Taiwan #18 'Red Jade' White Tea

I felt like having a Taiwanese white today and I found this sample from derk lying around today after coming home from work. The tea is somewhat less aromatic than other related examples, but the flavours are very yummy. It is sweeter and fruitier than what I remember from other red jade white teas. The texture is very smooth and creamy and the aftertaste very cooling and menthol like with various vegetal notes.

I was also taken aback by the cha qi that gradually started creeping over me. Maybe I should have read the other reviews first, I wonder how much work I can get done tonight lol.

I will be looking to get more of this one, thanks for sharing it with me, derk :)

Hey all, before I start this review, I’d like to share a major life update. I know some of you are aware that I have been waffling on going back to school, and well, I think I have finally decided to do it. I’ve spent a considerable amount of my time trying to figure out what I really want out of my professional life, and I finally came to the conclusion that a very public-oriented career was not going to be for me because I’m just not a people person. I have pretty serious anxiety issues, so something more stressful was also out of the question. I knew I needed something quiet that offered a tremendous amount of autonomy and alone time, so I have decided to become a librarian. There is a rather highly regarded graduate program in Library and Information Sciences at the University of Kentucky, which is just two hours west of where I’m living now, and since applications for the spring semester are being accepted until mid-November, I decided to go ahead and apply for it. I am in no financial shape to do this, but I also don’t have any real debts and no serious financial obligations, so I am at a point in my life where I can afford to start over from scratch. I figure I can also spend a semester going part-time and then move and work on acquiring funding over the summer when more assistantships become available. This field seems like a perfect fit for me because a good deal of my academic and professional background involves information management. I also think my background in composition and teaching will help me stand out a little from the crowd.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let’s move on to talking about this tea. This tea represented a step into uncharted territory for me as I had never tried a Taiwanese white tea prior to trying this one. The best way for me to describe it would be almost like a Bai Mudan or Shou Mei but with the minty characteristics of a Red Jade black tea. I found it enjoyable, though I also felt that it was a bit rough in places and packed a caffeine wallop that was a bit much. Essentially, I would have to be in the mood for this sort of profile in order to approach another tea like this one.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing, I steeped 6 grams of loose leaf material in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of malt, sweet potato, baked bread, wintergreen, and honey. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of butter and peppermint as well as a stronger wintergreen presence. The first infusion brought out subtle scents of vanilla, cream, and grass. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of malt, cream, grass, butter, and wintergreen that were chased by hints of baked bread, honey, vanilla, and sweet potato. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of brown sugar, autumn leaves, hay, earth, and celery as well as subtler scents of grape leaves, spinach, and green olives. I also detected slightly amplified cream and grass aromas. Notes of brown sugar, earth, hay, minerals, wood, coffee, and autumn leaves appeared in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging peppermint notes, hints of butterscotch, and slightly stronger and more immediately noticeable baked bread and honey impressions. Impressions of green olive, celery, spinach, and grape leaf appeared as well. They were subtle at first but grew slightly stronger with each infusion until the tea started to fade. As the tea faded, the liquor settled and emphasized notes of minerals, malt, grass, hay, wood, grape leaf, butter, celery, and earth that were underscored by hints of wintergreen, sweet potato, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and spinach.

This was a very odd white tea. Its caffeine punch was reminiscent of a Red Jade black tea, and its aroma and flavor profiles were very bizarre. Still, its aroma and flavor components managed to work together better than expected. Though certain aroma and flavor components could be prickly or poorly integrated here and there, everything worked together for the most part. The mouthfeel of the tea liquor could also be a little rough in places. These are fairly minor quibbles, however, as I still consider this to be a high quality tea. Overall, it was enjoyable. There were just a few noticeable issues here and there that held it back in my eyes.

More white tea. I’m using this as a medicinal brew today. It’s been an unfortunate few days. I’ve been battling some kind of infection, migraines, vertigo, seasonal allergies and asthma that caused me to miss my first few days with a new employer. Very embarrassing but they’re accommodating. Hopefully the doctor today can tell me what’s going on. I’m drinking this tea due to its pronounced menthol effect. Red Jade (or Ruby #18) teas usually ooze a cooling sensation from my ears and chest, offering some temporary relief of my ailments.

This tea is a little different every time I drink it, which would be exciting if I were in an excitable mood but I’m not, heh. Today it’s a smooth tonal brew. More tones than distinct aromas and flavors.

Teapot time: 5g, 100mL porcelain, rinse of 10s (drank) followed by short steeps starting at 10s. Steeps forever.

Dry leaf smells herbal-sweet and menthol. After the rinse, the leaf aroma has a dominant wintergreen note with a moderate savory undertone and some hay, autumn leaf and menthol. The liquor aroma starts lightly malty and opens into something more floral, ending the session with tones of florals, lemon, tart berries and sweet vanilla. Taste is nectar sweet, slightly tart, savory and herbal, hay and autumn leaf with a light but long and cooling mentholated finish in the mouth that moves its way through my body, down my throat and into my chest, out my ears. The menthol becomes stronger as the session progresses. Light apricot-melon aftertaste.

I normally get pretty blitzed from this tea (see ashmanra’s review) and other Red Jades but today I’m not feeling it. That’s good. Take it easy, derk.

Guys, I don’t know what happened with this tea but I have never been so tea drunk in my life. That feeling usually passes pretty quickly for me but I lay in bed for the longest time just kind of sighing and happy and warm and fuzzy.

It started with the first steep. The taste confused the heck out of me. I was expecting white tea but this was…something else. It had a high sharp edge like maybe kale or spinach and then….flowers. The taste lingered. Second steep had less edge and more flowers. My eyes start feeling like someone is pulling on them. Gave hubby a cup and he said it was good. I keep drinking steep after steep. I am getting more and more hippie happy mellow.

Finally it hits me! Sheng puerh! It was reminding of a really great sheng I had once from Wymm Tea! Incredible! And somewhere under the greens and flowers, a hint of the taste of Sun Moon Lake, just a whisper of the black tea version of this.

Maybe I overleafed but I would sure do it again to feel that way. The leaves are large but so light and so fragile that I decided to weigh them on my Upton Tea scale and went with 2.25 grams. Holy cow this was some potent stuff. I loved it. What a ride!

Thank you, derk, for the tea experience of the month! I won’t forget that session anytime soon!

I’ve let this one settle in my cabinet. The dryleaf smell is close to the vanilla used in a Klondike bar combined with the mint. Unfortunately, the leaves are fragile as every, and are almost fanning like in how easily they crumble.

I used less leaves today because I know how powerful this tea can be if left unchecked. Letting it brew in my tumbler for no longer than 2 minutes, the tea’s cantaloupe flavor takes center stage. It’s surprisingly sweet like honey, and has a little bit of the menthol in the mouthfeel. It build up more in the later steeps. It’s vaguely leafy like autumn just before winter. Ironically, it’s spring pushing its way out of winter right now in the Midwest.

If you want a more vivid description, here it is from my previous review:
“The dry leaf smell like hay and fresh linens hanging in the sun. Tasting it, it is smooth, clean, and lightly cantaloupe sweet with the cooling menthol taste that Alistair describes, and that is expected with the #18 Red Jade varietal. It is a little creamier gong fu, but pretty much the same overall. It also has some fresh cotton notes in the taste, but the liquid is a light yellow like a high mountain oolong without being nearly as grassy. This is not a delicate white tea, however, and the klondike menthol is not to be underestimated. It can get drying like a white Darjeeling, but not too try to take away from the other notes. That’s why I need this tea to cool off sometimes.

I could get seven steeps minimum from gong fu, and the menthol notes would get higher…if that makes sense. A honeysuckle floral would pop up, and the fruity notes spread out. I’m actually getting something that reminds me of cinnamon butter as a hint. I am going to have to write more about this one because I can get a little overwhelmed by the later steeps…a little bit of a buzz. Cha qi, caffiene, or menthol? Or I just need to let my cup cool down."

It is an energizing tea, and since I’ve had it for a while, I’m ready to rate it. In terms of taste, complexity, and energy, it deserves a high 95 and is by far one of my favorite white teas in my stash. In terms of how easy it is to brew, 85 because it’s a little challenging. The only thing that makes me rate it down is the finicky nature of the leaves. So 88 is my end score for this one, though it could be easily higher when brewed right.