2009 Winter Jin Xuan - Taiwan Green Tea

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
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Flavors
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Caffeine
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Average preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “The mood was green this morning, so I just picked first and best unflavoured green out of the basket. This process was made a lot easier by the fact that I’m not so set in my ways with greens as I...” Read full tasting note
    67
  • “1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by...” Read full tasting note
    84

From Norbu Tea

This unique Winter Harvest 2009 green tea comes from a 4,000 ft elevation (1,200 M) tea garden in the Aowanda area of Jenai Township in Nantou County, Central Taiwan. This green tea is made from a tea cultivar known as Jin Xuan, which is usually processed into a mildly fragrant oolong tea. Strangely enough, I was not a fan of the Jin Xuan cultivar at all until I tasted this green tea. I had only tasted very inexpensive oolongs produced from JinRead more

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2 Tasting Notes

67
1353 tasting notes

The mood was green this morning, so I just picked first and best unflavoured green out of the basket. This process was made a lot easier by the fact that I’m not so set in my ways with greens as I am with blacks. Had the mood been for a black tea this morning, choosing one would have involved a whole lot more dithering.

Anyway, this sample contained, I think, just about the right amount of leaf for my brewing preferences and the leaves were large and a nice, bright green colour. They looked happy and lively, and made me expect a flavour with lots of pizzazz in it.

It’s surprisingly light in colour though. Even after a whole minute’s steeping, it’s still very pale. Most green teas, at this point, will be very yellow in my experience.

The aroma is quite light as well. It’s very difficult to find it, even when sticking my nose so close to it, it’s almost getting dipped. When I do find it, though, it’s quite fruity. I’m reminded of pineapple and green apples, and not really finding any of the vegetative grassy notes.

It’s incredibly delicate in flavour. It’s so frail and shy, I almost expect it to blush when sipping it. Unfortunately, the fruity notes that I found in the aroma are not carrying over into the flavour. Shame, I had quite looked forward to a naturally occurring pineapple note. Some of the apple-y note is still there, but it’s not in any really significant amount.

It’s a rather floral flavour, in a not scented to death sort of way. Naturally occurring little flowers that nobody is paying attention to because they’re just weeds. It doesn’t really have any significant grassy notes. There is some of it there, but it’s so delicate that it barely registers. These are some great notes, but I should have liked for them to be stronger. A little less shy and blushing and a little more ‘look out, world! Here I come!’

This is not really a tea that one can easily pick apart like this. It doesn’t work like that. A flavour this delicate should be viewed more in the big picture, which is lightly floral, mild and sweet. Not really suitable for a morning tea, however green the mood may be, but later in the day it would be a really nice choice. Imagine coming home from work, tired and stressed, and then sitting down with a cup of this tea. Just quietly sipping a cup without paying attention to the rest of the world for a few minutes. Zen.

Kashyap 14 years ago

nice description and a good way of intertwinning the thoughts and the flavors

gmathis 14 years ago

I think one of the philosophical reasons I drink tea is that, done properly, it does require you to sit down and breathe … wait for the kettle … wait for the steep … sip and wait for it to cool … ahh.

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84
311 tasting notes

1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water

And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by infusion: see my flickr set here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/sets/72157625151330461

The flash rinse barely started to unfurl anything

Started timidly, 30" at 160 degrees: warm, vegetal, sweet but the infusion is a little too short/dilute

1 minutes at same temp: vegetal flavors of peas, grass, lightly floral background, no hint of bitterness, much better match of infusion time and tea. Used the aroma cup set for this, and it was fun, sweet fresh mown grass odors.

90" third infusion, sweet, vegetal, delicate, love it love it, the best yet

2’ a little hotter, 170 degrees, slight astringency but still mostly vegetal

3’ 180 degrees, and better than the previous, sweet, vegetal, such a nice tea

5’ 190 degrees, and the tea is done: barely more flavor than hot water.

Large lovely leaves are now mostly unfurled, but I couldn’t get them to completely flatten long enough to shoot the picture

Next time, 1 min, 90", 2 min, 3 min, 8 min?

I was lucky enough to get some of the spring version of this tea, and quite sad when I went to reorder it and found it was sold out. This is an entirely worthy successor.

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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