Thursday, November 01, 2007

2006 Wuyi Shui Jin Gui

Class: Oolong
Origin: Wuyi Mtn, Fujian Province, China
Year: 2006
Vendor: Teacuppa (Product page)
Price: $32.00 (100g) / $6.00 (15g)

Shui Jin Gui PicturesIt has been a while since the Teacuppa online puerh tasting, and I remember hearing back then that their focus was more on Wuyi yancha and not on puerh. I have tasted about a half dozen of their Wuyi offerings now, and I can confidently say that they know their stuff when it comes to yancha. I suppose it's a bit ironic that I would happen to feel like blogging at the same time I brewed up my least favorite sample from them, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose.

The dry leaf is lovely in both appearance and fragrance: the leaves are dark, and there is a classic deep chocolate aroma, with the slightest hint of tropical fruit and spice. I decided to brew this fairly conservatively, with 6 grams of leaf in my 90mL yixing and long steep times (20 seconds to 2 minutes).

The first infusion, after a flash rinse, was pretty good. It was hearty, with a good amount of "fire," hints of tropical fruit, and a base of cocoa/coffee. There was even a healthy fruit aftertaste. After that, though, things went downhill quickly. It was thin, weak, and a bit sour. I'm thinking this tea probably needs more leaf to express itself best, but unfortunately I only got a 15g sample so there's not a lot I can do.

The wet leaf is mostly chopped up, with a few long leaves here and there.

Overall, I'd say this is just a mediocre tea. Not bad, but not great either. As I mentioned before, it is a shame that I felt like blogging as I tasted this. I'll get around to posting about the other Teacuppa yancha samples someday, but until then, I should say that this is the first one I wasn't thrilled with— all the others have been very good, and I recommend them wholeheartedly.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have tried their shui xian..i think best out there so far.

Steven Dodd said...

What other Wuyis do you have from them? I need to get some more and I think I might look into their offerings.

Brent said...

Steven: So far I've tried their Shui Xian, Lao Cong Shui Xian, Tie Luo Han, Da Hong Pao [B], and their Rou Gui. They've all been good.

One of the best parts about Teacuppa is that they let you buy 15g samples of most of their teas, so you don't have to invest a lot in something you don't know if you will like. Enjoy!

Tava Tea said...

I really like the first pic. Really expensive tea. In India we usually drink black tea.

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