Thousand Tael Tea "Hua Juan", 2001

Thank you JC for this sample tea!

I’m a little late with my review today…had a ‘Senior Moment’ and ran out of gas in town. Too bad that the spot was in front of my favorite Tea House and it was closed for inventory. UGH!

This inconvenience just made getting home to tea all the more welcome!

Ever since I read JC’s review of Thousand Tael Tea with the little yellow flowers in it, I’ve wanted to try some.
He had graciously offered to send some to me…and what a wonderful addition to my New Years this is!

When you first read about the little organisms called flowers, you might feel ‘creeped out’ about them. I mean, what are they?! These little dots that are called ‘flowers’ are organisms that change the picked green tea leaves into drinkable tea.
The color changes, the health benefits found in tea are due to these good little flowers. Drinking them is good for the body in many ways.

The tea I used was crumbly as I lifted it apart with my puerh knife to expose the little yellow dots of ‘flowers’. I was going to drink this ‘science project’ looking tea with great interest.

I used 1 gram leaf to 1 oz. water and rinsed it once.
Steeping was 6 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds (ick), 10 seconds.

JC went into detail on his tasting so I’ll be brief.

At first taste, I thought of unsalted chicken broth (although it was a little sweeter than chicken broth). I didn’t spend much time thinking about the flavor, first steeps are usually misleading.

The second steep was still savory with a honey walnut aftertaste that made me think of walnut honey shrimp. OK, I was loosing it. Maybe I was hungry. The tea was pinging my taste memories like a pinball machine but in strange non-puerh territory.

If I steeped the leaves a little longer, I thought, maybe I would get a grip and find the base flavor I need to identify the flavor for this puerh!

So, I lengthened the time to 20 seconds which was a big mistake.
There was an odd rutabaga, sweet straw, vegital taste that was a bad move. Blech.

Back to 10 second steeping went I.
The taste was walnut, sweet with a slightly savory flavor but no straw. This was good and a little bit salty. Not dry or astringent.

I wouldn’t be afraid of the little yellow flowers, you don’t see or taste them when you make the tea. The tea flavor is mild. (Then again this is a 2001 which is very mellow)

Quick Notes I added the picture of the tea, it looks like a perfect cut of a log, and honestly it smells like one too.

Dry Leaf – Old tree bark, old wooden library.
Wet Leaf – Sweet, woody, eucalyptus.
Liquor – Yellowish/Golden Bronze
Gong Fu Style in Porcelain Gaiwan 5oz/4g

1st 5secs – Sweet, woody and eucalyptus freshness. At some points seems to resemble an elder flower or linden tea. Very refreshing.

2nd 10secs – Sweet, refreshing with woody/grassy/herbaceous notes that become slightly savory and earthy but fades into very refreshing sweetness.

3rd 15secs – Sweet, woody and refreshing. As it washes down it again resembles herbaceous tea. The aftertaste is sweet and very refreshing.

4th 20secs – Sweet, woody and refreshing up front. As it goes down it tastes like linden/elder flower tea (herbaceous) notes before it becomes sweet and refreshing again.

5th 30secs – Sweet, woody and refreshing up front. As it goes down it has woody/savory notes before the herbaceous elder flower/linden tea taste. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.

6th 50secs – Woody, refreshing and sweet upfront. The savory woody notes becomes more apparent but fades into herbaceous sweetness. The aftertaste is extremely refreshing.

Final Notes This is not a Puerh, is a Heicha (to me they are their own category). This tea extremely refreshing, the most refreshing one I’ve had besides tea with mint added/eucalyptus added. I can only compare it to having a herbal tea blend of Linden elderflower Holy Basil and maybe some ecalyptus (not as bold as the blend but perhaps a second steep of this blend).
It is so tighly packed that it looks like a single piece of wood at first sight, after I pryed it, it was easy to see the leaves and the small ‘Jin Hua’ or golden flowers in between them. I did two short washes of the leaves and the washes themselves had extreme sweet and camphor scents. I was doing short to extremely long steeps, it doesn’t seem to go bitter or astringent at all and it takes an amazing amount of steeps well(did around 12 going strong).