Jun Shan Yin Zhen Yellow Tea

Sipdown! This was a sample from one of the Toronto tea peeps, but I’m not certain who. Possibly Indigobloom?

Anyhow, despite age and being in a tiny bag, this was really yummy. Steeped up to quite a pale yellow, but plenty of flavour. Sadly, I drank this a few days ago and am blanking on exactly how to describe the flavour, but it was on the beany/sweet side as opposed to grassy or mariney.

I know there has been radio silence on my end for the past four days, but I’ve been extremely busy. For one thing, I got a promotion and was transferred into a new position. I’m still in the hated old position part-time until my transfer formally goes through in July, but for now, I can deal with that, even though my time is severely limited due to longer hours. Despite the change, I’m continuing to grow restless in my field. I’m not happy with my employer. There is just too much bad blood and distrust between us, so at this point, I don’t know how long I will remain despite my recent good fortune. I’m investigating some other opportunities. I’ll keep everyone posted. Back to the task at hand, this was the tea I worked my way through over the last four days. Honestly, it wasn’t bad, but I found it to be lacking in oomph.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick (on/swirl/off) rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of butter, chestnut, grass, honey, and straw. After the rinse, aromas of cream, hazelnut, sugarcane, and nectar joined the fray. The first infusion brought out bamboo and a touch of nougat. In the mouth, the tea liquor was sweet, smooth, and mellow, offering up dominant notes of roasted chestnut, cream, butter, honey, nectar, grass, bamboo, and straw. Subsequent infusions allowed sugarcane, hazelnut, and nougat to shine, while mineral, cooked lettuce, and subtle pistachio impressions emerged. The later infusions were heavy on mineral, butter, cream, and lettuce notes with underlying hints of grass, nuts, and bamboo.

This tea blew me away at first, but began to lose its aromas and flavors quickly. By the end of the session, I was bored and more than ready to move on to something else. Overall, this wasn’t bad, but it failed to sustain my interest.