jing tea shop

MY NEW YIXING!!

http://silversun.teatra.de/2011/03/22/my-new-yixing/

Flavor notes: Classic BMD. Clover and a little cedarwood when hot; sweeter and milder iced.
Mouthfeel: A substantial lingering astringency which I find pleasant; a thin body; negligible lees
Appearance: Spindly but unbroken beautiful furry leaves; a clear liquor that ranges from pale yellow to a deeper mahogany color depending on the steep time and strength.

A staple tea. The best value BMD I’ve had; inexpensive but delicious. It’s great to make iced after dinner, or take to work/school in the morning. I brew it with a gaiwan sometimes just for kicks but it’s perhaps best brewed western-style by the parameters below or something similar. It can take a pretty long brew without getting bitter, like most white teas, so feel free to play around. (But remember to use a high volume of leaf because these leaves are both broad and spindly!)

This is such a delicious tea! I just raised the rating from 99 to 100, because why not?

I am now the proud owner of this little tea tray shown in the picture. I wanted something nice for gong fu brewing and it was nice that the shop owner gave me a discount for this. It’s just the right size for one person.

http://instagram.com/p/zQsQTSILe3

I haven’t had this tea in a long time and I forgot how flavorful it is. It has really great notes of cherry and plum and just the right amount of roastiness. It’s one of the best wuyi oolongs I’ve had. Everything from Jing tea shop is so good, I just wish I could afford more of their stuff but for now I am really enjoying the ones that I do have. If you’re a fan of wuyis, this is one you should probably check out… although I don’t see it on their website anymore.

I have had this tea for a while but just got around to tasting it tonight. I admit one thing that attracted me to it was the 15 year shelf life.

So anyway I love wuyi teas and this was not cheap – also rated AAA but I figure I can afford to indulge every once in a while.

1st steep: This went into the Yixing teapot at around 180F for 30 seconds. Yum! I really like this darkly roasted tea. It has flavors of coffee and roasted cherry with a hint of sugar cane. Yum, yum yum! I guess the heavy baking here makes the difference, but to me it does not taste charbroiled or burnt, which is a bonus.

2nd steep: Still hearty, rich and delicious. I am getting some plum notes coming up. This tea is reminiscent of a fine wine and has a very sweet/roasted finish kind of like buckwheat.

Tea of the morning here. I did not gong fu this beautiful tea because I was in a hurry, it is quite delicious steeped in a mug for 4 minutes Western style. I was impressed by the red tea sampler from Jing and would not hesitate to buy more from this company, their oolongs are also really good.

This is the last of the red tea samples I got from Jing Tea Shop – I have not had the chance to try this particular one yet.

I decided to go for two short steeps in the gaiwan – for around 30 seconds. Its a very smooth tea which is characteristic of Chinese reds, very malty and chocolatey with a slight floral note. I like it.

Second two round of steepings were for 60 seconds. Now the tea is a bit gentler and has some light caramel notes which are great. This is an easy tea to drink straight. I will have to try steeping it the traditional Western way as well.

Definitely a good tea but I don’t think there’s anything about it which makes me want to buy any more…

This was a free sample kindly provided by jing tea shop in my latest order.

hmmm, I am pretty biased, Chinese green teas do not generally thrill me unless they’re bold like gunpowder or chun mee, I’m more of a Japanese green tea person so keep that in mind as you’re reading this review.

I steeped this tea for around 2.5 minutes at 180F. I must say the leaves smell wonderfully fresh. I got a very light tea liquor. The flavor is slightly vegetal with a bit of nuttiness, similar to a dragonwell. It has a really nice mouth-feel with a tiny bit of astringency at the end. Other people noticed smokiness – where? I am not finding it!

I wish I could think of something more exciting to say about this. I definitely did not hate it, but it also doesn’t make much of an impression on me. I think I will take the rest of my sample home (about 3.5 grams) and see what happens when I gong fu it.

Tea of the morning here, finishing off the last of the red tea sampler from Jing, which was excellent. This is a very refined keemun, winey but gentle. See previous notes for more details.

Tea of the morning here… this is nice if you steep it in the gaiwan for about a minute. I think keemun is perhaps an acquired taste and I have not really embraced it.

Tea: 4/4 of the red tea sampler set
I’m really not such a huge fan of keemun, but this isn’t bad at all.

I broke my glass teapot last night, what a bummer. As much as I love glass teaware I have to admit it isn’t very practical. I guess I have an excuse to get one of those “For Life” teapots I’ve been eyeing.

After two minutes, this steeps up to be a nice reddish-brown. It isn’t smoky at all. I’m getting some nice chocolate notes with a gentle sort of pungency that reminds me slightly of red wine. This is quite a bit softer and milder than other keemuns I have tried, and tastes very clean to me.

I’m pretty impressed with jing tea shop so far, everything I’ve tried has been delightful. I would probably rate this higher if I were a true keemun lover.

Sipdown! Finishing off the very last of this delicious tea today. maybe it’s time to buy some more soon?

It’s been quite a while since I had this tea and I thought I’d steep some up this morning. It just occurred to me that it might be nice to have another little yixing for gong fu preparation of red tea (I have a bigger pot for this purpose). Maybe someday!

So I just steeped this one for one minute and it’s a nice contrast to all the yunnans I’ve been drinking lately. Definitely has a fruity taste with notes of orange and cherry. Reminiscent of a cognac or bourbon but without the booze, of course. Nice and smooth, no need for additions of any kind. Delicious. The red tea sampler for jing tea shop was very nice, I would definitely like to buy more teas from them someday.

So I’m glad the Giants won the World Series, but am equally glad that baseball season is over after the fans trashed our city last night, boo. I have a job interview on Friday now at the same time as a million people are streaming into town for the parade. I am tempted to try and re-schedule the interview but would that make me look bad? It’s just another thing to have to worry about. :-/

3/4 of the red tea sampler from jing tea shop. I wanted something this morning I could drink without additions.

The leaves are very dark, thin and wiry. I put a pinch in my glass teapot and then steeped for 3 minutes. The tea liquor is a medium orangish-brown. The aroma of the tea is cocoa, while the flavor itself has a rich nuttiness which reminds me of walnuts, and a touch of honey. Others have commented on the citrus, and I am also picking up an orange peel type of flavor here and also a touch of spice. It reminds me ever so slightly of a fine cognac.

The tea is rich and smooth with almost no astringency and certainly no bitterness. A slight sweetness in the aftertaste. Since I’ve had a few dan cong oolongs recently I’m trying to see what the resemblance might be, but am not picking up on a lot of parallels right now.

A lovely and delightful treat, for the morning time or anytime. It almost seems like you could make a decadent dessert out of this one. Perhaps it would be good as a pudding or as an ice cream.

This tea is simply incredible! I ordered 50 grams of this, and meanwhile some of you may recall I had a bad experience with a bitter dancong tea & I was ready to write off them off totally!

Anyway, I am persistent (some might say stubborn, lol). I tried this last night and was very pleased but thought I would write a proper tasting note for it this morning.

I put a pinch of leaves in the gaiwan and then used water that was around 180F. After a quick rinse I steeped the tea for 20-30 seconds. What I got was a tea that is light yellow and has a nutty aroma with a sweet honey and lychee flavor. I am happy! This tea is not bitter at all and has a lingering sweet aftertaste.

The second steep is also lovely! The aroma of the wet leaves is slightly toasty with honeysuckle filling the air. The tea is mild with a very smooth, sweet taste. I wonder if this is more heavily roasted than the other ones I had and perhaps that mellows it out a bit? Whatever it is, I am not complaining!

Third infusion I let go for about 45 seconds. I am getting a thicker, oiler type of tea liquor still with a lot of sweetness. There’s a tiny bit of bitterness lurking in the background but I am not too bothered by it. Still, I can see that keeping the steep times short will be the key for enjoying this one. And it is very good! I’m happy to have found one I really liked! It is also AAA grade and fairly pricey so I certainly won’t be drinking it every day.

I think Jing Tea Shop has a new customer for life. :)

I gave some of this to my sweetie and he made it this morning. Even he was impressed and says it tasted like chocolate. We are getting very spoiled by all this yumminess!

This is another tea I got in the red tea sample pack from Jing Teas. I also wanted to mention that their customer service people were very nice; all of my e-mails with questions abut shipping and status were answered in less than 12 hours.

I am delighted when smelling the dry leaf that it has a definite aroma of chocolate covered cherries!

I steeped this in the infuser mug for around 2 minutes and got a medium reddish-brown liquor. This tea is mild with somewhat of a nutty and date flavor, a little bit of malt. It has a lovely lingering aftertaste of caramel on the palette, and no bitterness, but there is something slightly spicy in the finish. I think I liked yesterday’s selection a bit more (Ying De Hong Cha) but this is still very good! Someday I will need to try gong fu’ing these samples.

I am spoiling myself with these lovely black teas I’ve been drinking lately, but don’t I deserve the very finest flown in from Hong Kong? Mwa ha ha!

Tea of the morning I’ve unearthed from my stash pile…

I am happy that I slept through the night and I don’t remember getting up once! 9 weeks post injury, this is a major achievement for me. I credit the massage I got yesterday and sleeping with a teddy bear under my arm, lol. Let’s hope this is a trend that continues.

This is a delicious chinese red tea I described in my original tasting note, It’s still so good. I love the mellowness of this tea. Even steeping for 3 minutes Western style like I did this morning, I am detecting no bitterness at all, just very mellow and rich chocolate and caramel notes. Perhaps it’s time to think about placing another order with Jing, maybe when the 2014 teas are out.