Mei Zhan Zhen

Here is a short back story on my decision to purchase this tea. Last year when I was trying a bunch of black teas from Camellia Sinensis (my first year purchasing from them too), I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the options. Not knowing which teas would sell first, I didn’t prioritize buying this one. And well, as you can tell by where this story is going, it sold out! Fast forward to this year, I saw Mei Zhan Zhen was back in stock and immediately purchased it. (Now that a month or two has passed, this tea is once again unavailable.)

Onto my tasting notes:

Dry leaves have a strong sweet and floral fragrance. It also makes me think of marzipan or cinnamon rolls.

First steep: As expected, it does taste very floral, but still in an amount I can tolerate. Sipping some more, there is a very enjoyable mix of aromas: spices, floral, pastry, earthy black tea flavour. The tea body isn’t heavy, but I wouldn’t say that it is too light.

Second steep: I like how the flavours continue to build up, but none of the many flavours screams out at you. The more I sip, the more some other type of aroma comes out (reminds me of pine trees or something).

Third steep: Still maintaining a consistent flavour, not weakening yet.

Fourth steep: The liquor has become darker, and the flavour has really exploded too. Both the spices and floral aroma shine in this cup. I like how there is this fuzzy, velvety, and thick texture to the liquor has it goes down.

Fifth steep: Pretty similar to the fourth steep, maybe a touch more harsh and astringent.

Sixth steep: Tea liquor has weakened a bit, but otherwise the aroma is still powerful.

Seventh through ninth steeps: Floral, spices, and pastry flavours are still noticeable. I stopped on the ninth because I was pretty satisfied and full of too much tea. ;) If my husband were around to help with drinking it, we could probably get a few more steeps out.

I think CS does a good job of not only providing a lot of excellent black teas, but ones that different enough from each other. This is a pricey one, but I’m looking forward to at least buying another 25g next year.

Overall I found it to be a charming black tea. It shares a lot of characteristics I’ve come to seek, but also provides new and unique characteristics that make it memorable. As someone who can be turned off of floral black teas, I think this is a good balance between the very earthy black teas and overly floral ones.

100ml purion teapot, 2 tsp, 9 steeps (30s, +15s each resteep)

Thank you Leafhopper!

This is the kind of tea I like. I was saving it for a morning that I had time, and pretty much followed the same parameters with the 4-5 grams-the entire sample left using 120 ml, 195 F, 10, 12, 15, 18, then changed it fifteen. I debated if I would use my Manual Teamaker gaiwan because the leaves are on the smaller side, and were a little bit challenging to prevent from coming into my cup or leaving the gaiwan. Luckily I had a strainer, though I had to plop some leaves back into it.

The tea doesn’t change too much with each steep, but gets more bitter, tannic, and metallic towards the end. Initial steep was strong with blood orange, cinnamon, rose, and allspice with a little bit of a lavender tail end. Lavender notes ramp up after steep two and was consistent. The combo of lavender, malt, citrus, pine, spices, and dryness reminded me of some coffee flavor combos and mocktails I used to get. I enjoyed steep one and two the best because the immense florals and malt were balanced, and the unusual cinnamon spice taste set this one far apart other Fujian blacks I’ve had. It’s like a top end constant comment without needing actual spices.

The shorter last steep made a difference in backing off from the earth, malt, and metal leaning more into citrus lavender combo. I personally couldn’t make it past this one though because the bitterness and metallic taste started to become too much for me.

I’m thankful I got to try it, and while this is totally the kind of tea I’d have in my stash, I’m pretty content with what I got for now. The drying and metallic qualities hold me back from rating it a 90 overall.

I bought a 10 g box of this tea in my last Camellia Sinensis order in 2020. I was just beginning to be interested in Fujian teas, and thought this would be a good representative. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these fuzzy leaves is of lavender, rose, pastry, malt, and honey. The first steep has notes of lavender, rose, jasmine, other flowers, earth, pastry, honey, pine, and tannins. The bottom of the cup smells like floral marzipan (yum!). The next steep introduces baked bread, butter, and faint cocoa on a lovely floral base. Spices, including cinnamon, emerge in steep three, and the tea starts becoming more herbaceous. By steep five, the tea is more vegetal with a nice honey floral finish, faint malt, and persistent lavender. I even start getting those dill pickle notes I’ve gotten in other Jin Jun Meis. Later steeps are not as flavourful and are a mix of honey, herbs, pastry, malt, and tannins with some metallic notes.

As someone who likes floral teas, I found a lot to be happy about in this Fujian hongcha. It has a complex profile and evolves nicely throughout the session. If it weren’t over $1 per gram, I’d consider buying 50 g of it, but there are similar teas at a lower price point.

mmmm tasty tea from Dexter Since this year will be the year of Canadian companies…who let you buy in CANADIAN DOLLARS thank you very much, we’re trying to get through as many samples of teas as possible from various companies. this one is a deliciously tasty black tea. it’s a little floral like but it’s also sweet..not honey leafhopper sweet, but still sweet. This is a tea that is lighter…but not lacking in flavour. Overall another enjoyable tea from Camelia!

The dry leaf is twisty and curly, black with a few silver tips spread though out. Steep up 8g in 8oz at 200F.

First infusion (45s) the tea is brownish red, and a little cloudy. This is a bit smoky, sort of floral, and bread like.

Second infusion (60s) this cup was much like the last, but I noticed more cocoa notes as it cooled.

Third infusion (75s) this had a sort of brightness about this as it cooled. Almost like a burst of light in my mouth. Taste wise still smokey, a little malty, bread, and some cocoa as it cooled.

Forth infusion (90s) this got a touch bitter as it cooled, and a touch my smokey tasting.

Fifth infusion (115s) and Sixth Infusion (130s) still sort of bitter and smokey, also a bit metallic.

Overall this isn’t bad, the smoke isn’t my thing though so I want be repurchasing.