Junshan Silver Needle Tea

AROMA

Even though the fragrance is by no means spectacular, it has a gentle white peach aroma that is typical of the top yellow tea, Kunshan Yinzhen.

TASTE

It has the sweetness of white peaches and a hint of spicy Chinese anise, a flavour unique to yellow tea. The exquisite taste is like no other tea type, and although it is not assertive, its balance stands out and quietly shows that it reigns at the top of yellow teas.

COMPLEMENTS
Best enjoyed on its own or with garden salad and light sandwiches.

CONDIMENTS
Drink Plain

Junshan Silver Needle is one of the top ten Chinese teas and is considered the best silver needle tea. Junshan Silver Needle is originally a "yellow tea", but because yellow tea was really rare and only emperors drank it, it is sometimes confused with green tea and many people classify yellow tea as green tea.

This tea is made from five ancient trees in the Junshan Mountains, south of Dongting Lake. Firstly, it is made from mature buds plucked within 24 hours, all of which are the same size and have natural silver hairs attached to them. It does not oxidise like other dark-coloured teas such as oolong tea, but has a distinctive pale golden colour; when brewed with hot water at around 85°C, it produces a clear tea with a pale yellow colour, known as 'needle floating forest' because the leaves stand vertically like needles. Steep until the tea leaves sink to the bottom of the cup.

This tea has a light woody aroma and a complex, rich flavour. It has a rich fruity aroma with a woody, smoky note, sometimes slightly reminiscent of agarwood, creating a subtly sweet aftertaste. When brewed with appropriate water, the sweetness is even stronger. It has an earthy aroma and a sweet, mellow taste. Hunan people prefer to brew this tea in a tall glass to best showcase its characteristics.

Again, Junshan Silver Needle is not the common Fujian Silver Needle White tea, but a rare yellow tea from Hunan.

***** Yellow tea is not well known outside of China, and in fact is almost unknown in the long history of tea in China. Yellow tea includes some of the most famous consecrated teas since the First Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). As the name suggests, yellow tea is yellow in both the tea leaves and the extract. This colour is obtained by adding a process called 'sealed agonising yellow' to the green tea production process, which is otherwise almost identical to green tea. The length of the yellowing process can vary from 30 minutes to six days, and can range from yellow tea that is indistinguishable from green tea to golden yellow tea. The yellowing process is a complex and subtle change that mellows the herbaceous bitterness of green tea and enhances its aroma.