Thursday, April 20, 2017

Office Tea Club Tasting: Yunnan Jig by Adagio


It's tea-tasting Thursday (yes, I decided that's going to be a thing. And yes, I taste tea every day but it sounds kinda catchy, right?), and today we're going to look at a black tea from Fengqin,Yunnan. I recently received a few samples from Adagio Teas, and decided to brew up Yunnan Jig for our Office Tea Club. I try to serve a wide variety to the tea clubbers, and realized we hadn't done a Chinese black tea in a while. This tea is part of the Adagio 'roots' campaign where the consumers get to learn a little bit about the farmer behind the tea. Scroll down on the tea's product page to read a Q&A with one of the tea farmers.

This is an attractive black tea with lots of fuzzy golden tips. The dry leaves are quite sweet with notes of cocoa, citrus, and hay. There is a brightness to the aroma, which makes me think it will be smooth but flavorful.


The liquor delivers on that sweet promise. Tea clubbers detected smooth chocolate, caramel, and malt coming through. There was also tobacco and earth. Something slightly fruity was lingering, perhaps a muscatel flavor. The brew was super smooth and thick, with a slight citrusy/astringent dryness that helps make this tea a bit more interesting to me. As it lingered there was a peppery finish. The wet infused leaves radiated chocolatey goodness, along with burnt toast giving it a slight smokey aroma. There was malt and caramel in the mix too.

This was an extremely popular tea with the Tea Club folks. Everyone enjoyed it, and we drank quite a few rounds. I didn't have any snacks to pair at the time, but I think I'd like to nibble on a bit of cheese with this tea. Last night I attended a tea and cheese tasting (more on this soon!), and so I have cheese on the brain. I think this tea would pair nicely with something super-creamy (we had a very similar pairing last night) but since the tea's mouthfeel is so smooth I'd like a cheese with a little bit of a tang to it to liven things up. Perhaps a creamy sheep's milk cheese. I wish I knew more about cheese so I could name an exact type...


The mellow smoothness of this tea would make it a nice late-morning or afternoon cup. I don't think I'd reach for it in the early morning since it's a bit too smooth and soft to wake me up. But once I've had my morning tea, I'd happily switch to this one.

Thank you to Adagio for providing the sample.

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