Moychay sent me a bunch of their Ivan Chay (Willow Herb, also known as Fireweed in the US) and I’ve been enjoying it for night tea drinking. Impressively, Ivan Chay mimics fruity black tea, without the caffeine. This tisane can be brewed in any method you like. Moychay offers a number of Ivan Chay options – different regions, processing, and blends. Today, let’s drink two Ivan Chays, one from the Tver region and another Tver but blended with Da Hong Pao.
Tver Region Ivan Chay
This Ivan Chay smells strong woodsy, apple bark, and mulled spices.
Gongfu Style: I used 1 gram of leaf per 20ml. Go light on Ivan chay as it is strong. After a rinse, the leaves smell like sandalwood.
Tver Region Ivan Chay gongfus tasting like oak wood, marjoram/oregano herbs, with a bit of tart currant berry taste. Some sips are a bit milky, and overall sweeter despite the tart notes. This tea gongfus consistently for each infusion and has a profile of a light fruity black tea with some unusual herb notes.
Lazy style: With an extended infusion of grandpa/ lazy style, Tver Region Ivan Chay is more red currant with a deeper oak wood taste, with a sandalwood finish. As it steeps, it gets more herbal weedy.
I think Ivan Chays do best lazy style as the flavors are deeper, and it doesn’t flavor shift much in a gaiwan anyway. Even the leaves of Tver Ivan Chay look pretty close to tea!
Ivan in Red Robe Brick
This brick is a blend of Tver Ivan Chay and broken leaf Da Hong Pao. The leaf of Ivan in Red Robe smells like Ivan Chay – bruised pears, oversteeped mulled spices, and wood. My brick has nine squares about 8.5grams each.
Western Style: I used 2 grams for a 200ml pot, steeped it for 5 minutes in boiling water. The steeping instructions are a square for an 800ml teapot.
Ivan in Red Robe Brick tastes of steel cut oats, mixed berries cooked in spices, dark wood, with a marjoram herb finish. The longer the tea steeps, the more woody, tart, and herby the flavor gets. I can’t pick out the da hong pao, but I can tell the Ivan Chay on its own is lighter and more herbal than a da hong pao can be. The resteep at 15 minutes the flavor is sweet and full of oat hay notes.
Gongfu Style: 1 gram of leaf per 20ml of vessel size, quickly steeped with boiling water.
Absolutely wild! The first infusion tastes like sweet raisin heavy oat porridge with a malty Ovaltine layer. Each infusion of Ivan in Red Robe Brick gets less sweet porridge and goes more to driftwood to then darker, sourwood. I got 5 infusions.
Either way, Ivan in Red Robe Brick is smooth, easy to drink as it is not funky, bitter, or dry. This oolong Ivan Chay blend is certainly a fun tea alternative and something bit lower in caffeine if you love your darker teas like black and roast/oxidized oolong.
Be sure to check out my other Moychay reviews – they also have puer, white tea, and fu bricks!
(teas provided for review)
