Best Puerh Surprise 2021
The Best Puerh Surprise of 2021 is the Jinglong Factory. They’re an Yiwu outfit that seems to have access to some very good Yiwu material and a consistent, if unimaginative, approach to tea production. The thing is when all you imagine is root beer vanilla and camphor goodness, why deviate?
The Yiwu Prince made its debut this year as the first Jinglong in the Collection. It’s from a favoured vendor who has excellent storage ensuring a good deal of cooking of the leaves. This is necessary to get the root beer taste from Yiwus. This character is completely absent in young productions. The Yiwu Princess hails from the same vendor and features the same cooking with a greater floral expression. Jinglong’s offerings avoid the floral trait. Even though the Yiwu Prince proclaims Yiwu Spring Tips. . . the size of the leaves are altogether too long and thick to be the spring that comes to mind when a wrapper says spring.
The dark brew of the Princess, lest she be jealous.
I hastily sampled a newly arrive Jinglong production creatively named Early Spring from an unfamiliar vendor. Even though its a great deal cheaper than their Prince, it’s every bit as good: the root beer, vanilla spice, all sweet no bitter, placid on the tongue. I was surprised being fresh off the boat.
The above is a shot of the ’05 Jinglong Red Ribbon, thus named because it has an embroidered red ribbon in it. But don’t take my word for it; here it is:
Anyway, this production comes from a vendor where I’ve tended to only gander iconic productions. Amidst a sea of very particular Zhongcha productions with handsome asking prices, this Jinglong rather stood out. It’s the offering for which I developed the greatest affection, though I’ve only tried it twice. The ribbon really seals the deal for me, even though some storage factors were dicey at best. Fortunately, it hasn’t affected taste.
The Best Puerh Surprise of 2021 turned out to be a factory. Hmm. Jinglong offerings are remarkably consistent. They deliver a first-rate Yiwu Zen regardless of price range. They’re not apricoty and grapefruit seed like CMS. They’re not grapey, berry, or fruity in any way. Think of cane juice to which was added all types of very interesting tropical spices, something extremely pleasant like stewed pears in heavy syrup.
Samples of 20g for each is 60g of root beer vanilla goodness. Hit me up if you’re interested in upping your Jinglong game.
