 70 years. The shop had that old antique shop feel, like it was frozen in time.  I really enjoyed my visit there. I actually visited this shop twice while I was in Vietnam. 

The proprietor, Mr Kuek came from Chaozhou China. His family produced dan chong tea under the Wu Tong brand.  Mr Kuek was patient and allowed me to sample his tea. 

I found Wu Dong tea to be good. Their higher grade tea which were named 8 fairies and narcissus was good. There was no bitterness and the tea had a long aromatic mouthfeel.  I will write more on the tea in my later post.

I would strongly recommend a visit to this very old tea shop and sample their tea.  A must visit for a Chinese tea drinker. 

Pek Sin Choon Theet Lo Han

 

It's already 2026 and I got myself a tin of Theet Lo Han.  The tin has 50 hand wrapped paper packets of tea.   Theet Lo Han is how you pronounced this tea in Fujian dialect while Tie Lo Han is the mandarin pronunciation.  Kenny the CEO of Pek Sin Choon was at the shop and he treated me to a hot bowl of Chinese dessert as well as a session of tea. 

I happened to have a few packets of Theet Lo Han that I had kept for more than 10 years and proceeded to have a tea session at home. 

This is not a top shelf tea. I considered that this tea would be a mid range grade. In Singapore this tea is normally drank in restaurants or shops that serve pork ribs tea (a popular Chinese meal eaten with a bowl of rice). 

The older packet which I brewed has some aged taste. Overall this is an inexpensive tea and I would recommend this tea for its traditional packing...... and it's a tea from a Singapore teashop as well. 

2007 Xiaguan Jinsi Tuo Gold Ribbon

Readers would know that I am a big fan of Xiaguan pu erh tea.  My collection of Xiaguan tea are mainly from the years 2003-2009.  It is a fairly large collection of Xiaguan as I tend to buy them in bulk more than 12 years ago. 

Xiaguan pu erh tea is not expensive. With time in storage, the tea produced an aroma and taste that I considered high quality compared to other pu erh brands of the same age.  I particularly enjoy the smoky offerings by Xiaguan.  Some of these tea age to a camphor like aroma finish which I enjoyed tremendously. 

I am also intrigued by the various traditional compressed pu erh tea shapes from Xiaguan; from the iron cakes, nest tuos, melon and mushroom shaped tea. 

I just opened a 2007 gold ribbon tuo. This tea is not smoky but it has nice honey and floral notes in the tea. A sweet aftertaste. The 19 year old tea now brews to a dark amber colour.  I call this tea the 'honey tuo'.  I recommend. 

Merry Christmas

 

To all my tea readers and tea buddies. Merry Christmas !

I will continuing my tea adventures next year visiting Malaysia, Hong Kong and Guangzhou and visiting my tea drinking groups in these countries. If you are in Singapore, contact me and we can meet to have a meal and a tea exchange as well. 

Live long and prosper. 

Will the real 7542 please stand up.

Will the real 7542 please stand up.  If you are a serious pu erh tea drinker.  The 7542 raw pu erh cake would need no introduction.  This raw cake is produced by the famous Taetea (aka Dayi) tea factory. Very old 7542 are highly sought after by both tea drinkers and tea collectors.  

I myself have been drinking and buying the Dayi 7542. The pix showed a tong (7 cakes) in their original packaging. The paper wrapper stack is a 2008 production while the bamboo wrapped one is the most recent 2025 production. 

If I am not wrong, the 7542 is a yearly production offered by Taetea tea factory. I noticed over the past 15 years, the tea factory used fancy wrappers to wrap their tea cakes. There is nothing wrong as there are tea collectors that might be persuaded to buy the tea because of the fancy wrappers.   Not a joke. 

I  will try to sample the new 7542s when they are out.  This is where the mystery of the 7542 appeared.  Yes, every yearly batch of 7542 would taste different in terms of taste and aroma as the tea are from different yearly harvests.  Well, if you are a serious tea drinker of 7542 like me, I would expect that there would be a signature taste and aroma in the tea albeit the different years.  This was not the case in those 7542 I had sampled for the past 10 years. 

In my personal opinion while I sampled the tea, I found the 7542, produced in the different years, was a different animal altogether. Some tasted very green and light almost like green tea, some 7542 had a slightly woody and herbal taste. I believed that the newer 7542 were produced in such a way that the tea was drinkable now, no need for storage.  The 7542 over the past 10 over years were to me generally lighter in taste and aroma.  This is a deliberate decision by Taetea. The 7542 recipe had been adjusted yearly for reasons I cannot understand.   I personally believed a new light tasting tea cannot age to a strong tea with time in storage.  

I bought a tong of this year's 7542. This offering is different.  This tea is mildly smoky and lightly sweet. It is moderately strong.  Although Taetea tea factory is an innovative Chinese tea factory. I am not sure if they should be 'tempering' with the 7542 recipe. 

My 2 cents worth. 

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.