China Fujian 'Jin Jun Mei' Black Tea

As I get ready for work —

Beautiful aromatic mix of sweet chocolate and rose, tangy lemon-malt and sweet potato with fruity and sweet red grape overtone, herbaceous tobacco undertone. Light and buoyant, sparkling, juicy swallow. Fruity red grape aftertaste. Not a heavy tea but subtly fortifying and also spicy-drying-warming. Lots of tongue tingling and mouthwatering give way to a cooling sensation in mouth that has eventually made its way into my ears. The aroma of the tea sticks to the empty mason jar, reminding me of the sips I just experienced.

Thanks for letting me dip into this bag, Leafhopper! This is a really good tea. The wonderful thing about What-Cha is they have many teas I want to keep as staples and this one has made it to the list.

I forgot I’d been hunting roses in this tea. Maybe a re-order for my inner Elmer Fudd. It’s delicious, but I absolutely don’t have my arms all the way around it yet.

I don’t have much experience with Jin Jun Mei, and the few I’ve tried weren’t good enough to justify the price. Thanks, Daylon R Thomas, for sending me this version from What-Cha. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the bag, this smells like chocolate, bread, rose, and dill pickle chips. (Yes, I know, I’m a barbarian.) I think this is an association with a certain floral, herbaceous note over the grainy base, but it’s very pronounced. The first steep has notes of chocolate, malt, bread, butter, sweet potato, rose, other flowers, smoke, and, sigh, slightly vegetal, salty pickle. The pickle dissipates in the second steep, where I get tobacco, smoke, chocolate, bread, rose, and more sweet potato. The next few steeps are more bready and malty, with rose, lavender, sweet potato, and faint smoke. Earth and minerals come in on steep five. The session goes on forever, and though the body thins out, the honey, bread, floral, and smoky notes continue. The session ends with malt, earth, minerals, smoke, dill, some vegetal notes, and slight florality.

This is a beautiful bready, chocolaty, rosy tea that goes many rounds. I have to say that the dill was a fun distraction, and I wonder what it is “supposed” to be for people with better palates. This tea has improved my opinion of Jin Jun Mei. I might have to try a small amount of the really pricy stuff to see how it compares.

MMMMMmmmmm so glad I have a 100 grams of this. I was deeply satisfied in this deceptive cold, so comforting and chocolaty.