Jing Tea

Strong fruity notes of pineapple and mango, combined with something a little bit floral that I couldn’t identify. It’s quite rich in texture and deeply flavoured, even with a relatively short infusion time.

tasted 1 time, but need to wait for a special tea pot I bought for this tea :)

Back to drinking this creamy ali shan! After the nilgiri frost i wanted to enjoy a cup off spring in my mouth! Can’t wait to get more sun, and all good things the spring brings! This oolongs takes me to spring and summer with its flower creamy tastes!

A while ago jing posted a food combination on there facebook page, so i had to try it out!

Its an easy combination because its just a mango that u can eat with the ali shan, they said that it compliments the taste off the tea in order to get a refreshing afternoon…

Well i bought a mango the other day (something i do on a regular base). so after getting my tea ready (one teaspoon with boiling water for 3min) i cut the mango into pieces!

Once everything is cooled down a bit i couldn’t wait to get this little experiment working. The tea tastes as creamy like it used to (i like this oolong) so no surprises there… a sip off tea and after that a pieces off mango. I can see how they match a little bit in texture and taste. I’m noticing that the mango taste in my mounth brings out a little more cream tastes from the tea. Perhaps that the fruit notes in my tea get a bit lost because off my mango but… its a good combo.

Not a everyday combo, but every once in a while i will try this, especially on a hot summer afternoon or evening!

I had this tea a long time ago and i liked the creamy taste of this ali shan. So i was delighted to receive this package with my first month of the teaclub from jing.

Brewed with one teaspoon of leaf, for about 3min. It gives a nice green color but can’t really tell how it smells (even the dry leafs) because i got a little bit off a cold…

My cold doesn’t affect my taste so i got a bit off luck there. It tastes really creamy just like i remember with hints off some kind off fruit. I probably can get up to 3 or 4 cups from the same leafs, so its a very good oolong! i’m drinking this in the winter tough, last time i had this tea in mid summer. Thinking this is more a tea to drink on warmer days!

small note: brewed this yesterday but with a heaped teaspoon and for 3min. The infusion came out WAY oversteeped and it was not yummy at all!

got back to these jasmine pearls because i had a some conversations today that got pretty close to my heart, the jasmine is in a strange way getting to me in a way thats it just comforts me :) strange but its the perfect drink today for me!

Jasmine pearls from jing was one off the first things that i ever ordered and its still one off my favorite’s where i’m going back to so every now and then!

The dry pearls are almost perfectly round little balls and smell strongly after jasmine! The smell off the flowers is a bit overwhelming when u open the ziplock bag. Once you brew this tea with the instructions that come with it, you get a light green looking infusion.

Upon tasting this tea u get a strong jasmine flavor, not like the jasmine silver needles where the taste is more soft and a byproduct off the tea. Here its the main flavor u get in your cup, love it or hate it… i love it! U can get atleast 3 good infusions from one teaspoon off tiny green balls!

A classic tea that u would want to keep in your cupboard anytime off the year! U cannot compare this to anything u get in the supermarket with jasmine flavors!

after writing this i’m gonna brew me a second cup its just sad sitting here infront off the tv with a empty cup :)

I’m drinking this tea on this long relaxing sunday evening! Its one off those evenings that i’m a bit melancholic and thinking about the past and future… its one off those days that u sometimes have when u worry alot about personal things.

So why not drink this light jasmine tasting tea to calm my mind a bit!

I’ve had this tea before but its been a long time ago, its pale yellow in color more yellow then the normal silver needles. The jasmine taste comes true and holds very well true up to 3 or 4 infusions. The Jasmine is not overwhelming like i a jasmine green pearl tea but its there and is mixing very well to give a light drink hot and cold!

I brewed my first cup and drank it while it cooled down, the second cup was brewed right before taking a bath so it had cooled down to being almost cold when i came out … and it tastes just as wonderfull. I can even say that the most tender and light tasting notes come out a bit better at almost cold temperature!

Overall a very good tea to fill in my white tea needs!

I used a 100ml gaiwan filled between one third and one half full with dry leaves.

My, my, my. This instantly became a favorite of mine after my first taste. Harboring upwards of 15 high-quality steeps, this tea continues to bring forth surprise after surprise as these large leaves unfurl and release brilliant flavors and aromatics into the cup.

It begins malty, fruity, and quite floral, with tones of peach, orchid, and honey. Body is very smooth, light, and the flavor lingers tenderly on the tip of the tongue and already begins constructing a distinctive and mouthfilling aftertaste.

Into the second steep the body becomes stronger and fuller, with greater peach flavors, and a slight astringency felt on sides of tongue. Resonance is clearly a great attribute in this tea. The liquor’s aroma is strong, flowery, while the wet leaf’s aroma is powerfully pungent, with a very wine-like aroma and undertones of pine, stone-fruits, and citrus.

Then, as the citrus notes begin to climb, the malt flavors subside, making way for new tones of spice and honey. Overall, the flavor becomes much more calm and less robust, yet the complexity remains with tons of subtle nuances. The mouthfeel is smooth and full while the aftertaste remains refreshing and sweet.

At steep four, the liquor’s aroma is very strong and complex, and is one of the more aromatic liquors I have had the pleasure of smelling in a while. The citrus, peach, and honey tones that were tasted seem to have burst out of the liquor itself and fan out through the air. The flavor of this steep has awesome character and rounds together all levels of sweet, bitterness, astringency, floral, and even slight spicy notes in near-perfect harmony.

As more steeps continued to pour out of my gaiwan, the tea I tasted towards the end seemed to be a completely different tea than what I tasted in the beginning. As the leaves opened to their fullest extent, greener flavors started to drift into the liquor and subtle grassy tones were appreciated. In addition, the malt, fruit, and honey flavors so strong at first became subtle and harder to find as nuances of earth, wood, caramel, and roasted nuts come into play, all held together by a body with a more pronounced “tea” flavor and aroma.

The only downside to this tea is that it can become tricky to brew without near-perfect steep times, especially in the first few steeps. The astringency and floral tones can become a little too overpowering. This minor hindrance aside, this dan cong provides a fantastic experience for a reasonable price.

I brewed this tea gong fu style in a 100ml gaiwan filled between one third and one half with dry leaf.

This Oriental Beauty has a great character, with a bright, crisp black tea-like finish. The flavor of the liquor is right there to enjoy off the cusp of the sip, but also evolves slightly to bring out a body with decent complexity, which fades slowly. The aftertaste was pleasant, smooth, and sweet and filled the back of the throat nicely, with a bit of a bitter glaze at the back of the mouth.

Receiving close to 18 steeps, the flavors of the liquor evolved very intriguingly. At first bringing a woodsy, cedar-nut, “pure tea” taste with undertones of sweet pines and spiced apples, it somewhat reminded me of a Formosa oolong in texture and body. Over time, though, the sweet and fruity notes became more pronounced while the pure tea and spicy tones were reduced. By close to the ninth steep, an earthiness appeared, adding further complexity and texture. Towards the end of steeping, the sweetness of this tea was one of the most pronounced tones in addition to musky and stony flavors which replaced the piney nature of this tea that was ever so present in the beginning.

It would have been nice to have all of the flavors present at once in varying degrees, which would have produced a resounding depth, something which this tea does not have much of. While bringing forth a great many different flavors and nuances, the interesting tones noted at the beginning were difficult to find towards the end. This left a somewhat hollowness in each steep, as if the tea was never able to attain a completely full body. This phenomenon is even more pronounced if brewed with fewer leaves. When I first tried this Oriental Beauty gong fu style with a smaller amount of leaves than I used for the above analysis, I was disappointed by the lack of complexity and resonance, seemingly receiving the same tea over and over. I’m glad I tasted it again with a heftier amount, otherwise I wouldn’t have achieved the memorable, if not somewhat lacking, experience this tea is capable of.

Very nice! I was pleasantly surprised with this Jin Xuan. I had not had a milk oolong such as this one before, but I was familiar with tieguanyin, which this tea resembles. So I was kind of expecting something similar from this tea, but instead I received a much more interesting experience.

The dry leaves were rolled up nice and tight with nice healthy green colorations and a fair bit of attached stem. They smelled of dried fruits and cream with floral and organic undertones, and there was just a tiny hint of a toasty aroma. Very pleasing. While the leaves were quite clean and free of small pieces and loose stems, the colors were inconsistent. They ranged from a dark army green to a bright grassy yellow-green. This was a pretty broad spectrum, so I was a bit nervous at first to the quality.

However, once wet, the leaves expanded tenfold and proved to be very nicely manufactured. Consisting of very large, lightly bruised, and completely whole leaves with large bits of stem connecting up to three or four, they gave off a lovely pear-like, biscuity, and subtly piny scent that calmed the mind. Yet, on closer inspection, I discovered a fair number of the leaves were of extremely poor quality, appearing ragged, broken, and munched on. A huge turnoff for me, but oh well, at least the flavor wasn’t affected.

In essence, I can describe the flavor of this tea as a medium between tieguanyin and gyokuro. It is sweet, floral, and very green with essences of stone-fruits and roasted veggies with a small kick of vegetal astringency. But yet, there is a textural element in this liquor that isn’t present in either of those teas: it is most definitely milky. The mouthfeel is buttery smooth, thick, and lustrous. It also has a biscuit-like aroma and taste, but the latter is more subtle. One thing I really love is the evolution of flavor throughout a sip. The taste rises and expands, becoming more complex and leaving a lingering finish and a refreshing aftertaste. I only have one small gripe: most of the unique flavors of this tea dissipate after the fourth or fifth steep when steeping gong fu. Towards the end of it’s life, it tastes just like the last steeps of a tieguanyin. While this isn’t bad by any means, it’s just not as interesting to me.

I was slightly disappointed with this Wuyi from Jing. I received this and other oolongs in a limited-time sampler, and from what it looked like on their website, this was supposed to be the best of the bunch, being the “highest grade” for 2011 and “perfectly proportioned.” However, throughout the multiple times I tried this tea using differing amounts of leaf each time, I never really found anything astounding in it. In fact, the sample itself was very poor quality. I could not believe how dusty this tea was. At the bottom of the bag was at least two teaspoons of tiny, broken pieces resembling a CTC black tea. And given that there was only around 10 grams of leaf in the bag, this was a highly unreasonable amount. However, the whole leaves and halves of leaves that made up the rest of the tea in the sample was of good quality and appeared to be manufactured well, with a pleasant aroma of freshly-cut hay and dried fruit when dry and a pungent, pine-wood and stone fruit aroma when wet.

While the flavor of the tea itself was quite good, it never really evolved. A “pure tea” taste was the most prominent, with a few undertones of woodiness and pine, maybe a little spice. The aroma was of dried fruit and honey-like. The liquor was clear and brisk and grew sweeter with each subsequent steep. Beyond all that, though, not much else was delivered. Throughout 8 steeps gong fu style, the flavor remained essentially the same, with very little evolution. However, the first steeps were very strong and almost unpleasantly bitter, even after a decent preliminary wash in my gaiwan. Thankfully this was only temporary and sweetness overtook nearly all of the bitterness, but from then on, nothing changed significantly. A great deal of what seemed to be missing in taste was made up for by its aftertaste, which was lingering and refreshing.

Overall, a decent light and flavorful sipping tea with medium body, but lacking depth and complexity. To me, it was definitely not as exciting as Jing’s Cassia Wuyi and did not live up to its afore-mentioned praise, but was a pleasant tea nonetheless.

I brewed this tea gong fu style in a 100ml gaiwan filled about a third of the way with dry leaf.

This tea is light and brisk, with a very clean liquor in taste and feel. The texture is soft and smooth, like well-fashioned leather, which creams easily and quickly. The flavor of the liquor bursts explosively, and fades with dignity, leaving behind a satisfying and filling aftertaste. The flavor is very similar to an Oriental Beauty, with woodsy, roasted notes and a spicy zest greatly apparent. However, underneath all this is a green-oolong taste which blossoms in the mouth much like a tieguanyin, which grants a great deal of floral and stone-fruit aromatics.

While not yielding an extremely high number of steeps, a modest number of around 9 quality steeps were received. At first woodsy and roasted, with hints of biscuity and sweet pear tones, with just a faint hint of bitterness, it evolved extremely well, diving into complexities not expected. Sweetness was intensified, floral qualities appeared, and a subtle greenness found its way into the undertones of this Cassia Wuyi oolong. Around the sixth and seventh steep, tones of cocoa butter and wildflowers were present in the aroma which later made their way into the flavor of the liquor as this tea transformed itself into something tasting much less oxidized and more green as floral and grassy notes appeared and the roastiness presented in the beginning gradually dissipated. All the while, the spicy, almost saffron-like qualities progressed until the last steep, the full body of this tea held together by “pure tea” tones.

Overall, I’m highly impressed by this tea. By around the seventh steep, I paused in writing my notes and cracked a smile—it was quite a fantastic brew. Every note of complexity mingled together so pleasantly, it was definitely the climax of this tea’s flavor development. And the fact that that many steeps later it produced such a great experience really tells of the great quality of this oolong.

A very mellow and earthy puerh. I ordered a sample which has lasted me about a week. Perhaps the best puerh I’ve had.

Its a good tea. I except that, and if you’ve never had a yellow tea before than this is a great introduction. Yellow teas to me remind me of a green tea that someone brewed with water that was too hot, and maybe a slight mixture of sheng (raw) young pu-erhs.

Quite a unique way of saying…it tastes a little burnt and metallic, but that is to be expected of yellow teas (or at least the couple others I’ve tried).

A very good Silver Needle. A little on the pricey side, but considering this tea was picked a year ago from when I was drinking it, Jing has done a good job of ensuring the quality lasts. Wouldn’t describe it as so much melon, but more of like peach or lychee. Very soft sweetness to it with undertones of hay.

Fantastic oolong, with a creamy rich taste. I re-infused 3 times and although the third infusion was a bit weak, it held its own.

Considering the price, this tea is a serious let down.

Caramel, candied fruit flavours, and eucalyptus (and if you go on the website it mentions mint). This is exactly the same tones and notes one detects in a Ceylon. Jing just felt like raising the price because its unusual to find a black tea from Taiwan.

nothing special that one couldn’t get from a good local tea shop, at a price that is too high.

Strong metallic taste, coppery, leaves smelled of chlorine as brewing. A bit stale maybe?

Very disappointed in that this is the worst Jade Sword I’ve had from a reputable supplier.

I’m currently drinking the Pre-Rain Organic Anji Bai Cha from April 2011, and it is wonderful!

A delicious delicate savory flavour that carries the tell tale roasted chestnut aroma of chinese teas. Also has a wonderful vegetable note on the tongue as well.

My first Darjeeling experience. Very, very astringent – but I may have over-steeped. Even so, I liked it a lot. Found it bracing.

I received this tea as part of a white tea-sampler pack that I ordered a few weeks back. This is the first bag I have sampled and I must say, the way that Jing uses to package their teas does a lot for its freshness.
Jing’s Tea storage bags are zip-lock bags made from plastic foil – as are most storage bags these days – but Jing’s are additionally welded shut above the zipper, so in order to get to your leaves you have to clip off that top-most part. This added air-tight seal seems to keep in the aroma exceptionally well – which I subsume from the fact the to two teas I have tried so far were very aromatic. You know the feeling when you open a bag that has fresh tea in it, the smell that emmanates from it is almost tangible. Lack of said aroma is oftentimes an indicator of leaves that have already gone stale.
Not the case here.
The dry leaf resembles Silver Needle-leaves the only difference being the size. These are a little shorter than you would expect Yin Zhen to be.
The liquor brews up to a bright and radiant yellow. I used Gongfu-brewing with a steep-time of about 4-5 seconds initially and increased that gradually over subsequent steepings.
Deliciously floral and fruity aroma, combined the slightly starchy or papery aroma that white tea normally gives off.
The taste is easily described as two parts of the muscat-notes that you love if you are into Darjeeling and one part of the slightly drier and – for want of a better word – nuttier notes of Yin Zhen.
The texture follows the same equation: it is a little bit of what you would expect from a cup of Yin Zhen, the gentle feel that the little hairs are covering your tongue, and a very distinct awarenes of the liquid while swallowing it, but mellowed out by the Darjeeling to only a trace amount of that intensity.

I enjoyed this a lot and it lasted through an amazing number of steepings – must have been around 18, possibly more.
The only thing I was missing from this tea was the complexity that I have come to love from my Verdant Tea purchases. This does not detract from the quality of this tea. I would highly recommend it if you were looking for a tea to serve to a friend you were looking to win over for the Way of Tea.

Wow. Will post in more detail shortly. Must focus on drinking more of this tea for now :-)