Like many western tea hobbyists I have a strong openness to culinary experience, translating into trying new (to me) foods. At one point in my early 20s I was introduced to a place called Sichuan Cuisine in Seattle. They have a couple locations in the area and I really liked it. It was something new and different from the Cantonese cuisine I had grown up with. It had distinct dishes, like twice cooked pork, boiled fish, and Dandan noodles. I was introduced to the “mala” spice of both spicy and numbing. I brought my parents and then-girlfriend to it, who all liked it as well… After that, I tried Sichuanese food at a variety of other places, most of which were similar to my introduction. Fast-forward several years and a new well known Sichuan place was opening up in Seattle that had roots in the San Gabriel Valley (one of the best locations for non-Cantonese Chinese food in North America) called Chengdu Taste. When I looked at Chengdu Taste’s menu it looked somewhat similar to Sichuan Cuisine. They had a few different things but many of the dishes were the same (Kung Pao Chicken, Boiled Fish, Twiced Cooked Pork, etc.). However, once I visited Chengdu Taste the differences between the two restaurants was obvious. It forced me to realize that Sichuan Cuisine was a tapered down version of what the more pungent Chengdu offered. The spice levels at Chengdu Taste were not only much higher, it was way more numbing and it was less sweet and salty. For some dishes it mattered more than others.. In a dish like boiled fish, rather than a scant eighth teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorns, the fragrance of the peppercorns wafted up and the numbing was many many times more intense than versions I had previously.
I had gotten hints of what the more intense version was simply by reading and making them, but it really took trying Chengdu Taste to understand what the flavor profile could be. You can learn by reading, but experiencing something is better. I like to make some of these sorts of dishes, and tasting Chengdu Taste once, immediately improved my own versions of these dishes.
Learning With Wuyi & Aged Oolongs
Sometimes learning and leveling up with tea more closely resembles a linear pattern… Grinding, drinking lots of different samples, taking notes, and getting repetitions. Doing this, you’ll slowly improve naturally. Other times it doesn’t and it takes getting introduced to something superior and/or different at the right time. In the case of my own appreciation of Sichuan food, this was an immediate realization and a quick level up. Just a few bites in I realized I was in for something very different from the many experiences I’d had with other Sichuanese food before. I’ve had similar realizations in aged oolong as well as Wuyi. In the case of both of those tea types it was through Origin Tea (see: The Box), who had a short but glorious existence.
With Wuyi tea I had mostly drank alright stuff from places like Yunnan Sourcing until I tried Tony’s $/g Shuixian which opened my eyes to what a Yancha could be. The tea was very good, but it’s also not something that can be communicated easily through tasting notes. The base notes were similar to an average Shuixian but the tea was richer, thicker, more textured, and better than anything I’d had before it. This hasn’t necessarily reduced my enjoyment of other Yancha, since the good stuff remains expensive and very hard to get. I’m perfectly happy drinking decent enough teas from WuyiOrigin. And even if you don’t drink the good stuff every day having experience with it helps to contextualize, get a strong reference point and form a fuller picture of the possibilities of tea.
At what point you try the tea is important. In the past, I’ve served what I think is pretty nice pu’erh to newcomers and I can tell that they fail to impress in a way that something cheaper and more flavor forward might have (various oolongs are usually best). It is not just about providing the tea, but about the person drinking tea. What sorts of teas have they had? Have they had pu’erh before? If the $/g Shuixian from Origin was my first Wuyi tea ever, I definitely would’ve liked it. But it also probably wouldn’t have been as meaningful as it ended up being. The grind of lesser Wuyi teas was helpful in allowing me to distinguish what made Origin’s Shuixian a cut above.
Tea w/Other People & Pushing Other’s Baseline Up
Drinking and learning from those with more experience is a great way to learn. In the west many of us are very isolated and while we can certainly improve and appreciate tea on our own, learning as a tea hermit is different from learning in a more social environment. Yes reading Marshaln’s blog front to back is a great way to learn and online is better than nothing, but there is quite a bit missing when you are doing tea strictly online. There is not necessarily a surefire way to “level up” in tea easily, but you improve your chances by aiming for good tea & interacting with others, ideally those who know more.
If you want to introduce someone to more serious tea or push a newer drinker, be thoughtful about their experience with tea and try to go a level or two up. If someone is not a tea drinker or has never had mediocre quality loose leaf tea, it usually doesn’t take too much to push their palate and find something different or interesting to them. If someone drinks more ordinary oolong everyday, try introducing a really nice Yancha or aged oolong. If someone is just getting into pu’erh with younger tea, serve something nicer that you don’t think they may have had like an older tea. I suspect most who are reading this blog have access to far better tea than 99% of the western world. This makes you qualified to help a lot of people reach higher tea levels.
The very low baseline tea level for US tea drinkers (probably western?) is likely a reason why so many inferior vendors exist. Even these vendors can impress people with slightly less crap loose leaf tea if a person’s only tea experiences are old tea bags.. These unimpressive vendors are technically raising people’s level, but we can and should aim higher.
Lastly, some people will also taste or get introduced to a certain profile that is considered better and not see the hype or not care for it. Other members of my family still love Sichuan Cuisine, despite a couple introductions to the (IMO) significantly better Chengdu Taste. This is fine.. After all, everyone has their own preferences and even if someone recognizes something as better it doesn’t always equate to enjoying something more.
