JK Tea Shop

I haven’t had that many Phoenix Dancong teas before, but I never really was that fond of them until I purchased this sample.
When I was about to place my order, I figured I could add some cheap samples to try out. I am glad I did.
The first brewed cup had quite a smokey flavor and a slight fruity flavor in the background.
The second cup had very little smokeyness and was a lot more fruity than the first cup I brewed.
The third cup was very similar to the second cup I brewed, but a bit lighter, in a good way.
The fourth cup was worth brewing, but not that special tasting. Most of the sweetness had subsided and there was a vague fruity aroma left, but still an enjoyable cup.

I only used 2,5 grams and steeped the tea for 1:00, second 1:30, third 2:00 and fourth cup for 3:00.

I will definitely buy some more of this tea and also try out different varieties of Phoenix Dancong tea.

I took this sample to New York to share with my father and cousin. It was a little bit confusing identifying which tea this was, as the name on the bag isn’t the same as the name on the website. I had to go into my order history to make sure which tea this was. I don’t have too much to say about this. I brewed it very strong, because my family is used to drinking very strong bagged black teas. It probably would have done much better with less leaf and a shorter steep time. It was very good anyhow, and I might even be making some progress in converting my father from drinking Barry’s to a loose leaf tea. This one was a pretty typical Lapsang with notes of sweet potato, malt, and chocolate.

Finishing off my sample of this tea. I enjoy this tea pretty well, but a white tea has to be exceptional for me to really crave it, and this one doesn’t really fit that category. It’s a pretty standard Fuding silver needle, and I do enjoy those a bit more than some others. But this one doesn’t really have the sweet marshmallowyness that they can sometimes get, so it doesn’t really find a place in my cupboard.

Second gongfu session of the day. I ordered a sample of this tea because I really enjoy Verdant’s reserve Fuding white tea, and thought I would check this one out.

I would say that although this one doesn’t really approach the quality of Verdant’s, it’s a decent tea. Not quite sweet, but with allusions to the marshmallow notes I was hoping for. A bit of hay, a tiny floral note. I’m fairly picky about white teas (in that I’m not huge on white teas so one has to be really impressive or unique to win me over), so I’m glad I have just a sample of this one, but it won’t be too hard to finish it.

After having a gongfu session of this on today, I have to give it a big meh. For my tastes, it doesn’t hit all the buttons that I want in an unflavored black tea.

However, if you like Yunnan blacks, and robust teas, you may like this one. It’s a Yunnan that edges toward an Assam in overall robustness (though with a distinctly Yunnan flavor)

Even though I’m not the biggest on yunnan blacks, I ordered a sample of this tea from JK because I do like some (particularly Fengqing, like the black pearls) and I once read someone who drinks a lot of gongfu black tea said it was their favorite black tea. Since I was able to get a sample, I thought I’d give it a try. First trial western steeped, and I’ll do a gongfu session with it at some point.

Well it smells like a yunnan. A bit potatoey, a bit hay-ish. Not quite honeyed, not quite cocoa. The first sips are kind of bitter, but as I drink more the main body of the sip becomes sweeter. The bitterness creeps back in the aftertaste, but it is light. I may try this with less leaf, or less time. The flavor is more like an unrolled black pearl that the steeped tea initially smelled like. This cup is a bit “robust” for me, but otherwise I am relatively pleased with this tea.

Finally finished this one up today. I had bought some of this to try it out because a Jin Xuan processed as a black tea intrigued me. But it turns out I’m not the hugest fan of Taiwanese black teas, and this was definitely a somewhat typical Taiwanese black. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the sweetness and grains that it has, but there were some other notes that didn’t sit quite right with me. Glad to have tried it, though.

Blergh. The last time I had this tea (#42), I thought it was very tasty. Today, not so much. I am leaving the rating in the mid-80s since apparently I am fairly schizophrenic about this tea. I really think that it’s mostly that my tastebuds have decided that Taiwanese blacks are not the teas for me.

Just noticed that the last tea I drank was a Jin Xuan (milk oolong), this one is a Jin Xuan (black tea), and the next tea on my list is actually another milk oolong (but a TGY). What a weird spot in my cupboard.

I am supposed to be reviewing teas more regularly because I am officially within 10 tasting notes of 2000 notes. I should be able to do that before I leave for Europe in a week!

I couldn’t remember how I usually steeped this one, so I guessed, and it came out SO GOOD. Gotta do it next time too. Very sweet and lovely. I don’t reach for this one often and it is finicky, but it can be awesome if you catch it in the right mood.

I’ve made my way back around to my order from JK tea shop, of which two of the teas are left. The first time I had this I wasn’t super impressed. I mean, I enjoyed it but it tasted mostly like a regular Taiwanese black tea (so, fruity and honeyed) but it didn’t have a lot to keep me interested and there was an edge of bitterness at the parameters I brewed it.

Today I dropped my steep temp; I seem to prefer most black teas at less than boiling anyway. And today this tea is really quite delicious. I’ve lost a lot of the “harsh” fruitiness, that overly fruity quality that I dislike. Instead it is sweet, honeyed, caramelly, and the grains come out way more. Last time I said it smelled like a cross between a Fujian and a Taiwanese black. At boiling, the flavor was all Taiwanese black, but at 195°F, those notes relax a bit and the Fujian makes itself known. There is still a bit of fruity Taiwanese black hanging out, though.

All in all, this is a way more interesting and way more delicious tea. Glad I made it with these parameters.

This is the only tea that I ordered from JK Tea Shop in larger than a sample size, namely because they didn’t have a sample size option. But I just had to try it, so 50g it is! A black tea made with Jinxuan cultivar? It sounded awesome.

The dry leaf is dark with some golden flecks. It’s not long and wiry, but not quite balled-up either. It smells awesome, like molasses and toasted grains (like molasses-based horse feed if you’ve smelled it… I say that and people think that sounds weird but that stuff actually smells amazing). Anyway, it’s definitely a smell that I enjoy, and one that many of my favorite black teas have.

I decided to do a western steep first, and my default black tea parameters since I’ve never had this type of tea before. The steeped tea smells sweet, a bit honeyed, with some dried apricot notes. It is not unlike some Taiwanese black teas that I have had before, though with a grain undertone. Like some kind of mix between a Taiwanese and Fujian black.

The flavor is sweet and a bit fruity. Definitely reminds me of a Taiwanese black, which I suppose isn’t that surprising considering it’s a jin xuan cultivar, even if it is being grown on the mainland. As it cools there is a hint of bitterness that is creeping out; I’ll have to mess around with the steeping parameters of this. Overall this is pretty nice but not overly special. There is not much to it that would make me choose it over a Taiwanese black.

Ok, after having my gongfu session with this tea today, I can say that I am kind of disappointed in it considering it is supposed to be very high grade.

So first off, the flavor is not very complex or interesting. I look for butteriness, florals, perhaps a hint of fruit, and fresh leafy flavor. The first couple of steeps (post rinse) were kind of bland and almost savory, which is just wrong in an oolong like this IMO. As it progressed I steeped a bit longer and got some florals to peek out, but the savoriness got stronger as well. Then the florals left and there was only spinach soup. When I steeped this western style I thought I had oversteeped it and masked the delicate flavors, but now I see there just weren’t really any delicate flavors to begin with.

Also, I pulled a few leaves out and they were not whole, but rather with raggedy edges and missing ends. No attached leaf-bud pairs, and no intact, non-shredded leaves. Yeah, not the quality I was expecting. Disappointing, but there are plenty of other TGYs in the sea.

Another JK Tea sample! I ordered this one because although I am totally satisfied with my TGY options from Teavivre and Verdant, I was curious. JK Tea Shop sells by a grade system from 1A–6A, 6A being the most expensive and high end. My sample has two vacuum-sealed packets, one of which I am using for western-style brewing now and the other I will use for gongfu.

Unsurprisingly, the dry leaf looks and smells lovely. Tight little balls of dark green shot with streaks of light green, smelling fresh, green, and floral. Steeped up, the florals recall lilacs, thick and heady. A slight vegetal note, and a hint of butter underneath.

I do wonder if my leaf to water ratio was too high this time. I feel like the cup is “too packed” with flavor—bordering on too vegetal—to allow the more delicate flavors to come out. For sure it is floral and very nice, but it’s not as buttery and sweet as Teavivre’s. Will be interested to see how this one comes out in gongfu. I also wish I could try their 6A autumn picking… perhaps another time!

Sipdown for this one. This was a very tasty Tan Yang, and I’m glad I tried it out. I will say that I don’t think that it’s necessarily spectacular; it’s quite delicious, obviously high quality, and I drank it up pretty quickly, but it doesn’t make me go WOW. It has nice grain flavor, molasses, honey, and a hint of raisin.

Overall my experience with JK Tea Shop has been that their teas are all really tasty and high quality, but nothing unique enough to drive me to order regularly from them. This Tan Yang has been my favorite, and would be a contender for a future order had anything else also caught my tastebuds. But I’m glad I’ve tried some of their teas now! I was always curious about them.

A day for penultimate cups. Pretty much everything has one cup left after the one I am drinking, including this one. I still have to try this one back to back with my Tan Yang that I brought back from Beijing, so I guess I will be doing that next time I have it! This is nice; sweet, malty, honeyed, grainy. This time I used a bit more tea in my cup and I was afraid it might come out too strong, but it was quite delicious. Certainly a high quality tan yang.

I drank this one yesterday but didn’t log it. I still think I need to drink this one back to back with my Beijing tan yang to properly evaluate it. It’s a really tasty tan yang, it hits what I normally expect from a tan yang. Wish I had some of Harney’s Panyang Golden Tips to compare as well! So this is a lame placeholder tasting note to basically say that I did drink it in my chronology.

So! Finally healthy enough that I feel like trying some of my new teas. I ordered from JK Tea Shop around Black Friday because I have wanted to try them for a while, but the package came right before I left to travel for the holidays (much like my ATR order) so I haven’t tried anything from it. I’ve wanted to try JK Tea Shop for a while since they are a direct from China seller, and they offer some unique Chinese teas that you don’t find elsewhere. Fortunately they also sell 15g samples on most of their teas (something a lot of sellers in China do not do!). I ordered a number of black tea samples and a few others.

I am in love with the Tan Yang I brought back from China almost two years ago now (Yong Sheng), but I haven’t found another that I love as much to restock once I run out. There are some other good ones (Teavivre’s, Harney’s golden tips), but none that really replace my Maliandao purchase. I am brewing this one like I have brewed the others in the past as a first run.

The dry leaf is promising. Very golden, and smelling like sweet, rich, molasses-y grains. Steeped, the scent is similar… grainy, a bit sweet, and a bit of raisin or prune notes to it. The flavor is good but not strong enough; however, I think that’s a steeping parameters issue primarily. I will definitely use more tea next time. This one is pretty much different from all the other Tan Yangs I’ve tried so far, perhaps most similar to Harney’s, and somewhat reminiscent of Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu. Fairly malty, leaving a light sweetness in the aftertaste, though lighter than some others (again this may be a steeping issue, however). Molasses notes, primarily, not quite caramel as in the Yong Sheng. More raisin than apricot. A bit of nuttiness (missing in others besides the Yong Sheng).

This is quite good. As for pricing, this is nearly identical to Teavivre’s (both being nearly half the price of Harney’s); unfortunately I don’t have any of Teavivre’s Tan Yang to try back to back with this one, although I will have to dig out my Yong Sheng soon. This one may be a slightly better match.

Great stuff.
has a warmed milk taste, along with expected toasted malty nutty grain qualities.

best brewed in a cup where it wont clog the teapot and you can eat the grains* with a spoon.

Good non-caffeinated drink for a change.

Tasty and seems to foster a pleasant healthy feeling in the body.

technically its not really a grain.

EDIT: having tried it a few more times, using thermometer to ensure close to 70 celcius I can say that is starting to grow on me. It has a thick, nourishing quality like green food powder supplements.
will try a fresh higher grade matcha next time.

This is my first experience with Matcha.
I was hoping for bright super fresh ‘ultimate green tea’ experience.
however it turned out to taste and feel rather flat. certainly much less fresh and cleansing than just about any quality green tea leaf that I have come across.
perhaps this is due to the fact that I am drinking it approx one year after production, and being powdered, it ages fast.
the color was olive green.

I will probably pass this one as a gift to someone who can get better use from it.