Jin Jun Mei

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Musty, Rice, Sweet, Wood
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Angrboda
Average preparation
Not available

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

0 Want it Want it

1 Own it Own it

9 Tasting Notes View all

From Unknown

Product description not available yet.

About Unknown View company

Company description not available.

9 Tasting Notes

1353 tasting notes

I have sent the birthday boy off to a whisky related event with a crisp banknote and instructions to ‘buy himself something pretty. Or something wet if he prefers’. Meanwhile I’m celebrating his birthday in absentia at home with some more the Jin Jun Mei that Spoonvonstrup sent me, while laying wicked, wicked plans for an attempt at lemon surprise pudding. (If I can pull that off, I’m going to earn myself soooo many gold stars! :D) I may have to get a little creative with available crockery, but how hard can it be?

Now. This JJM is also one that doesn’t have a brand as such on it, but like the previous one, it came out of a red foil wrapper. Different from the last red foil wrapper though. Let’s just quickly, for comparison purposes, sum up what I concluded on the first one. It had a rather grainy sort of flavour and a late-comer note of smoke. Not much in the way of fruity sweetness I otherwise associate with LS, so it was a different experience than LS. In a whole other box in my brain. So this is what I’m expecting out of this one too.

The aroma is definitely grainy, but also remarkably malty-sweet. I didn’t remember that maltiness from the first JJM. Was it there? I don’t think it was. This note is so big that it would have been impossible not to notice. Again, however, there isn’t much in the way of smoke on the aroma.

The flavour is much the same as the first JJM I tried, although this one appears to just be larger somehow. It also has the smoke note showing up a lot sooner than the first one, almost at the very beginning of the sip. At first there is the grain, not as malty-sweet as the aroma, but there is definitely some of that in it, and then the touch of smoke hits. It sort of arrives in a pointed arrow-like shape and unfolds over the rest of the flavour. (Here we go with my cross-wired brain again!) Bright white against brown.

The first one had a bit of astringency to it, which the boyfriend told me was right on his border for astringency tolerance. After which he told me that a couple of the other blacks I sometimes serve have a little too much astringency for his tastes too. Apparently there is a huge difference between working this out for himself and telling me which ones it is he doesn’t care for, so that I don’t give them to him in the future. But I shouldn’t talk really. It took me a very long time indeed to drum up the courage to tell him that I don’t actually much like celery, and instead developed a technique of eating all the celery bits first, quickly without tasting them too much. Based on this and the memory of that first one, I doubt he would have enjoyed this one very much, because that too is just much larger in this sample.

I wonder if perhaps this wrapper had a lot more leaf in it than the other one did. It is a very strong cup. Perhaps even a little too strong for me. I think I liked the first one I tried better. Not because of the difference in strength only but also because this one seems a little too forceful.

And it has occurred to me that putting a rating on unknown brands is totally useless as most posts will be about different batches entirely. Therefore I have removed it and moved the amount of points into the body of the post instead.

Points: 82

Azzrian

“‘buy himself something pretty. Or something wet if he prefers”
LOL sorry my mind went a bad place on this.

Ninavampi Oh Azzrian… Hahaha…
Angrboda

Well he is going to a whisky event. I figured perhaps he could buy himself that bottle on his wishlist. I gave up almost immediately when it was explained to me that it had to be this particular bottling out of this particular cask… I swear whisky is way worse than tea when it comes to all the finicky details!

Indigobloom

now I’m curious, how did the pudding turn out?? and wet things… Azzrian I won’t ever read those words the same again :P

Angrboda

Indigobloom, as it’s only 4pm, I don’t know that yet. I shall return with an answer after I’ve made it. :) It’s meant to be served warm, you see.

Indigobloom

ah, well I look forward to it!!
In my head, I had forgotten about the time difference…

Angrboda

Well, these things happen. He’ll be home in about 25 minutes and then I’ll probably start making dinner right away then.

Angrboda

Indigobloom, I can now report back and say it went awesomely! I’m extremely pleased with myself and it was totally easy to make it. I followed this recipe http://jessicascakespot.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/lemon-surprise-pudding-1950/ but I will say that it does NOT serve 4. We’re only two and we polished it off easily. There would probably be enough for 3, but 4 people would only get a small helping of pudding each.

Indigobloom

Oh wow that does look amazing! yummmmm. So glad it worked out. Brownie points for you!!

Spoonvonstup

Note on astringency and JJM: One of the difficulties I’ve found with JJM is that it can be so expensive, but unless you get into stratosphere prices, the astringency creeps up so easily on you. There’s always using less leaf, etc etc, but it’s one reason I have never really bought a ton of legit JJM. Thus, my friends take it as a challenge to help me fall in love with it.. thus, so many samples to send to you. After drinking through all of the ones I sent, you’ll be a veritable JJM master taster! The best JJM’s I’ve found have a certain taste to them that I can’t put my finger on.. it’s the taste of a place more than anything (just like Yunnan teas /tastes like Yunnan/, so JJM’s teas /tastes like some other place/ that I haven’t found elsewhere. Maybe you’ll see what I mean, but maybe you’ll find I’m crazy. Either way, really enjoying your notes!

Angrboda

Oh gosh I have confession and it’s really really embarrasing! That bit where I thought ‘did this wrapper contain more leaf than the first one?’ right? Well, no, I don’t think it did. As I wasn’t sharing it with the boyfriend, it was the pot that was much smaller and therefore naturally contained less water. I can’t believe it took me this long to work that out. Rookie mistake. headdesk

Spoonvonstrup, I totally understand what you mean about stuff tasting like a place. I think I’ve mentioned finding ‘Fujian-ness’ in teas before. :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

464 tasting notes

Here’s Hoping Tea Box

This tea was such a relief after the Brioche! Dark, wine-like, just slightly fruity-sweet, this tea had a soft mouth-feel. It also had an understated maltiness and a slight astringency in the aftertaste.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
29 tasting notes

It has a lovely golden brown color and nice musty woodsy smell, like a pleasant smell of burnt wood. A bitter and rice-like taste, but still full-bodied with a nice long sweet aftertaste. Being a black tea made of the buds, you have to be wary of not over-steeping.

Flavors: Musty, Rice, Sweet, Wood

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80
5 tasting notes

The pleasant smell of this tea is almost reminiscent of chocolate. This is followed the standard bitterness, however this gives way to a very pleasant, lingering sweetness. In considering the process through which this tea is created, with the difficulty of picking the buds, and how the bushes grow from harsh mountains, the pleasantness of the flavor is all the more pronounced.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
5 tasting notes

This tea is just great.. It surely isn’t for everyday drinking and it get’s overdrink very easily. It has nice candyfloss taste.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.