24 August 2009

White Jade

I spent the last week in Prague, so I took the opportunity and met with Mr. Prachař, owner of Longfeng tea shop. Even though I had extremely little time - it was the last day of our course and my colleagues were very, very eager to go home, I left them and returned an hour and half later with big bag full of teas and tea samples.

Among the teas that I bought there were some Chinese red teas. I haven’t had them for quite a time, so I decided that it's time to drink red tea!

2009 Bai Lin - White Jade

Bai Lin (白琳), literally White Jade is a less known traditional Chinese red tea. This one is the highest grade produced in city of Hu Lin in Fujian province.

The quality of tea leaves speaks for itself – the leaves are long and covered with dense pale hairs, so they resemble miniature dachshund puppies quietly sitting in the cha he. The smell of tea leaves is intense, sweet, reminds me of caramel.

Dachshund puppies
Photo stolen from www.josephpets.com


The quality of tea leaves forces me to prepare it gong fu style. I use one of my oldest yixing teapots made of high quality zi sha. I decided to go for 4 grams of tea per 150 ml of water. I could use more leaves, but I never liked too strong black teas. I keep the infusion times low and use boiling water (fortunately this tea is really made of tea leaves and not miniature dachshund puppies, so boiling water is OK).

2009 Bai Lin - White Jade  - liquor

Liquor has a crystal clear orange-reddish color and makes a strong sweet scent. I know now why I do not drink so often Chinese red tea – it’s just too sweet for my palate, just like Hungarian wine from the Tokaj region. Never mind, let's drink. The taste of tea is sweet caramel mixed with fine fruity flavor; the aftertaste lingers in mouth and reminds me of high quality dark chocolate. I like this one.

6 comments:

Hobbes said...

Welcome back! Post more! :)

Bret said...

Like he said, glad your back and posting again.

Tuo Cha Tea said...

Thanks Hobbes, Bret,

I will try to do my best

T.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fascinating tea. And you brewed it in a Yi Xing pot though it's a red tea? That's also interesting. --Spirituality of Tea

Tuo Cha Tea said...

Hi Jason,

yes, I believe that good quality chinese black teas can be enjoyed gong fu style. You can squeeze to good infusions out of red tea.

tsultrim topden said...

of course good red chinese tea is suitable to prepare in yixing teapot,.but in summer i couldnt drink this kind of tea,.tomas lets improve your notes,.have a good day