Angrboda

Is there any more of this sample left? I hope you get the chance to give it another go. To be honest, I included this sample with the other JJM’s because I didn’t think any of the other JJM’s were really… that good. This one was included to be the delicious counterpoint to a batch of tea that was not what I usually hope to share. This one was the really good one.

Almost all of the JJM samples I’ve gotten from friends because they’ve been trying to teach me about them and help me fall in love with them, but apart from one small sample I finished, I usually found them to be either astringent and drying in a way that was not acceptable at all for the price-point (at worst) or at best, kind of boring and not convincing me that JJM is something I would want to pursue as a kind of tea that needs to be in my cupboard all the time. So.. all of these samples sitting in a drawer in my house. But then I saw that you’d never tried JJM, and I was sending you tea anyway, and here was this stash of tea. So I sent them to you.
However, I felt pretty terrible to be sending teas that I didn’t love, that were more educational and interesting on an academic/something-to-learn about level rather than an oh-dear-where-have-you-been-all-of-my-life level. If I’m sharing tea, it should be good tea!
I thought: /I don’t want to send a big packet of JJM without having one in there that I was truly excited for you to try/, that I could stand behind and say: “here’s all of this JJM.. but this one is definitely worth drinking and loving.” You just can’t send a sampler without having a great standout example, otherwise you’ll make people think that this kind of tea just isn’t really worth all that it says it is.
But then I realized that I did have a “JJM” that I loved and was excited for you to try: this one.
So here’s my confession: this is the tea I included in your JJM packet to be the shining positive example of something good, something excellent, something that shows that JJM (at least this one) is absolutely worth having in your cupboard. This was the one I included to redeem all of the other samples which are (at least in my opinion and experience), OK.. boring.. just fine.. not as special as their prices and their hype promised. I didn’t want to just send educational theoretical teas. This was the exquisite, just for super-special-fun sample I was quite excited for you to try.

Which is why I am quite sad to see that this initial experience with it wasn’t what I thought I knew it would be for you. I would have bet money on it in a heartbeat! I regret not writing something to the effect of “super-special-awesome! savor this one- it’ll reward you” on the bag so that you could feel a flutter of excitement as the tea was steeping. Instead, it looks like the word “Yunnan” might have given you lower hopes? Factor in a diabolically cute kitten, and there you go.

I feel like I let you down and also let down this fine fine tea by not writing more about it to you before you tried it. I guess I was remembering how the higher expectations with the LaoShan black made you initially uneasy, and I didn’t want to jinx anything by letting on too much how I was looking forward to you trying this.

I really hope there’s some of this left that you could try again; I don’t have enough to spare of this to resend like I did with the autumn TGY, and because it’s a wild picked beauty, I know that when this batch runs out at Verdant, the next batches will never be exactly the same. It’s the wonderful and terrible thing about wild-pickings.

Either way, your note convinces me that I’ve got to get a real tasting note up for this tea this weekend. And if I send sample batches again, I should be more specific in what I write on samples. Ideally, I’d want to make the tea for you so we could drink and savor together, but better notes might help.

Anyway- if this experience was not as lovely as I know it should be, then it is my fault. Apologies to you, Ang, and apologies to you, Wild Picked Yunnan Jin Jun Mei.

Hope you have fun with the other random blacks (though they are from Yunnan!) and whatever else might have ended up in the package. There were quite a few.

Gah! Wow- I write a lot. It didn’t seem so long when I was typing it.

1. Don’t worry about sending stuff to others that you didn’t particular like. Even if you found something to be absolutely vile, others might have much better luck with it than you, and if they don’t like it either, they can toss it or pass it on. Point is, we try new stuff. :) So don’t feel sorry about adding the others and not feeling they were really up to scratch. I this what I have experienced with them so far is a very good example of others might have better luck. :)

2. In general, I really REALLY need to be in a specific mood to enjoy Yunnan teas, no matter what type. The exception to this is that black pearl type because they rarely actually taste of Yunnan. But for most others, it’s not at all my go-to region. They are interesting, yes, because they are so characteristic, but often I find them way too hay-like, so yeah whenever I’m presented with a known Yunnan tea, I instantly adjust my expectations down a notch. I tend to prefer the more Eastern and South-Eastern parts of China. It’s a learning process, this sort of thing. :) When I AM in the Yunnan mood, I like them a lot more, but I didn’t want to have the samples all lie around and gather dust while I waited for that to happen sometime next year.

3. As for brewing instructions, well… To be completely honest with you, chances are I would have more or less ignored them anyway. I routinely ignore whatever tea shops tell me, because I’ve reached a point where I’ve realised that they way I like it might not fit with the way they like it, and I know how I like it best. I’m especially conditioned to this attitude by AC Perchs who insists on recommending some CRAZY steep times for their stuff. A seven minutes long steep of Lapsang Souchong, for example. I don’t think so! O.o
If it was something super-compeltely new to me, I’ll have a look at instructions and adjust them accordingly, but otherwise I don’t use them. I know other people are very bound by brewing recommendations, though, so they would likely appreciate it.