Imperial Grade Jin Jun Mei from Tong Mu Guan Village * Spring 2015

I bought this tea in 2015 during my “I need to try everything immediately” phase. Eventually, around 2020, I hope to have worked through my stash of old purchases. This was a pretty reasonably priced Jin Jun Mei, so I’m not sure how representative it is.

I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep has notes of malt, honey, and Triscuits (weird, I know), with a punch of tannins and astringency in the finish. The next few steeps add notes of wood, grain, cardboard, and minerals, with an intriguing tomato vine aroma that doesn’t make it into the taste. I find this tea to be very drying in the mouth in spite of its honey-like sweetness. By steep eight, the liquor is mostly malt, tannins, and minerals.

While I enjoyed the honey and mineral notes, this tea is quite astringent if you use too much of it. It’s also rather long in the tooth. That having been said, I’ll have no trouble finishing this JJM and will consider buying another one in the future.

Because of my disappointment with the 2015 ZSXZ I thought I should try this one and see. This is MUCH better, maybe not perfect but more what I would expect out of a Jin Jun Mei. It’s still a little flat, and has more high notes than I really want, but there is some depth and some dark chocolate notes.
It’s been suggested that these might be “too fresh” and will be better with a little age on them. I’m happy drinking this now but I think I’m going to put all the YS 2015 blacks away for a bit and see what happens….

This is perhaps the freshest JJM I have ever had. It smelled heavenly when I opened the bag and I might have stood in the kitchen with my nose stuck in there for a full minute. Sure, it is deliciously malty/caramely/rich/sweet potato but I started wondering what exactly makes a JJM such a consistently great tea?

Full review and photos (with dragons) at: https://tealover.net/2015/06/yunnan-sourcing-imperial-grade-jin-jun-mei-from-tong-mu-guan-village-spring-2015/

This was a tasty tea and one of the rare mornings that I had time to brew gongfu style. I gave this teat four steeps in a 220ml gaiwan. I think it would have gone six or more. There was a fair amount of bitterness in the first two steeps. It largely went away by the third steep. It was gone by the fourth. There were a fair number of complex notes to this tea that I am not sure how to describe. A bit muscatel like a Darjeeling if I am making the right comparison. I may be off the mark here. There was a certain sweetness to this tea also, not a sugar sweetness mind you but a more subtle one. In any case it was tasty and good. I highly recommend this tea.

I brewed this tea four times in a 220ml gaiwan with 9g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 5 second rinse and steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec.