JK Tea Shop

Currently this tea is seriously underrated so I had to write a review as this is my favorite tea.

This tea does not contain buds like almost any other tea. It is picked one leaf at a time, which makes this tea special in many ways. It’s appearance (very fresh light to dark green) looks fabulous, smell is brilliant and the taste is top notch. The taste is fresh, complex, floral and sweet without any bitterness. It not grassy at all like some teas and it is not blunt either. The taste is very enjoyable and I could drink this anytime of the day.

In my opinion this is superior to Longjing (Dragon Well) tea. This tea is also baked but not as much as Longjing. Additionally Liu An Gua Pian tea leafs are much bigger and round when brewed. For my taste Longjing has some bitterness that I cannot taste in Liu An Gua Pian and also more floral taste which adds to complexity.

Let’s not forgot that this tea is produced very traditionally which makes it rather unique. I like the fact that this is a very honest tea from hard working farmers. I respect their effort to make this special tea.

The only downside might be the price. This is quite expensive tea after all. However if you count the fact that this tea is very pure as it only contains leafs without buds which add weight and has negative effect on the taste, this tea seems well worth the price. It’s always a joy to brew this tea and everyone should try it. I cannot think of any reason why most people would not like this tea. Liu An Gua Pian is the very best of green teas. I plan to order much bigger quantity next time so that I can enjoy this more often.

Brew peacefully!

Sweet apricot and a strong mineral flavour with a hint of iron-like aftertaste both sitting on the teeth and at the back of the tongue. Brewed in a 130mL round Chaozhou red pot.

I came across JK teashop through a google search (I was looking for a tea presentation vessel in pure white). Browsing through their website I noticed their seven A’s grade Tie Guan Yin (the highest grade they have) it sounded ridiculous but I added a sample to my order. Anyways, This tea was truly an experience.

>Dry Leaf Appearance/Aroma
Tightly curled dark jade leaves, they feel hard and not very fragile. Aroma is subtle but very noticeable from a short distance, fresh floral scent.

>Brewing Method
Following JK teashop’s directions using freshly boiled water, 10-20 sec steep time, and a Yixing teapot. Brewed for 7 consecutive infusions.

>Liquid Appearance
First cups had a clear pale yellow green, later ones became bright golden green.

>Taste/Aroma
My first cup had an amazing floral aroma. Orchid-like and sugary sweet.
The tea itself was very fresh, incredibly floral, subtly sweet, and light bodied. What impressed me most about this tea, was its intense aftertaste. After a few sips, you could feel a lingering floral freshness engulfing your mouth and throat. A sensation very similar to that of having a mint, but instead of minty flavor, you get a very fresh orchid-like breath. Very impressive and unlike anything I’ve had before.

My second cup was almost exactly the same to the first with just a stronger floral aroma.
My third cup became slightly thicker in texture but not by much (barely noticeable if drinking in small sips). Aroma, taste, and aftertaste remained just as intense as the first cup.

In my 4th cup, I noticed a slight loss of aroma, lighter taste and not as floral, but still really good. After the 4th cup I increased brew time from 10-15 sec to 20 sec.
I was wowed in my 5th cup. Aroma was fainter, but the taste became bolder. Sweet fresh floral taste with a thicker texture than previous cups, almost creamy but not quite there. Very tasty.

6th and 7th cup began to have a slight green taste. Aroma was barely noticeable on the 6th and completely gone by the 7th. Taste became fainter but still very good, thicker and subtly sweet. I ended the tasting on the 7th cup not because of loss of flavor, its just too much tea for me in one sitting (aroma was completely gone, but taste-wise this tea still had more to offer).

>Wet Leaf Appearance
Mix of broken and unbroken leaves, some were very well preserved, others were just in pieces. Leaves were about medium sized. Very few stems.

>Overall
This tea was so close to perfection! The floral aroma, the orchid sweet taste, the aftertaste! They were one of the most intense I’ve had. The only thing that kept this tea from being absolute perfect, was that it lacked that buttery/creamy texture that gives the taste a richer flavor. For example, Verdant’s 2012 Hand Picked TGY has a more well rounded “package” having a nice balance of aroma, taste, texture, and aftertaste. This one excelled in the aroma and aftertaste (as of today the best in those categories, but I still got a long way to go) taste was very good but lacking in texture. Still, this was a very enjoyable experience, definitely a must try if you prefer your Tie Guan Yins on the more aromatic side.

Overall, Great tea, AMAZING aftertaste and aroma, and very affordable (under $10 an ounce, bad thing is, they only sell either a 15g sample or 100g(3.52 oz) pack for about $34).
I will definitely order more of this tea whenever I clear up my TGY cache.

*I still have enough tea left for another session. I will try using longer steep times next to see if I can get the thicker texture on the first cups and update on my findings.

I have been in love with Da Hong Pao ever since the first time I tried it. It is always on my restock list(along with 58 Fengqing) and is the third most consumed tea in my house :)

Da Hong Pao probably has the sharpest taste of the teas I drink, other ones being rather smooth. The smokines of roasted leaves, imo, is a perfect complement to natural tea taste and it is the balance of smokines vs original tea taste that really differs one type of this tea from another. This one is a “standard” quality I usually buy. It is the second cheapest at JK Tea Shop at the moment but that does not mean the tea is not so good, quite on the contrary.

This first two-three infusions of this tea have almost overpowering roastiness to them(which I quite enjoy) , but not too much so. Then it gradually fades to reveal the taste of the tea itself. I usually infuse this particular type 6-8 times but my favourite cups are the first and the second with their strong smoky taste which is what really makes Da Hong Pao tea stand out from all of the others.

Overall : While not the best DHP I have tried the quality is rather good and it is a perfect “every other day” tea to me :)

Really, what a fun tea. Looks like a bunch of bird’s feathers when dry, kinda tomboyish when brewed. As in – you sip a little, nothing special, you gulp and only after the tea is down there is when you actually have the taste explosion in your mouth :)

Only had a sample of this so far, but when my order comes (300g of it) I think I will get properly addicted on that tea :)

Yue Guang Bai is unlike any other white tea I have ever tried. Its taste is really hard to describe mailly because for the first few steeps it is registered by totally wrong taste buds I never knew existed O_O. Meaning – the usual places on your tongue will not react to this tea at all but then the back of your throat registers sweetness and some taste that is not really a taste :) Very confusing to describe but feels really nice when drunk.

The best steeps for me were 3-4-5-6. It seems like it needs some time to really start giving what it’s got into the water. The first one – barely registers on the back of your throat, then each subsequent will develop the sweetness and taste. Oddly enough – each subsequent one has darker color. :)

Overall – a very nice tea that I suppose I will consume in unreasonable quantities. Rather cheap too :)

It is really amazing how different can this yunnan be between when bitterness kicks in and before it. Its almost like 20 more seconds of steeping change the tea to a different variety. Cant say I don’t like it when steeped for a longer time, but short steepings is where this one truly shines. Definitely not the one for western brewing.

This has been a very nice year (having discovered steepster/verdant) so, surprisingly enough I still have some of this tea. It’s been more than a year after it’s been picked by now but, interestingly, I cannot really say that it got stale. If anything – it matured :)

After trying Laoshan Northern Black(Verdant), Yunnan Golden Buds(Verdant) and Bailin Gongfu(Teavivre) I can safely say that this tea is THE best yunnan black for me :) I didn’t really find Bailin that special, Yunnan Golden Buds were OK, but their most interesting note is emphasized hundredfold in Imperial Breakfast(Verdant) which is is waaaaay better that pure Golden Buds and while I enjoyed the background of Northern Black immensely it’s an occasional tea, while Fenqing 58’s sweet notes and general profile make it a perfect everyday tea.

This is my most favourite tea from JK Tea shop to date. It is kinda similar to “black tea” bags you can get in every other shop except its taste is 10 times smoother and on a level of itself. This tea has a nice rich aroma and honey-like taste notes that can be felt for the first few steeps. Really marvellous.

P.S. It is really strong, only requiring 35-40 seconds for first steeping and maybe +5-7 seconds for the next ones. Be careful not to oversteep :)

As I’ve mentioned before, I am trying to reorganize my tea stash, and I’ve managed to uncover some teas that I’d forgotten I’d purchased. This is a tea I had purchased in 2010, but it remained sealed until this very night, so, it still tastes remarkably fresh given its age.

It is a very interesting tea, very light in taste, but it has a background that is much denser in flavor than the foreground. It almost starts off like water, but then the flavors develop on the palate. Sweet, earthy and unlike any white tea I’ve tasted before this. It tastes more like a weak black tea than it does a white tea.

Very interesting, and very enjoyable. It tempts me to watch the JK Tea Shop website for the 2012 harvest (although they are still offering the 2011 harvest on their site) to see how it compares.

Lovely! This tea was such a delight to drink. Flowery and sweet, delicate and an almost lingering butteriness to it. I really need to get my hands on some more of JK’s Oolongs, especially since this was only a sample :/

I bought the Autumn 2011 Pure Bud Bi Luo Chun. I have tried 3 min at 80-85 °C, but the infusion is too much light taste. Yunnan Sourcing recommends brewing with 85-90C water with short infusion times (5-10 sec).
Do you have some advice?

The last two times I tried this, I ended up with a “punch you in the face” jasmine flavor since I always overestimate how much tea to use with pearl-type teas. This time was a lot better though. This is definitely not a jasmine tea if for someone that only kind of likes jasmine. Very floral. It’s also a bit finicky — it’s really good if you hit that sweet spot of time/temp and then it tastes lovely and light and sweet. Anything at all out of that range brings out the bitterness.

It is November. NaNoWriMo is upon us. Well, it’s upon me anyway. (I am Angrboda there also if any of my other Steepsterites are NaNoing and would like a writing buddy)

So I’ve made me a cup of writing tea. Or cooking tea as it turned out, but still. This is one that ssajami shared with me and it’s a quite interesting tea. I encourage all to go and have a look at JK Tea Shop’s description of it (available here on Steepster), because I don’t think I can explain it in my own words. Basically it’s a white tea that isn’t a white tea. Go read it for yourself.

So consequently, I’m not at all sure what to expect from it. In my head I want to liken it to Bai Mu Dan for some reason. Probably only because it has ‘bai’ in the name, which is a rather flimsy reason for association, but such are the inner workings of the human brain. It doesn’t come out smelling anything at all like BMD, though. In fact, it has a rather strong note of honey. Rich, luxurious honey bought directly from the farmer and hasn’t spent three months on a supermarket shelf first. I can almost see the bee in my inner eye.

The flavour is twofold. There is a top note which strikes me as weak and watery and then there is a bottom note where all the flavour is. It feels unbelievably thick too. Like there’s something in it making it ever so slightly viscous. At first I found this a little unpleasant but actually it seems to enhance the flavour. The flavour seems more concentrated in each sip, as compared to just about most anything else ever to have come out of my teapot.

Given it’s thin and watery nature, there is no reason to dwell on the top-note. The lower note, the one with all the flavour in it, is a different matter. It’s one thing to say it holds the flavour and it feels like it’s concentrated, but what does it actually taste like? Well, dear readers. Good bloody question!

It tastes like tea. It actually tastes like a cheap bagged version of English Breakfast that I used to have. I think it was from Pickwick. A note of honey and an unmistakable flavour of default tea. Bear in mind, please, that I actually used to really rather like this EB it reminds me of. I really enjoyed that honey note in it and the way it tasted almost like there was a teensy bit of milk in it. It’s a bit woody in flavour as well and it tastes a bit toasted.

I can see why the comparison to white tea as the closest thing in type is still not quite satisfactory. It doesn’t taste anything at all like something I would suspect of being white. If anything it tastes more like an oolong on the darker end of the spectrum, which I find slightly bizarre all things considered.

What an interesting tea!

First of all, thank you everybody who commented or liked yesterday’s post. I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around it all yet, which as the boyf fiancé(!!! I shall have to learn to spell this word now) said, nothing has actually really changed, but everybody is suddenly very excited.

Second, is it really six days since I last went through the recent posts page??? O.o I forgot to pay attention to how many pages it actually went back, but it was many! Okay, granted, I could have just caught up with the dashboard instead of going through all posts, but these days somehow reading the dashboard instead of the all recent posts feels a bit like reading the summary instead of bothering with the whole novel. It’s cheating and I’m obsessive-compulsive. The problem here, I expect, is probably especially the latter. :p

Thirdly, the thing about catching up with recent posts, especially when there are many, is that it’s inspiring! It makes me want to drink tea, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It also makes me want to drink tea to post about, tea I’ve never had before, which makes it all rather more complicated, because I can’t write a post at the same time as catching up on other people’s posts. I’ve tried it, it doesn’t work. One or the other always ends up being neglected and I find myself with half a post and cup of cold tea which wasn’t supposed to be cold.

In other words, I now get to compose a post based on some quickly taken down keywords. It will therefore likely be short and to the point and not very interesting. (‘To the point’ she says, having just written all of the above…)

I was given this tea by ssajami in our recent exchange (return package should be in transit) and as it was a shared pot I used the whole thing in one go. Very suitable amount of leaf for that too, as it turned out. I wasn’t sure about that at first, I thought I might have used too much, but otherwise it would have been a ridiculously small amount to save.

The aroma was extremely sweet. I thought it was very caramel-y with only a very small bit of that hay thing I normally associate Yunnans with.

Flavour-wise it was the same thing. Very sweet, very caramel-y and with no hint of either pseudo-smoke, pepper or spicy hay to be found, except a very small amount of the latter buried deep deep underneath all that caramel.

As the cup cooled a bit and the flavour developed some more, it was completely opposite. At that point the spicy hay that I’m more familiar with dominated the flavour, and it was the caramel buried deep underneath.

The weird thing was, though, that at the very bottom of the cup when it had cooled even more, the flavour turned itself upside down again, once more resembling the first impression.

Tempted to quote commercials and say, ‘because first impressions last’ here, but I shan’t.

All in all a very nice cup that I was pleased to get to sample.

Brewed for 2 min., this taupe-y green brew is bitter with a vegetal backdrop, with the same smell in the mug. Maybe I’ll try some different brewing conditions and see if I can reverse the two characteristics and make “bitter” retreat into the background. The way it is in this first brewing, it is barely drinkable, almost chemical-tasting. I’m disappointed but hopeful some changes can redeem it. Stay tuned…

This is a remarkable Oolong. I had purchased it some time ago, but, it was inadvertently stashed away – so this afternoon, I discovered a hidden treasure amongst my many teas! This is so delightful.

The flavor is rich. Floral overtones, sweet! A lovely soft mouthfeel. A beautiful sweet and sour taste to it that I am finding irresistible. I love this!

This is an amazing oolong!!

This was an amazing golden monkey. Too bad I can’t figure out if it’s on their website or not =( =( (it was a free sample!)