Purple Needle Black Tea of Jing Mai Mountain * Spring 2017

At two years old, this is not the freshest tea anymore, but not stale either. It smells of tomato vine and sawdust predominately. The taste is malty and bitter with notes of almonds, bread crust and a spicy finish. The aftertaste is a little cooling and reminds me of pine and the Ruby 18 cultivar. The tea has a very smooth texture and gives a strong, heady buzz.

We’re coming to one of my more recent sipdowns now, as I finished the last of my pouch of this tea back on Friday. It had been some time since I had tried a Jingmai Mountain black tea when I first decided to tear into this one, and it reminded me of why I have such a soft spot for Jingmai blacks. This tea yielded a very complex liquor that was also very approachable and balanced.

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 18 additional 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, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cedar, raisin, pine, prune, cinnamon, and honey. After the rinse, I detected aromas of malt, roasted almond, baked bread, brown sugar, and tomato. The first infusion added aromas of cocoa, grass, straw, and green bell pepper. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up notes of malt, roasted almond, cedar, pine, and cinnamon that were backed by hints of grass, straw, tomato, baked bread, green bell pepper, and brown sugar. I also picked up some vague impressions reminiscent of stone fruits, citrus, and flowers. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of rose, butter, lemon zest, blood orange, violet, plum, and red grape. Impressions of raisin, prune, honey, and cocoa came out in the mouth along with stronger and more immediate notes of tomato, straw, and baked bread. Impressions of rose, violet, minerals, plum, blood orange, butter, sour cherry, lemon zest, red grape, pear, cream, and nutmeg also emerged in the mouth. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized lingering notes of minerals, roasted almond, butter, cream, lemon zest, blood orange, pine, red grape, and rose that were underscored by hints of violet, cocoa, brown sugar, pear, cinnamon, and raisin before a stronger baked bread note re-emerged on each swallow.

This was a very nice, very likable Yunnan purple black tea that fell just a step or two short of greatness. I would have liked to see a slightly stronger, thicker tea liquor and a little more integration of the flavor components in some of the earlier infusions, but these are fairly minor quibbles overall. To be clear, this was a very good tea. There are better Yunnan black teas out there, but one could do far worse than giving this one a shot.

Finished up the last of the bag with cold brew and gongfu.

Cold brew 1 heaping tablespoon to 1L overnight produces a light liquor with a strong scent of tangy natural blueberry and a taste of red cherry and rose (which I didn’t pick up on in western). It is also slightly drying.

Gongfu was two sessions, 2.5-3g each session to 60mL. A few different notes I picked up this way were rose, grapefruit and purple raisin. They were pleasant gongfu sessions and I found no faults brewing that way, however I appreciate the stronger, melded flavors present in western. Brewing at 60mL allowed me to enjoy the tastes in a small amount without committing to several 8oz glasses which leave me a little cracked out.

It’s such a delightful tea that strongly reminds me of the Napa/Sonoma valley wine producing regions of California. I’d love to order more, but the energy of Chinese purple black teas is generally overwhelming for me. Still very much recommended.

This is the second purple tea I’ve tried from Yunnan Sourcing. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, , 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

Although most reviewers taste grapefruit in this tea, I get green grapes and some sourness in the first steep. The second steep has notes of grape, honey, sourness, woodsiness, and citrus, which could be grapefruit at a stretch. There’s no bitterness at all in these infusions.

After increasing the temperature to 200F, the grapefruit is more apparent, as are grape, raisin, honey, malt, and sour flavours. I also get brief notes of blueberries, dry grass, and minerals in later steeps, and the tea gets more astringent as the session progresses.

Though I enjoyed this more than the other purple tea I had from Yunnan Sourcing, I wasn’t a fan of the raisins and the astringency. I shouldn’t have any trouble finishing it, but I’m not planning to get more.

I don’t often gravitate to purple leaf teas but with this one a 100g bag didn’t last long.

Golden red rusty orange soup, sweet and woodsy with vibrant citrus, notably of grapefruit.

Pushing later steeps there was a pleasant bitterness.