Bai Ji Guan means "White Cock Comb" or "White Rooster's Crest". Aside from the legends, it gets it's name from the buds used to make it. They are picked quite early, while still very pale in appearance. See Hou De's product page for this tea to see pictures of the buds just before they are picked (by hand) to make Bai Ji Guan.
Here is the legend, according to TeaSpring:
...the name of this marvellous tea was given by a monk in memorial of a courageous rooster that sacrificed his life while protecting his baby from an eagle. Touched by the display of courage and love, the monk buried the rooster and from that spot, the Bai Ji Guan tea bush grew.
TeaSpring's Bai Ji Guan (Spring 2007)
Product page
What strikes me the most about this tea is the leaves. This tea is a much lighter tea than any wuyi I have ever seen before. The dry leaves also have a wonderful sweet aroma of honeysuckle and... orchid?.. on a warm afternoon in late spring. (Unfortunately I don't know my flowers well.)
This one has a cleaner and sweeter taste than the other, with less emphasis on the roasted wuyi character that defines this type of wulong. The flavors all blend together into a round body with elusive spicy notes that are quite subdued. It definitely has a woody foundation, but it would be a lighter wood than most wuyi's. The taste is sweet, soft, like flower petals and lightly toasted honey. Unfortunately the floral characteristics are not very present in the aroma of the tea as it is in the dry leaves. The aroma does hint at it, but smells more like sugar and spring water. The aftertaste has a quick sweet bloom that fades quickly and leaves a slight astringency and a lasting sweetness. The complexity of this one is present but fleeting, and can be hard to miss at times. It re-emerges in the aftertaste in the very back of my tongue, but is even more elusive than before. It is a quite interesting tea, although the complexity is rather hard to pin down long enough to define. Despite how it may sound, this is not a tea that strikes you as complex, although it does become more noticeable the more you drink it. This is a good one to sit down with on a quiet evening with some calm music.
Hou De's Bai Ji Guan (Spring 2005)
Product page
Tastes much more like a wuyi. Nice, medium heavy roasted taste with undercurrent of fruit and honey and a mild fleeting bitter-sweetness that dissipates quickly but returns for just a moment as the aftertaste starts to emerge. Aroma is toasty and mildly floral, with the floral notes primarily detectable with the tip of the tongue. Bigger sips reveal different flavors and textures. Finish is bitter sweet that quickly settles as a floral sweetness, particularly at the front of the tongue. A toasted honey character with a touch of fruit defines this one from aroma to finish. Like many good wuyi's, this one gives a nice texture of woodgrain on the tongue from a slight acidity, but this one seems to be a bit more ethereal, round, sitting more above the tongue, and gives a nice fuzzy feeling that does a little dancing before settling if you pay close attention. There is slight astringency that is much more subdued than many wuyi's. As I swish the tea around, it almost seems to leave traces as it melts into your tongue very quickly. The aftertaste is lasting, and settles mostly on the rear-most edges of my tongue, radiating a soft sweetness, defying my 2nd grade teacher's insistence that I was not, in fact, tasting sweetness anywhere but the tip of my tongue. Although, to her credit, there is a certain bitter quality brought about by the roasted undercurrent, which is quite pleasant.
The sensation of this tea, especially in the aftertaste, is almost that of muscatel, but with slightly different dimensions. This comes out more as the tea cools, leaving behind some of the typical wuyi characteristics and giving way to a more smooth sweetness. Nevertheless, a lover of both wulongs and Darjeelings would probably like this tea. I was surprised, however, to find that this one is not quite as smooth as the newer one from TeaSpring.
Overall this is a very good tea. It's a very good representation of a wuyi wulong, with a soft sweetness that should accommodate most palates. It reminds me of a moderate rain on a warm sunny day, with large drops leaving thick trails that quickly consolidate to chase the drop before evaporating.
Overall this is a great tea, regardless of which you pick. The first is a little sweeter, and has more interesting characteristics, but the second will better suit the wuyi lover expecting that characteristic roasted flavor. I would be hard pressed to declare one as clearly superior, as they each have unique characteristics that make each special. The complexities are more apparent in Hou De's, but the first almost has more interesting and elusive complexities. They also each have things in common that make them obviously of the same type. Hou De's is a bit aged, and I expect both to become even better with further aging, which should bring the flavors together and mellow them down.
As nice as this tea is, however, there is something lacking that keeps it just slightly back from being satisfying to me. Many of the wuyi teas are satisfying, despite my eclectic tastes, but there is something about this that just isn't quite there. Perhaps it's just me, or perhaps it will come with aging.
2 comments:
Hey ABx, nice tea blog you got! Thanks for the tipper about the potentially fake Junshan Yinzhen.
Thanks! ...and sorry to have dug up such an old post, I found it on Google. I'll try to get my notes on what I have posted soon.
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