5 Tasting Notes
They should re-name this tea “Wait For It…Vanilla Oolong”. If you concentrate really hard, you can taste a faint trace of vanilla right after the tea hits your lips. It disappears just as quickly. But be patient, because there’s a fairly strong bowl of creamy vanilla ice cream waiting for you in the aftertaste. Not a bad cup of tea, but I expected a much stronger, more uniform vanilla flavor. To those looking for a dessert tea to satisfy a sweet tooth, keep looking.
Preparation
This was my first taste of a Yunnan, and I must say I’m pleased. Not over the moon, but certainly satisfied. The dry leaves smell of slightly fruity chewing tobacco. Not a sweet fruity like ripe melon, but more of a distinguished, earthy fruity like raisins or young whiskey. The taste is a mirror image of the smell, slightly robust with distant wine-like undertones. Perhaps a bit sweeter than you would expect, especially when it has cooled a little. It also has a pleasant malty flavor on the back-end that increases with brewing time. I find 4 minutes creates a perfectly mellow balance. At least for me. The look and texture remind me of slightly watered-down coffee, in the best way imaginable. Plenty of body and slight astringency make this a home-run for coffee drinkers searching for a softer alternative.
All in all, Yunnan Jig makes for a pretty enjoyable cup, and I could see it being a go-to, at least until I give some of the other Yunnan’s a go. And while my “first love” blacks such as Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey jerk me awake with blatant potency, I am quickly falling for the more delicate, sophisticated flavors of the Yunnan.
The first 5 times I made this tea, I hated it. It wasn’t the taste, it was the disappointment. I imagine I felt the way a parent would if they saw their MIT-caliber child slough off college for a career in sanitation. The gap between the creamy, Fruity Pebble-ish quality of smell and the watery, astringent taste was woefully expansive. I began to feel betrayed by my nose, even more so by the tea. And then, yesterday happened.
Finally, after brewing this tea every which way from Sunday, I found my sweet spot. “Sweet” being the operative word. I piled two heaping teaspoons into my trusty French Press as usual, but this time I poured a boiling 8 ounces of spring water in with no delay. I gave my press a few pumps and then set the timer for 4 minutes, instead of my usual 5.
4 Minutes later, and the smell floating form the kitchen is amazing to say the least. The cloyingly sweet scent of the dry leaves had mellowed into a collage of fruity, creamy floral notes. I paused to savor the smell for as long as I could before my will power gave way to the dark-brown tonic. Let me just say, the smell of this tea is just as important, if not more, than the taste. By the way, if you are a brutish tea gulper, who forgoes subtle smells and nuances in expectation of a tea that hits like a glass of kool-aid, repent. I have.
The first flavor was of fruity cream. I noticed immediately that the taste was strengthened exponentially by the heavily-scented vapors simultaneously floating through my nasal passages. This is the smell thing I was talking about. The fruity cream quickly dissolved into floral notes that my vivid imagination compares to eating a bowl of potpourri, in the best way possible. At this point, I swooshed the tea around in my mouth for a second and picked up on a creamy-thick texture and mouthfeel, which only served to accentuate the “face full of flowers” effect. Seriously, I felt like I could burp up a rose bud. The back end of the sip was a reminder that I was drinking black tea. A sightly malty note settled in, and I was pleased to find a slightly sweet honey twist riding it’s coattails. I repeat, wait for the honey twist before you swallow this tea. I immediately realized that steeping for 4 minutes rather than 5 had removed virtually all of the bitterness that I has disliked so much before. The result? A smooth, sweet, multi-layered tea that makes no attempt to hide it’s identity as a black tea. Good for mornings, even better for cool afternoons.
All in all, I give this tea a 7/10. The lingering floral aftertaste was an added bonus. This is my first taste of any type of Earl Grey, so I have no comparitive data within the Earl Grey family, but I will be using this as my go-to when I want something a little softer than my beloved Irish Breakfast. Enjoy!
