Tasting some Yunnan and Korean green teas

[debunix]

I could hardly wait to try the new Korean green teas I bought last week, and some other new greens from Yunnan sourcing. They are quite interesting, seeming a bit like a cross between a long jing and a sencha, and clearly a bit tricky to brew. The two Yunnan greens are quite similar to the Yunnan Mao Feng I got from Norbu. I would like to compare these last three together another time to get a better handle on the subtle differences between them, but doubt that I’ll feel a need to keep all three different kinds on hand at the same time in the future.

Jade Pole Supreme Yunnan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing
Yunnan Bao Hong spring 2009 early green tea from Yunnan Sourcing
Jaksul green tea from Hankook
Jeung Je ‘not fermented’ green tea (label says http://www.sulloc.co.kr and nothing else in English)

Used 1.8 grams of tea in small 40 mL gaiwans
Infusions 160°F/71°C-170°F/77°C
30”, 30” (probably too long, with all the bitterness coming out), 30”

Jade Pole Supreme Yunnan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing

Dry Leaves: long twists of intact leaves, camphor, vegetal, grassy aroma
Liquor, 1st infusion: pale ivory liquor; mild, camphor, floral
Liquor, 2nd infusion: peachy, sweet, camphor
Liquor, 3rd infusion: peachy, sweet, camphor, first astringency, hints of bitterness
Wet Leaves: beautifully intact yellow-green leaves, in pairs of one very small bud and one larger leaf


Yunnan Bao Hong spring 2009 early green tea from Yunnan Sourcing

Dry Leaves: flat thin small leaves and fragments, some stems, scent of hay, grass
Liquor, 1st infusion: yellow liquor; thicker body; hay, warm, less camphor, but very similar to the Jade Pole
Liquor, 2nd infusion: nutty, dark, vegetal, astringent
Liquor, 3rd infusion: sweet, vegetal, bit nutty, but much less astringent
Wet Leaves: more broken pieces, leaves are quite small, yellow-green,and also mostly buds and small leaves

Jaksul green tea from Hankook

Dry Leaves: curled small leaves and fragments, sweet, woodsy, piney
Liquor, 1st infusion: green clear liquor; grassy, a little sweet
Liquor, 2nd infusion: more astringent, even bitter, still grassy
Liquor, 3rd infusion: nutty, vegetal, mildly astringent
Wet Leaves: larger, broken leaves, fairly flat, very deep green

Jeung Je ‘not fermented’ green tea (label says http://www.sulloc.co.kr and nothing else in English)

Dry Leaves: very thin flat leaves, deepest green, sweet grass scent
Liquor, 1st infusion: green clear liquor; grassy, sweet, vegetal
Liquor, 2nd infusion: liquor very bright deep yellow; astringent, grassy, some bitterness
Liquor, 3rd infusion: astringency, grassy, vegetal
Wet Leaves: broken leaves, very curly even now, hard to flatten, darker green than the first two but less than the Jaksul

Photos:
Upper left Jade Pole Supreme Yunnan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing
Upper right Yunnan Bao Hong spring 2009 early green tea from Yunnan Sourcing
Lower left Jaksul green tea from Hankook
Lower right Jeung Je ‘not fermented’ green tea (label says http://www.sulloc.co.kr and nothing else in English)

[Victoria]

Thanks for the great reviews!
I bought one like the jade pole at WHF.
Haven't tried it yet though.

[Skippyandjif]

Very cool! I have been wanting to try Korean green tea for a while, and now I want to even more!

Thanks for the photos, as well.

[Chip]

Thank you debinex for sharing these with us.

In the virtual absence of Sencha, I have been brewing a lot of Korean greens in the last few weeks. I liken many of them to Japanese Guricha which makes some sense actually since they are manufactured similarly.

Selections from Hankook include Gamnong (premium grade), Organic Gamnong, (a lost name selection ), Doo Mool. Also a selection given to me by another TCer.

[debunix]

Should have posted a picture of the cans the green teas came in....will do that shortly.

The Hankook tea actually was teabags (oops, me not reading the label carefully enough!, just was a bit uncertain about paying lots more for a larger quantity in case I didn't like it).

[edkrueger]

So, can you give some recommendations like: "buy" "buy if..." "don't buy" ?
BTW, nice post.

[debunix]

Updating the tasting with pics of the labels of the Korean Teas, including identification of the "Jaksul" green tea from Hankook as "Jeong Seon":



and the mystery "not fermented" tea:





As for buy/not buy/buy if....very tricky. I have not been seriously trying to drink green teas for very long, so right now my preferences are pretty changeable. I liked the Jade Pole a little better than the Bao Hong, and not surprisingly the much more expensive Hankook green better than the "not fermented" green.

I think I would buy the Jade Pole again in preference to the Bao Hong, but am not sure whether I'd prefer it to the Yunnan Mao Feng I've been drinking. I haven't done that head to head comparison yet. Unless I figure out how to make the Korean greens more compelling than they were at this tasting--and that could easily happen, because this was the first time for each--I'll probably stick to the more straightforward Japanese greens for now.

[debunix]

I brewed the Korean greens again, and with a little more care--sipping to determine when the infusions were ready--and the "Jeung Je" was more delicate and interesting, really quite like a sencha, but a briny sencha. It doesn't really fit my preferred flavor profile, and I doubt I'll buy it again, but if you like your sencha deep, green briny, this might be one for you. The liquor was particularly full bodied and pleasant.

The Jeong Seon is interesting, with a very dominant flavor element that is a little peachy but also something else that I just can't figure out how to describe. I'll finish what I have, but probably won't seek it out again for a while. I'd like to try some of their other teas first, but I have a lot of in the cabinet to work through before I even do that.

[shah82]

The Yunnan green sounds like they're a bit behind the Darjeeling guys in figuring out how to make a decent green out of Assamica.

[debunix]

The Yunnan green sounds like they're a bit behind the Darjeeling guys in figuring out how to make a decent green out of Assamica.

Confused now. Why would there be assamica in Yunnan?

[AdamMY]

Confused now. Why would there be assamica in Yunnan?

Assamica is the Large Leaf variety of the tea plant. Which is primarily what grows in Yunnan or at least parts of Yunnan.

[debunix]

After writing the post above, I spent some time trying to find a map of the distribution of the different varieties of C. sinensis. Google maps isn't very helpful, because there are a ton of maps of china and india that overwhelm the search results.

But in that brief searching, I found a reference to Darjeeling differing from Assam and other Indian tea producing regions in having mostly C. sinensis v. sinensis plants.

So now I am confused, drinking my Ti Kuan Yin, and wondering if the tea book I have at home can clarify this further.

[AdamMY]

It is my understanding that in China, most of it is v. Sinensis except for Yunnan, there are some exceptions and possibly some v. assamica has been transplanted in other spots of China.

Also I think besides the Assam region of India, tea is not indigenous to India. And Darjeeling grows tea plants that were smuggled out of China by the English.

Its been awhile since I read up on the varieties, and I hope people will correct me if I am wrong.

[debunix]

What is particularly interesting to me about Yunnan teas being made from v. assamica, and darjeeling being v. sinensis, is that I have not liked any of the black teas I've tried from India, Sri Lanka, or Kenya (admittedly a very small number of samples). The off-putting bitterness was something I attributed to their being made from v. assamica.

My simple scheme that put all v. assamica teas into the 'icky' category and the v. sinensis into the 'good' category is now falling apart, if this is true, because I adore my puerhs, some of the yunnan green teas, and black Yunnan Gold!