Jin Jun Mei Lapsang Golden Eyebrow

Jin Jun Mei is one of my favorite black teas. This is a FANTASTIC example of it.
LOVE IT!!

Thank you TheTeaFairy for sending me some of this – I really need to buy more…oh to get my cupboard under control….

Welcome to Day 4 of little terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza!!
I got extremely busy with students yesterday, pretty much non stop all afternoon, & then out doing my musician thang in the evening. So I have a whole bunch of sipdowns from yesterday to log, but I’m going to start with this cup, this lovely Jin Jun Mei from Sil (and Dexter). I love Jin Jun Mei teas, and this one is very nice. The aroma when the hot water hit the leaf was honey, without a doubt. The flavor was honey spread over a perfectly toasted piece of dark honey wheat bread, sprinkled with some pollen (& by perfectly toasted, I don’t mean some wimpy pale toast, I’m talking about a nicely darkly toasted piece of toast, almost, but not quite, to the point of burning…oh, how I miss toast…sigh…).

Dear Dexter,
Sil is MY tea sister, quit trying to steal her from me by luring her with amazing teas!
Love, little terri
p.s. And thanks for sharing this tea with Sil, cuz she shared it with me ;)

Dear Sil,
Thanks for this yummy sample! I have a collection of Jin Jun Mei’s. I’m going to send you samples of ALL of them, cuz you’re MY tea sister!
Love,
little terri
:D
note from Ms Theresa, “little terri is in bratty mode today, because she stayed up until 4am. Please bear with us until we get her under control. Thanks”

Tea and Cards Travelling teabox.

I confess, i’ve had this tea before but it was so long ago, i wanted to see if my memory of this tea was correct AND if my tastes had changed so much that this was not a tea i wanted. Turns out that my tastes HAVE changed, and while this was a nice cup of tea, it was not the same incredibly amazing tea that i had back in the day. Dropped the rating a little for not being able to go the distance for a few months but it’s still a tea i’d be willing to rotate in to my cupboard if i placed an order with tealux again. It’s chocolatey and malty and in the grandscheme of things, a tasty tea.

Happy Juneteenth!  I’m glad it’s nationally recognized now. Bout time. I have had this one a while, tried it a couple times.  But it also isn’t the ideal Jin Jun Mei for me.  I want dark.  I want murky.  The scent of the dry leaves with only the faintest hints of gold, is very like a spicy BBQ sauce.  Maybe a bit smoky until you notice the spice.  But this isn’t really in the flavor.  The flavor is mostly sweet, with the tailend of the second steep tasting like root beer, which I suppose could be a cousin to BBQ sauce if you really think about it.  But again, it’s a lighter black tea (not quite the color of root beer)… and I really wish it was deep and dark.  I’m also just noticing this one has “lapsang” in the name and I would say it is smoky in scent and not flavor. That’s fine – didn’t really want this particular tea to be smoky but other tea drinkers may be disappointed. I will find that perfect Jin Jun Mei ONE day (I hear the What-cha daily Jin Jun Mei would be a good one to try!)  Also, I’m at least thankful that the flavor here is very different from the other Jin Jun Mei I ordered from Tealyra (that mainly tasted like tomato soup).  I hesitate to write a note because I can hardly notice distinct flavors, but I also really don’t want to wait until the tea is OLD.   
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

This is the second tea i am giving my attention to from the shipment of samples i got from tealux. I had to wait through 4 hours of work after discovering the package in my mailbox during my lunch break. It was not fun.

Opening the bag, my mind races back to my childhood. My parents live in the country, with 6 acres, completely surrounded by cornfields. We had lots of animals, and we fed them mixtures of alfalfa, straw, and clover. While not exact, the smell of this tea comes very close to that feed. This tea definitely has my attention.

This time, i chose to only use 1.5 tsp of this tea, because the leaf is so small and needle like, a tsp amount of this leaf is quite dense. So in it goes with about 195-200 degree water (im getting good enough at judging the water temp based on the sound/bubbles that form on the bottom of the pan im not bothering with the thermometer anymore, ecleast not for blacks) and i infuse for 30 seconds, increasing 25 seconds each infusion.

Ooh… ooh MY…the taste… i thought i was in love with innocent little Black Dragon Pearl… now i meet her older, more experienced, and FAR more playful sister. This takes everything i love about the pearl, and does it better. The first sip is the greeting that i know well, but slightly different from the Pearl; the light taste of the base black tea, a lighter taste of cocoa and molasses, and barely a hint of honeysuckle. No bitterness what so ever. Hmm. So i sip some more, and the more i sip, the more bold and playful she becomes, the sweetness and molasses flavors building and cuddling my taste buds. Well now! This is getting interesting. The flavors peak and hold at a lovely mix as you sip, giving a lovely honeysuckle nectar-ish finish that lingers for an extremely long time, teasing you back to take another sip. And another.

As you can guess, this tea is simply… divine. But as is with anything worth having, it demands some respect. Being considerably more expensive than the pearl, i am going to have to definitely keep myself in check when it comes to this tea. Which makes me die inside.

This tea deserves to be an every day tea, but unless you have a GREAT job, it is not viable.
But if you even remotely LIKE black teas, please, do yourself a favor, and buy an oz of this. You will thank yourself… and also hate yourself for not having more money.

So this is one of the last samples that Virginia sent me…storm it, I’m gonna spend all my money at David’s Tea and Tealux. It’s ridiculous! XD
I figured this tea would taste like honey since its name is Jin Jun Mei Golden Eyebrow. You know…codeword for honey…well, maybe that doesn’t make sense to you. But that’s how my stupid brain works I guess.
The first couple sips definitely did taste like honey mixed with malty-ness which I loved. But then the honey flavor went away and was replaced by a roast-y flavor…which I thought was even better. But then when all was well it started tasting more nutty than malt-y. 0_0 I have no idea what happened. That was one of the strangest teas I’ve ever had. I have no idea what’s goin’ on with my taste buds today xD
So overall it was a pretty good tea. Just not exactly what I expected. And now I just have the taste of peanuts in my mouth. So weird-but a good weird! I’ll probably get more! XD Thanks again, Virginia!

As this steeped, I couldn’t help but notice that the liquor looks exactly like maple syrup. Mmm. It smells like honey, and raisins, and bread, and milk chocolate. Double yum.
I grab my cup, take another whiff, and go for my first sip. I stare at my cup blankly. Blink a few times. Take another sips. Look for my socks, can’t find them. I guess they were COMPLETELY ROCKED OFF by the taste of the little treasure that’s in my cup.

In case you were wondering, this most definitely does not taste like eyebrows. Unless eyebrows taste like rich dark chocolate, wood, and baked goodness. It smells divine and tastes better than it smells.

This is Oh my effing God good.