Spring 2013 "Tong Mu Guan Jin Jun Mei" Fujian Black tea

Welcome to day 29 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!

I want to call this a sipdown, & in a sense it is one, in that this is the end of the tin.
The truth is, I already have a refill for it, somewhere in my bedroom/tea hoarding place.
This is like a rich & chewy molasses sweetened old world rye bread today, both sweet & savory, AND delicious!

This tea is absolutely gorgeous. The twisty leaves are striped with golden tips, and the liquor when brewed is a beautiful clear amber. The scent is heavily malty, with overtones of honey and dark chocolate. The malt translates across to the sip, which is thick and bready, though I personally don’t notice the honey and chocolate comparisons translating. There’s a slight smokiness towards the end of the sip which is making this lean more towards savoury, a dark malt loaf. There’s no bitterness, the tea is very smooth, and it’s making me wonder if I could up the temperature to get a more complex flavour profile.

This is actually an unexpected sipdown, because as soon as I finished my first mug I had the urge to make another to experiment with the temperature. I used boiling water this time, and the tea is slightly more tannic with a stone fruit, almost plummy note I didn’t notice the first time around. There’s an ever-so-slight cocoa note if I squint, but the dark chocolate and honey I could smell while the tea was steeping still isn’t translating the way the scent promises. The malt is still prominent, but it’s smoother than a lot of other malt-heavy teas I’ve tried in the past, which is nice.

Thank you Sil for this sample! Sipdown 180/397.

Passing the last little bit of this off to tea friends to try. I don’t think i’ve shared this one with them but if i have…well oopsy. lol Sometimes with all the swapping over time, it’s hard to remember which i’ve shared. This one is enjoyable but is fussy…sometimes it’s SPOT on…other times, not so much.

Sipdown! (147)

Yum! It’s been long time since I first tried this one, and I’m not sure where my palate was then, but this is definitely better than an 85 now. I made this a bit strong, with a teaspoon and a half of tea, and it’s quite lovely this way. Nice and malty, there’s a teensy bit of smoke in the background but I actually love the effect it has. Very nicely balanced dark and rich tea! :)

This is my Terri Tea of the day.

Jin Jun Mei…not only do I like to pronounce its name, (i could drive you nuts by repeating it over and over again with my renown Asian accent ) but I also love it in my cup.

This smells like chocolate and smoke. It’s very “Keemuny” (yes, I invent words all the time, sorry linguistic purists!)

It’s malty and full bodied. It’s sweet and roasty, thick molassy texture in the mount. No astringency whatsoever.

It’s strong and smooth at the same time, totally my kind of guy ;-)

Thanks Terri Harplady for sharing such a good quality tea with me :-)

This smells soooo smoky. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not. It was one of those teas that I had a hard time getting past my nose. At 30 seconds, there is a savory smoke but not too strong. Similarly at 60 and 90 seconds, the background darkness is there and while there is a bit more smoke, it isn’t nearly as strong as the scent would indicate. It still never got to be really good for me – too much smoke. But very happy to be able to try it though the awesome generosity of boychik!