Giant White 2015 Spring Jing Gu Moonlight White Tea

First off, the dry leaf is beautiful and smells great. It’s a mixture of big juicy silver buds and larger fully oxidized leaves. It smells somewhere between a puer and hong cha. It has the light sweet hay smell characteristic of puer with a pronounced fruitiness that reminds me of hong cha. Warmed up, the dry leaf smells like sweet dried apples.

In the cup, this tea is incredibly soft and gentle. Feels like being wrapped up in a nice, plush blanket. The front of the soup is all sweet, mellow hay, while the back half is subdued spices and malt. It’s exceptionally clear and there’s almost zero sediment in my cup or strainer.

2 or 3 steeps in, this tea really starts to thicken up. Not surprising given the presence of all those nice fat buds. It gets darker as well with a bold yellow color. There’s something really refreshing about this tea. It reminds me of the feeling, but not the taste, of biting into a fresh, juicy cucumber.

Later steeps start to trend more towards the malt that was once in the background and the liquor is a nice deep orange color. It eventually steeps up a rich orange-red if you keep at it as well. This tea is really dynamic, which makes it a lot of fun to drink. Can’t decide between white, black, or puer tea? This is perfect! It also has great longevity without even a hint of astringency. I steeped the same 5g of leaf about 15 times and it still wasn’t ready to give up. I would absolutely recommend this tea to anyone interested in trying something a bit different from Yunnan.

Dry leaf: Wheat, hay, honey, sweet tobacco, light dried apple. The dry leaves are so gorgeous! Mixed black leaves and silvery grey green buds. Light and feathery. Little to no broken material in the bag and almost all were 1 leaf and 1 bud as advertised. Not a lot of stem. This tea seems to have been handled very well!

Taste: Very light, sweet, dried hay, honey, citrus flowers. The body built up to medium after the first 4 steepings or so.

Liquor: Pale yellow on first and second steeps, then the leaves really opened up and brewed a nice deep yellow.

Spent leaf: The alternating colors disappear and leaves are a dark olive and medium brown color. Buds varied a little in size, as did the leaves, from small to medium.

Vessel: 110ml gaiwan (actual water 90-100ml)

Love the look of the dry leaf which is very similar to dried wood ear mushrooms! The quality of the leaf/buds is outstanding. The light body developed into a slick light-medium at about the 3rd steep and remained for 8+ steepings. I got some citrus flower and tobacco flavors which I thought were interesting. The aroma in the later steeps was strong and sweet – like clover honey, wildflowers, orchids. A very lovely, light body, sweet, fragrant tea that stays near the front of my cupboard!

Ugh! Technical difficulties!! I was feeling a bit off today and decided I wanted to spend my day playing some Ark, but it seems my electronics have other plans. I turn on my Xbone and my screen didn’t turn on, so I fiddle with the cables and connections and nope, the screen (which is old and has been on its last legs for a while) finally has died. This is so sad, the new Ark update is supposed to come out on the first but I doubt I will have a new screen by then, what a bummer.

But, of course, where there is sadness there is always tea to brush away whatever has put me in a foul mood. Today’s tea is from Bitterleaf Teas, their Giant White 2015 Jing Gu Moonlight White Tea, ah Moonlight, one of my favorite types of tea. I have given it the nickname Drow tea, since it is dark leaves with beautiful silver trichomes, much like a Drow…because I am such a dork, but I don’t care, Drow are awesome and so is this tea. After I get done oohing and aahing over the beautiful fluffy leaves I give them a good sniff, and the first thing I notice is the iconic aroma of tomato leaves. I am not sure why Moonlight almost always smells like tomato leaves to me, along with rich honey, freshly cut hay, woodruff, sage, and a bit of distant grapes. It is mellow and sweet, a bit more herbaceous than usual, which I really enjoy.

Into my dedicated to Moonlight teapot the leaves go for a steep. Well hello complex wet leaves! Notes of sugar cane, marshmallow, peaches, lettuce, and dried tomato dance out of the pot with the steam. The leaves smell crisp and sweet, managing to be refreshing while also retaining a dessert like sweetness. The liquid is very light, like a just ripe peach (not cut, just sitting there, taunting you with its sweetness, but it is too pretty to eat yet…this has happened to me too many times) wildflowers, honey, and a touch of butterhead lettuce adding a touch of crispness at the finish.

This tea starts pretty light, with gentle notes of hay and delicate lettuce at the start and a powerful burst of perfectly ripe peach at the middle. The finish is delicate sugar cane and distant note of hazelnuts. It is very sweet and wonderfully light, a good start that had me craving more.

Steep two’s aroma has the wildflowers and honey along with gentle lettuce and peaches, but now it also has a meringue sweetness that really has me wondering what a peach meringue pie would taste like. It starts with a thick sweetness, like warm honey drizzled apricots and peaches with a side of juicy sugarcane. In the middle of the steep it gets a distinct woodruff and sage quality that blends amazingly with the fruity quality and makes the transition into lettuce and celery pretty seamless. The aftertaste is a long lingering sweet and light sugar cane, delicious stuff.

Now what sets this Moonlight apart from many others I have tried? Well it is sweet, it still has that crisp lettuce quality of a fresh Moonlight, oh yeah…it lasts forever! I am not sure I have run into one that lasts as many steeps, and usually this style of tea can get quite a few steeps in before it fades away. As the steeps carry on the notes of peach and apricot increase and the crisp lettuce notes start to take a backseat until they eventually fade, though the herbaceous notes stick around for a bit longer. As the tea starts to fade all that is left is wonderful honey and distant wildflowers.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/08/bitterleaf-teas-giant-white-2015-jing.html

Brewed in a ceramic gaiwan. Ratio of 1g of leaf per 20ml of water. I followed Bitterleaf’s infusion instructions before switching to my own. Gave the leaf a 7 second rinse. As was promised, I got more than 10 infusions (14) even with a higher ratio: 10 sec, 10, 15, 22, 29, 36, 40, 60, 90; 2 min, 4, 7, 15.

This is my first experience with Moonlight White. While I’m unable to compare this other Moonlight Whites offered by other companies, I do know that I had a fantastic experience with this one.

First off, dat leaf: https://www.instagram.com/p/BIcp9kABWr5/

I was floored by how aromatic the dry leaf when I opened the pouch. Incredibly sweet with honey and a hint of blueberry! My kettle spent a good time reheating itself because I couldn’t tear my nose away. After resting in the pre-heated gaiwan bowl, the leaf smelled like – oh yes, it did – marshmallow fluff and toasted marshmallows. I thought for a second they may have added some marshmallow root the scent was that uncanny. When I rinsed the leaf, the aroma had more of a baked quality, resulting notes of blueberry crumble and gooseberry cobbler arising from the gaiwan. In spite of this richness, the aroma was very light. Later in the session, the wet leaf aroma became less complex and generally smelled of tart berries.

The first couple infusions produced a pale yellow soup with a light body, delicately tasting of hay and marshmallow root. Following the third infusion to the end, I was hit with a creamy, thick, and medium-bodied soup. It was so rich with a honey!!! Plus the marshmallow root note strengthened (though it didn’t even come close to the same intensity as the honey). I was so surprised how sweet this tasted and how creamy it felt. I let my piggy tea pet Georgie Pie down this session because I was so stingy xD (I did eventually pour some on him)

Also, the color had changed to bright orange and continued to deepen in shade. Beautiful in a white porcelain cup no matter the color.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIdXXHdh4Vl/

I’m not much of a white tea drinker (can’t remember the last time I drank some). Moonlight White blew me away. Or keeping Bitterleaf’s elephant theme, swept me up and charged away!!!

I took a sample of this out of the GCTTB5 box 2 because I knew that I wanted to try it but didn’t want to hold the box up, so thanks for the sample Bitterleaf!

I combined the first 3 steeps gongfu style because I didn’t have time for a full gongfu session. I found the first 3 steeps sweet with honey and hay notes. I also found some peppery cinnamon notes hidden in there.

I also combined the next three steeps and found it to be sweeter with less peppery notes. Delicious. It would be interesting to see how it changes with age as the description states, but I only took enough for 1 sample.