jing tea shop

Delightful stuff. Dreamy, soft, fruity, with flowers in my head. Any fuss is kept in the background, little in the way of pungent leafy flavour, and whats there is good.

I noticed a nice energy or vibrancy in the taste – which I love, while being oh so soft. It has that pearlescent streak of fruity sweetness that just lifts it into (insert happy place)

I like the food pairing recommendation on the website – ‘by itself’ :)

I really like this. The website description is perfect, on the flowery side but still with a hint of peanut. These floral or fruitier greens are so much up my street! Still has the slightly savoury green feeling but with a much nicer finish from the florals.

Total yum.

Dribble.

I really love this stuff, Ba Xian has been one of my favourites for years, any grade is fine with me. Also Mi Lan, Ya Shi, Xing Ren,… you get the idea.

This one is mellow, such a mellow roast. Pale, creamy like korma paste (almond?), really nice aftertaste . White Magnolia flowery scents, which mixes with the creamy/oily to make a lovely aroma & and super thick zen cha qi. Slight honey sweetness, slight fruity something. Later steeps the dimension of the taste changes, it thins but that reveals the nutty presence of the oil still winding its way through the brew. yums.

I actually found this a bit fussy with oversteeps

I actually daydream of having Kilos of different single bush Oolong. I could drink them all day. I wish Oolong wasnt so expensive! Currently on the search for adequate all-day drinkers if anyone knows of some good ones (any fragrance).

I asked when my last tea orders were harvested, got a bit of nice info from Jing:

’Dancong can be classified into 3 families: “baked”, “unbaked”, and the Lao Cong. The unbaked ones are the high fragrance teas like xing ren, ba xian, yulan, zhi lan… Those are better in winter because the aromatics are high and the tea taste is low.

The Lao Cong (old trees) and baked (song zhong dancong and milan) are only harvested in spring.’

Always nice to learn a bit more… On to the tea:

Woah! Wide leaves – chunky & nice looking. The aroma is creamy & thick & floral. I did my usual of 90c & let the liquid cool a bit to ~70c. The flavour is of flowers & very subtle thick milk or cream, full in the mouth with no bitterness or the nice nutty green notes you get from some other Dan Cong. Its exactly as described on the website – balanced, clear white flower, deep. Totally pleasant nose. It really is on the subtle side, but very good with it. A bit like the Yinzhen of Dan Cong, if that makes sense? Which is no bad thing at all. A perfect tea to have when you just want something totally pleasant. So pleasant I reckon you could possibly steep this for a long time and it would still hold up.

So I tried & a nice astringent huiguan appeared, still with all the nice flowery yum present before.. a bit more buttery than milky maybe.

Spring 2015!

Wow, this stuff is so gorgeous.

Other reviews say fruit cocktail, and I agree. Glad to see that the difference in years dont change the quality of the tea. That makes me a happy bunny.

It has a thick mouthfeel, and crikey I just get lychee, lychee, lychee, even the pearlescence of lychee comes across, Lychee taste, aroma & feel but also with a lovely slightly toasted/oxidised Oolong loveliness & cream. dribble. I tried to add lychee as a flavour three times but steepster wouldnt allow me.

Short review as I had some a while ago now – I could drink this stuff all day long. Another winner.

I did short gongfu steeps at 90c, and grandpa stylee at the same temp.

Jing only have the AAA being sold, and this is the AA, after the leaves opened up I can see some are broken & not perfect ratio like the more expensive TGY, this was sent as a sampler from Jing.

EIther way, its a nice green oolong! It has a slightly stronger vegetal presence and a medium-strength aroma – in fact its pretty medium strengthed I think compared to some of the more pungent TGY ive had, but tastes nice and green. It is slightly clear in feel, not the thickest or creamiest ive had. But still very nice. Has a nice blend of fruit & umami taste, a flowery aroma & a quite lively cha qi – im tip-tapping this on the keyboard quite fast.

I am interested to know if the tea was from the 2014 or 2015 harvest as the website now has the 2015 harvest showing. I have put the question to Sebastien, as I am interested to see if this flavour is due to the slight aging of the leaf.

Either way I really like JingTeaShop, the tea was listed as one to go with steamed fish, and I completely agree, it has the umami edge which places it perfectly there.

I have been drinking gongfu and grandpa style

This tea getting bumped up because its mellowed out now & the (way too strong when new) roast takes a backseat to nice classic wuyi rock mountain oolong cream/nuts, similar to fruity cashew or melon seeds. after the first few steeps this is the dominant flavour & its making me much happier. There is also some straight fruity sweet & just a much more pleasurable balance – the lack of the bitter char is helping.

I would definitely consider buying more, but knowing that you need a couple of years on it to taste good.

Re-reviewing this tea as I now have worked out how to steep it to my tastes, now, when using 1/2 the gaiwan full of leaf and flash steeping, the tea is making me happier.

Before, I was getting a watery liquor with a lot of charcoal.

with more leaf and flash steeps, the charcoal seems to have hit a ceiling and the body is now coming up to meet it, resulting in a much better cup.

It is still very dark chocolate, but nice dark chocolate instead of not.

also, it is easy to overbrew this one, resulting in bitter dark chocolate. again, with the flash steep method its still nice bitter dark chocolate rather than not.

Im finding it hard to get over the image of a burnt forest whenever I drink this. It still hasnt got the butter or oil of my other oolongs – really is somewhere on its own when my brain categorises it against my other wuyi or dancong. But it is very moreish. a slight sharpness and life bounces on my tongue during the huiguan, making me want to have another cup. – sometimes this sharpness is really forward if overbrewed

With a bit of time taking to get to know it, it is a nice tea for lovers of 80%+ dark chocolate, bitter chocolate & dark, burnt woods. its totally bold in this, a good horror novel tea perhaps?

Also, the price is very reasonable, maybe a good choice for someone who likes to age their tea, thus mellowing it a bit. – I dont have any experience with this, from what understand, this bold, sometimes slightly bitter-chocolate roast is the part that will mellow over time

Synaesthetic note: Blackened Burnt forest after rain

Its a good Xing Ren. Almond aroma and taste, with a slick, oily texture. Thoughts of a dark forest, with bushes & trees. Oolong like this is my perfect horror novel tea :)

I like brewing western style, and as the liquid cools the tea takes on a more bushy form, almost gaining a jade oolong taste. its a nice mix, to start off dark brown, and end up greener. if you get my drift. It always has the almond oil thing going on though, so doesnt ever deviate completely from its nature, but nice to have these other thoughts going on, especially when reading the spooky stuff!

some hints of milk as an aftertaste lingering on my palette

id like to add that these woody tastes are really subtle thoughts, hidden in the oil. not as strong as something like an eight immortals, or other darker Oolongs i have tried, defo on the buttery/oily side of things.

Ok, JingTeaShop -

I absolutely love this tea. its my favourite of the famous dan congs, and my favourite of yours (so far – im still only tried small amount of your stock) really easy to brew – to experiment ive just brewed 3g/2 minutes in my gaiwan just to see how it would do and its, not great, but any others would have been horrid, and this is still drinkable.

to me its the most balanced of the dan congs i have tried with regards to roasty smoke, oily butter, flowery orchid. lovely stuff.

for $33 for 100g, this is now my go-to Oolong, which was the experiment, to see which cheaper ones would make up for the stuff i buy for a LOT LOT more in the UK. – so extra points because of how cheap it is compared to those. Just so good.

9/10

Top stuff

Gongfu style for 15secs

First steep not much going on really!

second steep and the leaves havent even unfurled – this one for 30 secs – milky aroma & quite a ‘hard water’ taste? like there isnt much of a jade oil thing going on. Slight vegetal taste, and a tiny aroma of sweetness, like candy floss.

Astringency started to appear, and a smell that reminds me of greeness & kale.

3rd steep much the same but less flavour.

Its more reasonable at $35/100g than my other Jade Oolongs, and compared to the other ‘Iron goddess’ I have tried which was heaped with so much Jasmine it made me feel sick, this one is a lot better. It doesnt seem to have the magic taste that my Da Yu Lings have (but they are a lot more expensive), but it has a nice head feeling, so im happy.

and happy that I can try other Iron Goddess now without worry about the added jasmine!

edit* did a much longer steep and managed to extract some jade magic out of this one. I like it!

Aha! The famous duck shit aroma. I had read about Ya Shi being not very nice, and actually bought this one by accident, just using the description on the website.

Im glad I did, for two reasons -

One: its very interesting, (read: totally lovely)

Two: Made me realise how nicely kinaesthetic tea is to me. I struggle to think of what the flavours & aromas are sometimes, I don’t have the breadth of knowledge of smell that some of the reviewers here have (Amanda Wilson im looking at you). But I do have a kinaesthetic way of thinking about sound, taste & aroma, by way of colours generally in day-to-day life. And this one I just couldn’t describe apart from it is just so goddamn purple. with black & white stripes.

Imagine a lovely oily Dan Cong, but wearing a stripey gown made out of purple & black velvet, with silky white trim. That is how the aroma smells. Maybe its because I dont know the flower (maybe? definitely). But because ive got no point of reference I just get a burst of colour information thats bloody marvellous. The oil is rich, full, delicious, with a silky fuzzy aroma, that when i exhale through my nose, reminds me of something else thats also delicious. AND then its the aroma of the steeped leaves that really floors me again. I am just inhaling it over and over again, then sipping on the oily liquor. Its really that nice. Inhale – beautiful sweet, rich, aroma of purple velvet, sip – gorgeous oily liquor of silky creamy something, exhale – delicious something or other. It really feels like an old tree Oolong that’s mastered it’s craft.

There emanates a creamy aroma present from the liquor in the second & third steeps, and a gorgeous mellow chaqi cloud thats enveloped my head with an almost caramel feeling. I absolutely love the huiguan you get from certain Dancong. Grapes, astringency, more grapes, then i sit down and realise how nice the feeling is. “purple haze, all in my brain” comes into my head. It even selects good music to play. haha.

Later steeps lost their vibrancy which was a shame (edit* this is not the case, it can steep like a mofo, all day in fact), but I kept going because I just wanted to rinse the chaqi to see where it would go, and in doing so I oversteeped and made it bitter. Only five seconds too much, but it was enough. Grapes huiguan became grapes with pips huiguan. (well, not that bad but you get the idea) and after that the sweetness was lost and I finished.

So yeah, I really like this one. You need to brew it correctly. I generally have Allan K’s 5,5,7,10,15,30 in my head as a starting point, and try to adjust, but alas I wanted too much than it was willing to give, turning the 15 into 20, using water too close to boiling and ruining it a bit…. Booooo…. Or, maybe quack?

Still, that first few steeps were totally gorgeous, and for me, who usually gets images of recognisable things like plants, places, foods & drinks from tea aroma, its like absorbing a piece of abstract modern art. A big swooshy purple thing that swooshes into your brain. SO good.

Decided to take a break from my daily morning puerh ritual and brew me some Dancong. It must be well over a year since I had any oolong at all so I searched my cupbord and found this one hiding in the corner, still wrapped up in a foil bag. For me Jing Tea Shop is my “go to” place for oolongs, especially Dancong. Their Milan AAA is delightful (I still have half a bag left from their 2012 Spring press) and I remember this one also being excellent. The Song Zhong Dancong is definitely one of their pricier teas…I remember paying about $50 for a 50 gram bag.

Anyway, I decided to steep 6 grams in my 130ml yixing to see how things have come along. Here are my notes…

Strong, fruity aroma from the dry leaves…still smells good. I don’t bother rinsing the leaves but do my first proper steep at roughly 10 seconds. Before sipping I smell the wet leaves…VERY fruity, acidic citrus aromas, zesty lemon? Sipping the first steep I am reminded why I always bought Dancong from Jing…it is excellent. Nice and smooth, great balance of sweet honey and citrus fruitiness, slight nutty textures, mild “dry mouth” affect that brings out more complex flavours that end up dancing on your tongue and at the back of the throat, VERY long finish.

Several steeps go by and it is more of the same…massive bursts of fruits…beginning to feel some nice energy coming from this, not really calming but more aggressive in nature. I think it’s strongest characteristic is its long finish, as all the complex flavours keep your mouth and tongue “entertained” for ages. Monitoring steeping times I feel is rather important because if you steep for too long the fruity tones negates all the returning sweetness. Good durability in this one as well…you can steep multiple times which yield the same excellent results.

So, this is an excellent example of a Dancong done right. It is just as good as I remember it to be. However, there is a slight sting in the tale. I love puerh too much now that other teas become a little insignificant. It certainly made a nice change, but come this evening I will be going back to drinking the tea that completely changed my way of thinking on what tea really is all about. In my opinion nothing will beat the joy of drinking a great, high quality puerh. It’s the little things that matter…the ritual of carefully breaking apart a cake or tuo, the differing contrasts between sheng and shu, wet and dry storage, differences between young and aged, and also the transformation that happens when a puerh suprises you after aging it for a while. I am simply addicted to puerh!

Received as a sample from Jing Tea Shop with an order of some assorted (mostly white) teas.

Amber color. Very smoky, earthy, peaty. Maybe I didn’t steep it for long enough, but it doesn’t seem as heavy as most black teas. Complex and very interesting. Unfortunately, doesn’t re-steep very well.

INFORMATION
Origine: Fu Jian Province
Harvesting area: Inner Wu Yi
Harvesting: ~ 600 meters above sea level
Plantation altitude: Spring 2012
Tea varietal: Shui Xian
MORE
This Wu Yi Shui Xian was heavily fermented and baked with hard wood charcoal thus making it a oolong tea that can be stored for a few years.
TASTING
Eye: Light amber
Nose: Toasty, flowery, touch of acidity and sweetness
Mouth: Medium thick tea liquor, mild acidity, flowery, good freshness, long and sweet aftertaste

I copied most recent info on this tea sample i got.

This tea is great. Toasty, roasty, sweet, stone fruit notes, raw nuts(cashew?) and some cannabis. Long lingering sweet aftertaste.
Gongfu method
6g 100ml gaiwan 195F
rinse/pause/5/10/10/10/15/20sec etc