The first tea of the month reports I’ve done since re-establishing the blog was the Xiaguan Masochists tea of the month report. This essentially meant drinking a lot of Xiaguan teas that are laying around and trying to measure them against one another. Evaluating teas you haven’t tried much against other one another is much more difficult than trying to compare a tea with a tea you know very well. This is a why having solid benchmarks is helpful. In this case, one tea I’ve used as a benchmark is the 2005 Xiaguan T8653 January Thick Paper from MX Tea. Is it the best Xiaguan ever? No. Is it the best 8653 ever? No. But it does represent an above average 20 year old Xiaguan with a roughly typical profile that I’ve consumed fairly regularly for a few years.

Tip for Beginners: Establish a Benchmark Tea

One of the best things a new drinker can do to stabilize themselves in a sea of unfamiliar tea is to establish solid benchmarks for broader sorts of tea. Yes it is wise to sample widely. But it is also useful to get a good amount of repetitions of certain teas. Something like a good Xiaguan or Dayi tea that you can use to calibrate future experiences against. This helps to anchor your own tastes against something more solid and reliable. It probably shouldn’t be the highest quality you can find, but something that is decent that represents the category of tea well. I’d probably aim for something you enjoy that’s potentially a grade or two above average.

Then drink that tea, get your reps, and get familiar with it.. We learn a lot by contrasting different teas and tea experiences with each other. This doesn’t have to be a side by side comparison, but even just mentally comparing a tea you are trying to a benchmark is a more effective way to judge than trying to evaluate it in a vacuum. In the past, when I’ve done tea of the month reports I’ll start and finish the month with my benchmark tea(s) as a way to center my judgements.

Establishing a benchmark is useful for all sorts of reasons. It can be a more structured way to determine a tea’s quality but also how some of its individual characteristics differ (texture, aftertaste, depth). It’s also a good way to test out various other potentially confounding factors, like new teaware or a new water source. If you’re brewing a new tea in a new pot there are already a few variables at play. It is impossible to figure out very precisely the impact the teaware is having. Brewing a tea you know well in new teaware is a much more reliable way to approximate the ware’s actual impact..

1. In the Xiaguan tea of the month report, having a solid benchmark made me realize how different the FT8653-3+1 can be. Despite carrying the same name and surface-level tasting notes to many other teas in the report it is a different experience with pungent characteristics that is not your typical 8653. FT productions in general are not great benchmarks for Xiaguan as their overall taste is related but not quite the same.
2. One particularly bad Xiaguan benchmark is the 2013 Xiaguan LFPT. This is a popular tea in the west and I’ve seen people drink this tea and extrapolate whether they like Xiaguan or not. While I do like the tea, it is a special production and very different from average Xiaguan with a profile that is its own. The tea is made by FT and uses aged leaves for its blend. Even if you prefer the LFPT, the 2005 T8653 Thick Paper makes a better benchmark because it is far more typical in its profile. The T8653 is repeated over and over in Xiaguan’s products over many years. The LFPT is a one off.
3. For Dayi, getting reps with a decent 7542 and 8582 (not commissioned) with a decent amount of age is a good idea. With their ripe, maybe a 7452 or 7572. These are teas that they make routinely.
4. Benchmarks don’t have to be a permanent marker. You’ll probably establish and re-establish different benchmarks as you become a more experienced drinker.

Another Benchmark: Establishing an Average Tea Owned

I like to also learn what my average tea is in categories. For instance, what is the average tea from the six famous tea mountains/greater Yiwu area I own? This is helpful in buying situations. If you’re trying something beyond a daily drinker and the potential tea falls beneath your average tea in perceived quality, it’s not worth acquiring unless it has something very unique or some hidden potential.. Yes even if the tea is an overall good value buy. When acquiring tea you should be raising the bar, not lowering it. When you consume a tea, there’s an opportunity cost of what you could’ve potentially been drinking instead. Having an average tea established allows you to take a step back, and compare the sample with something and hopefully make an informed decision. Speaking for myself, this helps to ground my decision making and avoid impulse purchases.

Relevant Reading: Marshaln on Benchmark Teas