It's interesting trying tea a bit blind again, it's been awhile. That one friend I keep mentioning in Kuala Lumpur sent this, along with some gifts for my kids. It's nice having an online pen pal to talk about things with but that level of sharing is really over the top. To get a sense of who I'm referring to he offered thoughts on the original meaning of hui gan in this post (he's Cantonese). He was contributing more about "gan," sort of related to the concept of sweetness tied to bitterness, but just unpacking that isn't as simple as it could be, never mind the "returning" part.
From the looks of it this is probably a black tea. It really couldn't be that many other kinds of teas; they just don't look like that for dry leaf appearance. Whatever it is seems to be very fine leaves and buds, probably a higher quality version of a black tea. The darkness indicates full oxidation level, normal enough for black tea. Leaves being this fine, as close to buds, reminds me of the general look of Jin Jun Mei, but that can also seem different. Here's an example photo of a version, from here:
More golden (which could just relate to oxidation level), but also seemingly buds instead of very fine leaves. When this brews and opens up that might offer more input about the leaf / material form.
As to the maker and type it's labeled as Te Ji Tin Min Hong from Donghu Tea. Googling that doesn't help clarify things, any of it--so strange. Not all that unusual though, really. Te or teh is probably the other form of "tea," with "cha" turning up a bit more often. I ran across this pretty nice listing of main Chinese tea types trying to look it up and it wasn't on there, any form of it.
Here are the labels, all I had to go on:
Never mind; it is how it is, with or without back-story. It could just be a different looking version of Jin Jun Mei, or a related black tea, but it doesn't matter.
Review
It's sweet, malty, full in body, with a good bit of bees wax flavor aspect. It comes across like a variation of Jin Jun Mei. Those can vary in character some but the better versions have this kind of sweet, mild malt undertone with a bees wax and honey sweetness standing out. It seems possible this is slightly more oxidized than the versions Cindy sends (Wuyi Origin's tea); I could comparison taste that and tell.
Hers don't have a light oxidized flavor range in terms of expressing vegetal character (eg. they're not woody, or express mild root spice), but it seems like finely balancing that level lets them maximize intensity, sweetness, and bright character range. All just guessing, of course. For having a bit heavier flavor this works well too; that extra warmth matches the rest.
Second infusion: this wasn't musty or off in any way but it still cleans up and gains some intensity. Bees wax is still present but it shifts into more of rich mineral and warm earthy tones. It's one of those complex sets of flavor experiences that's in such a tight range it comes across as simple, and in one sense it is. Feel is cool, hard to describe. This isn't exactly thick but it has an unusual structure to it. It's like a rich brewed aromatic bark spice with a bit of metal in it, both in terms of flavor and how that might end up feeling. Flavor isn't exactly intense, in a limited sense, but it spans an unusual range.
It will be interesting looking this up and seeing how it's supposed to be, how conventional versions are for the same type [except that didn't work]. It comes across as a high quality level tea, well made, based on good material as an input. As far as how different people would react to it, how much they would like it, that would depend on preference, as is the case for every tea. Not everyone would appreciate how much is going on with this version; in a sense it's subtle, in a different sense refined and complex.
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trying it out a bit lighter, brewed faster |
Third infusion: sweetness and flavor intensity have scaled back a little (likely also related to messing with infusion time), but it's still quite intense across a limited range. That unusual clean, complex flavor is still just as pronounced, and the feel is still cool. This will fade faster for me using a much lower proportion than I usually do. This being a measured individual pack helps identify specifics in this case; it's 5 grams of tea leaf. I had thought I'd been crowding more like 8 in a gaiwan in a typical session, quite a bit for a 90 ml or so gaiwan. I tend to brew teas using very short infusion time as a result, with this stretched out a bit, towards or at 20 seconds instead of around 10.
That last description, that this covers mild, warm, rich bark spice range, along with underlying dark mineral, does capture the main flavor effect, but not so much how that really comes across. The remaining bees wax in the background really works to balance that, to give it depth, and keep it interesting.
Fourth infusion: it's tapering off already, that effect from using less tea and longer infusion times. Bees wax is picking up a bit in the lighter profile, probably just relating to what shows through more at different infusion strengths than an actual transition in what's there. It's easy to test that warmer mineral tones and heavier earthy flavors stand out a lot more in stronger infusions; just vary timing across rounds for any tea including that.
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Lapsang Souchong (left) and Jin Jun Mei leaves for comparison, or buds in the one case |
Conclusions
What to add? It's pretty good black tea. It would be really strange if I got that part wrong and it's not even black tea. It's so close to Jin Jun Mei that even if it's completely unrelated this would probably end up being sold as that part of the time. The overlap in the malt range and bees wax flavor aspects really stood out; JJM can be like that. For being fine twisted leaves those never really opened up; it seemed more like bud content.
Whatever it is it's good. Many thanks to that friend; and here's hoping I get a chance to return that favor appropriately.
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