Aged Tea Exploration: The Beginnings of Modern Processing (Zhenchunya Hao, aka Truly Simple Elegant)
The Zhenchunya Hao (真淳雅號) is a tea produced by Taiwanese tea merchants, who produced the cakes based on their tastes. The merchants supposedly worked with an old man who supposedly had worked at the original SPH.
Dry Leaves of 96 ZCYH, 2022/08/14. Provided by Bana Tea Company
The reviews of the tea while the cakes were young are quite something -- even from the man behind the production! The main commentary behind the tea was that it's rather mild ("it was like drinking water", "it didn't smell like Puerh tea", "I don't think the yun or hui gan was particularly strong"). There's a lot of commentary on the leaves ("long, plump, and very nice looking", "mature, complete and robust") -- a turn from what was offered in the past. Even notes from years later comment on the tea's oddness. "What I am tasting here is a mix of older puerh taste, and more importantly, of older oolong taste." (MarshalN, 2006).
Despite the odd looks it received during its youth, the tea grew up to become a celebrity, enjoying the astronomical prices, combined with many knockoffs and remixes cashing in on the name. Opinions might be torn, whether it be due to people just hating on famous things or cultish fanatics, it really does enjoy the celebrity status. Regardless of people's thoughts, is is a landmark tea, the first example of a tea that's universally agreed to have "modern" processing.
Late 90s/Early 2000s tasting back in August
How did it taste? I was able to recently re-taste the tea thanks to the generosity of Linda of Bana Tea Company. Here's my notes from the session in August.
Still quite vibrant and active. Was surprised by active bitterness -- almost made me think that it regressed from when I had it 10+ years ago, when it was more gelatin like. Five years ago it was going through a rather quiet phase, and 10 years ago it was something like the 04 CYH SPH in terms of profile.
Overall the profile is singular, but more akin to an old violin playing the notes, adding it richness, and the aged notes help accentuate the density of the singular note. Not very filling in the mouth, but goes down deep enough. It gets a surprising amount of longevity that feels like it's kind of hanging on a thread. In the case of TSE, this is quite a dense, rich thread as it continued to give throwbacks to its youth.
Still, blanketing quietness. Quietness that comes from something akin to white noise muffling everything around you, rather than something that's just calming straightforwardly.
Previous tastings of the tea were a lot more vibrant and full, quite the development from the initial notes of the tea by the masters in the industry. I distinctly remember a thick, gelatin texture and a pretty full tea when I first had it (2012 or so), developing more aged notes when trying in 2016. Qi overall, generally remained the same, in terms of a blanketing snow type of feeling. Whether it has become more intense or not, I'm not sure.
Overall, it feels like most of the mid-aged notes are fading, and we are waiting for further development of the more aged notes for the tea. The "simple" element of the tea makes this a lot more noticeable, a bit more narrow in terms of the range, but extremely mellow -- kind of like aged wood vibrating to create a smoother sound.
Teas like this can be a signal for the future -- for example, perhaps this will show a preview of what will happen to teas like the 2004 CYH SPH 8 years from now -- after all, the CYH is singing quite well beautifully, as vibrant as the TSE did ten years ago, although there are slight differences. "Aging well" is a very complicated phrase especially when it comes to modern processing. Many teas hit the "gelatin" thickness stage, and we get excited, but as noted with many teas, that phase should also pass. There seems to be many phases like this that come with aging tea, and it'll be important to continue to monitor.