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What-Cha's Zhejiang Purple Bamboo Shoot 'Zi Sun Cha' Green Tea
My camera still is not working properly; although this time I have most of the important images minus the used leaves.
Today
I was really in the mood for a smokey green tea and I felt like trying
What-Cha’s Yunnan Graceful Purple Zi Juan tea, although I mistakenly grabbed
the Zhejiang Purple Bamboo Shoot 'Zi Sun Cha' Green Tea package without
realizing it (and even when I brewed the tea I completely ignored the name on
the bag). So I was a little confused during my tasting when I thought I was
brewing a purple tea. I didn’t realize my mistake until I brewed it a second
time and looked at the bag.
I tried to do a gongfu session with this tea, but the liquor was very light so I decided to skip that and go straight into western brewing. I know the liquor color is not always indicative of the brewed tea, but I decided to be vain and judge the tea by its appearance.
For my first infusion I used water at
176°F for three minutes. I couldn’t really discern an aroma while the
aroma of the dry leaves was very intense (spinach, mushroom and spinach). The
liquor was very light I tasted a very dry hay taste and slight nutty
undertones.
For my second infusion I brewed at
180°F for four minutes. This time I was getting a very slight orchid scent. The
liquor was still light, but not as delicate as the last infusion. This time it
was nuttier than anything else, although it was vaguely vegetal.
For my third and final infusion I
brewed at 190°F for five minutes. It still had the orchid scent from the last
infusion, but it also had cherry hints. The taste was pretty much identical to the last.
(I was confused here, because I had
not realized that this was not a smokey tea. Ok in my mind I knew it wasn’t a
purple tea, but I have yet to have a mislabeled tea at What-cha.)
Round 2
I decided to start again (still did
not look at the name on the bag) and steep the tea even longer than before.
With my new leaves I brewed at 185°F for four minutes. This time I was getting
an orchid and vegetal scent. As for the taste, it wasn’t drastically different
from my first infusion, it still was nutty, and the hay taste was the star.
For my next infusion I brewed at 195°F
for five and half minutes. This time it was very different. The liquor was pale
like all earlier tries, but the taste was amazing. This time it had a sweet
edge as well as being nutty. The sweetness tasted raw like freshly picked
sugarcane.
(At this point I finally discovered
that this was not a smokey purple tea)
I am rather fond of this tea, even
though before my realization it confused me while it is a lot lighter than my
everyday type of green tea. I found it enjoyable. This Zi Sun Cha feels like a
white tea drinker’s introduction to greens, as well as the reverse. Although if
I blindly tasted this I might think it was an oolong because of the floral
notes to it. This is too light of tea for me to recommend gongfu brewing this;
it becomes interesting the longer it is steeped. I also found it interesting
that the leaves feel like they can be continuously reused even though I had
relatively long steep times, it never felt watery or thin. I feel that I can
serve this to any guest without them complaining about the bitterness (all my
guests are unenlightened plebeians who mistake astringency with
bitterness).
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