The Upton description for this tea is a bit heavy on the superlatives, so I just had to give it a try. Besides, how can you pass up the opportunity to try an "Imperial" tea that costs just $9.80 for 80 grams? Anyway, I opened my tea sample at my decidedly downscale "Imperial Court" and this is what I found.
The medium-to-long twisted dry leaf is a fairly uniform medium-dark color. Once wet, it appears to be made of primarily medium-sized whole leaf, with a few smaller whole leaves and several pieces of larger leaf. The leaf is joined by a fairly small percentage of buds, at least in my sample. The quite aromatic liquor has a pleasant, clean, and slightly vegetal aroma with a mineral note and a medium yellow-green color. In the mouth the tea is balanced and smooth with a pleasant vegetal taste that finishes on a sweet floral note. The aftertaste is moderate in intensity and a little better than average in length, but it seemed just a bit flat to me. With sufficient leaf, this Mao Jian makes a nice second steeping, and a third that's still decent.
This is a good Mao Jian that is arguably a notch better that Upton's Gu Zhang tea and it is certainly one I could enjoy on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Upton's glowing description raised my expectations too high and left me expecting slightly more.
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