Reviewing the Spring 2017 Ju Duo Zai. This tea is surprising in that in contradicts itself from beginning to end. When I opened the bag of this Ju Duo Zai, and saw that rather than being a very dark, almost black-green like in the photo on the YS website, it was brown, I was happy and looking forward to the lightly roasted flavor. The leaves were very fine and rolled lengthwise. When I smelled the dry leaves, I was surprised. It didn’t smell like roast at all. The initial dry leaf aroma was more seaweed than roast. So, now I was expecting it to lean more like a green dan cong in flavor profile once brewed.
I did a rinse with near boiling water, and then steeped for 15 seconds for the first infusion. When I removed the lid of the gaiwan, the leaves had lost practically all of their brown color, and were olive green with some nice oxidation. I’m thinking to myself, ha!, I’ve got you now. You were green all along, and that explained the seaweed aroma. The wet leaves smelled like a young sheng pu-er.
One sip, and I had to chuckle. It didn’t taste green-leaning like I was expecting. Here we have a brown dry leaf that smells green, and once steeped, a green colored leaf that smells like a sheng pu-er, but tastes like a lightly roasted tea with even some fermented black tea notes in the first infusion.
I found this tea a very fun experience because of the constant surprises throughout the session. This would be a fun tea to have at a tea tasting with friends, and not tell the guests what it is, and have them try to guess at the various stages of preparation.
Addendum: I never experienced any bitterness in the Spring 2017 edition. It was smooth, sweet, and left a wet mouth feel.
