Yunnan Gold 2011

Name; Yunnan Gold 2011
Type; Black, China, Yunnan.  Yunnan Pure Gold (金芽滇紅)
Price; £ 8.00 for 50 grams from Jing.

http://jingtea.com/tea/type/black/yunnan-gold

Yunnan Dian Hong Cha

“Appearance: Long, olive-gold twists dappled with orange
Infusion: Bright yellow-brown with mustard-green rim
Aroma: Sweet, graceful golden straw and meadowsweet notes with a little haunting dried mushroom and spice

Taste: Dark, rich, tangy and deep, with lots of tapered liquorice spice notes to lend the rich fruit gravity. Some gentle tannic grip provides textural brightness and bite”

Review; Last week we went for the silver, this week it’s time to go for the gold.  Another tea from Jing, Yunnan Gold is also often called Yunnan Pure Gold.  Fine tips that are picked not necessarily in spring, processed in a delicate manner to give it just the right level of oxidation.

Yunnan produces a wide array of teas.  Claimed by the team at Camellia Sinensis to be the birthplace of tea (which there is no scientific data to support that claim), Yunnan is home to Pu-Erh teas.  Teas that will remain mostly un-touched in this blog.  (There are many wonderful Pu-Erh websites, this one is the best http://half-dipper.blogspot.co.uk/).  Yunnan also produces green and white teas, but these teas while nice are in much less demand from this distinct province.

And once again Jing has succeeded.  When I first opened the bag it smelled of candied apples.  That sickly sweet caramel aroma, with hints of apple or other fruit. As it brewed in the pot you get that traditional spicy-sweet aroma.  And now as I drink the cup I am in heaven.

Yunnan black teas to me are characterised by a lovely “barn-yard “ aroma, a clean barn yard.  The smell of a freshly brushed horse; musky, and sweet, and hints of hay and grass in the aroma too.  Due to the high number of tips in this tea, or at least following a level of logic, there is little bitterness or astringency to this tea, though a slight kick at the end.  Full-bodied and full flavoured in the mouth, the tips that are present in this black tea make it truly wonderful.

I did not taste any liquorice, or notice a mustard-green rim to my cup.  What is olive-gold?  Can we stick to colours that are actual colours please? Otherwise it just comes off arrogant. (Pot calling kettle black, yes I know…) Congratulations Jing, you pass the test again. (Though you could do with lowering your prices a little.)

-Tea Fan

Silver Needle 2011

Name; Silver Needle 2011
Type; White, China, Fujian, Fuding (town), Tai Mu Mountain, 14^th April-28^th April, Cultivar, Most likely Fuding Da Bai
Price; £ 10.40 for 50 grams from Jing.

http://jingtea.com/tea/type/white/silver-needle

“Appearance: Light, plump and large downy tips

Infusion: Honeyed yellow with pale green hues

Aroma: Subtle, delicate scents with honeyed sweetness and gentle melon fruits

Taste: Light, delicate quenching flavours underpinned by cucumber and melon freshness yet surprisingly full textured with a satisfying velvety finish”

Review; Silver Needle is always a difficult one to stock in a tea shop.  It is notoriously the first tea to go stale, and is one of the most expensive (in most cases), so rarely does stock move quick enough to ensure good quality.  This is why in most tea shops around the world you’ll either get a sub-par silver needle, or the shop will instead stock a more hardy white tea like Pai Mu Dan, or white peony as it is also called (which undergoes a very very slight oxidation process and as such has a longer shelf life). 

A good silver needle consists of just the buds and gives you wonderful fruity and floral notes to it.  Now that all being said and done, let us get on with this particular one.

The aroma as I open the bag is wonderful.  A slight hint of plastic, but all in all a wonderful freshness to it meaning this tea has been well stored and air tight.  Beautiful peach/lily of the valley heavenly scent.

Leaves are whole, another good indicator.  Placing them in the water they are so light I have to force submerge them.  Lots of white hairs, another good character, and most of them stay attached to the leaves, yet another good sign.  Aroma of brewing matches with the quality and develops more into a full bodied fruitiness.  

The taste of the tea is light and delicate, yet full bodied.  Fresh and lychee, slight undertones of apricot and maybe fresh hay (not usually a good sign, but in this, I accept it as a good type of hay if that makes any since).  Smooth, it sits pleasantly in the mouth with no bitterness at all. Wet leaves are again nice and whole.  Congratulations jing, you’ve passed.  

Please enjoy this tea.  While it may be a bit pricey, this is one of the rare cases where a tea is worth its price.

-Tea Fan

Taiwan Red Jade 2011

Name; Taiwan Red Jade 2011
Type; Black, Taiwan, Nantou, Sun Moon Lake
Price; £ 20.50 for 50 grams from Jing.

http://jingtea.com/tea/type/black/taiwan-red-jade

“Taiwan Hong Yu Hong Cha

Exceptionally fresh black tea from Nantou in Taiwan. Red Jade Black Tea delivers the concentrated sweetness and depth of baked fruit with uplifting eucalyptus aroma.

Infuse: 1½ tbsp of boiling water for 3 minutes
Appearance: Large brown twists of leaf.
Infusion: Deep auburn-red with a faint green edge
Aroma: Fresh eucalyptus combines with rich notes of baked fruit.
Taste: Full bodied and rounded with rich notes of caramel and hint of mint.”

Review; Beware reader(s) we’re heading into unknown territory.  I must confess this is the first black tea from Taiwan that I have tasted.  The appearance is so light that at first I thought it might just be an oxidized oolong.  I went to a tea tasting the other night, and contrary to one the inexperienced staff, black tea is not the most common form of tea.  Taiwan specializes in Oolong, and Greens.  Not blacks.  These be dangerous waters were in.

Again from Jing.  And thankfully Jing does do 10g packets (but still makes a mint off of you/me the customer), £ 20.50 for 50 grams of tea??  This is rivaling the price of some very nice Darjeelings (and at least there I can pretend I am drinking the champagne of teas). 

The dry leaves have a beautiful long leaf twirled appearance to them.  Very elegant and I am happy to see survived the journey from Taiwan to England, and from England in the postal service.  The dry leaves have a nice aroma to them, and remind me of sultanas.  Not that muscatel note, but more of the sweet prunish nature.  As I put the leaves in the pot, my first aroma that comes to mind is an assam/maltyness.  I’m presuming this is what Jing calls caramel.  But to me is distinctly malty.  I also detect maraschino cherries next, and lastly as the tea verges on over-brewing I get that wintergreen essence that one gets from a Ceylon.  (I guess this is also similar to the Eucalyptus taste in ceylons so maybe I just haven’t chewed on enough eucalyptus trees.)

All in all, and I hate to say this before I taste it, but this Taiwanese tea is smelling exactly like a nice OP1 ceylon to me.  Which isn’t really a good thing for Taiwan especially when Jing is making customers pay 20 pounds for 50 grams. 

Tasting the tea, it’s a bit soft.  Mild.  None of the previous described aromas are dominant really.  No astringency, and little bitterness its more or less a pleasant tea.  Maybe there is a hint of nuttyness to it, which would lead to the terroir of Taiwan, but all in all this is actually disappointing. 

I hate to sound like a tea snob (who am I kidding, I love sounding like a tea snob), but if I wanted to pay this much for a tea, I’d save my money, and buy a nice Ceylon tea and still probably have 10 pounds left over. 

Enjoy or Don’t, guess it depends on how much you love Taiwan, or how much money is in your bank account.

Taiwan my advice?  Stick to what you do best, Oolongs.  The world needs more good oolongs.

-Tea Fan

Organic Jade Sword

Name; Organic Jade Sword 2011

Type; Green, China, Zhejiang Province, Fengwukou Village Garden, Harvested between May 5^th- May 20^th.

Price; £ 4.95 for 50 grams from Jing.

http://jingtea.com/tea/type/green/organic-jade-sword

“Mao Jian Lu Cha

Grown in misty mountains in China's Jiande green tea terroir. Jade Sword is a bright and fresh tea. Picked between the 5th and 20th of May 2011 from Fengwukou village garden.

Appearance: Fine, long and neat dark seaweed-green twists, turning a vivid, fresh forest green on infusion

Infusion: Vivid, pale lime-green liquor

Aroma: Rounded, full, complex aromas combining dry grass back notes with sweeter floral notes in the foreground

Taste: Clean, rounded, full and grassy with faint seaweed complexities. Brisk and refreshing with a textured finish”

Review; To quote Alicia Keys “how do you give me so much pleasure cause me so much pain”.  Chinese greens can inspire you, and make you switch to infusions for a month.  This particular falls square in the middle of sour end. 

Which is frankly a shame.  First impression on opening was that it smelled stale, and very much of dry grass.  When I was brewing it smelled a bit of chlorine, and now as I taste it I can’t help but notice a coppery taste.   Yes this tea is almost a year old, but Jing prides themselves on their storage of vacuum sealing the packets so that shouldn’t really be the issue.  To be fair you can get the standard roasted chestnut taste in it, but this tea is far too bitter.  Because of the metallic nature of the teas, I don’t believe the fault lies with Jing (well just how they sourced it), but with the garden and probably an over oxidation. 

Jing describes themselves as the premiere tea distributor in the UK, with prices that are often higher than your average local tea shop.  This tea is a fine example where I could easily buy 2 others in my local area for less than I paid.  Yes it is clear, and crisp, but not really in ways one should be proud of. 

I particularly enjoy when tea distributors describe what one should see in a tea.  What is more amusing is first to write what you think, and then see where the tea distributor’s imagination takes off.  I’m particularly amused by the “textured” finish.  Sounds a bit like someone is full of themselves as they try to pawn this mediocre tea as grand. 

Don’t Enjoy!

-Tea Fan