Jun Shan Yin Zhen

I told someone that I would post this a while ago, but then it got to be 90-100 degrees out and I didn't feel much like reviewing teas. I've got my air-conditioners going now, however, and I'm back up and running again.

Jun Shan Yin Zhen is one of the 10 most famous teas in China. It's a yellow tea, and a very very interesting one. It is also one that gets faked a LOT. The Mt. Jun (Jun Shan) tea company apparently just bought every farm on the mountain, but there are many variants that get sold as Jun Shan Yin Zhen when they are not. The most common is Jun Shan Qing Zhen, which means Mt. Jun Green Needle (whereas Yin Zhen means Silver Needle). This is a green tea, which is easier to produce and may produce better looking leaves. There are others as well, and here is the explanation I received from TeaSpring when I contacted them:

"The most common tea that vendors try to sell off as Jun Shan Yin Zhen is Fu Jian Yin Zhen. They look almost similar except that Jun Shan's fur is shorter and yellowish in color. Jun Shan Tea Co. Ltd. recently bought all the tea leaves grown and picked in Jun Shan Island so only Jun Shan Yin Zhen from this company is authentic. But not all teas produced by them are Jun Shan Yin Zhen. Lower grade tea leaves are used to make Jun Shan Mao Jian (with leaves). Only high grade single buds are used to make Jun Shan Yin Zhen. And others are like Cui Ya and Qing Zhen teas.

Jun Shan Qing Zhen is a new type of tea. Some vendors try to sell this off as the more expensive Jun Shan Yin Zhen also but not as common as Fu Jian. Jun Shan Qing Zhen has a very obvious smoky taste so if you are interested in teas with smoky but clean taste, you might want to give this a try."

I first bought a small amount from TeaSpring, which came in this very attractive tin with anti-fake label from the farm.

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I was interested in getting more, but wanted to see if I could find some a bit cheaper. I found some from TeaCuppa, but this turned out to be something different. Here you can see a side-by-side comparison between the two:

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TeaSpring's on the left, TeaCuppa's on the right.

So what's the difference? Well I just got my professional tea tasting set from Hou De and am now well acquainted with my new Zojirushi hot water dispenser, so this seems like a perfect opportunity to try it out! You can see the tasting set HERE. Functionally it's quite similar to a gaiwan, but a little easier to use and comes with a nice cup and a spoon for taking in the aroma. This tea doesn't have a lot of aroma, so I'll not be using the spoon for this session.


Teaspring's -

This is a very shy tea with a complex personality. It's a light yellow tea, but it's unlike anything I've had before.

Starting on the tip of your tongue, you think it will be a simple yellow tea, but that only lasts for a split second. You're greeted with a warm, smooth, and almost thick sweetness, but it quickly proceeds to stimulate all of the different kinds of taste buds; flirting with the salty buds without giving more than a peck on the cheek it races past sour, to a smoky and spicy bitterness on the back of your tongue that quickly morphs and evaporates, and passes through umami like a ghost leaving a wisp of smoky body. Sweet wakes up somewhere along the way, but unlike it's siblings it was much slower to wake. While the others are discussing the experience, sweet is looking around wondering what happened, milling about with blurry eyes. The smoky character evaporates very quickly, and manifests mostly in the back of the throat, and leaves a sensation that reminds me of black pepper (perhaps with a bit of another spice), but only momentarily. At the same time a nice and smooth "green" quality sinks into the tongue, passing through it and leaving a clean astringency. Some time later, sweet has made it to the breakfast table. The others have left the table, but can be heard in the next room.

Fleeting away as quickly as it came this tea taunts you, not letting you get to know it, and teasing you to into a game of hide and seek. When it's finished it cleans your palate more than any tea I've had before, and invites you to try again. This is the first astringency that I've had that really left my mouth feeling this clean, and unlike some it is not unpleasant at all.

The after taste transcends the palate, evaporating and rising above the palate to just underneath and behind your nostrils, while the body seems to sink down through your tongue.

This is a very ephemeral and curious tea. It's very complex, and hard to pin down or tease apart. I was lucky today, you can't always get these complexities to come out; sometimes it tastes like little more than a plain yellow tea like huang ya. When it does come out to play, however, there are three main things that identify this tea: smoky/spicy, smooth, and clean -- very clean. In fact, I would say this has a "cleaner" character than any other tea I've had to date. I would say, however, that the smoky/spicy character is unlike the kind of smoky flavor that some people object to. If that is a turn-off to you, I wouldn't let it turn you off from this tea. It really is unlike anything else that I know of, and the smoky aspect is very clean and fleeting; it's gone before you could object.


TeaCuppa's -

This one is very much different. It's much lighter, and much more like the traditional silver needle white tea that it's appearance suggests. It's not a particularly complex tea. It has the nice, light, and clean "green" taste that is common to white teas. What separates it from other white teas is primarily it's crystal clarity. The smoky complexity is there if you pay close attention. It starts with a clean and pure vegetal grassiness, and fades into a very light smokiness that is much more subtle, faint, even ephemeral, and fleeting. The complexity is ephemeral enough that if you didn't know what to look for, you might not even notice it. It's in the aroma as well, but just as elusive as in the taste. These can be brought out a little with a little extra steeping or leaf, but you do have to watch to not over-steep it and bring out too much astringency.

I feel that I should note here that this isn't like the elusive, subtle, and fleeting nature of the first; with that one it is very much noticeable, striking, and unmistakable, it's simply very transient and hard to pin down. The aroma and aftertaste are also quite light, and not strong enough to really define the tea, although you do get some back retro-nasally from the back of the throat. Overall it is definitely a pleasant white tea, and great for quiet and pensive evenings. In fact a person with sophisticated tastes and an affinity for white teas would find this a great tea, but unfortunately it's not the same.

Notes and Conclusion -

I should also note here that I wrote this over the span of two nights, one for each tasting. I have noticed that there are times that the smoky/spicy character of the one from TeaSpring is not always easy to achieve, sometimes it does taste a bit more like the one from TeaCuppa.

I asked TeaSpring about how I could bring the spicy/smoky character out, and here was their reply:

"The answer to your first question is a bit tricky. The same tea can have different taste and experience depending on many factors such as what you just ate or drank previously. Even mood and weather are known to cause a different experience as well. Unlike other smoky teas, Jun shan Yin Zhen smokiness is very subtle and is a fleeting taste before changing into a sweet aftertaste. It's easier to catch the smoky character in your breath after a sip. Perhaps using more leaves to brew a heavier tea will enable you to catch it."

So it is entirely possible that I am simply not getting everything out of the brew that I could. However in all the times I have tried both, it has been pretty much the same, perhaps with different levels of the same. They are quite distinct from each other, and I feel that these notes reflect my overall experience with this tea. I did take care to brew them as much the same as possible, and also draw on past experience. I feel that any difference from outside factors is minimal here.

To conclude, I can really only say that I really like this tea a whole lot. It is one of the most interesting teas I have had, and is especially great when I have some time to sit down and just drink tea. I do very highly recommend this tea, but watch out for the fakes!