Don Mei : Hey teaheads!
This is Don from Mei Leaf.
In this video : Tasting An Extra Special Tea For 20k.
In this video we are celebrating twenty-thousand subscribers by tasting a 25 year-old Tie Guan
Yin Oolong.
This video is going to go under the "Tea Tastings" and the "Drinking With Friends" playlists.
If at any point in time you enjoy this video then please give it the thumbs-up.
The more thumbs in the air the more tea videos are going to come your way, and if you haven't
subscribed to our YouTube channel yet [then] go click that button.
I am here [with the] "Return Of The Frank".
Frank : Hello!
[WAVING]
Celine : Ta-da!
Don : Frank is back, and Celine is here, and we've taken our whole setup and we've brought
it smack-bang in the center of London.
The "Tower Bridge" is behind me.
We've got "The Shard", and we've got people all around us.
This is not intimidating at all, right?
Frank : No!
No..no.
No..
no.
Celine : Not at all.
Don : There are lots of people watching us.
Celine : Not at all.
Don : This is fine.
Everything is good, but we're doing it for yo, because we want to say a big, big "Thank
you" to each and every one of you who has subscribed.
Whether or not you are one of the "OGs" - the "original gangsters", the "original teaheads"...
Celine : Yeah.
Don : ... that joined from "day dot", or if you are just joining us now, welcome, welcome,
to our crazy, fun, and hopefully slightly educational teahead world.
So, Frank, this is your hood, isn't it?
Frank : Yeah.
[I've lived] here for the past twelve years.
Celine : Twelve years.
Don : So Frank is based in this part of London, Wapping.
He kindly supplied the furniture.
Frank : Oooh!
Celine : Styling it.
Don : Styling it.
Styling it.
Frank : Yeah.
Don : It's a beautiful, sunny day in London, isn't it?
Celine : Finally.
Frank : It's always sunny in London.
Don : That's what I always say to them, as well.
It's like, "All those misconception about London, isn't it?"
Frank : Rumors.
Don : [laughter] Rumors.
Celine : It's all rumors.
[laughter]
Don : They're just trying to put London down.
No.
It's a sunny day in London [in] September.
We've just, last night, clicked past the 20k mark on our subscriber count, which is kind
of a nice little milestone for us.
Obviously, we want to get to 10 million, but 20k is a good starting point.
Frank : It's a big number.
Celine : That's great.
Don : So, we're going to taste, today, a tea that we have not tasted, and it is - as is
our traditional.
Every time we do a celebratory thing we try to taste and aged tea.
Frank : Ah!
Don : Because, obviously, they're more rare [and] not as easy to come by.
When we were in Xi Ping, in China this year, we were given this sample of 25 year-old Tie
Guan Yin.
Frank : Ooh!
Don : So, you know, just [from] when we were little babies, right?
Frank : Yeah.
Don and Celine : [laughter]
Frank : I wasn't born [yet].
Don : You weren't born.
Yeah, exactly.
So [in] 1992 this tea was picked and processed.
We'll quickly SCOPE it, and then we're going to get on with tasting it.
[For] Season [this is] spring 1992.
[The] cultivar is the Tie Guan Yin cultivar.
Origin is Xi Ping - so our favorite place in An Xi country for Tie Guan Yin.
Celine : Really
Don : Xi Ping [is] the traditional motherland of Tie Guan Yin.
The Processing is the same as Tie Guan Yin, but then it's roasted, and then it's been
kept for 25 years.
It's been kept, apparently - in China they have, in the factories, or in the houses that
the farmers live, they have like a roof, like that; a high-angle roof...
Frank : Yeah.
Don : ... and they have beams, and the best place to store your tea, for aging, is up
in the beams.
Frank : Ah!
Celine : Really?
Frank : In the same place it's grown?
Or is there better places to store it?
For the aged tea?
Don : [There's] a whole school of thought that they prefer aging in different areas,
but this was aged in Xi Ping.
So it's aged in the farmer's place [where they] made the tea, up in their beams.
The great thing is that they're producing tea below, right?
Frank : MmmHmm.
Don : So all of these aromas...
Frank : Ah!
Celine : Oh!
Don : ... and all of this stuff is going upwards.
So that's where they always keep their best tea, up in the beams.
So it was stored up in the beams, and then it was sealed off air-tight, and it's been
sealed air-tight.
I don't know how long it's been aged air-tight for, but I would guess it's at least five
or ten years.
Celine : Didn't we see that same thing in Yunnan?
Don : Yeah.
Celine : They were storing like aged Puerh [teas] in the beams?
I was thinking, "Wow!
Those massive bags.
How did they get it up there?"
Don : Yeah.
That's [why], whenever you go into a farmer's house just look up, and point to those, and
say, "I want to try that."
That's the best way to do it.
Frank : Ah!
Don : Okay.
So we've got a Chao Zhou clay pot here, and we've intentionally picked on - this is another
handmade Chao Zhou clay pot - and we've picked one that's tall so that the [ball-rolled]
Oolong grow.
Let's open [it] up.
Celine : Yeah.
I opened it, but I didn't want to smell it, because you know, let's make it all of us.
Don : Okay.
Go on.
[Let's] put it into the...
Celine : Should we smell through the pack, though?
Don : Okay.
Frank can smell it first.
[This is a] 25 year old.
Frank : Okay.
Don : See what it smells like.
Frank : [SMELLS TEA] Mmm!
Twenty-three?
Celine : [laughter]
Don : [laughter] Twenty-three [years] old!
[SMELLS TEA] Oh, wow.
The smell of it is crazy.
Celine : Okay.
My turn.
Don : It's kind of like chocolate nougat, [with] some rum notes, right?
Frank : Yeah, [chocolate].
Yeah.
Don : Some kind of, like, slightly alcohol.
[There's] a little bit [of] kind of sweet alcohol, like Demerara sugar, [and dark] rums.
Celine : Oh my God!
That's smells very alcoholic.
[laughter] It's true.
Don : It's got an alcoholic note to it.
Celine : It's especially got a...
Frank : It's chocolatey.
Celine : Yeah, chocolate and raisins.
Frank : Like a rum cake.
[Like] rum cake [with] raisin.
Yeah.
Celine : Rum cake!
Rum cake.
Don : Rum raisin cake.
I like it.
Celine : I think you got it.
Yeah.
Don : It's really different from...
Actually, [the] last video - the only video you've done with us - is the Tie Guan Yin
video, wasn't it?
Celine : [laughter] Oh, it was!
Don : Remember, it was little [ball-rolled]..
Frank : Ah, yes!
Yes.
Don : ... Oolong, and we were talking about how tight the roll-rolled Oolong should be.
But this is [a] very, very different style.
I don't know if they were doing it different in the 90s, but it was a different style.
Maybe - I don't know, can you reach out and show the camera?
Celine : Yeah, sure.
Don : ... without knocking everything over?
Celine : I will try my best.
Don : Try your best.
Celine : I'm coming over guys.
Don : So you can see [that] the color, obviously, [is] dark - almost like a cooked Puerh dark
brown.
[It's a] very dark, nutty, dark noisette brown.
Then, it's not so tightly ball-rolled.
I don't know if that's opened up over time, or if it wasn't tightly rolled at the time.
Celine : Uh!
Don : Did a leaf drop?
Celine : It did!
Don : You lost a leaf!
Anyway, [It's gone] back to nature.
That's okay.
That's our little souvenir for Wapping.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : So, we're going to put it in this clay pot, which we've warmed up with water.
Check out this pot.
Frank : Wow.
Don : Isn't it beautiful?
[It's] totally hand made.
No machine touched it.
[It's made] all by hand, pressed together.
[It's] amazing.
Celine : It's so beautiful.
Don : You can even see kind of the marks in it [of] like fingers and things.
So, I don't know how much we put in here, but it's, you know, enough.
Celine : [laughter]
Don : [The farmer] said to me [that] this will give between 18 and 25 infusions.
Celine : Whoa!
Frank : One load.
Don : One load [gives] 18 to 25 infusions, because it's aged.
Frank : Wow!
Celine : Maybe you put too much in there, no?
Don : Well, we're going to do quick...
Oh, the smell is crazy.
It's a crazy...
If you've ever had Amethyst GABA it has a kind of Amethyst GABA note to it.
Frank : Yup.
Don : Like those kind of slightly funky, slightly very dark, like molasses kind of darkness
to it
Celine : Ah!
[It's such like] molasses.
Treacle.
It smells of treacle.
Don : Yeah.
Celine : But that rum cake, yeah that's definitely rum cake.
Don : Yeah, rum cake it good.
So you can write the tasting notes from now on Frank.
Okay, let's give it a rinse.
We definitely want to rinse this.
Oh, we've got a massive boat coming through..
Celine : Ooh, wow!
Frank : The "Tower Bridge" opened up.
Don : The Tower Bridge opened up.
Everything we organized for you.
It took a lot of planning.
Frank : Soon we're going to hear the horn.
Don : Yeah, the horn, and then fireworks a bit later.
Frank : Yeah.
Don : Could you image if fireworks actually went off?
It would be like "Yes!"
Frank : Twenty thousand viewers!
Don : You never know.
Image what we'd do for 100k.
Celine : Oh my God!
It's like navy.
Don : Oh wow, yeah.
[There's] a big, big, big navy ship coming in.
But I don't care about that.
[Let's] focus on the tea.
Look at this color...
Celine : Sorry, guys.
Don : No, no.
It's fine.
But look at that color.
Celine : Hey, I'll bring it over.
Don : That is amazing, isn't it?
For a very flash...
Celine : Here.
Don : See if you can get the sun to go through it.
Celine : Uh...
Frank : The sun's behind the boat.
Don : [laughter] Yeah.
The boat is blocking the sun.
There you go.
Celine : Yeay!
Don : There you go.
Celine : Wow.
Don : That's a better view.
Good.
Okay.
So [it's] very dark.
What?
Kind of [a] - I don't know - syrupy, [like] hazelnut syrup.
You know, that kind of stuff you put in coffees.
Frank : Yeah.
Yeah.
Don : You know?
Frank : Even a dark, yeah, [like] molasses.
Don : Molasses, rum, [and] that kind of note.
Okay, so we don't have a cup for you.
You're not tasting this.
We didn't realize he was going to film with us , so we didn't bring a cup.
So you're going to have to share cups with us.
All right... [that] was the rinse...
Celine : Oh, that was the rinse.
Don : That was the rinse.
Let's just quickly give this a sniff.
Celine : It was so dark.
[laughter] It's because it was so dark I thought we were drinking.
Don : [SMELLS TEA] Mmm!
Okay, so a bit more vanilla is coming into it - a little bit brighter [and] lighter.
Celine : Oh my God!
It smells really sweet.
Don : [SMELLS TEA] You can see how this pot - because of the size [and] because of the
height - is growing upwards.
It's really, really nice.
Celine : Mmm!
It must be really nice.
[SMELLS TEA] Oh my Gosh!
Don : Okay.
I'm going to make sure I'm in focus, [and] I'm going to stop playing with my phone.
Celine : I'm excited about this.
Don : Okay.
We're going to do very, very flash infusions, and we're seeing if we can get a lot out of
this.
Obviously, we're not going to film the entire 18 to 25 infusions.
The sun would be setting, and it might get a bit chilly here.
But we will definitely do a few.
Celine : Oh!
Look at that.
Don : Oh, you like the control.
Celine : Oh, it's nice.
Don : It's like a push-button control.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : The color is stunning.
Interesting [that] you didn't filter it.
Celine : Oh, sorry!
I don't know why.
Don : It's okay.
You're going for unfiltered.
All right, we'll share.
Frank, thank you for joining us on our 20k.
Celine : Thank You!
Frank : Congratulations.
Don : Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Celine : Cheers to you!
Don : It's all because of you guys out there.
Celine : Cheers to you!
Frank : Cheers!
Celine : You should start, Don.
Don : No...no...no.
Go for it.
Celine : Go on!
Go on!
Don : Go for it Go for it.
Go for it.
Celine : Oh!
[You're] so nice.
Don : See what the texture is like.
So if [you] can taste the age on it.
Celine : [SIPS TEA] Oh wow!
Okay.
You've got to try that.
That is like a dessert.
That is so sweet [and] so smooth.
Don : [SIPS TEA] Mmm.
[It's] so smooth.
[It's] really, really smooth.
Celine : There's so much going on.
I feel like it's just started to open.
Don : It's just opening.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : But [it's] smooth, sweet, rum.
I keep thinking rum.
Celine : Sorry, I gave you the dust.
Don : [laughter] Yeah.
have a bit of dust.
[laughter] Okay.
Let's brew it again.
Celine : Oh my God!
Don : Yeah.
It's very sweet.
It's already just starting to lay down some of the sweetness.
Celine : Yeah, the first...
Don : But it has that alcoholic sweetness to it.
Frank : Mmm.
Don : [It has] a little bit of sweet rum, fortified wines...
Celine : Yeah.
Don : .. those kinds of notes.
Frank : Yeah.
Maybe it's the age thing?
Isn't it?
Don : Yeah.
But also, when you breathe out, it's almost got like a herbal [taste].
You know those herbal sweets?
Frank : Mmm.
Don : ...On the throat?
Frank : Mmm.
The anise is in this.
Don : Yeah.
Yeah.
That kind of sweet anise, [liquorice] kind of sweetness coming from the throat.
This is so different from the 10k [subscribers celebration] aged tea that we tried, which
was a 1970s tea from Dan Cong - a Chao Zhou - which was really herbal.
It tasted basically like medicine, you know?
It was like really, really too much.
But there you go.
Celine : You start that one.
Frank : Yeah.
Don : Cheers, everyone!
I hope it's not too windy, and it's not affecting that microphone too much.
Stay away wind!
We're right next to the Thames, so [forgive] us if it's a bit windy.
Celine : Yeah.
Í'll try and talk louder.
Don : [SIPS TEA] Wow!
[It's] rounded, [with] a bit of nuttiness now.
Celine : Nuttiness?
Don : Yeah.
[SIPS TEA] Mmm!
[It's got] hazelnut.
Don : Hazelnut.
It is that kind of hazelnut syrup that you put in coffees.
Celine : Oh!
It reminds me of those nuts [that] they put sugar with, and you can get them in touristy
areas.
Don : Yeah...yeah...yeah.
Frank : Ah!
That would be up on the bridge?
Celine : Yeah.
Yeah.
Frank : They burn it down with sugar?
Yeah.
Celine : Yeah, those burnt nuts.
Don : Sugared almonds.
Here, this is not dust now.
Frank : Yeah, something [like] a fun fair.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : Ooh, yeah.
[It's like] a little candy [gloss], fun fair, burnt sugar.
[SIPS TEA]
Celine : Yeah.
It's crazy.
[I] love it.
This is so good.
Don : Mmm.
[It's] really, really nice... and again, really smooth.
Celine : Oh my Gosh!
Don : Again, you feel like it's not even started.
It's like [now] kind of just waking up after its 25 year slumber, and it's really starting
to now just [start] to reveal.
The hydration is going to take some time for this
Celine : Yeah.
It's exciting though.
Don : But it's really sweet.
I'm getting a really intense herbal [taste].
Yeah, you're right.
[There's] an anise kind of sweetness to it, isn't it?
Frank : Mmm.
Celine : Yeah.
Yeah.
Don : Like if you had a Pernod, or an Ouzo, and it's kind of given you that...
Frank : Aftertaste, a little bit.
Celine : A what?
A Pernod?
Don : No...no.
Celine : What's that?
Don : You're French!
[laughter] The French anise drink!
Celine : Oh!
I don't like the anise drinks in France.
It's too anisey.
Frank : Yeah.
[It's] too anisey.
Yes.
This just has the little bit.
It's just nice.
Don : Yeah, the sweetness.
Frank : Yeah.
Don : Go for it.
You go first.
Celine : Thank you.
Cheers!
Don : I want to take a look at these leaves.
Okay, they are really just starting to open up.
Celine : Whoa!
Don : [There's a] bit of freshness coming through on the wet leaf.
Celine : Ít's got more kind of bourbon notes.
No, like more...
Don : Charred.
Celine : More charred.
Don : Smell that.
It's like charred wood.
It's got a little charred wood.
Frank : Oh yes.
Don : You know?
Frank : Mmm!
Don : Like charred casks.
Celine : Ah, casks.
Don : Yeah, those barrels - like bourbon casks.
Celine : Mmm!
Yeah, it's not quite like alcoholic.
It's just that taste of casks.
Don : Yeah, that bourbon casks.
It's really, really lovely.
Okay.
So we are going to do a giveaway.
Celine : Oh!
[There's a] sweet aftertaste.
Don : Yeah.
Celine : [It's like] when you suck on a licorice, and you then you get the sweetness afterwards
- not so much the taste, [but] more the sweetness.
Don : Yeah.
Celine : That's what [I'm] getting right now.
Frank : The color is now like maple syrup.
Don : Maple syrup!
Exactly.
Yeah.
Frank : It even has a bit of something in it.
Don : Yeah, like oats and maple syrup.
That's another good one.
You definitely can write some tasting notes for us.
Celine : [laughter]
Don : So, we are going to be doing a special giveaway.
[Show] the tin.
Celine : Oh yeah.
Don : We've got this much.
We're not going to give all of it away, but we'll give some of it away.
Probably, I think what we'll do is give [six] sampler packs of this.
Celine : Okay.
Don : All right?
So six sample packs.
We don't stock this at Mei Leaf, so this is an exclusive.
You're going to get this as a giveaway.
We may try to get some.
Now [that] I've tasted it I'm very interested in getting some in, because it's a really,
really lovely tea.
I'll have to find out how [much] they've got stored in their beams up there.
Frank : Look up.
Don : [laughter] Yeah, [if they] look up I'm sure they've got a lot hidden away.
But for now it's an exclusive.
We don't have it for Mei Leaf , so we're going to do a giveaway.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : What I'd like you to do [is we're going] to do a giveaway on YouTube, and a giveaway
on Instagram.
So [for] YouTube, what you need to do is subscribe and write a comment...
um...
what should we do?
Celine : In the section below.
Don : Yeah.
Let's do a comment on: What is the oldest tea you've ever tried?
Celine : Haven't we done this already?
Don : Have we done that already?
Celine : I can't remember, but I feel like with the...
I know we...
Don : No...no...no.
Celine : Yeah, with the 40 -year-old in Thailand.
Didn't we do that?
Don : Did we?
Celine : Oh, damn!
Don : I don't think so.
Anyway, let's do it again, in any case.
What is the oldest tea you've ever tried, and what did it taste like?
Good and bad.
Maybe it's some dusty old tea bag...
Don, Celine and Frank : [laughter]
Don : ... that's 10 years expired in the back of your cupboard.
I'm sure you have them somewhere in your cupboard.
So let us know.
Comment in the section below.
Then for Instagram, basically what you need to do is follow us.
So follow our thread.
[What] is it called a "thread", [or] a "timeline", [or] whatever.
Follow us, and post a picture [which is] tea related, and just tag us.
Tag us in that picture.
Celine : Cool.
Yeah.
Don : So any picture you post that's vaguely tea-related - you know, we can go as metaphorical
as you want - [tag] us, or write our name in the comments so we can find you.
We will then, next week?
Celine : Yeah.
Don : Ten days... in about ten days time.
Celine : Ten days.
Don : We'll pick three winners from Instagram, [and] three winners from YouTube, and [wherever]
you are in the world, we'll send you some of this 25 year-old Tie Guan Yin.
Celine : Oh my God!
It's so good, guys.
Seriously.
Frank : Oh yea.
You're in for a treat.
Celine : Man!
Don : [SIPS TEA] [It's] lovely.
It's now starting to pick up a little bit more minerality.
It's got kind of [like] craft paper.
You know [when] you open up fudge packs, and it's got that kind of [brown] paper?
Frank : MmmHmm.
Don : Okay, somebody just really, really wants to talk to me.
I don't know.
[laughter] So yeah, it's kind of got that really interesting [craft]...
Celine : Craft paper.
Don : Yeah, you know that [like] brown paper.
Frank : Yeah.
Don : I don't mean that in a bad way.
I mean that in a kind of like that...
Frank : No...no...no...no.
Like that romantic way.
Don : .. healthy, kind of, woody...Yeah, that kind of thing.
But yeah, I mean, really, I believe the guy.
I think that, first of all, I think that we need hotter water...
Celine : [laughter]
Don : ... because this water has basically traveled with us on "the tube" on the underground.
Celine : Yeah, and it wasn't really working, [as] I realized that the water was coming
out [laughter]
Don : So it's not as hot as it could be.
If you get this make sure you brew it with really, really hot water.
But it [has] still got so much flavor, and I think we can do lots and lots of infusions
of this.
Filter [it]... otherwise Frank gets a load of dust again.
Frank : Ugh!
Celine : Oh yeah, it's still.
Oh yeah, sorry.
Frank : That's okay.
Don : You're so used to brewing Puerh now.
Celine : I know.
That's what it is.
Don : So guys, enter the competition [to] get some of this.
You know?
You're in for a treat, that's for sure.
Frank : Oh yeah.
Celine : You want it to get liked.
Don : And 20k is just the beginning, right?
Celine : [SIPS TEA] Mmm!
Don : We want more!
We've got to [build] this teahead community.
I think we've now hit that kind of point - 20k is kind of that point...
Frank : Yeah.
Don : ... where there's enough of you out there that if each one of you told a friend,
that's forty..
Frank : Yeah.
Don : Right there, that's 40k.
So when I say "spread the word" let's really spread the word.
Frank : Yes.
Don : Let's really build up this teahead community.
I think we're the biggest teahead community on YouTube.
Definitely, when we do our live tea sessions it's the biggest.
Celine : It is.
Don : ... I'm convinced [that] it's the biggest tea party in the world.
We have to contact Guiness about that...
Frank : Mmm!
Don : ... but I reckon it is.
So let's make it massive.
Let's really like spread this positive message of this amazing, amazing drink.
So cheers from central London.
Celine : Cheers!
Frank : Cheers!
Don : Yeah, drink from the Gong Dao Bei.
That's the way we like it.
Frank : There we go.
Don : Cheers everybody!
Wherever you are, [and] whatever you're drinking, thank you so much for subscribing and being
a part of our journey.
Don, Celine and Frank : Cheers!
Don : [SIPS TEA] Delicious!
Smooth and sweet.
That's it teaheads.
If you made it to the end of this video then please give it the thumbs-up.
Check out our YouTube playlists and let us know if there are any videos that you would
like us to make.
If you're ever in London then come visit us in Camden to say "Hi!" and taste our wares.
If you have any questions or comments then please fire them over.
Other than that, this is Wapping resident, Frank.
This is Celine, and I'm Don from Mei Leaf.
Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from those tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because
nobody deserves bad tea.
Don, Celine and Frank : Bye!
[WAVING]