2016 Jin Xuan Black Tea gr. A, Loose Leaf

Much more gentle than the usual black tea, with an interesting dynamics of tastes. Elite tea. :)

Strange tea. Feels very light and airy by touch. The aroma of dry leaves is rich berry that is why I tried this sample first.
My tool is gaiwan, 4 grams of tea - 15 s, 20 s, 25 s, 30 s, 1 min, 2 min and 5 min for the end. Out of each brewing I made a whole 60 ml cup of tea. After the first steeping in addition to the berry aroma of the leaves, something reminiscent of sauna (not smoke) appeared. This smell successfully took the entire space of the gaiwan by the 6th steeping.
The taste is soft with sourness, and the sweetness that occurs when swallowed, resembles Shou Mei and Moonlight from Yunnan. In my opinion, this tea can be called red (hong cha) only for its color, nothing similar with Chinese reds here. The first three steepings are without any special flavor-aromatic changes, then the sour is coming to naught. Tea is light and summery.

Of reds, large leaf, fragrant, heady. The scent of the leaf is deep moist, tight.
The first steeping is 30 seconds. 5 grams per gaiwan 150 ml.
The second - 30 seconds. The taste of tree bark, chocolate, the sourness is slightly astringent.
The third steeping is 1.30 min. The taste intensified, there are dates and prunes, oiliness presents.
The next two steepings are for 1.30 min, tea keeps the taste. Then the taste becomes less intense, tones fade out. By the 7-8th turn, the tea is done.
Light tea intoxication is caught. The brain is cleaned.
I like it, will order again.

An explosive taste bouquet. Feeling as you drink fruit compote with honey. Not a single note of astringency. Haven’t tried anything like that. The color of the infusion is not as saturated as that of black from old trees, but the oiliness is clearly felt. State after drinking - clarity, fullness, mood elevation.

This write-up doesn't really do my impression of this tea justice. I absolutely loved it. I drink a lot of teas from a lot of places and unless this tea just caught me on a couple of really good days it stands out quite a bit. Preference is a funny thing though; it would be hard to really say why. The sweetness, flavor profile, feel, clean presentation of flavors, limited astringency, and balance; to me it all just really came together. It's not like it has something really unique going on as some special types do, unusual flavors or a different type of aspect, it's just a really, really nice black tea, and something in that mix really worked for me.