A Tea Addict's Journal

Went to the Best Tea House again. I have really very little to do in Hong Kong. Most of my friends are working or not living in the city, so during the day, especially, I am basically on my own, which leaves a lot of time to drink tea. It doesn’t help, of course, that they have such a liberal pouring policy.

People seemed to have liked the pictures last time, so I took more today.

When I got there, there was already one guy sitting at the table, while Tiffany was entertaining some other customer. Two more came in during the sitting, and it will eventually be the 5 of us drinking.

The first tea today was a magnificent 16+ years old gongfu tea, supplied by the guy who was already sitting at the table when I got there.

We were going to use the small pot on the right, but that was too small for so many people, so instead we used the big pot instead. Not ideal for gongfu tea, but good enough. The tea itself was a very high fired oolong, but over time, of course, it has mellowed out (without refirings). The tea was kept sealed for about 15 years, and the owner of it recently opened it and started drinking. I don’t know how to describe the taste, except that it’s very complex and very mellow. It has none of the high fired taste that resemble charcoal. Instead, it’s a very pleasant, subdued taste, but nevertheless quite strong and very fragrant. Excellent mouthfeel, and exquisite aftertaste. I think this is by far the best aged oolong I’ve had in recent memory.

Since we started off with this tea, Tiffany showed us another thing that the store has kept for a while. They no longer sell it, but it was an interesting comparison (also because the guy who owns the gongfu tea has some of this too). Picture speaks louder than words:

Looks like a melon puerh from afar, but if you look closer

Which turns into

Yup. It’s oolong. To be specific, it’s qingxiang Taiwanese oolong that’s been fired a bit. The whole ball is basically compressed oolong. It’s been sitting around for about 10 years, I was told, and was made on the occasion of some important tea personage visiting Hong Kong. Either way, we tasted this.

Compared with the gongfu tea, this sucked. The typical thinness of Taiwanese tea really showed, as well as a slight hint of sourness. The sourness went away after two brews, and it developed a better flavour, but after 4, it was already giving way. The aftertaste was most interesting — you can definitely taste the qingxiang Taiwan oolong in the aftertaste, but not in the immediate taste of the tea. On a whole, everybody agreed it was ok, but not great.

Then we took a bit of a break, and I decided to snap a picture of this:

Which is basically two stacks of puerh samples. They are all cakes that have been pried open or broken apart for taste tests. Some they still sell, others are out of stock. Most are just languishing there, not having been touched for a while. I was digging through a few of them and some looked rather good.

There’s also this:

The 500g tuo that Toki has been telling me to buy, from Fengqing factory.

Then, we drank a puerh. Tiffany pulled out a piece from a cake, and told us that this is the Zhongcha Brand Simplified Font. If I am not mistaken, this refers usually to the Iron cake from the 70s (correct me if I’m wrong here). The tea is certainly very nice. Complex, flavourful, full bodied, etc etc, all that you’d expect from a good, aged cake, including the price — $1000 USD

Then she told me about this cake they’re selling, and I looked at it, and I liked it. No time today for more tasting though, so that’s what’s on the list for the next visit — gotta go try it out, and if it’s good, I’m going to buy a whole tong. More pictures next time 🙂

Oh, and she posed once more after I told her that you guys all like pretty sales girls with access to a huge stash of tea

Today I went to a different tea store, one called Jabbok in Mongkok. The proprietor of the place is a self styled “Professor”. I think he was, at some point or another, appointed a visiting prof or instructor or some such at some university in China, and since then he has been called by that nickname. Talk about being pretentious.

Anyway, they do have some interesting puerh, although I think on the whole selection is better at Best Tea House (but prices are also higher). I tried three today. The first was a mid 90s 7582, which was a bit too mellow for my taste. It lacked any sort of real punch, and compared to, say, the Zhenchunya Hao, it’s no match (cheaper, of course, but really not worth the money)

The second is a proprietary cake that was made for celebrating the establishment of the Kowloon Walled City tea center or whatever it’s called. That one’s a 5 year old cake. The overall impression is sweet — very sweet. There’s some lingering smokiness, and you can smell some cigarette smell on the lid. The body is thin to medium. I think the main issue is that the lady salesperson brewing it isn’t very skilled, and does it in a sort of casual way. I don’t think she brings out the best in the tea. Tiffany can do a better job (because you can tell she really likes tea), and so can I :p. I am a little attracted to that tea however, but the prices is a little high as well.

The last I had is basically a cake of unknown vintage or origin, other than it is a Menghai factory cake, probably about 15 years old. That was by far the best one, and at something like $150 USD a piece, might be the best buy. HOWEVER, they said a mainland merchant just snapped up all the stock they had (about 1 jian). So, they’re out, and the only one left was the half-drunk sample that I was drinking. Oh well.

I’m partly doing this to educate myself further before I go to Maliandao and other tea places in the mainland. I don’t expect to find great stuff, but I do hope to find some decent stuff that I can age and be happy about 15 years down the road.

As I said, I would go back on Monday, although this time, I only had about an hour. Sat down, and tasted two dancongs. Both are roasted. One (the first one we had) was a little more robust, a bit mellow, but also a bit sour and lacks a fragrance that you’d expect from a dancong. The second was better, with more of a bite, although Tiffany used a little too much leaves and left it a little bitter.

I need to go to another teahouse, maybe today or Wednesday. I also need to book a ticket to Beijing…. ugh

I have talked about FookMingTong before, mostly in connection with the TGY that I received via my parents from them. It’s not a bad TGY, but somewhat pricy. Today, I went to the IFC mall, which has a branch of their shop in it. My friend and I, for lack of better things to do, decided to drop in there.

I was going to compared their loose puerh and want to get a taste test, so after being ignored by the sales for a few minutes, I got one of them to sit down and brew one for us.

They have 3 loose puerhs. One is a “regular” one. One is a 1989 puerh, so they say, and the last is a “unknown year” one (named the same as the one at the Best Tea House). The crucial difference, however, is that apparently they’re all cooked, not raw. Eewwwww

I didn’t know that because they only show the tea in these weird little display cases. Imagine a slightly thicker CD jewel case, all plastic, with a little round hole on top that I suppose let you touch the tea or something. The lighting was soft, and the plastic a little stained by the tea, so I couldn’t really tell what I was looking at. When I did get to smell the dry tea they put into the gaiwan, it smelled a bit cooked with that mouldy smell, but then, it’s hard to say too.

They brewed the 1989 first. The guy was going to do a 1 minute first infusion after a brief wash. That alone should’ve tipped me off that something was wrong…. 1 minute? I told him to cut it short, and he did, and I think by that time the sales were already rather annoyed with me, the youngish man with an attitude.

Taste — your typical cooked, a bit sweet, a bit flat. It has some nice notes, but it doesn’t have that bite that is customary of raw tea that is aged. It also smelled like a cooked… and it looks like one. Oh well.

I didn’t even stay for the second tea. But before that, I asked them if they sell any raw puerh. They do, apparently, in cake form. That’s fine, I asked to see the cake, and they handed me this thing that was wrapped in your usual paper (using FookMingTong’s own paper wrapper, thus telling you nothing) sealed with a sticker on the back, and on top of it, a layer of plastic that is taped together. I asked if they have a sample, at least, that is opened, and the answer was… no. “They all come wrapped from our warehouse, and they are all sealed that way”. No sample cake at all so I can look at? “No, we don’t have any”.

How do they expect us to buy cakes? I guess you can always sell it to tourists or gift givers, who couldn’t care less what’s actually in it, but seriously…. no sample and no goods to look at? I could be buying some mouldy rotting cake for all I know.

I spent the entire afternoon today in the Best Tea House again. This time I had the whole day free to do tasting. So after lunching, I went up to where the store is and sat down to do some tasting.

Here’s our host, Tiffany

The first thing we had was actually the 1997 sample of Xizhihao I brought over. It was, once again, a comparison test thing. She likes it, but was trying to sell me something else which she deems as better. That cake is this one:

Of which there are many tongs in the store

And the list price for one piece of this is close to $300 USD. Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. It was one of the first generation of high quality cakes produced by Taiwanese merchants. It was made in 1996, and called the Zhenchunya hao. Taiwan is already pretty much sold out on this thing, and so the Best Tea House has the market basically cornered.

The cake is a more subdued tea. Compared to the 1997 Xizhihao, which is rather spicy in taste and has a strong menthol flavour, the Zhenchunya hao is more mellow and restrained. It is a bit creamy/milky in flavour and smell, with a bitter edge. It doesn’t, however, have that menthol sort of taste that is rather common, it seems, in Xizhihao cake. I do not know if it is the aging or if it is the tea, as menthol tastes do tend to disappear over time.

After this, which took about two hours, we went on to something else (and another tea buyer joined in, a gentlemen called Ben). Our skilled host brewed two teas at the same time like this

Bet you can’t do that.

On the left (our left) is tea from a 2005 tuo. It’s a 500g tuo, selling for 25 USD (yeah, that’s a lot of tea for not a lot of money, which Tiffany tried to push on me), made by the Fengqing tea factory. The liquor is slightly cloudy, with a very sweet, mellow taste, almost green tea like. I don’t like it, and I doubt I’ll buy something like this.

The one on the right, which was brewed simultaneously, is this:

Sorry for the unclear picture. It is a cake from 1997 as well, also from the Fengqing factory. This one brewed a stronger liquor, but the OVERWHELMING TASTE was cigarette. It smelled like cigarette, and tasted like cigarette. The smoke flavour was so strong, it overpowered everything else. However, smoke generally do go away after a while — sometimes after a long while. There are hints of camphor and wood and other things in there, even a hint of sweetness, but the initial, overwhelming taste of cigarette is quite jarring. I might buy one of these for experiment/education purposes. I don’t think it is bad. I think it is just not ready. Price? $60 USD.

By then, it was 5:15, and we were all pretty tea drunk (the three of us). Then, to top it off, I had to taste test for lesseps the loose sheng that they sell. Apparently, they mix a little shou in there, but still, the taste is mostly that of aged sheng, spicy, mellow, the usual mix, and going after 6-7 infusions. Not quite the same as my loose sheng that is aged, but similar enough, I suppose, for the purpose. (tell me if you don’t want it after this description)

I was going to try a dancong and other things too, but by then, it was too late, and I was too caffeinated. My stomach was also hungry after the aged sheng (aged puerh ALWAYS makes me hungry) so I was off.

But before I finish — just a few more pics of the place and the things they sell, this is only one part of the store.

Two display cases

And finally: the Red Label, selling for a grand total of $5000 USD.

Next visit is scheduled for Monday 🙂 and Sunday I will probably go to another tea shop. So many places, so little time!

For a tea lover, Hong Kong is quite a dangerous place.

I say that because today, in the course of doing non-tea related things around town, I walked by 3 different teashops, all selling attractive looking (packaged) and somewhat pricey teas. I was getting a haircut, and after I left the haircut joint, I passed by a branch of Fook Ming Tong, which I have talked about before — well packaged teas selling to the gift-giving crowd. They have two types of puerh (loose) on sale, for example. Both are mixed cakes, with some cooked and some raw tea mixed in. Not cheap — $10 USD for 1 oz for the pricier ones, and about 2/3 of that for the cheaper one. The woman didn’t offer me a taste though, and I didn’t exactly have enough time for one anyway for me to bother asking for one, so I dodged a bullet (in the sense that I didn’t buy anything).

Then, I walked by another tea store somewhere along the way to meeting with my sister (for afternoon tea, complete with scones). This one’s an older tea shop in Hong Kong called Ying-kei. This particular branch is newer, and is jazzed up a bit to attract the same sort of people who shop at Fook Ming Tong. I walked by, but didn’t go in. I know they won’t treat me nicely because I don’t look the part.

Then, after our afternoon tea, I went to a supermarket of sorts where they also have a few food outlets, and when I was walked towards the burger joint, there it was, another tea vendor. This one’s called Ming Cha. As you can see, it’s a nice website. Apparently (according to a tea friend in HK) this company was started by some product design person who likes tea. His tea expertise is not great, but he is good at packaging, and the stuff is packaged quite nicely. HOWEVER, the place does NOT offer any free tasting at all (Fook Ming Tong does, they just didn’t ask me to try). You have to BUY a serving of tea at this place to try something, or you can sniff the (slightly overexposed) dry leaves.

That’s just unacceptable. The prices they charge for the single serving tea is at least something like $6 USD. While it’s not bad compared to US prices for shit tea, this is just not kosher in a place like HK where I can get free tasting for free. And I don’t want to sink $30 before finding the right kind of tea that I want. AND, they brew it for you when you want the single serving, and they use a TIMER. Horror of horrors. The guy selling the tea didn’t know as much as I do, which is also a Very Bad Thing. So even though I was tempted three times today, I didn’t buy anything.

Back to the Best Tea House tomorrow with more puerh to share with Tiffany. They’re not the only show in town worth going to, but I like them. I should pay a visit to another place in a few days.

So I went to the Best Tea House today. I went to the main branch, where Tiffany, a trusted salesperson, was working today. I brought with me some goodies — the 99 Xizhihao sample from Hou De, as well as the Lao Banzhang from 2005.

No pictures today, as I was short on time. We tried both of them (with her brewing) and she thinks they are quite good — similar to some other cakes that she was showing me in the store that they have.

It’s rather interesting to see the sort of comparisons she makes and the observations she has about each particular tea. For example, she noticed that whereas drinking the 99 your lips do not stick to each other when you close your mouth, for the Lao Banzhang when you close your mouth, the lips get dry very quickly. It’s something I never noticed before, but she is right about that.

Yeah, lips and puerh tea. Never thought of that before.

Another thing she noted is that the fragrance of both the Xizhihao are not exceptionally high. While acknowledging that they are both powerful tea (in terms of cha qi) the fragrance is a little lacking. Of course, this might have to do with the “jet lagged” effect that Toki has talked about. It might also just be the case — not terribly fragrant, but strong.

I’m back in Hong Kong, tea paradise.

It’s funny though.  When I’m in Hong Kong, I drink lots of “tea in a cup” and rarely brew gongfu style.  It’s a little too much work for home, and it is also a little odd doing the whole thing in front of my family (parents).  I’m sure my mom will ridicule me for being such a tea snob, not that she doesn’t already.

I also consume WAY more tea than I usually do in the States.  Since I am basically drinking tea all day long, with little spells of water in between, caffeine intake is easily 2-3 times normal.  I will drink something in the morning when I wake up (in a cup) then go out, and visit a teashop in the afternoon (massive caffeine overload) then come home at night, and drink some more (fresh leaves).  Not a good idea…

Then again, it’s really hard to avoid tea here.  You go out, and they serve you tea pretty much by default.  You come home, and they bring out the tea.  Wherever you go, it’s tea, tea, tea.  It’s not a wonder that teas are quite nice here, and the selection is usually pretty wide.

Off to Best Tea House tomorrow.  I’m going to bring my Xizhihao sample there and see what they think.  It’ll be fun, especially since I haven’t been back since Christmas.  Second day I come back and I go hit the circuit, lol.  I am really an addict.

I am drinking this Darjeeling blend teabag my girlfriend bought me for my trip. It’s made by a Japanese company, and it’s one of those “pyramid teabags” that allow the tea to flow a little more freely than your regular joe teabags.

The taste? Tastes like a Darjeeling second flush blended with some Assam. Not a surprise really, since I think pure Darjeeling is a little expensive for teabag makers, and the tea leaves they use aren’t fannings either, but broken pekoe, so there’s an added cost to that. Not a bad tea for on the go, and beats Tazo or other teabags by a mile.

It’s nice to have a significant other who feeds your addiction 🙂

Two days till going back to Hong Kong. As nice as it is there, I’m leaving behind my girlfriend and two cats. 🙁

On a more tea-related, and practical, matter, is whether or not I should be bringing pots. I think I am leaving my puerh pot here, for my girlfriend’s use. I might also leave behind my Taiwan oolong pot, simply because it probably won’t see much action while I am in China. The rest, however (the TGY pot, the high fired TGY pot, and the dancong one) are going with me, I think. I can see myself drinking lots of each of those teas.

Then there’s the question of other teaware. I’ve been wanting a new fairness cup for a while now, mostly because mine’s so cheap and ugly. I can also use a nicer drinking cup, and a nicer gaiwan for my own use. As nice as it is to not have to worry about breaking your $10 gaiwan, once in a while I do want to use something better.

All this means I will be shelling out $$ for teaware once I get to Hong Kong. I really should hold out for China, where they’re all much cheaper….