Here is another sipdown from very early in the year. This was actually the tea I finished immediately before the Yi Mei Ren I just reviewed. I tend to like the Jingmai purple needle black teas offered by Yunnan Sourcing, and this one struck me as being a more or less excellent one. I always feel like offerings of this type are some of the most underrated in Yunnan Sourcing’s portfolio.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This initial infusion was followed 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 tea leaves emitted aromas of raisin, pine, cinnamon, malt, straw, and black cherry. After the rinse, aromas of roasted almond, roasted peanut, cream, sugarcane, strawberry, and blood orange appeared. The first infusion added juniper, pear, and red apple aromas in addition to a subtle grassy scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of cream, malt, earth, butter, strawberry, straw, pine, roasted almond, and blood orange that were supported by subtler impressions of sugarcane, red pear, red apple, cinnamon, raisin, blueberry, blackberry, plum, oats, honey, baked bread, and cooked green beans. The majority of the subsequent infusions added orange zest, lemon zest, blackberry, earth, nutmeg, violet, plum, mineral, baked bread, and cedar aromas to the tea’s bouquet. Stronger and more immediately detectable impressions of plum, blackberry, baked bread, blueberry, sugarcane, and cooked green beans emerged in the mouth alongside notes of black cherry, minerals, lemon zest, cedar, violet, orange zest, and caramel. I also found hints of roasted peanut, grass, juniper, chocolate, nutmeg, and grapefruit. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, malt, cream, roasted almond, orange zest, caramel, baked bread, sugarcane, and lemon zest that were chased by lingering hints of grass, blueberry, blackberry, blood orange, pine, raisin, grapefruit, plum, red pear, and violet.
This was an extremely complex black tea with an absolutely lovely mix of aromas and flavors. It was truly impressive how harmoniously every aroma and flavor was integrated into the whole and how superbly balanced the tea liquor felt. If I had to point out any notable flaws, I would point out that I found this tea to be a bit busy and somewhat filling, but aside from those two relatively minor issues, I would be hard pressed to find anything negative to say about it. This was very much an offering worth digging into and savoring. I now wish that I had gone ahead and picked up at least one of the two most recent productions.
Flavors: Almond, Blackberry, Blood Orange, Blueberry, Bread, Butter, Caramel, Cedar, Cherry, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Cream, Earth, Grapefruit, Grass, Green Beans, Herbaceous, Honey, Lemon Zest, Malt, Mineral, Nutmeg, Oats, Orange Zest, Peanut, Pear, Pine, Plum, Raisins, Red Apple, Straw, Strawberry, Sugarcane, Violet
Yes, I like purple needle black teas from Yunnan Sourcing as well. They offer such a variety of them that I never felt the need to look for them from other tea merchants…which makes me wonder if there are even much better ones offered by someone else.
Of the ones they offer regularly, this one and the Feng Qing Ye Sheng are always my two favorites. I like the Dehong purple black teas too, but I find them to be a little more inconsistent. I’ve also never bothered investigating the Yunnan purple teas sold by other vendors, save for one from What-Cha, which I’m assuming was actually initially procured from the same place as the one from Yunnan Sourcing. I know Alistair collaborates with Scott on sourcing pu-erh and has publicly acknowledged that he and several other vendors purchase identical or similar teas from the same sources. Some of these teas are very niche products, and presumably only certain individuals or groups are going to be producing them. It’s also worth considering that only so many tea producers are going to be willing to do business with international vendors, so even if there are other producers out there, it may not be possible for us in the West to obtain their products.
Apparently, TheTea.pl has a good Ye Sheng purple tea, though I haven’t tried it. I’m kind of on the fence about purple teas. I haven’t tried that many, and some of them have been quite raisiny and funky. I actually think I have this purple needle tea somewhere and should dig it out.
eastkyteaguy, thank you for your reply – very informative.
Leafhopper, thank you for mentioning TheTea.pl – I have never heard of them.
TheTea has some interesting stuff. Their unsmoked Wild Tong Mu Guan Lapsang Souchong is awesome!
TheTea.pl seems like a good opinion for me. Because they are still in the EU. Getting stuff from UK seems like a nightmare nowadays :( Sorry Alistair!
Martin, their prices can be a bit high, but they offer 10 g samples of some of their teas. It’s worth a try.