Jin Mao Hou

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Black

Tea Description:

A delightful black tea with a caramel nose and taste without any bitterness or astringency. Perfect for all times of the day.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

This tea is AWESOME! Seriously, this is one of my favorite black teas of all time. It’s amazing. Astonishingly good. This!

To brew this tea, I could have gone all out and grabbed the gaiwan and steeped it like that. But, I don’t like to use the gaiwan for black teas because even though I’ve got my easy gaiwan, the boiling water does get those little ceramic “handles” for the fingertips hot and I didn’t want to burn the fingers. So, I used my Kati Tumbler and measured 1 bamboo scoop into the basket and brought 12 ounces of water to a boil and let it steep for 3 minutes.

Even the aroma of the brewed tea, as the cup sits here in front of me and I await the tea to reach a cooler temperature so that I can start sipping – even the fragrance is enough to send me into a state of excitement.

Imagine a kid on Christmas morning. It’s 5: 58 am and his parents said that under no circumstances were they to be awakened before 6 am and the child is trying to be mindful of his parents’ command. So, there he sits, in a state of pure impatient bliss and excitement waiting out those 2 minutes. Yeah, that’s me now, waiting on this tea.

The fragrance is sweet, caramel-y with delicious notes of cocoa. Background notes of leather and earth. It smells so rich and it’s that smell that is telling me to get ready because this is going to taste GOOD!

Oh … so good.

The flavor is what the aroma suggests it would be: sweet, caramel-y with notes of cocoa. The notes of cacao are so well defined that it almost tastes like I dropped a few cacao shells into the basket of the Kati before I brewed the tea. I didn’t, of course, but it tastes like I did!

There’s a backdrop of earthy notes and a leathery tone. Delightful notes of malt that mingle with the notes of caramel and cocoa for a rich flavor that hints at being creamy. It isn’t “creamy” the way some teas can be exactly but it entices the mind to evoke thoughts of something creamy and dreamy.

And really, dreamy is what this tea is. If I had to limit myself to one pure black tea for the rest of my life, this tea would probably be the one that I’d choose. This is the kind of flavor that I love so much that I wouldn’t mind starting every day sipping it. There is no bitterness. There IS a sweet yet savory quality to the tea with an emphasis on the sweet. There is virtually no astringency.

The sip is pure pleasure from start to finish. I love this tea!

liberteas

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see. Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog! Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

This post was posted in Black Tea