Jingmai Mountain Wild Arbor Black Tea of Spring 2018

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Tea Leaves
Flavors
Almond, Black Pepper, Bread, Butter, Caramel, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Cream, Earth, Ginger, Green Beans, Hazelnut, Lemon Zest, Malt, Marshmallow, Mineral, Molasses, Nutmeg, Orange Zest, Peanut, Raisins, Red Apple, Sugarcane, Tobacco, Vanilla, Walnut, Asparagus, Broccoli, Melon, Peach, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
6 g 4 oz / 118 ml

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2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Yay, I’m back on Steepster after a hellacious three days of work. I put in a 10 hour day on Saturday followed by an 8-9 hour day Sunday and then another 10 hour day yesterday. Today is the closest...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “It never ceases to surprise me how many excellent variations of the basic tippy dianhong tea exist. This is one of them. This tea has a strong base of sweet potatoes and baked bread but on top of...” Read full tasting note
    91

From Yunnan Sourcing

Jingmai Mountain area is a large area in the southern part of Lancang county of Simao Prefecture. There are more than 50 villages in the Jingmai mountain range, almost all are involved in tea cultivation and processing. Our Jingmai Wild Arbor tea is made from a naturally occurring Jingmai assamica varietal that is naturally hybridized and smaller in scale than pure assamica.

The tea brews up a chocolate and floral sweetness much like a Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, but with it’s own unique character.

April 2018 harvest!

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

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2 Tasting Notes

85
1048 tasting notes

Yay, I’m back on Steepster after a hellacious three days of work. I put in a 10 hour day on Saturday followed by an 8-9 hour day Sunday and then another 10 hour day yesterday. Today is the closest thing I have gotten to an off day in the last week, and I am technically still on the clock now. Anyway, this was one of my most recent sipdowns, as I finished the last of my 50g pouch of this tea Saturday morning. I have always perceived Jingmai black teas to be floral and citric in character, but this one was very nutty, herbal, and spicy. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it struck me as lacking some of the more typical characteristics of the Jingmai terroir.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 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, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves presented aromas of roasted walnut, roasted peanut, raisin, earth, tobacco, cinnamon, and cocoa. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of malt, roasted almond, and butter. The first infusion introduced aromas of baked bread and vanilla. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of roasted walnut, roasted peanut, earth, cooked green beans, tobacco, cream, malt, and baked bread that were balanced by subtler impressions of butter, raisin, honey, roasted almond, and cocoa. The bulk of the subsequent infusions coaxed out additional aromas of honey, sugarcane, black pepper, roasted hazelnut, and nutmeg. Stronger and more immediately notable impressions of butter, honey, raisin, roasted almond, and cocoa appeared in the mouth alongside impressions of caramel, molasses, sugarcane, minerals, orange zest, roasted hazelnut, red apple, nutmeg, and ginger. I also detected hints of cinnamon, marshmallow, black pepper, vanilla, and lemon zest. As the tea shifted and faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, earth, malt, cream, butter, cooked green beans, orange zest, roasted hazelnut, roasted peanut, and roasted walnut that were chased by hints of honey, raisin, cocoa, caramel, vanilla, baked bread, tobacco, and red apple.

This was a very rich, soothing, gentle black tea with tremendous depth and complexity in the mouth. While I would have liked to see some floral character and more of a citrus presence, this was still a very nice, refined offering overall. Fans of dark, nutty black teas would undoubtedly be thrilled with this tea.

Flavors: Almond, Black Pepper, Bread, Butter, Caramel, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Cream, Earth, Ginger, Green Beans, Hazelnut, Lemon Zest, Malt, Marshmallow, Mineral, Molasses, Nutmeg, Orange Zest, Peanut, Raisins, Red Apple, Sugarcane, Tobacco, Vanilla, Walnut

Preparation
6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
mrmopar

Time for a break and a hot cuppa my friend. My work has been crazy as well with the long days.

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91
226 tasting notes

It never ceases to surprise me how many excellent variations of the basic tippy dianhong tea exist. This is one of them. This tea has a strong base of sweet potatoes and baked bread but on top of that has many sweet fruity and vegetable notes: peach, melon, floral, asparagus, spinach, broccoli. The taste is complex and enjoyable and remains enjoyable in the subsequent Western-style steepings (it did lose a lot of nuances, though) with hazelnuts coming forward strong.

This tea is very sensitive to water: to appreciate all of the nuances one needs to use sweet spring water. The overarching tea character is not one of the relaxation and lazy savoring – it is a very energetic, uplifting tea that is well suited to be one of the midday drinks at work. In that respect, this tea is not that dissimilar to more refined Keemuns. My only complaint is the regrettable lack of a lingering aftertaste , which Keemuns, for example, have in spades.

Nevertheless, this is tea is very good and worthy of a reorder. I will look if they have an imperial grade for this tea though since this tea would have a potential to be awesome.

Flavors: Asparagus, Bread, Broccoli, Hazelnut, Melon, Peach, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes

eastkyteaguy

I just got a pouch of this one like a couple weeks ago. In general, I find Yunnan Sourcing’s black teas to be very good. I think I may even have an unopened pouch of the Spring 2017 version of this tea somewhere.

Bluegreen

Eastkyteaguy, do you think that black Yunnan teas retain their taste well over time? I read that some of them can even improve with time like puerhs but find it hard to believe…
I always try to buy the latest harvest but some teas are available only as the 2017 or even 2016 harvest … and they are often discounted so I am having a harder time in convincing myself to stick to the 2018 harvest lately.

LuckyMe

I have a few 1-2 year old YS black teas that have held up quite well. That being said, I don’t think any of them have improved with time. Just no noticeable loss of freshness or flavor as tends to happen with green teas and oolongs.

eastkyteaguy

Bluegreen, I agree wholeheartedly with LuckyMe’s comment, as I would also say that Yunnan black teas don’t improve over time so much as they retain their character longer than many other teas. I would still want to drink most of them within 24-36 months of harvest though.

Bluegreen

Thank you. It makes me feel better. Yunnan Sourcing has enough 2018 red teas to try as it is without the nagging thought that I may need to check out the previous year’s harves as well.

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