Tag: King Tea Mall

“Bo Ya” Gushu and Wild Tea

“Bo Ya” GuShu & Wild Tea Sheng Puerh

Spring 2018 “Bo Ya” Gushu and Wild Tea Sheng Puerh Sheng Cha from King Tea Mall.

I had been enjoying John King’s Instagram feed when he posted the following summary of a new tea, a wild tree tea from the Bulang region in Menghai county.

“Regarding these wild tree, we still don’t know how old they are.
What it attracts me was the unique bitterness and soon coming Huigan (sweetness from aftertaste) and fell in love with it when I first tried it accidentally in Menghai.
Always hard to find accurate description words on this bitterness.
It is a wild, naughty flavor.”

I do really enjoy the way John describes his teas. It is slightly poetic, yet at the same time highly specific and descriptive.

As someone who enjoyed bitterness, (Broccoli Raab is one of my favorite vegetables, when I was drinking I imbibed copiously of the Amaro…) I almost felt like he was daring me to try this tea!

Who wouldn’t want to try a tea with, “a wild, naughty flavor”?

When I finally got around to ordering a cake of the tea he was describing, he said he would include some samples of others he thought I might like, given my interest in his Bitterly Wild and Naughty Tea.

I suppose I should have considered myself warned.

This tea is a blend of tea leaves from Wild trees and Old trees from the BanPen (班盆 which belongs to BanZhang tea area).

The opening flavors are quite bitter, they lead to middle flavors that are OK, but not amazing. Tobacco, Leather. Where this tea shines is in its outstanding and lengthy finish, camphor like flavors which seems to almost evaporate from your tongue. Oh, and it is one of those teas where you’re a couple cups in, and realize that it is zippy. Very Zippy. Or as John says, “Strong ChaQi makes mind clear and breath smooth and clear.”

Isn’t something like that the Mental Mantra from Frank Herbert’s “Dune”?

The Tea Must Flow!

#BoYaGushuPuerh #KingTeaMall #Cha #Tea #DrinkTea

  • “Bo Ya” GuShu & Wild Tea Sheng Puerh
  • “Bo Ya” GuShu & Wild Tea Sheng Puerh
  • “Bo Ya” GuShu & Wild Tea Sheng Puerh
  • “Bo Ya” GuShu & Wild Tea Sheng Puerh

“Man Ka” Puerh Style Tea

Man Ka Puerh Style Tea

2018 Spring “Man Ka” (Laotian Village) Puer Sheng Cha from King Tea Mall.

Another sample which came along with an order from King Tea Mall.

As I mentioned before the Chinese region of Yunnan borders Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar in a sort of indistinct mountainous area. Tea trees grow naturally in the neighboring areas of of all three countries.

As I understand it, John King, the proprietor of King Tea Mall tried some teas in small villages of Laos near Burma and became entranced with the potential of the tea trees there.

Usually, when we say “tea trees”, calling them “trees” is being generous. Most are kind of bushy and spindly, not getting much taller than a man. In commercial tea producing areas, it doesn’t make much sense to let them get too big, it just makes them harder to harvest.

In these areas of Laos, some of these tea trees have been growing wild, apparently for years or decades.

John has some great pictures of the workers climbing trees like squirrels to harvest the tender shoots and leaves of these enormous tea trees.

I’ll let him describe the tea.

“That is a flavor I have never tasted before. Though there is near the south border of YI WU tea region in China, but the taste is far different. Also different from teas from other regions in Yunnan.

“Ever the bitterness turns out in the beginning or sweetness which comes from aftertaste are obvious like a weather I experienced these days in that tea sourcing trip. The sun was shining brightly. Soon a group of cloud dropped by and brought a sudden rainfall. Meanwhile, the sun was still shining from higher sky. When the cloud passed by minutes later, sky turned back to normal as before.

“Rich taste with complex. The mouth feeling varies when tea liquid passes into throat.”

I can’t do any better than that, but I will say the later steeps of this tea exhibit some great fruit flavors that I believe will only be enhanced as it ages.

Usually, the term “Puerh” is reserved solely for tea made in Yunnan, China. Others can be called “Dark Tea”, but they aren’t Puerh.

John brought in tea harvesters and processors from Yunnan, did the early stages of tea processing in Laos. Then moved the tea to Menhai, Yunnan, where the processing was completed. So, at the very least it is Laotian Tea processed in Puerh Style.

#Tea #Cha #LaotianTea #DrinkTea #PuErh #KingTeaMall

  • Man Ka Puerh Style Tea
  • Man Ka Puerh Style Tea
  • Man Ka Puerh Style Tea
  • Man Ka Puerh Style Tea