Today we will be checking out two teas from Shang Tea!
I’ve heard of Shang Tea before, and have been recommended to them a few times for excellent white teas. For sampling today I have Jasmine Snow Dragon and Cinnamon Wu-Long.
By the way, Shang Tea will be at the Midwest Tea Festival on June 6th 2015 in Kansas City, MO!
Tasting of Shang Tea’s Jasmine Snow Dragon and Cinnamon Wu-Long
Jasmine Snow Dragon
The dry leaf is fuzzy with a heavy jasmine scent. I got this sample in February/March is it is certainly the 2014 batch.
Sadly I only have 3.5 grams of this tea and I really wanted to gaiwan steep it. I filled my gaiwan part way, it’s not optimal but works. For steeping instructions I did 200F starting with 10 second infusions. Jasmine Snow Dragon steeps up a touch of clear gold with a thick jasmine scent.
First Infusion: Jasmine Snow Dragon sips in sweet and jasmine. The white tea is nicely buttery with a wild quality to it that reminds me of fresh herbs and cilantro. The jasmine is strong, a 6/10 on the Floral meter, so it is on the perfume side. The entire sip is fresh and clean tasting with a jasmine peachy finish that lingers.
Second and Third Infusion: Jasmine Snow Dragon is more buttery and more crisply jasmine. The background isn’t wild herb and now features strong linen notes that goes fantastic with the potent jasmine.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The jasmine is going down with each infusion to just an aftertaste. The white tea is getting lighter and lighter, with essence of peachy jasmine and linen.
I love the freshness of this tea, as well as the strong jasmine flavor! I’m thinking Shang Tea’s Jasmine Snow Dragon is one of the best white jasmine teas I’ve had (the other being Verdant’s Jasmine White). This jasmine might be too perfume potent for some, but if you love strong jasmine teas you need to try this one!
Cinnamon Wu-Long is a blend of cinnamon and a 2010 autumn harvest Da Hao white tea that is fermented, not to be mistaken with a Rou Gui Oolong (aka cinnamon oolong). The dry leaf smells kind of flat and dry with a hint of cinnamon. However, the leaf is interesting with thin flakes of cinnamon stick in it.
I had no clue how to steep this tea, so I went with western style. When I poured 200f water and strong scent of cinnamon sugar comes out. It seems I’m having Christmas in June! I then steeped Cinnamon Wu-Long for 2.5 minutes.
Cinnamon Wu-Long tastes quite unique. It’s softly sweet cinnamon, not spicy at all, making my brain trying to fill in a baked apple flavor. There are notes of sweet potato. This tea blend reminds me of that weird sweet potato and marshmallow side dish on American Thanksgiving (seriously, how did they come up with adding marshmallows to potato?). It’s got a soft walnutty essence to it as well as a light dryness after each sip.
Shang Tea’s Cinnamon Wu-Long is for all the fall tea lovers! I also quite enjoyed this tea and I personally will need to try more of Shang Tea’s tea line up.
(tea provided for review)
