Looking At Puerh Tea Through My Crystal Ball

I was in Guangzhou in early August and I had an enjoyable time having tea with my tea drinking groups as well as with my tea wholesaler friends during the week there. 

I witnessed a carton of 2008 ChenShengHao 'year of the rat' edition changed hands at slightly more than 10k RMB per cake.  I remarked that this tea was already 10 years old and the buyer would enjoy the taste and aroma of a 10 year old banzhang pu erh.  My wholesaler friend laughed at me.  He told me most of the Banzhang sold by him are unlikely to be brewed and drunk.  Most of these expensive tea are kept and resold, never drunk.  He explained that there were good returns for such tea especially before 2012 production.  One could see very good returns if the buyer stored his/her cartons of tea well over this period.  My wholesaler friend says that prices of new tea are high now and there are many 'investors' of tea in China.  The returns of newer tea are now much lower than if one has invested in tea 10 years ago. 

I was disturbed.  I told a Chinese tea drinker group about this finding when I had tea with them the next day.  This tea drinking group of 6 were mainly tea collectors / drinkers.  They would open a cake, cheap or expensive to drink, without hesitation.  My friends would normally drink their pu erh after more than 10 years of storage.  These friends also believed that the many expensive 'branded' pu erh tea are purchased and stored away and not drank at all.  Examples would be the Dayi tea special edition pu erh cakes.  One collector felt that even old Yixing factory teapots are also now bought and stored away as investment pieces and they are never used for brewing tea.  interestingly, this group of tea drinkers rarely buy new tea now, citing the very high prices as one of the reasons for the non purchase. 

I believed that about 50-60% pu erh production are purchased purely for investment purposes.  Small retailers and tea drinkers/ collectors would make up for the rest of the tea.  

My readers would know that this news are not 'earth shattering'.  Tea forums and tea blogs have already highlighted this pu erh trend.  As I gazed at my dusty crystal ball, I believed that these 'stored away' tea will appear in the tea markets again only in one scenario - in very bad economic times.  When business environment turns sour, investors may have to liquidate their assets for cash, a force selling situation.  In very good economic times, these tea will also be sold for a profit but this tea simply changed hands to another buyer who will store them away hoping for a higher profit. 

The pu erh tea industry now is highly dependent on speculators and investors to support the higher prices of the pu erh tea markets.  Yes, most of the expensive 'branded' pu erh tea are never drunk.  How is the quality of this tea? Has the tea aged well?  For now, the only important question in the tea markets is "How much is the tea?".

2018 Hong Kong International Tea Fair

I was invited to attend the 2018 Hong Kong International Tea Fair which was held from 15-18 Aug 2018.  This tea fair was also held in conjunction to the Food Fair at the Convention Centre in Wan Chai. 

As usual. the fair was very well organised.  The organisers even had shuttle buses to ferry foreign visitors to and from their hotels at regular intervals.  There were special booths set up to assist with packaging and freight that makes the buying experience very easy especially for 1st time buyers to the fair.  Wifi was free and reliable within the fair grounds.  

The tea fair had a 'tea saloon' where talks and tea sampling sessions was scheduled at hourly intervals through the day.  Vendors and tea experts would share their knowledge and products with visitors.  I enjoyed these events very much.

There was a Hong Kong milk tea competition that is unique to the tea fair and it was a serious affair with contestants young and old competing with each other on who could brew the best cup of tea. It was in good fun with celebrity guest judges having a hard time determining the winner.  Maybe I should be a contestant next year.  

Hong Kong Fukien Teashop High Roast Tie Guan Yin

I do not consider this blog entry to a a revisit of this Tie Guan Yin.  This oolong tea is one of my favourite tea on my tea shelf for many years and I would brew this tea at least once a week.

This TGY is produced and sold by Fukien Tea shop in Hong Kong.  Hand-wrapped in 125g packs, this is the shop's flagship tea.  There are many followers of this tea (me included) and the shop has faithful customers from as far as Japan and South Korea.  Last year, a South Korean TV company made a documentary on the teashop and this tea.  

This tea is a very high roasted oolong.  The Yeo (Yang) family which had run this teashop for more than 3 generations told me that this tea was slowly roasted up to 40 hours.  This tea when brewed produces a dark but sweet finish.  There is a unique caramel sweetness in the finish that is mouthwatering.  This tea is very aromatic and the scent stays in the mouth for a few minutes after a tea session.  

I recommend this tea to the oolong tea drinker.  This tea, in my opinion, is something special.  Inexpensive as well.

H2O And Tea

One nice thing about Singapore is that I can drink water straight from the tap.  I have been to a few countries where I have to buy bottled water for my drinks as the tap water is not safe for consumption

But I am fussy.  I bought a standing filter for my tap water.  I simply fill up about 4-5 litres of water into a container and let gravity do its work.  The water will flow down slowly through a few sets of filters clearing out the chlorine and other stuff.  Water pipes are old in my housing estate and the ceramic filter turns slightly brown after 1-2 months of use and thats when I have to give the ceramic filter a good brushing.  

I used the filtered water for my tea brewing.  It is pretty good.  At least....its a cheap option.

We can also buy bottled water and experiment the taste and aroma when using these bottled water.  In Singapore, I can buy water which is bottled in Europe, Canada, USA and even Himalaya water.  They cost about $1-4 for a large bottle.  

Water makes up a large component in your tea and using such water may give a different taste or aroma in the tea.  There are also some bottled water which I could not discern any difference when I used them for my tea.  

Pix shows a bottle of water from Canada. When I used it on a raw puerh tea session, the tea seem to taste more smooth.  Maybe it is my imagination.  Fun though.  

Rougui Shui Hsien - A Lau Yu Fat Premium Oolong

This is a premium range of oolong tea offered by Hong Kong's Lau Yu Fat Tea shop.  This tea came from the famed Fujian Wuyi mountains where oolong tea grown there are considered the 'quality stuff'.

You will notice that the leaves are plump and dark.  Being an expensive tea and the leaves looking pretty clean, I dispensed with washing the tea and starting drinking from the 1st infusion.  The aroma from the 1st infusion is very impressive.  There is a nice complicated bouquet of flowers (fresh and dried) which gave me a nice mouth watering sensation.  

Such oolong tea or yancha would  surprise a new oolong drinker in the sense that the tea is good only for about 4 infusions before the tea aroma and flavours fade away.  Many oolong tea drinker friends would also add more tea leaves in a brewing session to maximise the 'oomph' in the tea.  Swirling the tea in my mouth while breathing in air through the mouth and exhaling through the nose at the same time would enhance or encapsulate the aroma in my mouth and throat.  This tea is very good.

However, this is a new tea.  The 'newness' is evident in the later infusions where the aftertaste seem to 'cut short'.  This tea would be better if kept for 10 years for further aging.  An expensive proposition.

Tea Appreciation - An Alcoholic Perspective

I have been exchanging emails with Wilson.  No I am not going bonkers.  Since my alcoholic post last month, many readers now know that I enjoy drinking many other liquids besides Chinese tea.  I grind my Ethiopia coffee beans on weekends for morning coffee and I do drink a dram of whisky 2-3 times a month.

A Scotsman named Wilson (its really weird writing to myself) wrote to me last month.  He enjoys his pu erh tea and his scotch drinks and wanted to compare tea notes with me.  At the same time, he explained to me the proper way to drink and appreciate scotch whisky.

Here are some notes that will interest the Chinese tea drinker:

1.  Scotch Whisky does not age in the bottle.  You buy a 12 yr old scotch, the taste and aroma of the liquor will (should) remain unchanged in the bottle after say 10 years.  Pu erh tea will continue to age after you bring it home.  A 10 yr old pu erh cake will be aged to a 20 year old tea if you keep it for another 10 years.  

2.  A tea session is cheaper than a session (call a dram) of whisky.  A tea cake can be broken up to 50 tea sessions (assume we use 7g from a 357g cake).  A bottle of whisky can get you 28 pours (one 25ml pour from a 700ml bottle).  If you work out the math, a $100 cake will give you a bigger bang for your money compared to a $100 bottle.  

3.  You can have a tea session daily.  Or twice daily.  But having a double whisky session daily may not be good and may cause an unhealthy addiction.  

But Wilson (the Scottish One) pointed out other differences

1.  Tea set up can be expensive.  Tea kettle, tea tray, teapot and teacups can be a little expensive.  You need to boil water and you have to prepare and later wash up the utensils.  However, all you need is a good nosing glass for your whisky and a few drops of water to bring up the flavours in the glass.  It takes less effort.

2.  You can walk into a whisky bar and have a choice of 50-200 varieties of different age and character.  I answered him by saying I can walk into a teashop and sample (for free) a tea as well.  

Looks like Chinese tea is the better deal.  

Scottish Wilson explained that nosing of the whisky is very important.  He pointed out that a good nosing glass like the Glencairn glass in the pix, is tulip shaped that will encapsulate the aroma of the liquor.  He says nosing of whisky normally takes 5-15 min as one try to identify the scents and aroma of the whisky.....floral, sweet honey notes, wooden oak or sherry scents.  Yes...even smoky or scent of the sea are seen in some whiskies.  Then sipping a whisky and 'chewing' the sip to cover the whole mouth before swallowing is also carried to to maximise the aroma and flavour.  

As a Chinese tea drinker, you will notice some of the similarities in whisky and tea appreciation.  Nosing for Chinese tea take up only a few seconds as the teacup we normally use does not hold the tea aroma well.  There was a significant improvement when I used a deeper Lin Ceramics teacup, filling half the cup with tea and nosing the tea for about 30 seconds before drinking the tea.  I feel that Chinese tea appreciation could be made more interesting if we a proper nosing cup of the tea.  Yes, we have scenting Chinese tea cups but I feel a bigger and deeper cup where you can 'put your nose in' makes a significant difference.  And I am not drunk stating this....whisky taste aroma and taste seem enhanced if drank from a Lin purion cup.

That is my 2 cents worth of thoughts.  I have been invited to Scotland where Wilson will bring me to a few distilleries and bars.  He proposed we do an tea-whisky exchange.  Sounds good...... but I have to put the bottle In my checked-in luggage and hope it will not break during the return journey.   My wife is excited when I told her we may be visiting Scotland.  I left out the distillery and bar visit bits though.

Sea Dyke Zhen Cang Rougui Oolong

This rougui is produced by Sea Dyke and comes in a pretty double lid tin.    This tin contains 100g and my tea was produced in 2016.  "Zeng Cang' literally meant collection which I guessed it implied this rougui was a 'collector' grade of oolong.  

This is a new tea offering by Sea Dyke and I was looking forward to this tea.  I was impressed with their newer Shui Jin Gui tea which came foil packed in 12.5g and packed individually in small orange boxes. That tea was nice, mellow and smooth.

The tea leaves in this rougui tin looked plump and pleasant.  I had looked forward to trying this tea.  

This tea did not meet my expectations.  The roast was more medium than high roasted.  I suppose Sea Dyke was trying to appeal to both medium roast and high roast tea drinkers with this roast level.   I wished this rougui to be higher roasted as the flavours seemed muted in my opinion.  There are many high roasted oolong offerings that I enjoy from Sea Dyke but this rougui is not my cup of tea.  Sigh!