Jinggu "Golden Strand" Pure Bud Yunnan Black tea * Spring 2013

So, I used this beautiful tea in my tea photo project but I’ve never written a note on it? WTF? https://www.etsy.com/listing/192822968/beautiful-tea-poster-photography-collage

This tea came to me from boychik. THANKS! I love exploring these gorgeous yunnans. This one is not as sugary sweet as I expected based on its appearance. There are haylike flavors that remind me of a white tea, with malty and mushroomy notes asserting that this is indeed a black. It is also pretty mellow like a silver needle white. Thick and creamy too. Really interesting beast this one. And of course the dry leaf is just gorgeous.

Another from the Big Box o’ Yunnan Sourcing courtesy of boychik! :)

Long, golden leaves steep up to a leathery, fruity, savory yet somewhat sweetish brew that smells like smoke but doesn’t really taste much of it.

30 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min all pretty much the same. Lighter flavors, sweeter, lighter color. 2 min, 3 min yields darker liquid with some bitterness and dryness. I think the sweet spot for me would be between 1 and 2 minutes. Enough time to get some depth but not so much that it turns more bitter than I like. Always possible I used too much leaf, as well.

Overall, while this was fine, I prefer Mandala’s Golden Strand.

These pretty, downy, medium large, slightly copper tinged golden buds, smell of smoke insense, cocoa, fruit, and powdered sugar.

They are pretty resilient beings as even with my modified version of gongfu ( I use less leaf (about 2 TSP of these fluffy light leaves)) they are still flavourful after 9 steeps (60,50,60,90,120,180,240,300, 360s).

The liquor of this tea was mostly a green tinged gold with a grey green ring, that became redder and browner in later steeps.

The broth smelled originally spicy with wood smoke insence, very faint leather,and cocoa and plum. Later it moves towards sweet creamy and fruity before returning to savoury tones.

Flavour notes that I have found so far are: roasted smoke insence, leathery spice, a hint off aged cedar, hints of alfalfa, clover nectar, honey, cream, plum and occasionally plum/strawberry, hint of bitter cocoa, upper tones of malt, a warm sweet floral note, and a savoury vegetal note. Middle steeps were mostly, cream, fruit, and nectar, with leathery notes present in early and later steeps. Cocoa is very faint but it does counterbalance the sweet tones and provides some depth.

The broth is thick and creamy and the aftertaste was sweet and lingering.

This is a nice, giving and soft tea. Its resilience makes it ideal for gongfu brewing.

Thanks boychik for sharing!