Rah's Thoughts on Tea

(Tea Provided For Review)

Today I decided to look at Eco-Cha’sJin Xuan (April 2014). I know I’ve been looking at a lot of oolongs, recently, but I decided to try this today rather than a green tea or even a nice puerh. The leaves aren’t particularly aromatic like some teas; in fact they are quite subtle. Sometimes I overlook the subtler teas that don’t instantly grab my attention so I decided to try this one.

Jin Xuan Oolong

Origin: Zhu Shan NanTou, Taiwan

Harvest: April 2014

Elevation: 400M

Dry Leaves: There is a very intense floral aroma to the dry leaves and a little bit vegetal. And the dry leaves have a very interesting shape, sort of like tightly twisted crossed with pearls, there is some uniformity to the tea leaves, but you can see a lot of uniquely shaped pearls as well. At first I thought the dry leaves were kind of ugly, since I really like uniformity in tea leaves, although after I studied the leaves for a bit, they started to grow on me. Some of them have a rosebud-esque look and you can see a lighter green one that looks a little like popcorn.

First Steeping

Temperature: Boiling

Brewing Time: One Minute

Aroma: Fruity, Floral and Green bean

Flavor: Bamboo leaves, Woody and Creamy

Tasting Notes: There was not a strong milk taste so far and it had a slightly thin mouthfeel for a Taiwanese oolong, although the milk taste did linger. This steeping was very subtle, I was correct I my suspicion that I’d taste many of these flavors in subsequent steepings.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 190^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minute

Aroma: Peach, Milk, Floral, and Green Beans

Flavor: Milk, Bamboo Shoots, Malty and Sugarcane.

Tasting Notes: It became very milky this steeping, and had a thicker mouthfeel this time although not particularly thick for a Jin Xuan. I was surprised to find that this Jin Xuan had malty notes in it, I haven’t had many lighter oolongs that come close to anything resembling malty. It was quite pleasant, this is probably my favorite steeping, I like the progression from Bamboo leaves in the previous steeping to bamboo shoots; it had a lovely green tea feel to it, most of the unflavored Jin Xuans I had this year leaned more towards the floral oolong side rather than vegetal green and I quite enjoyed it

Third Steeping

Temperature: 195^oF

Brewing Time: Three Minute

Aroma: Mild Peach and Floral

Flavor: Creamy, Woody, Bamboo Shoots and Honey

Tasting Notes: It became considerably less sweet this time, although I could still taste some sweetness in it. Considerably milkier then the last infusion; I liked the return of the wood taste and it meshed really well with the Milk taste. The bamboo shoot taste was lighter than the previous infusion and it felt less like a green oolong, more like a lightly roasted one. With the exception of the bamboo shoots, this tea lost it vegetal edge.

Overall very nice Jin Xuan, most of the Milk Oolongs I’ve tried tended to be more floral so I was surprised at the vegetal elements in this tea. I forgot to take a picture of the used leaves, but you can definitely tell they were machine harvested (although Eco-Cha has that listed on their website, I always appreciate a store that is honest when they could have not listed that) there was some slight tearing on the leaves, but they were in fairly good shape for being machine harvested. For 38 grams at $8, this is definitely worth the price, this is a nice everyday tea, not as milky as other Jin Xuans, but not as floral. So if you want a Jin Xuan with a light milk taste and a mild floral aroma, this is the tea for you.

I originally thought this was a tea from Zhejiang, in fact my sample was mislabeled, Alistair of What-Cha was kind enough to send me a sample of this before he posted the tea to his site, so when I was drinking this I thought it was a tea from Zhejiang and it is interesting that it is similar to What-Cha’s Wild Growing Long Jing. In my initial notes I listed this as the dark sister to the Long Jing because while it has some minor similarities to it, it feels very different. They both have an interesting chocolate-y aspect to them, but the Long Jing falls on the green side of the spectrum and this Yellow Sun is on the darker/roasted side.

While I am a little disappointed that this isn’t from the same place as the Long Jing, I was not disappointed, but I am a little curious if the initial confusion didn’t color me. Which brings up greater questions like would I feel the same way about this tea if I tried it again (pretty much yes, I cut some of my notes out), how would I describe this tea if I tasted this blind, among many others. While the misinformation did cause me to be a little more retrospective about drinking tea, I am not going to go that in depth in that, but I feel I should describe my normal tea drinking process before I go on. Generally when I am sampling a tea I prefer larger samples (10g) since I use half to prepare the tea take some brief notes and then use the remainder the next day and try again with a clean palate (without looking at my notes). I do this to cut down on some of the more out there flavors/aromas I may have experienced, generally if I taste something strange on day one that I didn’t on day two (or vice-versa) I write it off. While I do occasionally make exceptions like with the Premium Non-Black Russian Sampler I had last year, I try to have as firm opinion as possible.

Although this brings up an interesting question, how long (or how much) should I drink a tea before I feel comfortable to write about it? An Ounce? A week? I wish I had an answer for this, but unfortunately I don’t. I’ve been drinking a lot of What-Cha’s 2013 Korean harvests lately, in fact I’ve been drinking them nearly every night before bed and I am starting to be able to distinguish incredible degrees of nuance that I didn’t in my review. I feel that I am finally starting to know this tea. Sadly because of the nature of this blog and how I buy tea I can’t amend the format of my blog without drastically reducing the amount of content I produce. I don’t imagine it would be that interesting if I posted a week’s worth of tasting notes on the same tea. Regardless I never intended for this blog to describe the definitive experience of drinking x tea, this experience has certainly made me more aware of my blind spots and acknowledge my own biases. While I never felt comfortable with the idea that this is a tea review blog, I feel equally uncomfortable with calling this a tea critique blog, this blog is something different. I Maybe a record of my early impressions…

Dry Leaves: The leaves are very dark, I’ve had quite a few yellow teas, but I hardly consider myself an expert. Some of the leaves have quite an interesting shape, towards the bottom right you’ll see a brownish green tea leaf that is shaped almost like a scythe while others are slightly twisted. They have quite an interesting scent, a little malty and chocolaty, but there is some vegetal undertones that oddly enough does not clash with the Chocolate scent.

First Steeping

Temperature: 176^oF

Brewing Time: One Minute

Aroma: Chocolate and Malty

Flavor: Chocolate, Roasted Hazlenut, Vegetal, Malty and Vanilla

Tasting Notes: This was rather surprising, I did not expect Chocolate and Vanilla to work so well with Vegetal. Regardless it was quite nice, a little reminiscent of an aged green oolong. The liquor was rather light for how much flavor it has.

Second Steeping

Temperature: 181^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minutes

Aroma: Malty                     

Flavor: Roasted Hazlenut, Unami, Malty and Chocolate.

Tasting Notes: The chocolate went from the dominant taste to the weakest, I was a little sad to see the vanilla disappear, I don’t often taste vanilla in an unflavored tea and it worked very well with each of the individual flavors. While the last infusion wasn’t exactly a sweet tea, the vanilla was a nice contrast to the chocolate and roasted vegetable flavors. Regardless there was an unami aspect to this infusion that I didn’t pick up last time, it was a little out of place.

Third Steeping

Temperature: 186^oF

Brewing Time: Three Minutes

Aroma: Malty

Flavor: Roasted Hazlenut, Unami and Malty

Tasting Notes: It is starting to become more of the same, while it lost the chocolate notes that were present up until now it is becoming more typical of a roasted oolong, while it isn’t exactly one note it is starting to become simpler from here on.

(Tea Provided for review)

Origin: Bangladesh

So I received more tea to look at from a company I originally heard of on reddit and is interesting. Teatulia is a company that grows their own tea in their own tea garden. I first heard about Teautila interestingly an a subreddit unrelated to tea, I remember reading about their efforts to engage with their local community, most notably paying a living wage while being environmentally conscious. You can read more about Teatulia here, their efforts to further education and literacy was interesting. I hope to see more companies following Teatulia and others like Eco-Cha & Tealet efforts to better the living conditions of the people who grow tea.

Teabag: This is a first for me, a bagged tea on my blog, I was a little cautious at first since Teatulia also sells loose leaf versions of their teas. Teaulia has rather pretty packaging, and according to it their teabags contain whole tea leaves which seems to be true although there was some tea dust in the bags. Regardless the dry leave has a nice basil and wildflower scent and looks a little like a silver needle. I decided to try brewing this two ways, the first in the tea bag and the second loose leaf (I most note I only received teabag samples so I cut a tiny incision in the teabag rather than use their loose leaf. I can’t really comment on the quality of their loose leaf tea in this post).

Brewing in a Teabag

Temperature: 165^oF

Brewing Time: Two Minutes

Aroma: Fresh Hay and Fruity

Flavor: Floral, Vegetal, Sage and Honey

Tasting Notes: This was rather dark for what appears to be a silver needle. It had a rather nice balance between Floral and Vegetal although the Sage made this rather unique, it is a little reminiscent of the herbaceous Taiwanese oolongs; in fact this feels much to dark for a white tea. I decided against following Teatulia’s suggested brewing parameters. I can’t imagine how this would have turned out if I used boiling water. Regardless this was quite nice, it feels to powerful to be a white tea, but I don’t think it would fit in with Greens or Oolongs.

Loose Leaf

Temperature: 165^oF

Brewing Time:

Aroma: Fresh Hay and Fruity

Flavor: Floral, Vegetal, Sage and Honey

Tasting Notes: Everything from taste to aroma is pretty much the same, although it the liquor was a little lighter (which was surprising) and a little tea particles escaped my strainer (not so surprising); otherwise this is nearly identical to being brewed in a teabag, perhaps a little stronger. As to whether or not I prefer brewing this in a tea bag or loose, I think I prefer the teabag, the differences were minor and this appears to be a very high quality teabag.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this tea, I am not really a bag white tea drinker and definitely not a fan of teabags, but this was quite nice. I am not sure I’d ever seek out bagged tea since most teabags contain tea dust and taste awful this was rather pleasant. And for $9.99 for 16 teabags this is definitely worth checking out even if you don’t like white tea. I’d wholeheartedly recommend this to any loose leaf tea drinker. While the overwhelming majority of bagged tea may be of poor quality this is evidence bagged tea can be better. While this is rather nice I am not exactly sold on teabags, I am curious to try Teatulia’s loose leaf tea in the future and compare it to their bagged tea I can’t help, but think it would be better.