jing tea shop

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Tea of the morning here. I did not gong fu this beautiful tea because I was in a hurry, it is quite delicious steeped in a mug for 4 minutes Western style. I was impressed by the red tea sampler from Jing and would not hesitate to buy more from this company, their oolongs are also really good.

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Tea of the morning here, finishing off the last of the red tea sampler from Jing, which was excellent. This is a very refined keemun, winey but gentle. See previous notes for more details.

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Tea of the morning here… this is nice if you steep it in the gaiwan for about a minute. I think keemun is perhaps an acquired taste and I have not really embraced it.

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Flavor notes: Classic BMD. Clover and a little cedarwood when hot; sweeter and milder iced.
Mouthfeel: A substantial lingering astringency which I find pleasant; a thin body; negligible lees
Appearance: Spindly but unbroken beautiful furry leaves; a clear liquor that ranges from pale yellow to a deeper mahogany color depending on the steep time and strength.

A staple tea. The best value BMD I’ve had; inexpensive but delicious. It’s great to make iced after dinner, or take to work/school in the morning. I brew it with a gaiwan sometimes just for kicks but it’s perhaps best brewed western-style by the parameters below or something similar. It can take a pretty long brew without getting bitter, like most white teas, so feel free to play around. (But remember to use a high volume of leaf because these leaves are both broad and spindly!)

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I have had this tea for a while but just got around to tasting it tonight. I admit one thing that attracted me to it was the 15 year shelf life.

So anyway I love wuyi teas and this was not cheap – also rated AAA but I figure I can afford to indulge every once in a while.

1st steep: This went into the Yixing teapot at around 180F for 30 seconds. Yum! I really like this darkly roasted tea. It has flavors of coffee and roasted cherry with a hint of sugar cane. Yum, yum yum! I guess the heavy baking here makes the difference, but to me it does not taste charbroiled or burnt, which is a bonus.

2nd steep: Still hearty, rich and delicious. I am getting some plum notes coming up. This tea is reminiscent of a fine wine and has a very sweet/roasted finish kind of like buckwheat.

This is the last of the red tea samples I got from Jing Tea Shop – I have not had the chance to try this particular one yet.

I decided to go for two short steeps in the gaiwan – for around 30 seconds. Its a very smooth tea which is characteristic of Chinese reds, very malty and chocolatey with a slight floral note. I like it.

Second two round of steepings were for 60 seconds. Now the tea is a bit gentler and has some light caramel notes which are great. This is an easy tea to drink straight. I will have to try steeping it the traditional Western way as well.

Definitely a good tea but I don’t think there’s anything about it which makes me want to buy any more…

This was a free sample kindly provided by jing tea shop in my latest order.

hmmm, I am pretty biased, Chinese green teas do not generally thrill me unless they’re bold like gunpowder or chun mee, I’m more of a Japanese green tea person so keep that in mind as you’re reading this review.

I steeped this tea for around 2.5 minutes at 180F. I must say the leaves smell wonderfully fresh. I got a very light tea liquor. The flavor is slightly vegetal with a bit of nuttiness, similar to a dragonwell. It has a really nice mouth-feel with a tiny bit of astringency at the end. Other people noticed smokiness – where? I am not finding it!

I wish I could think of something more exciting to say about this. I definitely did not hate it, but it also doesn’t make much of an impression on me. I think I will take the rest of my sample home (about 3.5 grams) and see what happens when I gong fu it.

Tea: 4/4 of the red tea sampler set
I’m really not such a huge fan of keemun, but this isn’t bad at all.

I broke my glass teapot last night, what a bummer. As much as I love glass teaware I have to admit it isn’t very practical. I guess I have an excuse to get one of those “For Life” teapots I’ve been eyeing.

After two minutes, this steeps up to be a nice reddish-brown. It isn’t smoky at all. I’m getting some nice chocolate notes with a gentle sort of pungency that reminds me slightly of red wine. This is quite a bit softer and milder than other keemuns I have tried, and tastes very clean to me.

I’m pretty impressed with jing tea shop so far, everything I’ve tried has been delightful. I would probably rate this higher if I were a true keemun lover.

3/4 of the red tea sampler from jing tea shop. I wanted something this morning I could drink without additions.

The leaves are very dark, thin and wiry. I put a pinch in my glass teapot and then steeped for 3 minutes. The tea liquor is a medium orangish-brown. The aroma of the tea is cocoa, while the flavor itself has a rich nuttiness which reminds me of walnuts, and a touch of honey. Others have commented on the citrus, and I am also picking up an orange peel type of flavor here and also a touch of spice. It reminds me ever so slightly of a fine cognac.

The tea is rich and smooth with almost no astringency and certainly no bitterness. A slight sweetness in the aftertaste. Since I’ve had a few dan cong oolongs recently I’m trying to see what the resemblance might be, but am not picking up on a lot of parallels right now.

A lovely and delightful treat, for the morning time or anytime. It almost seems like you could make a decadent dessert out of this one. Perhaps it would be good as a pudding or as an ice cream.

This tea is simply incredible! I ordered 50 grams of this, and meanwhile some of you may recall I had a bad experience with a bitter dancong tea & I was ready to write off them off totally!

Anyway, I am persistent (some might say stubborn, lol). I tried this last night and was very pleased but thought I would write a proper tasting note for it this morning.

I put a pinch of leaves in the gaiwan and then used water that was around 180F. After a quick rinse I steeped the tea for 20-30 seconds. What I got was a tea that is light yellow and has a nutty aroma with a sweet honey and lychee flavor. I am happy! This tea is not bitter at all and has a lingering sweet aftertaste.

The second steep is also lovely! The aroma of the wet leaves is slightly toasty with honeysuckle filling the air. The tea is mild with a very smooth, sweet taste. I wonder if this is more heavily roasted than the other ones I had and perhaps that mellows it out a bit? Whatever it is, I am not complaining!

Third infusion I let go for about 45 seconds. I am getting a thicker, oiler type of tea liquor still with a lot of sweetness. There’s a tiny bit of bitterness lurking in the background but I am not too bothered by it. Still, I can see that keeping the steep times short will be the key for enjoying this one. And it is very good! I’m happy to have found one I really liked! It is also AAA grade and fairly pricey so I certainly won’t be drinking it every day.

I think Jing Tea Shop has a new customer for life. :)

_{Backlogging and based partially on memory but mostly on my notes}

Experience buying from Jing Tea Shop http://steepster.com/places/2780-jing-tea-shop-on-line—

I bought a sample of this with an order from them during the late spring of 2011. I brewed it up a couple of times since then.

It looked like any quality Tie Guan Yin I had ever seen pictures of in that it had dark green leaves rolled in tight balls; it smelled fresh and vegetal.

I did six steepings starting out at 187F and 30" and used slightly hotter water and added 15" for each successive one.

Flavor: my notes say it was good through the fifth steeping, but no notes on the sixth (except that I did one).

I believe this was my first TGY (so no rating), thus watching the leaves slowly unfurl through each steeping was quite an experience for me.

The only notes about the wet leaf: “Almost no pieces; nice, full, large, army-green colored leaves with serrated edges”. That’s all I have for now. I still have some, so I hope to update this at some later time.One a final note, I am very slowly starting to appreciate the wonder that is Oolong Tea!

I gave some of this to my sweetie and he made it this morning. Even he was impressed and says it tasted like chocolate. We are getting very spoiled by all this yumminess!

This is another tea I got in the red tea sample pack from Jing Teas. I also wanted to mention that their customer service people were very nice; all of my e-mails with questions abut shipping and status were answered in less than 12 hours.

I am delighted when smelling the dry leaf that it has a definite aroma of chocolate covered cherries!

I steeped this in the infuser mug for around 2 minutes and got a medium reddish-brown liquor. This tea is mild with somewhat of a nutty and date flavor, a little bit of malt. It has a lovely lingering aftertaste of caramel on the palette, and no bitterness, but there is something slightly spicy in the finish. I think I liked yesterday’s selection a bit more (Ying De Hong Cha) but this is still very good! Someday I will need to try gong fu’ing these samples.

I am spoiling myself with these lovely black teas I’ve been drinking lately, but don’t I deserve the very finest flown in from Hong Kong? Mwa ha ha!

This is the second time I have written this note due to technical difficulties. :(

I got the Ying De Hong Cha as part of the red tea sampler from Jing Tea Shop.

The dry leaves are very earthy and chocolatey smelling. This was steeped in my infuser mug for around 90 seconds, which yielded a lovely dark red clear infusion.

There’s a lot of nice things going on with this tea. I was sipping on it plain, and it has malty and chocolatey notes but with a surprising amount of depth. The finish is very smooth and sweet with a touch of fruity element, perhaps cherry or plum. I could see having this as an after dinner tea, perhaps with some cookies. It also is making a terrific afternoon tea for me though!

I tried adding some soymilk and this really brought out the creaminess, so that it almost feels like I’m drinking a caramel & chocolate latte. In contrast to the Ceylon I had this morning, this is really rich and soothing.

I got a second steep out of it, which was lighter. This steep had more caramel and fruit notes with less chocolate and malt but it was still delicious!

Definitely a keeper in my opinion and I’d buy the full size with no problem!

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