Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Canton Tea’s Jasmine Yin Zhen Review

Type: White
Origin: Fuding County, Fujian Province
Price: Sample (regular price – £13.99 for 100g)
Vendor: Canton Tea Company
Brewing Method: Per Instructed - 1 teaspoon of leaves, 1 cup of filtered water, heated to 160°F-170°F, steeped for 1-3 minutes
Overall Score: 4.5 out of 5

Jasmine Yin Zhen is white tea infused with jasmine. I barely opened the package and I could already smell the sweet floral jasmine. The leaves are long, rolled, and fuzzy – tiny hairs cover each strand making them soft and silky to the touch. They are a light green color with some dark tips here and there.

The jasmine scent really comes out during the steeping of the leaves. The liquor is a very light green color. There is actually tea in those cups in the picture, but the liquor was so light that it was really hard to take a good picture of it.





The taste is very sweet and floral. The jasmine is really all I can taste, but it’s not overpowering. Overall, the tea is smooth and mellow. Bitterness isn’t an issue, but there is a faint hint of astringency. The brew is quiet refreshing.

I was nervous about trying this tea because I was not a jasmine fan – notice the past tense. This tea, in my opinion, is perfectly infused with the jasmine scent/flavor. There is not too much in which usually engages my reaction of sip, grimace, swallow, cough, curse, and then make a small effort to find a tea lover with a jasmine fetish that may enjoy that particular over flavored crap. However when I hit the bottom of my cup, this time, I was ready for more.

1 comment:

JenB said...

This looks delicious! I love jasmine, but so far I've only had it in greens and oolong. I didn't even think about jasmine white. It sounds wonderful. I'll have to hunt this one down. Thanks for the review!