This is going to be a comprehensive review covering many of the MoyChay Teas that i got sent last year from Nikolay and some other MoyChay Samples that found it's way somehow into my tea den to review. It took quite some time to taste, compare and retaste all of them and at last here is my final take on the teas including a report of my visit to the new Amsterdam based MoyChay Tea Culture Club at the end of this Post. Scroll down and don't miss it in case you want to go revisit at another time to keep on reading the tea reviews.
I was asked to stay true, and not write a promotional review. As i'm generally a very honest person anyway and like to write just what i experience and feel and keep it factual, it shouldn't be a problem for me ;)
It all started for me with Moychay some years ago when i received a sample of a MoyChay Shu Cake with a hand painted comic wrapper with a Bear on it from some guy from a tea forum.. i couldn't make much of it, as it was a totally different shu experience than with Dayi (TaeTea) Shus that i knew back then. So i put it aside and time passed. This had been my only contact with moychay teas back then and my impressions weren't very prominent until now.
As a russian tea company selling chinese teas, i didn't know what to expect. I knew there is a huge tea drinkers legion in russia, historically based older people and also a modern one focussed on puer tea as half of yunnan sourcings's customers for example were russian some years ago. I expected mostly russian black teas from a big russian tea company, but what i received was Sheng and Shu Puer, Hei Cha (Fu Cha), White Teas from China and Krasnodar Tea (real russian tea). Not to forget the famous russian tea alternative "Willow Herb" aka Fireweed aka Ivan Chay (Epilobium angustifolium) in all it's varieties.
So let's just start with the tea reviews before i talk about the Amsterdam MoyChay Tea Club Experience.
I'll cover the following MoyChay teas:
- Puer Fields Shu Puer Cake
- 2 x Yue Guang Bai 100g Cakes
- 2017 Lao Man E Huang Jin Ye (Golden Leaf) Shu Puer Cake
- 2020 Jingmai Shan, Wengji Village QiaoMu Sheng Puer
- Ivan Chay Large-Leaf Tea Black from Tver Region in Russia
- 2014 Anhua Fu Cha "Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan"
- 2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan
- 2017 Lao Chahu, Shu Puer from Birma (Myanmar)
- 2017 Ba Wang Shu Puer
- Ivan Chai from the Nature Reserve "Russian North"
- 2017 Anhua Fu Zhuan Hei Cha
- Ivan Chai with fermented mint and acacia flowers
- 2019 Zhengshan Shoumei (Eyebrows of Longevity)
- 2019 Shoumei Bai Cha
- 2020 Krasnodar GABA Sheng
- 2020 Krasnodar Dagomy GABA Black (Red) Tea
- 2020 WEBPUNK 2.0 Shu Puer
Puer Fields Shu Puer Cake
The Cover looked very modern and interesting, so it was the first tea that i opened up and tried.
Although it's a 2020 produced tea with leaves from 2018 and there is still some typical production flavor like in every new Shu Puer that will need some years to subside, it's already totally drinkable and has a soft and medium viscousity body with a caramel and sweet potato or rye bread flavor while still being a bit sour.
Minty notes came out after the 4th brew and added to the experience.
It's located in a lower price range and shows golden tips, so for this price it's really a good medium range Shu that is totally drinkable already and in a few years it should be even sweeter and more flavorful on top of that.
It's located in a lower price range and shows golden tips, so for this price it's really a good medium range Shu that is totally drinkable already and in a few years it should be even sweeter and more flavorful on top of that.
2x White Moonlight (Yue Guang Bai)
On the Photo Collage you can see a generally known white moonlight on the left side and and the Fajiao version on the right. I cropped both photos for a direct comparison view.
The taste of both is really yummy, on the sweet-sour and fruity side.
The taste of both is really yummy, on the sweet-sour and fruity side.
Fajiao is a fermentation step that gives the tea an even more fruity and honeysweet aroma, just like in black teas and makes the white tips appear golden.
Both are 100g mini cakes and tasted really good.
It's so cool to have both cakes to be able to compare the tastes.
2017 Lao Man E Huang Jin Ye (Golden Leaf) Shu Puer Cake
I received this tea from John (Tea in the Ancient World Blog) about 1,5 years ago and never touched it so far. So i finally had to to try it.
The description on their page fits well, it's viscous and rounded, with a nutty and woody flavor accompanied by some fruity sweet notes an those little mystery notes of old graveyards or dusty wine cellars with spider webs.
When you get used to this special flavor in those moychay shus and let them air out for several months or years, it's really an acquired taste for some reason that I didn't find in any Chinese company products so far. It may be the storage or something about the production, but one thing I know for sure: their shus are really fresh when they come out and need some time to air out. They should rather be enjoyed with a high leaf : water ratio in terms of a lot of water to small amount of leaves. Otherwise the taste might be too intense for some human palates. A good ratio here might be about 1:30, like 5g: 150ml.
When you get used to this special flavor in those moychay shus and let them air out for several months or years, it's really an acquired taste for some reason that I didn't find in any Chinese company products so far. It may be the storage or something about the production, but one thing I know for sure: their shus are really fresh when they come out and need some time to air out. They should rather be enjoyed with a high leaf : water ratio in terms of a lot of water to small amount of leaves. Otherwise the taste might be too intense for some human palates. A good ratio here might be about 1:30, like 5g: 150ml.
It's a typical moychay taste and by that I mean those sweet wine cellar notes of an ancient vinegar mother culture that i totally admire ;)
I rate this tea very high.
2020 Jingmai Shan, Wengji Village
QiaoMu (Arbor = from Trees, not bushes) Sheng Puer
The main taste is totally flowery and very aromatic, very soft, typical for Jingmai sheng.
The Qi is still very powerful and lively because it's young, but it already plays with your senses from the oils and slight fermentation products and relaxes the body and mind like an aged tea.
It's a nice production of a Jingmai sheng that needs some more years to lose the green completely and gain fermentation flavor and bacteria and fungi, but it's already a good tea with a great qi now.
Related to the Jingmai region, it is not as intense like Bulang tea but rather soft.
i rate this tea very good.
i rate this tea very good.
The second half of this review covers drinking the 2020 MoyChay Jingmai Shan Sheng Puer in Western style.
For this method i used just 2.8g for 350ml, 3 minutes with boiling water.
As I didn't have the time for a long Gong Fu session, I decided to try Western style on Sheng.
The smell is great, fruity and fresh and young. It's not green anymore, just a bit, and brews up nicely with fruity and still a bit of a healthy green leaf juice.
The intensity and complexity is not as much as with the Gong Fu method, that's the big difference, but the Qi comes out very powerful and the taste is nice enough for little to no work next to learning for my work at home on a rainy day.
To be honest, it's a bit watery.. it might be that either more tea leaf is needed or a brewing time of 5 minutes and more would be recommended to get all the stuff out and give it a stronger complexity.
According to a university book, the Dai and other cultures in yunnan used to roast fresh leaves in clay ware and then brew them for about 30 minutes in a clay pot in boiling water over the fire for ceremonies, the brew was said to be very bitter, together with dances and rites it would make for a special body and mind sensation. I could try giving it 30 minutes the next time, just to see how that would turn out ;)
Maybe (for sure) Western style just isn't the way to brew puer.
The intensity and complexity is not as much as with the Gong Fu method, that's the big difference, but the Qi comes out very powerful and the taste is nice enough for little to no work next to learning for my work at home on a rainy day.
To be honest, it's a bit watery.. it might be that either more tea leaf is needed or a brewing time of 5 minutes and more would be recommended to get all the stuff out and give it a stronger complexity.
According to a university book, the Dai and other cultures in yunnan used to roast fresh leaves in clay ware and then brew them for about 30 minutes in a clay pot in boiling water over the fire for ceremonies, the brew was said to be very bitter, together with dances and rites it would make for a special body and mind sensation. I could try giving it 30 minutes the next time, just to see how that would turn out ;)
Maybe (for sure) Western style just isn't the way to brew puer.
But there's only this way to find out about it personally.
Once again: Western style should be used to bring out light flavours from green or a drinkable brew from very fermented teas. I tried the PG tips last night with Western style and it turned out great. Malty, strong, aromatic but still a bit distanced and very drinkable, keeping the rough and bitter notes away from the cup.
Once again: Western style should be used to bring out light flavours from green or a drinkable brew from very fermented teas. I tried the PG tips last night with Western style and it turned out great. Malty, strong, aromatic but still a bit distanced and very drinkable, keeping the rough and bitter notes away from the cup.
A Sheng should just always be brewed in a proper Gong Fu Style to get out the most of it.
Willow Herb / Ivan Chay Large-Leaf Tea produced as Black Tea
Willow Herb / Ivan Chay Large-Leaf Tea produced as Black Tea
from Tver Region in Russia, 2020 Batch
The smell is fruity, the taste is like asparagus and vegetable leaf. It has a minty fresh effect in the mouth and some sweet fruity oils.
The Quality is good, taste is good. It might be a good drink when it's late already as it has no caffeine and it's said to have several health effects, for example for relaxing and stimulating immune system.
2014 Anhua Fu Cha "Anhua Hong Fu Jin Zhuan"
This is a really nice Fu Cha with a sweet woody taste and fruity flavor like apple juice joined by the typical sour "cheesiness" of the yellow flower funghi that you can see in the photos.
The 7 years of aging made it more aromatic and sweeter, more complex.
It's a viscous brew with a lot of minerality and a balsamic mouthfeel and aroma.
Without exaggerating, i can say that this is the highest quality and best tasting fu cha i've ever tried, the fruity sourness is outstanding.
2014 Anhua Shou Zhu Fu Zhuan
This yellow one is the Shou (fermenting) version of the Anhua HeiCha, while the other one in the review before that moychay sells with the green coloured box is the Hong (finished fermentation).
This one is not as sour like apple acid, it's rather slightly sour with more flower/fruit and more fermentation aroma.
That makes it a more relaxed experience. The green one would rather be very refreshing.
It's a very nice quality, you can really see the Jin Hua (the yellow flower fungi) when breaking off parts of the tea brick, which makes it sweet and a bit cheesy.
It has a very rounded and soft feeling when drinking, almost balsamic.
A great Fu cha that i also rate very high.
2017 Lao Chahu, Shu Puer from Birma (Myanmar)
It tastes like a typical Shu. That were my first thoughts. Very much like tonic water, not too sweet or too woody, it has some delicate taste, but it lacks a bit of viscosity and is very clear.
A nice Shu to drink in between, not super special and not bad at all.
The basic taste is spicy like black pepper, like in Chinese black teas, but the Shu taste of funghi is obvious.
I really like this tea as it's a bit different and more mineralic than fruity.
An inspiring Panda Wrapper with loose Leaves from 2009 that were pressed in 2017.
The initial smell is creamy and woody, the taste is on one hand very natural and like a well rested and not totally fermented Shu, on the other hand a bit kinky with still a slightly sour fermentation flavor.
2017 Ba Wang Shu Puer
An inspiring Panda Wrapper with loose Leaves from 2009 that were pressed in 2017.
The initial smell is creamy and woody, the taste is on one hand very natural and like a well rested and not totally fermented Shu, on the other hand a bit kinky with still a slightly sour fermentation flavor.
Definitely not the usual factory Shu.
2nd brew: smells of caramel coffee notes and a bit of that sour fermentation aroma, taste is very mineralic, sweet and rounded.
3rd brew has that soft, sour, rainy taste, together with these woody, nutty, aromatic, sweet, mineralic notes.
3rd brew has that soft, sour, rainy taste, together with these woody, nutty, aromatic, sweet, mineralic notes.
I guess you could call it petrichor (the smell of rain on dry earth after it didn't rain for some time).
Facts: This is a different Shu than usual, good to drink, a bit woody at times and the aroma itself is not very clear or obvious.
Facts: This is a different Shu than usual, good to drink, a bit woody at times and the aroma itself is not very clear or obvious.
It's a good tea for some reason, although not a tea that gives me an intense impression or makes me favor it for a yummy and fruity taste like other shus.
Ivan Chai (Willow Herb) from the Nature Reserve "Russian North"
This Fireweed Tea is also produced from large leafs in a black tea style like the i reviewed before, just the region where it was grown differs.
Further description of this special kind of tea:
Of course this tea is not a camellia sinensis plant and it also doesn't have caffeine, but it was historically used nationwide as the main tea drink before real tea was available in Russia.
The smell is awesome, fruity, balsamic, calming, sweet and sour, floral like camomille with a very specific fruity flavor like in Karkade Fruit Tea.
First brew is awesome, a very complex, rounded and oily mouthfeel, even minty as well. It tastes like eating roots and berries with a flower tea.
I only miss the caffeine that would make the experience even greater as the body sensation is everything you usually seek in a good Sheng as comparison. Mixing it with some black tea would probably work.
2nd brew: the colour is an amber brown orange, the brew has even more of that thick and oily herbal balsamic taste.
3rd is fully rounded and aromatic again.
Facts: definitely one of the best alternatives to tea when you don't want the caffeine and don't need the L-theanine. I don't have much experience with this kind of tea and didn't try other Ivan chais so far, but it's hard to imagine one being superior to this one. I really love it.
The smell is awesome, fruity, balsamic, calming, sweet and sour, floral like camomille with a very specific fruity flavor like in Karkade Fruit Tea.
First brew is awesome, a very complex, rounded and oily mouthfeel, even minty as well. It tastes like eating roots and berries with a flower tea.
I only miss the caffeine that would make the experience even greater as the body sensation is everything you usually seek in a good Sheng as comparison. Mixing it with some black tea would probably work.
2nd brew: the colour is an amber brown orange, the brew has even more of that thick and oily herbal balsamic taste.
3rd is fully rounded and aromatic again.
Facts: definitely one of the best alternatives to tea when you don't want the caffeine and don't need the L-theanine. I don't have much experience with this kind of tea and didn't try other Ivan chais so far, but it's hard to imagine one being superior to this one. I really love it.
2017 Anhua Fu Zhuan Hei Cha
I've reviewed the 2014 Fu Cha versions from moychay already, so this one is just half as old.
The leaf material is very loose to break open, visually greener and doesn't show any yellow flower fungi at all so far compared with the 2014 versions that bloomed of it.
The smell is woody, sweet, only a bit sour where the 2014s had a sourness like malic acid.
The smell is woody, sweet, only a bit sour where the 2014s had a sourness like malic acid.
The brew tastes aromatic, a bit sour, a bit woody with a thick viscosity, still kinda green with some rough astringency.
A very distinct difference to the 2014s, this clearly needs more time to age.
Other than that it's a bit balsamic and the fuzzy wooden barrel aroma combines well with the slight sourness.
It's hard to say how this will develop in the next years. For now it's interesting, but still shows some unfinished business like the green astringency and apart from that the yellow flowers are still missing completely.
A very distinct difference to the 2014s, this clearly needs more time to age.
Other than that it's a bit balsamic and the fuzzy wooden barrel aroma combines well with the slight sourness.
It's hard to say how this will develop in the next years. For now it's interesting, but still shows some unfinished business like the green astringency and apart from that the yellow flowers are still missing completely.
Ivan Chai with fermented mint and acacia flowers
A well balanced herbal tea that tastes fruity without any fruit ingredients.
The warm and fruity taste just comes from the fermented Willow leaf aka Ivan Chai, a plant well known and growing in Russia.
The smell of the brew is warm and balsamic, more fruity than minty, drinking it I immediately get a typical mint tea flavor. The fermented mint is said to taste softer, yes it's not harsh at all, rather oily but still in the high notes, I don't taste too much of a difference to normal mint tea to be honest. The acacia flowers bring some oiliness and flowery aroma with them and the Ivan Chai has its very own vegetal and interesting taste, a bit like asparagus.
For a few bucks it's definitely a tea worth to try if you like mint tea, the fruitiness and oiliness make it a very relaxing and warm experience.
brewing guide: 5 minutes with boiling water made it turn out very well.
Rating: vey high :)
The warm and fruity taste just comes from the fermented Willow leaf aka Ivan Chai, a plant well known and growing in Russia.
The smell of the brew is warm and balsamic, more fruity than minty, drinking it I immediately get a typical mint tea flavor. The fermented mint is said to taste softer, yes it's not harsh at all, rather oily but still in the high notes, I don't taste too much of a difference to normal mint tea to be honest. The acacia flowers bring some oiliness and flowery aroma with them and the Ivan Chai has its very own vegetal and interesting taste, a bit like asparagus.
For a few bucks it's definitely a tea worth to try if you like mint tea, the fruitiness and oiliness make it a very relaxing and warm experience.
brewing guide: 5 minutes with boiling water made it turn out very well.
Rating: vey high :)
2019 Zhengshan Shoumei (Eyebrows of Longevity)
This tea was harvested in 2017 in Fuding in the Taimushan mountains and underwent quite some aging until now.
The smell of the dried leaves is like an old book: woody, leathery, a bit dusty, joined by some old vinegar notes and a bit of herbal mint.
Brewing it up, the first sip is complex, full and balanced. Sweet, a bit sour, aetheric minty and the aroma is like some herbal tea with balsamic vinegar.
The colour is a bronze amber.
Second brew smells of medicine, taste is between an aged paper-like leaf taste and a totally rounded and flawless camellia tea aroma and then a lot of totally complex further notes.
Although it's very full and complex, edgy and intense, sweet and rounded, it tends to be a bit too smooth, too light at times. Surreal.
3rd brew smells awesome again, that mix of sweet minty old vinegar. The taste is a bit aggressive at first from the herbal side and then it feels thin and powerless already compared to the earlier steeps. I pushed the other two a bit though like 30-60 seconds each.
All in all a great experience, the smell is great and can't be beaten, the aroma is very diverse and balanced, that makes it special, on the other hand it can't keep its power for long. The price of 14 USD for a 270g cake is low though and very fair for the awesome experience.
I give this a quite good rating.
2019 Shoumei Bai Cha
This is a 2016 picked and 5 years aged white tea from Songxi in Fujian.
The smell of of the dried leaves is old like old newspapers and leather.
Brewing it up I get some kind of leathery and woody gummy bear smell and an amber color.
First sip is like old papery marzipane, aftertaste is fruity and minty. Second sip from the first steep goes into my throat quite bitter, like bitter almonds with a minty, aetheric and balsamic mouthfeel.
The first steep was interesting and the minty balsamic mouthfeel is great but wasn't really enjoyable for me for the harsh bitterness without much aroma.
2nd steep: I thinned it up a bit, that would usually bring down the intense bitterness and let you taste more of the aroma. I went with 6g to 140ml initially.
Well, bitterness is nearly gone, but the aroma is not very outstanding, it rather tastes like an old book (neither good or bad and a bit leathery).
Only the minty, velvety, aetheric freshness in the mouth is really awesome and probably the main reason to drink this tea.
A bit of sweetness makes up for the small amount of the harsh paper taste.
The product info id's the taste as "spicy-herbaceous".
3rd brew is a bit sweeter, the aroma is ok but a bit light and still harsh, aftertaste has that old balsamic vinegar taste that I love. It's quite comparable to a woody Fu Cha.
Daily facts: It's a strange tea with awesome benefits, but some flaws in aroma (the harsh paper-like taste).
A tea that you can love and dislike at the same time. It's ok to drink and if the aroma would fit the awesome mouthfeel, it would be superb.
i still rate this tea a good one.
2020 Krasnodar GABA Sheng
That's something new, a GABA produced Sheng and then even from Russian Tea Leaves. Can we call it Sheng Puer? Better not as the term Puer Tea is defined very specifically in several parameters and has to be grown and produced in Yunnan, China, which this tea is not.
Smell of the brewed tea just as the dry leaves is typically sour with a magic aroma from GABA production (formation of gamma-Aminobutyric acid by letting it ferment without oxygen).
The taste of the first steep is a little bitter but smooth and flowery as well and of course it has the sour GABA Aroma.GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmittor that's keeps the brain from getting too excited, it chills down brain functions, therefore giving you a relaxed and aware state of mind (alpha brain waves). The same that L-Theanine in tea, meditation or yoga would cause.
Interestingly, in teenagers and kids it has the opposite effect and excites the brain more.
GABA is said to not being able to cross the blood/brain barrier but latest studies show that it is quite possible in a small amount. Another way to get GABA in your brain is to smell and inhale tea, as the lungs forward the GABA to your blood (probably faster than through your belly).
Apart from the brain, GABA works in other parts of the body as well like decreasing inflammation reactions from the immune system (inhibit autoimmune disease), reducing fluoride levels and therefore balancing the thyroid system. A deficiency in GABA in the body is known to be a reason for epilepsy and anxiety disorders.
According to studies there are hundreds of scents that put GABA in your blood and brain just through inhaling, a test with mice showed a multiplication of GABA levels in their brain just seconds after inhaling these scents.
Back to tea:
The second brew comes in with a full aroma, bitterness is totally gone and a very smooth, rounded and fruity juice with a bit of sourness and sweetness shows up. Great!
Third brew is just as good with a pronounced GABA aroma and a minty mouthfeel.
It's an interesting way to drink GABA as it's usually done with black tea, with the method originating from Japan.
I rate this tea very high.
2020 Krasnodar Dagomy GABA Black (Red) Tea
In comparison to the last review with a Krasnodar GABA Sheng, this will be interesting where the differences lie.
The smell of the dried leaves is fruity and sour from the GABA.
Dagomy in Krasnodar is the place of the main Russian tea plantation today and the first one even that was established 1901-1905.
I'm trying their brewing instructions, 1st steep 5-7secs, following just 1-2 secs and longer if needed with 4.5g/100ml and 90-95°C.
The first brew smells creamy, milky and malty with a typical fermented black tea aroma.
The taste is rather light like a Darjeeling and not like an Assam if compared to Indian blacks and totally not like a Chinese black tea.
I can definitely taste the complex and slightly sour GABA flavours and it feels very rounded and smooth. The colour is a yellow amber.
Dagomy in Krasnodar is the place of the main Russian tea plantation today and the first one even that was established 1901-1905.
I'm trying their brewing instructions, 1st steep 5-7secs, following just 1-2 secs and longer if needed with 4.5g/100ml and 90-95°C.
The first brew smells creamy, milky and malty with a typical fermented black tea aroma.
The taste is rather light like a Darjeeling and not like an Assam if compared to Indian blacks and totally not like a Chinese black tea.
I can definitely taste the complex and slightly sour GABA flavours and it feels very rounded and smooth. The colour is a yellow amber.
2nd brew (just 2 seconds) smells totally citrusy. The taste is a bit more concentrated than the first one but still rather light and a bit flat.
I'll extend the steeping time on the third brew to 5 seconds, although my experience tells me to push this tea to 20-30 seconds at least.. yes, even with 5 seconds, the tea tastes watery, it has a nice colour, but I miss the intense flavours.
I'll go with 100°C and push the 4th brew to 2 minutes. Out comes a very intense orange brew:
I'll extend the steeping time on the third brew to 5 seconds, although my experience tells me to push this tea to 20-30 seconds at least.. yes, even with 5 seconds, the tea tastes watery, it has a nice colour, but I miss the intense flavours.
I'll go with 100°C and push the 4th brew to 2 minutes. Out comes a very intense orange brew:
The smell reminds of a strong character 2nd flush Darjeeling, spicy, flowery, soursweet alcoholic, malty. The taste got a bit bitter now because it's probably too concentrated, so I'll thin it up. Bitterness is totally gone now, but the sweetness from the first 3 steeps had resided as well it seems and what's left is the sourness of the GABA.
I tend to believe that this tea is not intended to be prepared gong Fu style, and if so, with longer steeping times like 20-30 seconds each instead of several light and watery short steeps.
Daily facts: Maybe the sour GABA flavours would come out too intense if pushed for 30 seconds, so I guess it's not that easy to find a balance here between a bold black tea flavor and mildly joining GABA notes, still what I tasted was awesome. Therefore i rate it very good.
I tend to believe that this tea is not intended to be prepared gong Fu style, and if so, with longer steeping times like 20-30 seconds each instead of several light and watery short steeps.
Daily facts: Maybe the sour GABA flavours would come out too intense if pushed for 30 seconds, so I guess it's not that easy to find a balance here between a bold black tea flavor and mildly joining GABA notes, still what I tasted was awesome. Therefore i rate it very good.
2020 WEBPUNK 2.0 Shu Puer
Material was harvested 2019 in the Menghai area and pressed 2020.
Smell of the wash is like dark wood floor, wild forest honey, moss.
Drinking it, I get a very fresh mouthfeel, some sourness, wild berries taste accompanied by an underlying slightly sweet mineral viscosity.
When I opened this cake last year when it was fresh from the factory it smelled like wood lacquer, sour, intense, unfavourable, undrinkable for me. It got a lot better in one year now already. Usually I would let Shu puers sit at least 6 years before drinking them until the whole sour production flavor is gone and the sweet and mineral notes show up better together with the original leaf aroma.
2nd brew: a tree resin aroma can be smelled, drinking shows some slightly sour tonic water aroma. The qi is aggressive and goes to my head like blood is pumping. The remains of the 2nd brew go down smooth, woody and slightly sweet.
3rd brew: the colour is a red amber. The smell is even more like sweet tree resin and minty forest floor. The aroma while drinking has lessened and shows a slightly sweet rich tonic aroma with hints of fresh cut wood.
Daily facts: if the tea will develop on like it did in the last year, I see good chances that it will be a nice mineral, tonic and slightly sweet one with some minor flowery/fruity aroma. Not as rich in aroma and viscosity like other shus, but a nice refreshing Shu on its own. I rate it very high.
after these reviews it's really time now to cover the..
VISIT TO THE AMSTERDAM MOYCHAY TEA CULTURE CLUB
arriving with my wife at a cathedral at the canal bridge next to the Amsterdam Tea Culture Club, which is located in the north-western part of Amsterdam next to the inner city in a part called Jordaan.
I met Marius in front of the store and had a small talk with him. Then i was taken inside by Oliver and introduced to the shop and club, followed by a nice talk with Elya about their assortment and tastes.
I was surprised to see such high quality "standard" teas like Long Jing, several Oolongs and white teas for a very fair price, just as surprised as about 50 % of the assortment was rare and innovative kinds of tea like GABA Oolongs, GABA Blacks, Roasted GABA Shu, herbal mixes with all kinds of chinese tea varieties and Puer from different regions just as well as a box of very aged original Puer cakes from the 90s.
Here you can see the counter with Marius, a graduate who works as translator for moychay speaking several languages like russian, english, german and dutch as he is a dutch native and next to him is Elya, both in their daily natural habitat. ;)
Meanwhile, Oliver, the Shop Guide set up a tea session on the upper floor for me and local friends that we made a year before at another tea shop in Amsterdam called Formocha that is lead by the taiwanese owner Amanda.
Dmitri is already waiting happily at the upstairs tea table for the session to begin.
There were a total of 3 tea rooms in the tea club, a chinese, japanese and taiwanese version in which my wife settled down to relax from a long day of walking around the city.
The tea table that we had our session on was an old elephant seating structure and was very impressive and gave a historic and traditional feeling to the experience:
Oliver started the session with an Alishan GABA Oolong, which was interesting and warming and went over to a 1995 Purple Mark 7532 CNNP Cake which was quite the experience then as it was along the fine line of wet and dry storage and had that special aroma only very aged original sheng cakes would get. We weren't able to stop drinking this relic and kept on with it as long as the time allowed us to as others had to catch the supermarket eventually which closed at around 10pm.
It was time to leave the tea club for this day and meet again on the next with Marius, Dmitri and Daria for a Tea Session on a chartered electric boat on the canals of Amsterdam on the last day of our holidays after which we had to go back home to Munich, Germany.
Everyone got the chance to drive the boat, and the two crashes that a "dutch cultural influenced" captain fabricated front-on, cause he wasn't really able to handle the operations anymore, just added to a fun and extraordinary experience.
Enjoying several teas that Daria and Dmitri prepared for us and listening to a flute concert by Dmitri, partly under the canal bridges for better acoustics made the trip legendary.
It had been a great experience to try the MoyChay teas that were definitely in the high quality range, with some of the shu cakes needing a few more years of aging to loose their factory production tastes.
Overall i can honestely recommend their whole range, you'll get a decent quality for a fair price and so much more interesting and creative products to try out.
Thanks to Nicolay for giving me a chance to try through their russian assortment and to Oliver for providing us with a very generous Tea Culture Club Experience in Amsterdam, just as well as to Elya showing me the shop and to Marius, the translator for the company and interesting talks!
