2011 CYH QianJiaZhai Jincha

CONTEXT: This was a sample, broken quite a bit sadly. Left in a mylar sample bag for a good while but never opened after it was sealed in.

VISUALS: Nice jincha w/ nice leaf (from what I saw). Fair amount of gold buds and fuzz in there amongst the muted browns and blacks of the sheng you’d expect.

DRY HEAT: Wow! That smells really nice, and really unique.

Sweet, and not overly so but biscuity…it evokes an image and feeling of being in a pastry shop holding a beautifully crafted cupcake of sorts with a homemade thick piped buttercream frosting coiled on top of a smooth vanilla cake with the freshness from the bakery coming off of it.

Man! What a ride…that’s crazy!

WET HEAT: Well that took a turn 😂

Now we’re in the greener camp, some “high” notes, some fragrant maybe subtle floral mixed w/ fruits that have gone just a smidge off and become perfumey but more fruity dominant in this. Wow…strange! That is really fruity! The longer I let it linger the fruitier it gets.

STEEPS: I immediately went "uh oh" on steep 1...

...aaaaaaaaaaand that was sort of a fair assessment it seems. This is a classic case of the aroma not making it to the cup. Tell you what does:

• the bready-pastry-esq thing (a little)
• and the perfumey-high-off-fruity thing (a little)

I can tell you right now this is somebody's bag right here, but it ain't mine. Not that it's bad persay, It's clearly decent quality, but...eh - anything that reminds me just a bit too much of Lincang/Wuliang/Jinggu territory I'm pretty turned off by.

I don't care for young sheng and I don't want my aged sheng to retain traits reminiscent of being younger...storage aside, if the region is too "fragrant", we're probably not on good terms.

Yeah...I mean it's ok...as I drink it I'm like, it's such a shame to be so good to be so bad. Meaning: it really is a good tea, but in a bad direction (for me).

Nah...I'm at steep 3 now and it's just sort of leaning astringent and drying with less and less of the desirable qualities.

PUNCHLINE: For disclosure, it was a sample, that was broken, that was sitting for a good long time, that was also not kept in a heated solution.

That said: I do know enough about tea to say, while this wasn't an optimal tasting, it wasn't bad and I trust it was a decent enough example of it. At the end of the day, you can't make this something different than it is, and it's not for me.

RETRO: Going back here, I actually full pegged this as a Jinggu region-esq tea, did I not? I called Wuliang and Jinggu. I don't care for those regions, never have.

Just did a deep dive into all the Qianjiazhais in China on the server 😂 Did not know that the one in question was a village smack in the perimeter of those others.

BRASSINESS...yeah that's it. Just read MGault's review. That's that "high-off-fruity-perfumey-confusing-thing" I was getting. From those golden tips.

Apparently this is a Qi tea - if you know me you understand that statement.