August 2020 Tea Notes
by Lydia KungOn Friday, the last day of July, I noticed a very long DHL trailer pulling up to our warehouse. It was the longest (45 feet ?) I’d seen with DHL’s yellow markings. Turned out it was delivering our Nepal tea pallets at long last.
We are now replenished with:
Organic Floral Oolong
Organic Himalayan Snow Buds White
With very few flights out of Kathmandu for passengers or air cargo, we have had a long wait since spring. Our next shipment will have the organic Himalayan Tippy Black (#1670A), a later pluck, when regularly scheduled flights are supposed to resume mid-August.
Estate 2nd Flush Darjeelings will be arriving in September.
Summer temperatures here have me thinking again about the arduous work of flower-only scented teas. Jasmine buds are picked in the mornings, but the heavy lifting comes in late afternoons, when tea leaves and flowers are combined. The photo at right gives some sense of the scale.
For one type of jasmine tea, the dexterous work began much earlier.
Jasmine Pearls are one of the few teas that are still handcrafted. Tea farmers might hand roll small batches for their own use, but in the context of export scale, Jasmine Pearls are notable for still being handmade. Note the prominence of silver tips in the photo at right.
We offer three standards and one organic Jasmine Pearls. The main differences are based on how many times the (green) pearls are scented and the quality of the plucking material. Higher grades were plucked earlier in the season.
Our top standard was scented five times; the other two standards were scented four times. The pluck is evident once the pearls unfurl after steeping. Inspection of the wet leaves is always good practice. I still remember at one competition where one jasmine pearls entry revealed broken leaves at the core, which would not have been apparent in the dry pearls.
The Tea Base
There have always been Jasmine Black, White, Puer, and Jasmine Oolong teas, but when we think of Jasmines, these are primarily Green teas.
Those in the trade know that Green teas are prepared and made stable in April and May before jasmine scenting begins in the summer. Dragon Pearls (#6128), with no jasmine, is a Green that was finished in April.
There are four techniques used in Green tea processing: steaming, sun drying, pan firing (chao qing), and baking (hong qing). Sun drying is applied mostly to large-leafed varietals in Yunnan; this method and steaming won’t be considered here in the context of making flower scented teas.
Most green teas prepared for flower scenting are finished by the hong qing/baking method, and the main difference between pan firing and baking is the method of drying.
Pan fired teas are so named because after withering, the leaves are heated over a hot surface to reduce moisture and to prevent oxidation. Tea making demos usually employ this method, as we watch and marvel at hands rotating leaves over a hot pan, as shown below.
Tea making demonstration with hand-rotating leaves over a hot pan
Hong qing means “baking the green:” the leaves are in an oven where warm air does the work. The leaves are not in direct contact with a heated surface in the same way as pan firing leaves. There is hot air flowing over and around the leaves. The aroma of the leaves is generally not as intense as pan fired green. Hong Qing Greens are mainly used for making Jasmine teas, although we occasionally come upon straight hong qing/baked Green teas, some of fairly high grades. Yin Hao (Silver Tip) Jasmine, for example, is made from a high grade hong qing Green.
Prepared using the baking method, the leaf fibers are thicker and looser than in leaves prepared by the pan firing method. (This matrix in biological terms would be the intercellular substance of the leaf tissue.) The advantage of the baked tea is that the flower fragrance can better permeate the leaf, since the tissue is more open rather than dense. Tighter fibers in the pan fired leaves mean that the floral scenting is less saturated.
A finished pan fired Green generally has better flavor that a hong qing/baked Green. In the North American Tea Competitions, the category for non-signature Greens is “Pan Fired Green” teas, not Baked. In the Jasmine Green category, the purpose is to have the jasmine aroma hold and last, and hong qing/baked Greens are therefore the preferred tea base.
All of that said, we find that Jasmine Pearls are generally made from pan fired Green teas. Buds in the budsets that comprise the pearl material are relatively long, so they are easier to roll. Hong qing or Baked Green tea leaves tend to be shorter and thicker and therefore harder to shape into pearls.
The repeated scenting (4 or 5 times) is done not only to match the value of the pearls plucking material but also in order to allow tightly rolled tea (as opposed to “open” leaves) to absorb the jasmine fragrance.
Have you ever wondered why we don’t see Jasmine scented Mudan White teas? In this White category we only see jasmine Silver Needles. These needles are plump, longish, and pliable. Mudan White leaves are flatter, open, and fragile, and therefore not able to withstand repeated mixing with jasmine flowers and the removal of the spent blossoms.
Once again I am reminded that as a category, Jasmine teas (without flavoring added) deserve more respect. There is that initial step of priming the tea base with magnolia, a little known fact. Establishing this base somehow preps the leaves to be more absorbent of and to better hold the jasmine scent as the flowers open and release their fragrance. Then there is the work of sieving out the spent blossoms, another laborious step. With the higher grades, the finished teas almost appear to be the result of some sleight of hand; jasmine’s bouquet and flavor are there but the only signs might be a few telltale petals.
I used to think of Jasmine as an uncomplicated, albeit lovely, pairing of leaf and flower. I’ve come to appreciate how much more lies behind those two components that offer up simple pleasure.
Jin Jun Mei Black, our Gold Tribute Black
Another handmade tea is a Black one that appeared on the scene at prices so high they made news. This stunning Black tea came onto the China domestic market around 2005, and I remember prices reaching nearly USD1,800 per kg for award winning batches.
This tea brings us back to Wuyi in Fujian, the nature reserve mentioned in July’s post. Our Gold Tribute’s origin can be traced to TongMu, a place within Wuyi that is probably better known for the first Black teas to be exported to western Europe centuries ago.
The sign above announces: “TongMu Village, origin of the world’s Black teas.”
For example, our “original”version of Lapsang Souchong (which is less smoky than the standards) is from TongMu.
Deeply verdant with bamboo and trees, the bureaucratic exertion to obtain a permit to visit years ago was well worth the effort. The lush greenness of the place was palpable to almost all the senses, but it was the sense of isolation that made a lasting impression. In that quiet space, being attuned to its restricted entry brought a “sense of place” into sharp focus.
Jin Jun Mei’s association with this historic site bestows cachet that translates into pricing. But what other factors account for its value?
I often refer to the quality of the pluck in describing teas. In this instance, we get a better glimpse into what precision plucking entails.
The abundance of gold tips (“jin” in the name means gold) tells us right away that this is a tippy tea, and the richness of the flavor is a nice surprise given the tender tips. When I gathered up the #1045 leaves to photograph, they were light and so soft they felt velvety and feathery. The term ”organoleptic“ comes up often in tea classes, but touch is sometimes passed over. (For CTC teas, tasters routinely finger the particles to get a sense of the sieve size.) For this standard of Jin Jun Mei/Gold Tribute, the touching yields an altogether different sensation.
On the above left is Gold Tribute Black #1045, and #1046 on the right.
The picking standard is budsets, a bud with 2 or 3 leaves, with the leaves only about 2/3 open. This is called “open-face” picking. There is further refinement into small, medium, and large open-face, with differentiation based on how large the 1st leaf is relative to the 2nd and/or 3rd leaf. Pickers are assigned by a factory as to which type to pick as they go to the gardens; or, if they are independent farmers, they watch for new growth and pick accordingly.
Hand-eye coordination is a bit mind-boggling in this context, especially since thousands of budsets are required to make 500 grams/1.1 lb of the raw material. The two standards shown above illustrate the slight variation in the pluck. Even the “lower” grade (#1046) holds vastly more gold tips than most rare Blacks.
Jin Jun Mei / Gold Tribute Black:
#1045 more of the processes steps are done by hand
#1046 rolling is done by machine
Again, for a tea made from such tender buds, the thick flavor is unexpected. Bright in the cup with an outer ring of gold, the tea is well balanced with a harmonious mix of honeyed, toasted grains with a whiff of cocoa. The overall effect is one of mellow smoothness.
The name Jin Jun Mei 金骏眉 calls for some explanation. This is not one of those names that is easily rendered in translation. The three characters together make sense in the native language, evoking suitable references:
Jin means gold
Jun means stallion
Mei means eyebrow
Two are easy: the prominence of gold tips is evidence of a lavish luxury tea. We are familiar with eyebrow shaped tea leaves from Chunmee/Chunmei. ( A finely curved brow was considered a mark of beauty.)
“Stallion” is more of a reach. There is a well known painting of eight horses charging forward. Wind-blown manes convey speed, and the powerful pack of eight signifies strength, boldness, and success. (This painting often shows up in office décor.)
Together the three words summon up an aspirational tea, one that perhaps underlines the good taste and good fortune of the buyer!
Our English name is simply an easier appellation.
In describing various special Black teas recently, I find myself resorting to several familiar terms: caramel, burnt sugar, roasted grains, etc. Turning to Oolongs, my task of building a lexicon becomes easier in one sense, for this category holds the largest range of flavors.
A glance at the attached list of Arriving Teas shows the range from green-gold, floral cups to medium roast brews, then to darker, deeply flavored cups. Among these is that peculiar subcategory of insect-bitten Oolongs from Taiwan, of which #4028 is one. Gwei Fei is the name of a legendary concubine, and we have applied the name Emperor’s Choice.
The tea plant’s natural defense against leaf hoppers alters the flavor of the tea and unexpectedly produces distinctive floral and honey notes. This particular Oolong is made from smaller pluckings than most Taiwan Oolongs and the pick includes tips. “High aroma” is a key feature of this tea, and just the pour signals a wonderful olfactory and taste experience in store.
Finally, a parting shot for some cool relief (TongMu again):
August 6, 2020