Recently I was invited to a private tea tasting, with a pretty specific focus: very old teas. I wasn’t told much else, except that there’d be 8 of them, and it’d cost 3000 NTD ($93 USD).
A few weeks earlier I’d stumbled upon a similar gathering hosted by the same man— Liu Laoshi, or teacher Liu. He’s a private collector from Tainan, who’s deeply passionate about old tea. At the time he was serving some 1920s and 1930s yancha.
These kinds of gatherings, with expensive older teas, aren’t really publicly advertised, they’re just arranged amongst friends. Relationships matter in the tea world. The friend who invited me only did so because we’ve drank a lot of tea together, and he knew I’d really enjoy something like this. I was pretty grateful for the invite.
Teacher Liu has a degree of knowledge about old teas that’s pretty rare. To develop this level of understanding of any tea type requires a lot of exposure, and with teas this inaccessible, and this expensive, it isn’t easily come by. But he likes to share about his experiences too, and even has a number of regular students. He’s also served tea to various tea drinking celebrities, including Jack Ma. He’s a pretty generous guy— there really isn’t much financial incentive in holding a tasting like this, even a paid one. The teas are worth so much that you’re inevitably taking a loss. But his rationale is that they’re meant to be drank, and he wants to share.
At one point I asked him what he considers a daily drinker, when he’s just at home, drinking on his own. “Nothing less than 50 years old.” He said he doesn’t really drink water. Just tea. Because why bother with water, when old tea is just as hydrating, but also has medicinal properties? (he’s also an avid practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine). So in the morning, he’ll put some old tea in a thermos and drink it throughout the day. He’ll do the occasional gongfu cha session too, but either way just makes sure to have old tea on-hand at all times. Talk about living the dream.
While I wanted to sit back and just let this experience wash over me, I couldn’t help but take notes. So here’s what I managed to jot down. Some of these got less attention than others, and my apologies for that. Perhaps it says something though about how absolutely attention-demanding they were.
2021 Liugui 300yr hongcha
We started with a special old tree hongcha, from some of the oldest tea trees in Taiwan. Liugui is a mountainous area near Kaohsiung, and many of its older tea trees are quite hard to reach. Teacher Liu said it takes six hours to walk to these particular trees, as they’re high up in an area without roads. They’re also in a government-protected zone and only accessible to the local indigenous population. There are two young men responsible for harvesting these trees, and very little is collected each year.
Stories aside, it was just a really nice and complex hongcha. Quite smooth, had an interesting baking spices note that I don’t find much in Taiwan hongcha. Nice salivation in back of mouth. Good long aftertaste. Quite warming in chest within a few steeps. As with much hongcha though, it lost steam rather quickly, after maybe 5 steeps.
2011 Mahei 500yr gushu
Teacher Liu emphasized that this cake demonstrates one of the most clear traits of good old tree material— that it has many layers, and takes time to reveal itself. When you first drink it, it’s quite sweet and smooth. And then gradually builds in strength, eventually becoming impossible to ignore.
The feeling is almost immediate. Quite relaxing, if you drank enough you might just melt into your chair. There’s a subtle bitterness that builds slowly all around the mouth, gradually across the session. The mouthfeel is quite active and stimulating; it fills the mouth very fully, deeply sinking into the gums. Throat feel is excellent. Strong salivation, especially in back corners of mouth.
Hard to describe the flavor profile. It wasn’t sour at all. Darker leaning. Slight fruitiness, a bit of a mineral-type note, but fairly little of the light floral notes that many Yiwu teas of this age have. Overall just a very big presence for such a young tea, and sits heavily in the mouth.
From here, we started into the old teas. Teacher Liu brought up the traditional Chinese medicine concept of sanjiao (三焦), and how with older teas, you can pay attention to the effects on specific parts of your body, and the directionality of the feeling (concepts which overlap with qigong as well). The body is separated into three parts: the upper area (上焦), above the diaphragm and including the heart and lungs, the middle area (中焦), below the diaphragm and above the navel, including the liver and stomach, and the lower area (下焦), below the navel and including the kidneys, intestines, bladder, etc. The older a tea is, generally the deeper it’ll reach. This concept is an important part of why he’s drawn to old teas. To him, tea is simply a guide, that helps you become more aware of the flow of energy within your body.
1995 Menghai Tea Factory 8582
This had some early-on HK trad storage, but has been stored in Taiwan for 20 years. It was remarkably clean tasting, I could hardly taste any trad storage notes at all.
Instead it just tasted quite aged, particularly old even for a mid-90s tea. Very dark brew, and wonderfully thick. Right away just very smooth, no bitterness at all. Instant salivating all around the mouth. Strong head feeling, warming through chest, some tingling in arms. Quite relaxing. I really liked this one. There wasn’t any single really standout trait, it was just a very well balanced and comfortable tea to drink.
1992 Menghai Tea Factory 7532 Snow Mark
Teacher Liu said this was a later batch of the legendary 7532 Snow Mark that was produced between 1987 and 1992. This also had trad storage in the 90s, followed by some 20 years in Taiwan. Very big and thick. A little bitter, more so than the previous tea. Really nice full-mouth salivation.
At times this was quite headspinny, just a little too rushy and activating. Quite a noticeable difference after the relaxing feel of the previous teas. Strong strong tea, euphoric feeling. Remarkably, there was some stomach coldness, even despite the pretty aggressive storage. This must’ve been a beast of a tea when it was young. Without question a very very good tea, but I didn’t resonate as much with the feeling from this tea, it was too head rushy.
Early 1980s Menghai Tea Factory Daye Qingbing
Teacher Liu said this cake is quite special because it was produced with material from the six famous tea mountains, in the style of a 7542. In this time period, most Yiwu/6ftm tea was bought as maocha, taken to Menghai and mixed into larger blends. But this cake is mostly, if not entirely, 6ftm material.
Slightly frosty cake, clearly had trad storage, but quite clean tasting too. This tea was pretty sweet, smooth. It had less flavor in the mouth than the two 90s cakes, but more body feel. Very strong chest warming, and downward-flowing energy right away. Deeper reaching than either of the 90s teas.
So thick, inky. Really long staying power, quite tannic in aftertaste. Salivation was really strong, especially under the tongue. Wish I’d made more notes on this one, it was very nice.
1960s Cultural Revolution-era ginseng fragrance loose pu’er
Teacher Liu pointed out that tea from the Cultural Revolution period is quite rare, as tea was associated with intellectuals and the upper class. So although it was still being produced, it was in short supply.
This tea is from the Mengsong area in Menghai, and Teacher Liu said that aged teas from this area are known for producing a particular kind of ginseng fragrance. He demonstrated that if you steep it really short, it has a strong ginseng flavor. But if you steep it longer it’ll develop a more medicinal flavor. Storage of this tea seemed a bit different, probably wetter, at some point anyway. The wet leaves were particularly dark, closer to black than any of the others.
Profile was noticeably more medicinal than the previous teas. Clearly an older tea. Empty cup fragrance also had more darker notes and depth, less light floral sweet notes. Heavily sleep-inducing. Very sweet and salivating, though texture was a bit on the thinner side.
1950s loose pu’er
This tea had very strong zhangxiang, more so than any of the others. Teacher Liu pointed out that as you drink it, an orchid flavor comes out. Overall it was quite savory and bitter, and very thick in texture. Wonderful juicy salivation, especially gushing in front gums. Mouthfeel was quite active.
Had a nice warming feeling that sank deep into the legs, lower body. At first it was quite alerting, and then gradually very deeply relaxing, sedating. There was some scratchiness in the throat, maybe something from this tea’s storage history? It was the only tea in the lineup to have this sensation. The aftertaste was very tannic and slow to resolve to sweetness.
1950s Lanyin
While we were drinking the previous tea, teacher Liu casually mentioned that we were going to finish with some 1950s Lanyin. I was pretty bowled over. Serious bucket-list kind of tea.
This was the dust/crumbs from a large quantity of Lanyin cakes that used to be in a Hong Kong teahouse. He bought several hundred grams of the loose crumbs because the cakes themselves were just too expensive.
He described the dominant flavor as orchid-like, but that as you swallow, the huigan would develop into a distinct lotus-like flavor. It was fairly bitter, long lasting aftertaste. Tannins sat in top of throat. Very strong thick tea, quite savory. Dense medicinal type profile, lots of zhangxiang. Had a lasting bitterness, less sweet than I’d expected for such an old tea. Heavily downward feeling, full body sedating.
It had incredible endurance, we brewed it around 20 times and could’ve kept going. Several hours later and the aftertaste was still going strong, continuing to be very salivating too. Eventually it got quite sweet with nice mineral notes.
It was interesting to see that with several of these older teas, they were actually not that sweet, or at least rather slow to resolve to sweetness. Instead they had quite a bit of bitterness, with profiles leaning more savory. You could see how this helped to provide a more engaging experience though— the ones I liked the most all had these traits. And pretty consistently, you could feel them pulsing through your body, reaching quite deep. These are strong teas, and it’s thanks to all this strength that they’ve stood up to so many decades of age.
By the end of eight teas, we were all pretty wiped. Eight teas in a row, of any quality, is pretty exhausting; even more so with older teas as strong as these. Teacher Liu pointed out that the amount of warming energy flowing through your body from these kinds of teas, and especially with each having its own subtly different effects, leaves you feeling like you’ve just had a workout at the gym. Though with a sort of calming, medicated feeling too— the lingering aftertaste, salivation effect, and body feel are just wonderful to walk away with.
An unfortunate aspect of a tasting like this though, is that you don’t have a chance to sit with a single tea in a meaningful way. Most of these would be very memorable on their own, but drank in succession, there’s an unavoidable degree of blurring. And you lose the opportunity to appreciate the duration of each tea’s finish— the way the aftertaste might transform over hours, or the strength of its lingering qi, which can be quite special in a particularly good session.
And of course you’re only drinking each tea a single time, and can’t really appreciate its individual variance. In a perfect world, I would love to repeat the entire tasting, to form better impressions with each tea. But with teas of this quality, rarity, and price, well, you take what you can get. I’m just grateful to have tried them at all.
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