Organic Daba Mountain Jade

Stacy I hate you. No, I love you. Hate you. Love you. My wallet hates you…but that doesn’t count for anything so only love for you then!

Thank you so much for allowing me to try this oh! sooo very special and unique tea!

BUT! The consequence to that is that I will now have to brake my tea fast ( I « pretend» I’m fasting on tea orders until december, that gives me a false sense of self control, which is truly non sense and pure lie)

I don’t know much about this tea but I was immediately drawn to it when I last visited Butiki’s virtual shelves.

First the shape: surprisingly hard and rigid little green needles. They are shiny, which is odd for me, can’t think of another tea in my cupboard with shiny leaves… Can you?

They almost feel like plastic between my fingers, as if they have a carapace of some kind! The fact that they are so hard makes me wonder how they will ever soften up when brewed.

In the Gaiwan they go!

First steep renders a very light yellow colour. The smell is sweet, almost corn on a cub type of sweetness. The taste is buttery yummy… sweet corn indeed, but strangely, that sweetness collides with some tangling sparks of citrus juiciness. What a pleasant yet very strange feeling that creates in my mouth.

Not to be mistaken with bitterness, it’s more of a tang biting back at you, with refreshing notes, the sharpness of pink ruby red grapefruit comes to mind.

Saltiness emerges out of the second steep. Corn, snap peas, and that tang still very present.

4th steep was pretty much the same…

I forgot 5th steep, left it for more than 4 minutes… That seemed an awful lot considering my tiny gaiwan! Did someone mentioned PEAR? Yes, it’s in Stacy’s description. Well goodbye grapefruit, hello pear! After 4 minutes, of course it’s astringent (which I personaly don’t mind when the taste is so complex and delightful). But the pear is striking! More minerals have also emerged, that makes it «salty pear seaweed» like!

At this stage, the leaves are very soft and plump, they look exactly like Lilliputian snap peas or green beens, if I ever saw some! Could it be that Stacy really got this strange little tea from one of Gulliver’s travel, or did she go pick it up herself in Liliput? Let’s just keep the mystery alive…

You can have a look here: (yeah, that’s my new thing, experimenting with tea photos…As if my life is lacking of tea surroundings!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laafeevertee/8182813649/in/photostream/lightbox/

This morning, I fainted when I got up… no big deal, I have a history of that. But I banged my head a little and felt dizzy throughout the day. (Ahh!! I hear you say, that explains the Lilliputian hallucinations!)

It’s a little scary when this situation occurs while I’m alone in the house. But Doberman Dexter came to the rescue and helped me get back on my feet :-) To help me regain my equilibrium, I needed something with special energy, a positive boost that I often find in green teas. Having read some of the reviews (Bonnie’s comment about tea-buzz) I decided it was the right moment to try it.

It gave me just what I needed. It energized me and made the worries and fears go away… I self medicated in an all natural way!

I must order this in a hurry, tea fasting is officialy over! (It never really started anyway)

This is a sweet juicy light tea. It is quite pretty to watch the leaves dance in a clear tea pot!
The flavor is almost candy like but not that sweet.
There is definitely a sweetened vegetable flavor.
Sugar snap peas perhaps.
What a difficult note to name.
I am very much enjoying it although probably not for a morning wake up cup. This is more a mid day or evening relaxation – mediation cup.
There is a sparkling sensation in the mouthfeel.
A green bean flavor peeks out now and then.
Slightly buttery but not too much.
Although you can’t get TOO buttery in my opinion :)
Very thirst quenching!
I normally like teas that are a bit stronger, more robust yet I can absolutely appreciate the delicate nature of this tea.
A “feminine” tea in my book.
One you may share at a tea party with some cookies or biscuits.
Dainty and delicate yet the flavors are there!

Thank you again Stacy for this Sample tea

How does Stacy find such unusual tea’s? So far I’ve had coin shaped Pu-erh, hand wrapped little cigars of green tea, tea from small farms in Africa. Now a tea with dancing needles!
The handwritten note on my latest order instructed me to brew this Daba in a clear glass vessel because the needles stand up in the water! Oh really?!

I was having company this afternoon and thought it would be fun to share this special tea. The needles at first went to the top of the glass…then the tails dropped like little sea horses and danced in the pale liquor. Little green legs…dangling down…waiting for a wave or current to carry them further out to sea. How fun to watch!

First sip…the flavor was somewhat bitter. Maybe I had oversteeped in my excitement. The taste is very subtle and not very vegital. There is a bit of hay and tannin. The presentation was keen but the flavor was not that good.

Later in the evening, I thought I would give the tea a second chance. First steepings are often not the best. I should have known better (duh) and immediately steeped again.

I’m so glad I resteeped this tea! There is a sweetness that I did not expect! The tannin is there but gentle, there is juice and a light spinach flavor which is delightful.

Other aspects of this tea:
This tea created a nice tea buzz! Really! This was noticed by both me and my guest. You could feel the little electricity that tea can bring to the center of your body…then to the brain and back in such an interesting way. I know we’ve all felt this before…but this tea was a really good conductor! Just say’in….

Thanks Stacy!