Yunnan Jig

Sipdown 70 – 2024

Much like most of the other unblended Adagio teas I’ve tried, this is just boring. Maybe slightly floral, but overall a touch muddled and blah tasting.

Loose black tea. Dry leaves contains visible gold hair, smell of chili chocolate. The taste….it’s like a muted puer tea. A bit of cocoa, light astringency, a bit of wood rose afterwards, it doesn’t have a lot of other flavors and it’s lacking in sweetness. Leaves are pretty broken. I’ve had tea bags that tasted better than this.

It’s not expensive so I’m not extremely upset, I bought the Black teas of China sample pack but this can be bought separately.

sold for $9/2oz

https://www.adagio.com/black/yunnan_jig.html

Quite nice, toast and lots of dry hay. Great bang for buck.

Strong and smooth. Not a single bitter note.

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #3 (08/05/20)

Some days are multi-cup, black-as-black tea days… my sleep has been “where the hell is it?” lately, and today is one of those days for me. Pulled out this bag which came from Meowster’s cupboard de-stash a few summers ago… thank you, Meowster!

I was a big fan of Keemun Concerto (I do like me Chinese blacks) and have to say, I’m really enjoying this one as well. It tastes a bit like barbecue, but in the best way… there is a hint of smokiness, but not too much, and a sort of tangerine citrus note that reminds me of an Asian sauce, a bit of aged leather that brings out the librarian in me, with the backing of a deep, malty/bread black tea flavor. And it’s really, really smooth. Nice first thing in the morning, but also as my mid-day kick-in-the-pants cuppa, too.

Let’s start catching up on this backlog of mine. Also, let’s go ahead and state that I have a sentimental attachment to this tea. It was the first Yunnan black tea I ever tried. It was also maybe the second or third loose leaf tea I ever had. I have been familiar with this one since I was sixteen years old. This tea was a friend to me through both high school and college. With all that out of the way, understand that this tea played a formative role in my appreciation of tea, thus it is unlikely that I will be able to review this one entirely objectively.

I brewed this one two ways. The first preparation was a one step Western infusion. For this session, I simply steeped 1 teaspoon of loose leaves in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. The second preparation was gongfu. I steeped 6 grams of tea leaves in 4 ounces of 212 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 8 second, 10 second, 12 second, 15 second, 20 second, 25 second, 30 second, 40 second, 50 second, and 1 minute infusions. I will comment on both.

The 5 minute steep produced a tannic and slightly spicy tea. I detected aromas of chocolate, vanilla bean, leather, wood, malt, spice, caramel, and molasses. In the mouth, there were notes of chocolate, malt, caramel, molasses, leather, tobacco, wood, orange peel, vanilla bean, and spice. The gongfu preparation was slightly different. Prior to infusion, the leaves revealed aromas of spice, chocolate, leather, malt, and molasses. In the mouth, the first three infusions produced increasingly rich notes of molasses, chocolate, malt, caramel, orange, fig, spice, wood, leather, tobacco, vanilla bean, toast, and menthol. From the fourth infusion on, the tea began to soften, offering increasingly malty and toasty aromas and flavors underscored mostly by chocolate, vanilla bean, orange, tobacco, caramel, and molasses. A slight minerality started to become evident around this time as well. The final infusions offered mostly mineral, toast, and malt notes, though I could still detect fleeting impressions of chocolate, caramel, and molasses.

This tea was not quite as good as I remembered it being. It lacked the smoothness and depth of some of the Yunnan blacks I have tried over the course of the past year. Still, I would not call it bad by any stretch of the imagination. I could see this tea being a good starting point for those new to Yunnan black teas.

(Opens the bag and takes a big inhale.)
Ahhhh yes there it is, that fig molasses scent I love so much in Yunnan teas. Gets kind of a minerally hot springs smell when steeped. Taste is all basically the same, kind of mild but good. Maybe I need to increase the temp. next time? Seems to have a similar price to their Yunnan Noir, which are both decently bang for buck Yunnan teas.

SIPDOWN: Rich complex nose is slightly spicy. The taste also has a strong spice component. It is very complex. Fairly powerful. Some cha qi. This is a fairly unusual tea, with a flavor hinting of clove, cocoa, and cinamon, but not really like any of them. I really enjoyed it.

This is a comforting, albeit precocious tea. It can bring you to the sensations of an old forest with one cup. When brewed with a good amount of leaf for a strong flavor, I’m utmost cautious not to oversteep to prevent the bitterness or malty taste from becoming overwhelming. Sweet, woody, and earthy, people often tell me it has a coffee taste and I agree with them completely. Sometimes it tastes obviously of milk, or takes on a hint of sugar. The variety of flavor is so delightful and changes on a whim.

This strong tea brews up a bit too heavy for my tastes – I’m not sure if I overleafed or what, but it was far too thick and powerful for my palate. If I decide to have another go at brewing it I’ll definitely try cutting the leaves down by half.

So it’s an interesting tea, but not for me…