The beauty of bitterness

Bittersweet puer + solutions for mobile tea brewing.

A tea for sweaty season

The tea: Lao Man E Spring 2014 puer, sold by Tea Urchin. $90.20 for 200g.

Summer is not my time. The humid air weighs against my skin like chainmail. It’s too bright for too long, and if you’re not out having fun like you’re supposed to, the whimsy police come to your door and call you a buzzkill for staying indoors where it’s cool and shady. So every summer, I am strongly motivated to find relief from the heat in ways that align with my indoor cat lifestyle. This tea is one of them. It’s a raw puer made with leaves from Lao Man E, a region of Yunnan known for teas of powerful bitterness. When brewed, that bitter flavor does something remarkable, eliciting a cooling, mouthwatering sensation that for a moment makes summer more bearable. This is a characteristic of some Chinese teas called gan, which has no direct English translation, but refers to a bitter taste that transforms into sweetness, like the vaporous haze giving way to a cool breeze in advance of a summer storm.

What you see in the photo is all I have left of this 200 gram cake that I purchased in 2017 for $82. I have drunk the tea steadily since then, enjoying not just its bitterness, but its complex high sweetness that evolves over a long session. Some Lao Man E teas are blunt instruments, exhibiting a punishing bitterness and soporific effect, as if you’d snorted a line of crushed benzos. The village’s leaves are often included in multi-region blends to add a bitter weight to lighter, more fragrant puer. What I enjoy about this tea is its balance of bitterness and other flavors. It’s potent but surprisingly elegant, and later steeps, even with prolonged brewing, show a clarity of character with minimal astringency. If I didn’t have kilos of other Lao Man E tea lying around my apartment from purchases since 2017, I’d definitely order more of this cake. I might still, anyway. I think it’s a reasonable price for the quality of material, and a little leaf goes a long way.

The source: Tea Urchin is one of the earlier boutique Western-facing puer companies that’s still kicking around, even though they don’t do much marketing and haven’t pressed new tea in years. I’ve seen reports that orders may take a while to ship from China after purchase, so I’d say don’t buy their tea if you need it next week, but definitely explore their single origin productions for quality “young” raw puer. I’m not big on tasting notes, though the ones written by owners Eugene Chew and Belle Sun are surprisingly spot on. The graffiti style wrapper art on this cake is in honor of their daughter, Jamie, who was born in 2014, the year of the horse. Isn’t that sweet?

To brew: Young and feisty raw puer (at 10 years old, this tea is just beginning to mellow) needs to be handled with care. I dose out 5 grams for an 80 milliliter gaiwan (1g/16ml) and steep with boiling water for 5 to 10 seconds for the first few steeps. After the seventh brew or so, you can relax and let the infusions run longer. It’s perfect for a lazy summer afternoon when you have time to kill; if you let it, the tea can go upwards of 20 flavorful steeps.

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Ask a Tea Person: How can I drink good tea on the go?

Welcome back to Leafhopper’s tea advice column, where I answer questions from brewers like you. View previous entries in the series here, and submit your own question by emailing max.falkowitz@gmail.com with “Ask a Tea Person” in the subject line.

I am starting a new hybrid role in a few weeks and will be in the office for the first time in four years. I was wondering if you could do a Leafhopper section on “portable” brewing techniques. I’ve seen gong fu travel kits advertised but was mostly thinking of brewing in a thermos. I’d love if you could recommend some teas that would be perfect for brewing on the go. Thanks! — Dani F.

Back when I had an office job, I had a whole tea setup at my desk: an electric kettle, ceramic teaware, and a tray to catch spills. It was ridiculous, though if you’re looking to gain social capital at work, offering visitors a fresh cup of tea goes further than you may expect. Or my coworkers just humored me and accepted it as one of the weird things Max does. Your mileage may vary, Dani.

I think you’re on the right track by keeping it simple with a thermos. Travel tea sets compromise aesthetics and functionality with portability, and I’ve never found one I’ve fallen in love with. Fortunately, there are many teas that take well to thermos brewing, and to the realities of drinking tea at the office.