Taiwan Yu Chi #18 'Red Jade' Black Tea

Not a fan of the menthol character

I must have neglected this tea for long, as label from derk says harvest May 2020; and we have here almost November 2023. Thank you derk!

Prepared all 3 grams I had, so not a sipdown in my books, but finished tea nevertheless.

I have preheated the gaiwan and right after I knew I prepared one unique tea. The aroma was so familiar, lovely, vivid, but what is it? Nothing exact cames to my mind.

Brewed with, close to boiling, water. Lovely flavours again… very vivid and lovely notes of raisins, sweet potatoes, grapes. Aromas come across with some rye and sweet potatoes and surprisingly menthol.

Steeped 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 60 seconds and in the middle the flavours have moved from that “dark” ones to more refreshing, almost oolong-like notes with another descriptor — floral, both in flavour and aromas. Never tannic, always smooth. And lovely complexity even for 3 and half years old tea.

I purchased this tea last year after reading some glowing reviews on Steepster. I often find Red Jades to be too astringent, but this one was recommended as being smooth. I also very much enjoyed the Yu Chi Assam What-Cha carries, and I was hoping this tea would be of similar quality. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of sassafras, menthol, malt, raisins, and sweet potato. The first steep has strong notes of sassafras, menthol, and malt, with hints of cinnamon, cream, raisins, red grapes, and sweet potato. Some tannins are present, but they’re not overwhelming. The next steep is very similar, though the sassafras is stronger. Steeps three and four add notes of juniper, molasses, and honey, and that menthol flavour resolves into wintergreen (though maybe this is a result of reading Derk’s tasting note). Later steeps give me more honey, molasses, malt, sweet potato, and bread, though there’s still plenty of sassafras and wintergreen. I accidentally let one of the later steeps cool down and can notice the plum and nectarine Eastkyteaguy mentioned in the aroma. The final steeps have lots of tannins, minerals, bread, honey, and malt.

This is one of the smoothest Red Jades I’ve had, though I still prefer other types of Taiwanese black tea. The sassafras and wintergreen are especially prominent, which I think is the point of this cultivar. It never gets overly tannic as other Red Jades have done in later steeps, and the complexity of flavours is impressive. I hope Alistair gets this tea back in stock.

Aroma-driven tea that speaks at the front of the mouth and has a bold wintergreen finish that I expect of #18 cultivar Assamica teas. Viscous with clean notes of honeyed bing cherry and leather, lacking the heaviness or prominent base notes of other black teas. The combination of the wintergreen aroma and the well-integrated briskness clears my mind and my sinuses. This lovely invigorator served many morning cups lately as I’ve been adjusting my being to a new schedule, a new job role and two evening classes. This one doesn’t have the more biting attitude I’ve experienced in other #18s; it has a pretty well balanced and rounded flavor profile.

I’m sure there’s much more complexity to this tea than I have to offer here, but I drank through it so fast that I never had a sit-down with it.

This is one type of tea that I’d always like to have around. I feel that the May 2020 harvest is a great example of both the smooth-tasting, fruity Taiwanese black tea character and the quirky wintergreen note of this cultivar.

This was another of my sipdowns from earlier in the month. It was also arguably the most impressive of all of the black teas I have finished within the last thirty or so days. The black teas What-Cha sources from Taiwan tend to be impressive, and this one was certainly no exception. Actually, of the comparatively few Red Jade black teas I have tried to this point in my life, this one has ended up being my favorite so far.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of sweet potato, honey, baked bread, wintergreen, molasses, and brown sugar. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of chocolate and red grape alongside even stronger wintergreen scents. The first infusion introduced subtle plum, cream, spinach, and malt aromas alongside even more amplified wintergreen scents. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of sweet potato, wintergreen, cream, malt, brown sugar, and baked bread that were chased by hints of honey, red grape, butter, and plum. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of pine, caramel, butter, and roasted almond as well as subtler scents of grass and green olive. Stronger and more immediate plum, red grape, butter, and honey notes came out in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging chocolate and molasses notes and hints of spinach. I also found impressions of minerals, pine, juniper, vanilla, caramel, and roasted almond and fleeting hints of grass, green olive, nutmeg, peach, and nectarine that were mostly limited to the finish and aftertaste. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized sweet potato, malt, caramel, baked bread, and cream notes that were chased by hints of pine, juniper, green olive, spinach, and grass as well as some distant, cooling wintergreen notes.

This was such a great tea. Not only did its liquor display impressive body and texture in the mouth, but it also had tons of depth and complexity and was tremendously fun to drink. A lot of the more complex black teas can be heavy and/or overwhelming, but this one was approachable and consistently fascinating. The menthol-like wintergreen aromas and flavors popped throughout my review session and beautifully framed everything else the tea had to offer. Honestly, I think it would be hard to ask for more from a Red Jade black tea. I loved this one. I’m fairly positive that fans of Red Jade black teas would be impressed by it.