Wuyi Origin Jin Mu Dan (wuyi yancha)

 

Wuyi Origin Jin Mu Dan right; the comparison DHP on left looks ok too

This is the last of a few teas that Cindy, of Wuyi Origin, passed on for me to drink last year.  It seems those were more intended to share tea as a friend than for review, but of course it works for both, since discussing interesting tea versions is my hobby interest.  That reminds me, Cindy described some changes in tea awareness, demand, and vending patterns in China in an online meetup last year (not so directly related to this tea or a review theme).

We visited the local Buddhist temple we go to most regularly recently (2 weeks ago now, and also since) to check in with an astrologer monk (a long story), and he gave me some tea that someone gave him a lot of, a Da Hong Pao.  I've tried it; it's good, better than I remember trying from him a few years ago.  One might wonder if it's not a problem for monks to receive that sort of a gift, well above average tea, that has considerable value (not like 50 cents a gram; it's not that good), in some quantity.  It's not a problem.  Monks live by a broad set of rules (227 or so?), and owning much of any value isn't allowed, but as far as grey areas go they're fine, and possessing tea is ok.  He would just share some with other monks or visitors if it was more than he would drink, as I experienced.

I never look up tea details before reviewing them but I thought maybe I'd make an exception, just to change things up.  It balances things a bit, since I've actually drank that second tea I'll use as comparison (the Da Hong Pao).  The Wuyi Origin listing:

Jin Mu dan 金牡丹 2021

location : Shui lian dong (水帘洞） zheng yan garden 

Picking date: 2021.April 28th

Roast level :   Medium (roasted on June 23, July 7, and August 10)

Feature : Golden Peony is a new type of tea developed by the Fujian Tea Research Institute in the 1970s, with Tieguanyin(铁观音） as the female parent and Huangdan （黄旦）as the male parent. Growing in the protected area of Wuyi Mountain,the soil is rocky and rich in minerals. The soil is loose, conducive to water transportation.

The dry tea sticks are tightly tied, the color is dark and the aroma is restrained. The tea soup is orange-red and bright, the soup is clear and transparent, and the tea aroma is perfectly integrated into the tea soup. The entrance is smooth and thick, the rhyme of rock surrounds the throat, the sweetness is long-lasting, and the lips and teeth retain fragrance. Smell the fragrance of the bottom of the cup, such as honey, the hanging cup is long-lasting and full of tea. Very obvious taste of ripe peaches.

Interesting, that background.  The plant hybrid type is interesting, and I can see how it goes with picking up peach flavor.  This really should be better tea than the other, but that's part of the point, to pin down how it varies.  Style will be relatively completely different too, given that is within the normal earthier, slightly heavy, mineral intensive range of a blended DHP (maybe Shui Xian with a little Rou Gui, or it could be anything).

Review:

Da Hong Pao (left in photo):  much darker than the other tea.  Flavor is pleasant, as I'd experienced before, not so far off normal Shui Xian character, that one mineral and wood flavor range, with one inky sort of effect tying more to mineral.  The wood range isn't a conventional hardwood sort of effect, or aromatic wood, like cedar, but more like the smell of a wet-environment tree bark, or even tree bark in curing cut wood.  It tastes fine until you try the other tea, then not as good in comparison.

Jin Mu Dan:  wow that's good.  Cinnamon, floral tones, and fruit really jumps out, with the overall character just on another level of the other tea.  It's easy to try pretty good wuyi yancha, as this example is, or one I've recently bought for gifts from a local Chinatown shop, and say this is good enough, I can really appreciate this.  Then when you try a good example from a much higher quality level it's something else altogether, and what really didn't seem like limitations in the other range of versions stands out.

The flavor profile is completely different, and the feel, and aftertaste experience.  The roast level in the first example is fine, kind of medium, something that complements that tea, but this comes across as absolutely dialed in.  It's a lower level of roast, just perfect for highlighting the strengths of this tea.  There's no flaw to compensate for; it's not masking that kind of thing.  I really love their Rou Gui, for balancing fruit, warm tones, and mineral input, and this is a completely different expression, only sharing a vague general tea category range.  Floral tones are strongest, at this infusion, but there is plenty there that could emerge through later transitions.

Da Hong Pao, second infusion:  slightly better; the mineral that was a bit dry, or just not so pleasant, mellowed, and sweetness increased.  Depth picked up, and that towards-ink aromatic range contributes more.  It's picking up more of a perfume-like quality.

Jin Mu Dan:  it's not fair, trying an ordinary quality DHP along with this tea.  Depth picked up in this tea too, warmer tones, but the heavy floral aromatic range is still really impressive, very pleasant.  Peach starts to pick up, from range that was just non-distinct fruit in the first round.  A warm tone I interpret as cinnamon, but that's not a given, it could be interpreted in different ways, or just described as a general underlying warmth.  Someone could see that as connecting to the floral range, with heavier floral tones like lavender or rose petals included.  I don't see it as related to mineral range, which is evident, but that would also make sense.

The main thing that stands out is how intense all of these positive aspects are, how complex the tea is, and how it all balances together.  It's less unusual for a few very positive aspects to be expressed by a tea, but when it comes together as an integrated set and experience that's something else.  You could try 1000 wuyi yancha versions from other kinds of sources and never encounter a version as novel, high in quality, and well-balanced as this one.  The best of what I tried from my favorite local Chinatown shop wasn't so far off this, but the limited difference, the extra refinement, really sets this apart.

It makes you think about how cost ties to those issues, doesn't it?  This sells for $22 for 50 grams, so on towards 50 cents a gram, but not there.  If I remember right the best I bought from that Chinatown shop had sold for about $30 for 100 grams, so less, but the move up in quality level might seem like money well spent.  Then when I buy teas I have to also factor in that my own budget is limited.  I could buy a good value sheng cake for not much over the $44 100 grams of this would cost, or quite decent Dian Hong (my favorite black tea category) often costs $10 per 50 grams for pretty good versions.  It would be nice to not worry about whether I spend $300 a year on tea or a couple thousand.

Da Hong Pao, third infusion:  really not so different than the last round.  Since this is about comparison to the other I'll not add more.

Jin Mu Dan:  cocoa flavor seems to pick up a little, as it warms and fills in yet more complexity.

Keoni joined and asked what smelled like chocolate in here, and smelled the empty cup from last round, and said that's it.  He tried both teas and really loved this version, and didn't care for the other.  He even passed on an assessment that this is one of the better teas he's ever tried, and I agree that the quality level does stand out.  Kalani tried both and like the other better, the DHP; personal preference can be like that.  It is a lot closer to this other in general level of appeal in these rounds, for evolving to drop out most of a heavy tree-bark range flavor, with pleasant aromatic inky mineral picking up.  I'm adding this during editing, but after another couple of infusions they kind of evened out more, since the bright and intense flavors in the Jin Mu Dan kept fading, and the Da Hong Pao retained its depth and kept seeming more pleasant.

Later infusions:  peach may well stand out more in the next couple of infusions for the Jin Mu Dan, and some of the most striking floral aromatic range fades a little.  It's still great for picking up a little more warm depth.  The Da Hong Pao works as well as it has across any rounds, for that inky mineral range and some vague floral tones hanging in there.  Aftertaste is pleasant for both, it's just a matter of which flavor range carrying over one prefers.  Both could be a little richer in feel but they're definitely not thin, so it doesn't come across as a flaw.

Both kept going for lots of additional infusions, more than four extra shown in pictures and mentioned here.  Both stayed pleasant too, fading in ways that didn't shift feel or flavor balance into a negative range, maintaining enough intensity and complexity to still seem nice.  For the Wuyi Origin tea starting out so clearly high in quality that seemed normal, and versions backed off a little in terms of oxidation and roast level might last a little longer.  For the DHP it was more of a surprise; it seemed to be better quality tea than I had expected, or noticed in the first rounds of the two sessions I tried it.

Comparison tasting Wuyi Yancha teas, Dahongpao and Rougui

A chance vendor contact (Cindy,  FB contact here) recently sent me some samples of different teas, yancha or "rock oolongs" from Wuyi, China, and since I've already been trying similar teas lately it seemed a good chance to try different types of tasting approaches.

I reviewed the Rou Gui (or rougui) in the standard format in the last post so this is about me reviewing one other Da Hong Pao (or dahongpao), and about trying combined tastings to sort out more details about the teas.  Part of that worked.

2011 Dahongpao

2012 Rougui (reviewed in an earlier post)

Dahongpao tea from Cindy (same provider as last Rou Gui): 

The Dahongpao from Cindy was a smooth and balanced tea with great flavors, feel, and complexity.  It had the typical distinct earthy,  mineral, complex dahongpao flavors.   Good sweetness, good earthy tone,  towards leather.  The tea had a nice feel to it, very rich.  Evenly balanced flavors combine but a cinnamon spice note stands out.  There is so much sweetness it almost seems like the earthy flavors correspond to a fruit element, something like dried apple, or maybe towards apricot.

As I tried these different teas it became clearer and clearer to me that a list of flavors or even feel or "body"--sense related attributes--don't really describe the teas well.  In some ways other reviewers that don't start towards trying to fully describe what individual teas are like, and instead just communicate a couple details and a general impression, might do the tea more justice for saying less.

The complexity in these types of tea is a different thing than the experience of a black or green tea, where that might work better, as a list of flavors and a little about feel.  Someone else might venture some analogy with pu'er, but what do I know of that; it's likely a bit more complicated yet.  Back to reviewing anyway.

On the second infusion flavors shift towards the earth elements, leather and wood, with  the spice and sweetness diminishing.  Still plenty of sweetness but less, a more normal level.

Third infusion:  still good tea, just less complex and sweet, earthier yet.  In some cases dahongpao can shift to some more unusual musty flavors an infusion or two in but this tea didn’t.

Other Dahongpao from the Buddhist temple (see separate post):

Not bad in comparison,  but quite different.   A rich toffee and coffee flavor element stands out, which I'd essentially missed in the first tasting.  It was much easier to pick up in comparison.  The tea seems sweeter and less musty than I remember,  possibly due to variance in brewing.

this dahongpao

The coffee / roasted flavor element is a bit towards charcoal, which could relate to an effect of aging the grower and vendor mentioned, that a smoky or charcoal effect will diminish over time.  The next question is if this relates to any use of smoke, which seems unlikely,  or to the effect of the oxidation process,  the roasting process, which seems more likely.  It was a nice element that complimented the tea but I'd need to remember the taste and try again in two years to really see the difference.


This tea could be slightly more oxidized than the other dahongpao, but difficult for me to determine given both are relatively oxidized in the oolong range, towards a black tea but not that much.  The question is related to the typical dahongpao range, a finer distinction than I usually try to make or really could make.  With the right kind of training and experience it should be easy enough to factor out other flavor influences and estimate a percentage accurately enough; I'm just not there yet.

Combined tea type tasting notes:

I tried tasting the two teas from Cindy at the same time, the dahongpao and the rougui.  It sort of didn’t work.  When tasting the two dahongpao together it made it easier to appreciate the differences between the teas, separating individual taste components, and to some extent even what was common to both, the shared context, the nature of the dahongpao tea type.

In tasting two different types together instead of specific flavor elements becoming clearer it was just too much.  I could appreciate both were nice teas in different ways, and shared some common elements, but in general both were quite different.  Instead of it becoming easier, for example being able to compare the earth or fruit elements, my palate just got overwhelmed and confused.

tea apprentice palate-training with an oreo

I never really did get any closer to pinning down that one taste component in the rougui tea.  It tasted like perfume smells, quite sweet and aromatic, except it seems like perfume would probably taste terrible.  It wasn’t exactly floral, or spice, or something I could specify, although then again it seems possible it was really floral or spice (or a mix of both).  It doesn't help that I'm not that great with knowing the smell of lots of different flowers.


There was some sweetness, earthiness, good feel to the rougui tea, flavors that inclined toward fruit or floral components, but it came across as one continuous flavor range, and really nothing new from comparison tasting.



In the past I’ve had the experience of learning how to taste a specific unfamiliar component by trying the tea a few times, and then it would just hit me what it was, even though it was always right there in front of me.  Part of that relates to a number of different flavor and other elements coming together in the tasting.  Also sorting them out takes practice, so even something that should be obvious like malt or cocoa can seem to blend in at first.  This might be a different case though; not sure.

Conclusion

Nice teas; I liked all of them.  It's probably as well to not get too swept up in descriptions, interpreting feel, concerns about aging and grading, and so on, and just enjoy the tea.  Which I did, along with a good bit of that other stuff.

Rougui, a different Wuyi yancha (Chinese "rock oolong")

A chance vendor contact recently sent me some samples of different teas, "rock" oolongs from Wuyi, China (thanks much!).

Since the vendor isn't a tea company, but rather an individual involved with tea growing and sales, I'll just refer to her as Cindy.  This might be a good time to point out that it's not uncommon for Chinese people to pick up Western nicknames if they end up in contact with Westerners.  She doesn't have a tea web page to reference, but she can be reached through this Facebook page link.

2012 Rougui

Rougui 2012 tasting notes:

Good tea!  Interesting and powerful first impression.   General profile is in the range of dahongpao--appearance is similar, oxidization range likely similar, some of the flavor profile is common--but the character is quite different (relatively speaking).

Rich flavors, soft with natural sweetness.   Caramel and floral tastes extend towards cocoa with a very subtle but rich underlying range of earthy elements, mineral and wood.  One particular taste element, the first thing that stands out, is hard to pin down,  almost like a perfume, maybe tying to something like a mahogany wood taste.  It's strange having the impression of one primary taste element I just can't describe, especially since it seems like there is probably a reference I'm just not familiar with, maybe floral or maybe not.

Second infusion is still wonderful but flavors diminish.  It seems the general type of tea is not suited to brewing a lot of infusions or a lot of tea.  Multiple infusions are still nice but as seems typical the flavors are more intense and different in the first infusion, brighter, more towards cocoa and floral elements, then earthier and more subdued after.

The feel of the tea is nice, rich, even though there is no astringency element which in some cases can interrelate with the "body" of a tea.  I'm curious what age has done to this tea, what it would have tasted like two years ago.  Cindy claimed the taste changes to diminish a smoky or charred effect, which sounds familiar related to the dahongpao from the Buddhist temple in a recent post, or that could be something else.

Rougui research:

I've went on about dahongpao enough in other posts, but I'd like to try and explain what rougui even is, and cite some background reading.


Wikipedia says almost nothing:  it's from Mount Wuyi, in Fujian Province in China, and it has a distinctive sweet aroma.  They say the name literally means "cassia," relating to "cinnamomum aromaticum," surely related to cinnamon but not the same plant.

Makes you wonder about cinnamon, doesn't it?  Time for a nice long tangent;  Wikipedia says this:

Cinnamon ... is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods. While Cinnamomum verum is sometimes considered to be "true cinnamon", most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from related species, which are also referred to as "cassia" to distinguish them from "true cinnamon"

and then later:  Cinnamomum cassia (Cassia or Chinese cinnamon, the most common type)

So cinnaomomum aromaticum = cinnaomomum cassia, which is not exactly standard or "true" cinnamon, but still a common type of cinnamon.  Getting way off of tea here but if you're a health nut eating cinnamon to prevent diabetes you might consider this WebMD input:   

In many cases, the cinnamon spice purchased in food stores contains a combination of these different types of cinnamon. So far, only cassia cinnamon has been shown to have any effect on blood sugar in humans. However, Cinnamomum verum also contains the ingredient thought to be responsible for lowering blood sugar.

So there's that.


A "Tea  Spring" vendor site fills in some details:   Rou Gui is the latest tea added to Wu Yi's famous five bushes (previously only four consisting of Tie Luo Han, Shui Jin Gui, Da Hong Pao and Bai Ji Guan; referred to as Si Da Ming Cong)....  They are also called Yan Cha (Rock tea) due to the pristine rocky areas where the tea bushes grow.


Steepster reviews of  Yunnan Sourcing (vendor) tea:  nothing so novel about the reviews, tea descriptions, or the source reference but interesting for further reading, especially the variances in what people say.  One might judge from the moderate price of the tea that it's a lower grade but really paying a lot for a tea, or not paying a lot, doesn't necessarily mean anything, although on the higher end one would hope they would at least be getting "relatively good" tea.


Grade level and other subjective preference concerns could even be two different things, but that's a longer story.  For these particular types of teas demand seems to be high so issues of cost, quality, and grade all become more important, as prices go up and consistency of products can vary, with the higher than average costs essentially always being justified by the grade level of the tea.

I've read descriptions of different rougui teas than I've mentioned here and the basic character and taste profile doesn't sound so similar, but then adherence to some standard type is sort of a different thing again.

It's probably not the conclusion that everyone draws but for me the most important thing is if I like a tea, echoing my old wine guru's assertion that subjective preference is the final determining factor.  Contrary to that, but not completely so, I do find myself appreciating different things about teas more as time goes by, so although I can't imagine I'm gravitating towards some universal objective perspective some loosely typical experience curve might be a factor.

Conclusion

Nice tea!  It's not everyday you get to try a new tea that becomes a new favorite.