Semi-oxidized Jing Mai sun-dried black tea

This tea is interesting for an aspect mentioned in it's description, as "Hong Cha: semi-fermented tea." People get riled up about translation as fermentation instead of oxidation but the point is clear, and use of both terms was standard at one time. It's not fully oxidized, or at least that's implied; that could mean different things.

At the end (checked after writing these notes) again this tea isn't currently available.  It's interesting in style though, so I'll go ahead and post the notes as a finished review. 

I've been reviewing a good bit more Moychay teas lately because of one running theme:  clearing through trying what I didn't get to, so that older tea sample sets don't carry over to next year.  I still have more teas from Moychay, and lots from around South East Asia, from Anna and Somnuc, and from Tea Side (a Thai vendor), and another Liquid Proust set (finally the actual "sheng olympiad" version), but I'd rather review what is interesting from prior to all that before moving on.

The dry leaves are really dark but lighter streaks and an unusual coloring imply to me that the brewed leaves won't be that common pale brown color, and that brewed character will vary too. We'll see.

It does brew a bit lighter in liquid color, not the reddish of a standard black tea. And the aspect range is unusual, lighter, with a different form of mineral aspect, and not malty at all.  I have tasted this profile before, more commonly in unconventional oolong versions. It's not bad, but hard to place. I'll break down flavor more in the second infusion.


This tea type seems so unconventional that there wouldn't be an established demand for it (less oxidized black tea). Tea Side in Thailand and Farmerleaf in Yunnan sell enough black teas they might reference oxidation level but the low end for black teas is usually higher than this. Oriental Beauty oolong is often more oxidized. All the same it's interesting; different.


It's well-made good quality tea, definitely not something unintentionally prepared this way. It works.


The character is closest to black tea, per my judgement, but the lighter mineral character, floral range, and light vegetal aspect isn't. So maybe it's really in the middle. That vegetal range is a bit non-distinct; it could be interpreted as woody, or it might not be wrong if someone saw that as tying to some sort of similar range, eg. some type of grain.  To me green wood is closest.  The floral tone is nice, very rich and pronounced (orchid, or something such, towards lavender, or maybe just that). That gives it a perfume-like character that extends into feel and overall effect. Some lighter wuyi yancha are like that too; that part is in oolong range. It's hard to place what makes this seem just as much like a black tea to me, given only a flavor aspect list.

It might be mostly expectation making it seem more black; the label description. Oolongs aren't just backed-off oxidation black teas, the processing is different.  The only other "lightly oxidized black tea" that comes to mind relates to the trouble people have in placing some versions of Darjeeling, in particular the first flush versions, which typically aren't fully oxidized.  One odd way to get around that is not to commit; just call a version "first flush Darjeeling" and lead into aspects description instead of categorization from there.

More of the same on the third round. A lighter tone, different mineral range (lighter), and brighter floral tones are kind of in between oolong and black tea, and I could relate to an argument that it just is oolong (although it seems to not be, to me). It's a cool effect, which only works at all because it's good tea (all relative, "good," but the quality is evident).


The next round is similar again. The balance probably is shifting, with warmth picking up just a little.  The flavor gains complexity; floral tone covers a lot of ground and some fruit may be layering in with that.  That part is towards juicyfruit gum.

There's probably a slight savory component lending to that complexity effect, a trace of sun-dried tomato. Even though umami (related to that) is familiar with sencha and gyokuro (Japanese teas) in this aspects set and presentation to me it matches a black tea theme.

Next round the tea is still transitioning, but in a subtle way. Mineral is heavy, still in an atypical form. It probably tastes like some kind of rock, since that's how mineral goes, and to stretch imagination a little further maybe like volcanic rock, like a black sand beach or volcano crater might smell.  There might even be a faint touch of sulfur in it, struck-match, but it's positive in this since that fits in well with a pronounced range of other minerals.  Sweetness and floral tone also add to that balance.

All in all an interesting tea.  It's far from finished after 4 or 5 infusions, where these notes leave off, but that gets the general character across.

Moychay's description

Given this tea is unusual checking on the vendor description seems in order; what is it?  The first thing their website listing says is that it's out of stock.  That's been coming up lately.  They may sell some teas they've only been able to obtain in limited quantity, in which case they might just come and go.  That's probably not more of a limitation than vendors only selling what they can carry a large stock of, since then the range would scale way back to include only those in greater availability.

Here's their description:


Qing Wei Shaiqing Hong Cha (semi-fermented red tea)

"Fresh Fragrance" was made in the spring of the Yunnan large-leaf tea trees of Mount Jingmai (Puer County). It was under the sun.  [surely a reference to sun-drying in processing]

In appearance: large flagella of greyish-brown leaves and silvery biege buds. The aroma is a restrained, with spicy, woody and fruity notes. The liquor is transparent, meadow honey color.
The fragrance is a bit tart.


Odd this being semi-fermented didn't draw more discussion.  Being a sun-dried black from Jing Mai does add more real description, but it's nothing like a typical version of those.  It seemed more floral than fruity or spicy to me but woody definitely works, and a secondary aspect had shifted from the pronounced floral towards fruit later on.

This tea is unusual and appealing for being a bit unique.  It's not a great match for my aspect preferences in black teas, or in general, but related to offering a chance to try something different it's much more appealing.

In looking around for this product description Moychay does really do carry a lot of black teas; it's not the only black tea that's a bit unique listed.  The tea description wouldn't necessarily help someone place it but they do have a comments section that adds a bit.  The impressions are originally written in Russian, and automatic translation could be a little clearer, but still they work.  It's always funny hearing mixed impressions of teas; something unusual like this some people will love and some won't like at all.  There are examples of people who just didn't like it (to be fair and balanced), but I'll cite a comment of someone who did, mainly to make the point of how automatic translation goes:


Guy - super! Really surprised and pleased! Yes, it has both sheng and white tea to taste. And in general, the taste is not usually pleasant. It is a pity that it did not work out to take 100 grams, took 50 samples for testing. And it keeps the straits well. And if you overdo it a bit, then not much thermonuclear taste. The finish is long, refreshing. In dry form, the leaf has a caramel flavor, and when brewing it is even stronger and more intense. In general, tea is interesting, tasty and not ordinary!


I guess that floral tone really is more common to sheng than black teas; that part works.  But the overall character definitely doesn't remind me of sheng, or white; it was kind of its own thing.  I guess the "thermonuclear" part relates to this working brewed strong; it would still be fine, but in general would seem optimum back in the standard range.  This probably matched that person's aspect preferences slightly better than my own but we're in agreement over the novelty, and the generally positive impression overall.