Jing Gu Yang Ta Yunnan Bai Mu Dan White tea * Spring 2018

I’m dipping a little further into my 2020/2021 review notebook for this one. This was one of my sipdowns from the spring of 2020, probably from either April or May. I was drinking a lot of white tea at the time, so I’m guessing that this review comes from that time of the year. It might actually be from March. I have no way of knowing. Anyway, this was a very good, very solid Yunnan Bai Mu Dan.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of the loose leaf and bud mix in 4 fluid ounces of 180 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud mix emitted aromas of hay, grass, straw, eucalyptus, cedar, and sugarcane. After the rinse, new aromas of peanut, celery, malt, and butter emerged on the nose. The first infusion introduced aromas of oats and lemon rind. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of hay, grass, malt, cream, peanut, oats, and butter that were balanced by hints of cedar, celery, straw, and eucalyptus. The majority of the subsequent infusions added aromas of tree bark, vanilla, cream, and mint. Stronger and more immediately notable impressions of celery and straw came out in the mouth alongside notes of minerals, lemon rind, tree bark, almond, honeydew, pear, sour apricot, watermelon rind, and plum. Hints of vanilla, mint, wintergreen oil, and marshmallow were also present. As the tea faded, the liquor continued to emphasize notes of minerals, hay, malt, grass, lemon rind, peanut, watermelon rind, cream, and butter that were chased by hints of vanilla, almond, straw, celery, honeydew, and pear.

This was a pleasant and incredibly drinkable Yunnan white tea. Compared to the previous spring’s production, this offering was sweeter, fruitier, and better balanced. I liked them both, but this one was noticeably better.