Jin Xuan winter harvest 2009 green tea from Taiwan

[debunix]

A review from a tasting in another forum:



1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water


And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by infusion: flash rinse barely started to unfurl anything



Started timidly, 30" at 160 degrees: warm, vegetal, sweet but the infusion is a little too short/dilute



1 minutes at same temp: vegetal flavors of peas, grass, lightly floral background, no hint of bitterness, much better match of infusion time and tea. Used the aroma cup set for this, and it was fun, sweet fresh mown grass odors.



90" third infusion, sweet, vegetal, delicate, love it love it, the best yet

2' a little hotter, 170 degrees, slight astringency but still mostly vegetal



3' 180 degrees, and better than the previous, sweet, vegetal, such a nice tea

5' 190 degrees, and the tea is done: barely more flavor than hot water.



Large lovely leaves are now mostly unfurled, but I couldn't get them to completely flatten long enough to shoot the picture



Overall a quite lovely tea; haven't compared it to the spring 2010 version head-to-head, but it is quite similar and delicious.

Edited to note that this was a tea from Norbutea.com. That's what I get for cutting and pasting!

[Chip]

Thanks Debunix! Looks quite delish! Did I miss where it is from?

EDIT: thanks for the edit debunix!

I am quite interested in trying some Taiwan green, it has been a few years since I last tried some. And I am certain there are better selections today!

[edkrueger]

Looks like an oolong.

[rabbit]

Looks like an oolong.

I was thinking the same thing until I read this on the norbutea website:

"This green tea is made from a tea cultivar known as Jin Xuan, which is usually processed into a mildly fragrant oolong tea."

... which explains everything, maybe a green varietal processed like a tgy?

[debunix]

It's an oolong varietal processed as a green tea, in rolled form. It resembles an oolong visually, but the flavors are green tea. And it does have the bitterness within that you'd expect from a green tea, if you're sufficiently disrespectful of it's green-tea-ness and infuse it very hot.

[edkrueger]

I saw the website, but am still skeptical. Either way, you should try it with boiling water. Taiwanese greens do well with boiling water as long as you keep the steeps short.

[debunix]

It walks like a green, quacks like a green, happens to be gunpowder shaped. Why does that automatically excite such skepticism?

Doesn't really matter, because I'm enjoying it infused as I would green tea, although it gives me more leeway than most. I did try the spring version more like an oolong, and it was not as nice as when treated as a green.

[edkrueger]

Well I haven't tasted it, but its an oolong cultivator I've never seen made into a green. I've never seen Taiwanese greens rolled like oolong –usually they are done like baozhong. I would highly doubt that the tea could remain unoxidized after going through the oolong rolling process. It looks like an oolong when dry and it looks like an oolong after infusing. From just seeing it and neither tasting or smelling it, it walks like a oolong, quacks like a oolong...

[debunix]

I would highly doubt that the tea could remain unoxidized after going through the oolong rolling process.

Would you call gunpowder tea an oolong?

[rabbit]

^ That's a good point, but it does make me wonder how they stop the oxidation in gunpowder? They must have to dry the tea really fast or something?

[debunix]

Time for a refresher course in tea processing.

Check out this lovely chart from Wikipedia--it gives a great overview of tea processing steps. It's not how it's shaped, but whether or not it undergoes a wilting/oxidation step before the enzymes are killed with steaming, panning or baking that determines green vs oolong.

The shaping is long after the enzymes that change the flavor to oolongish have been killed.

[Nenugal]

Time for a refresher course in tea processing.

Check out this lovely chart from Wikipedia--it gives a great overview of tea processing steps. It's not how it's shaped, but whether or not it undergoes a wilting/oxidation step before the enzymes are killed with steaming, panning or baking that determines green vs oolong.

The shaping is long after the enzymes that change the flavor to oolongish have been killed.

Thanks for the link! I was actually looking for something like that to help me understand the differences between different types of tea.

[edkrueger]

Ok. I see. I knew that gunpowder was finished before the shaping, but I remember hearing the oolong went through some more oxidization during the rolling process. I've certainty heard the the rolling changes the taste.

[Chip]

I have already had a green tea version of TGY. Supposedly made from TGY leaves, rolled like regular TGY, but not oxidized.

It was good when fresh, but faded quickly leading me to believe it was indeed a green tea.

[edkrueger]

Ok. I think I am was wrong earlier. I don't think I was wrong in being skeptical though.