"Fine hand-picked "Golden Eyebrow" Wuyi black tea, direct sourced from the Li’s family farm…"

Jin Jun Mei Wuyi black tea is one of the most labor intensive and demanding teas in the world to produce. It takes thousands and thousands of buds, each picked by hand, one at a time, to make a single pound of Jin Jun Mei. Our farmer partner in Wuyi, Li Xiangxi, says it takes so much skill to pick the delicate buds used in Jin Jun Mei that only other people who have been farming their whole lives in Wuyi are able to help. With all of their neighbors, they share a loose agreement to all pitch in and help each family pick on those precious few days when the tea is just right. Li Xiangxi helps her neighbors one day and they help her the next.

The hard work is worth the beautiful tasting experience. The aroma is big and powerful. You can almost eat the sweet malty smell of the steamed pretzel bread you get as you pour the water over the leaves. The first steepings are almost a guilty tasting experience, full of addictive flavor like sweet cream buttered popcorn, and State Fair funnel cake dusted with powdered sugar ad a touch of salt.

As the tea opens up there is a strong amaretto flavor complemented by big vanilla notes. The body moves from malt towards roasted sweet potato, and the aftertaste becomes sweet, spicy and floral like fresh ginger. The sweetness lingers like eating rock candy. Throughout the tasting experience, you can feel the minerality behind the tea, its connection to the rocky mountain slopes of Wuyi.

DATE OF PICKING:
Spring 2015

LOCATION OF PICKING:
Xingcun, Wuyi, Fujian

WHAT WAS PICKED:
Hand-picked small buds

QUANTITY ACQUIRED:
we aqcuired an initial 20 lbs

SOURCING AGENT:
Li Xiangxi, tea farmer and teacher of rural Wuyi tea ceremony

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