This season’s tea subscription is about roasted tea and yancha. Yancha, also known as Rock tea or Cliff Tea, is oolong tea from Wuyi mountain in Fujian, China. Due to its geography, Yancha has very unique characters. Growing at the cliff regions and more rocky soil gives the Yancha a very distinctive mineral finish that other teas don’t have.
Tie Guan Yin is the only non-yancha in this subscription box. Tie Guan Yin is always one of our most popular teas in the winter. This Tie Guan Yin is from Anxi, China. The roasting is freshly done from this Spring’s harvest. It followed the traditional heavy roasting, which was roasted 3 times in the past few months. You can still taste a lot of roasting in the tea right now. Usually for heavy roasted tea we prefer to enjoy it when it’s not freshly roasted. Give it some time, the roasting will mellow in the tea, which will give a much better balance to this tea. Stock up now and wait for the colder days to enjoy this tea.
Shui Xian is traditionally made and heavy-roasted. The tea brews a color redolent of aged oolongs. Dark fruits swirl around a fresh botanical taste accented by a roasted flavor coating the sides of the mouth. A clear mineral taste builds on the palate with every infusion. Long-lasting and warming tea—a perfect fit for the colds of Winter.
Old bush refers to the Shui Xian tea tree that is at least 60 years old. This Old Bush Shui Xian has a very nice clean and long finish because it’s from old bush. Its roasting has been mellowed, and it creates a very balanced aroma and flavors. It also shows a very clear characteristic of Wuyi Yancha, which you can taste the mineral sweetness from the first cup all the way till the end.
There are many different varieties among Wuyi yancha, and Jin Mu Dan is one of those very unique ones. Jin Mu Dan is a hybrid of Tie Guan Yin and Huang Jin Gui. This Jin Mu Dan is a medium roasted yancha, which is perfectly done to bring out the amazing fragrance of the tea. It has a very nice aroma of gardenia. The gardenia soon changes into a little hint of black currants and ends with mineral sweetness. This tea can be enjoyed on any nice winter day.