Thursday 21 June 2018

Review: Golden Horse

Yet another trip to San Francisco where i spent more time in the Chinatown tea shops than engaging in sightseeing. Maybe I'll see the city on another trip..

Golden Horse was one of the first teas we tasted with Chris, I thought he told us that it was a yellow tea but there was a smoky taste to it that I did not experience with any other yellow tea. For a few days this made me very curious, until a little online research and a lucky reference on a blog pointed me in the right direction.


Golden Horse [China, smoky, black] **** $$$   by Vital Leaf Tea, USA

Other names: Golden Horse Eyebrow, Jin Jun Mei, 

Small leaves, subtle smoky flavour and an uncharacteristic deep golden/brown colour made me wonder if I had remembered correctly what had been said in the shop. Could this really be a yellow tea? It was so unlike other yellow teas that I had experienced.

First clue that I might be on the wrong track was that the label on my tea said "RED TEA". In China, fully oxidised teas are called Red teas, this is what we usually call black tea in the west*. Certainly the colour of the brew would be more characteristic of an oxidised tea. A googlesearch threw up nothing for the term Golden Horse tea (besides a reference to the Vital Leaf website)  but another blog mentioned that it was a shorter version of the full name Golden Horse Eyebrow. 

Eureka! Golden Horse is a version of Lapsong Souchong tea, albeit a very drinkable version as the smoky tones are subtle. Well I'll be damned! 

Its a tea from WuYi region which explained a certain familiar taste as I drink a lot of the WuYi rock teas. This is a very interesting little tea and worth checking out even if you dont like other Lapsong Souchong tea.


* The chinese reserve the term black tea for Pu'erh, a type of aged fermented tea.

Similar Teas: Da Hong Pau, Lapsong Souchong

Wednesday 20 June 2018

Review: Champagne Oolong, Vital Leaf Tea, USA.

San Francisco, Chinatown - Ground Zero for my tea obsession. It was a well timed return to the source of this blog, retracing my steps to Vital Leaf Tea and half hoping to see Kenny, the tea vendor from 2011. I didn't meet Kenny but I did fall into the thrall of Chris, and another fantastic tea exposition.

Shoutout to fellow tea geeks Jason and Elon who shared my time in the shop, and even my milk-and-sugar loving companion Brian learned a thing or two about tea that day, as he gracefully indulged me. 

Champagne Oolong [Taiwan, green, oolong ] *** $$$   by Vital Leaf Tea, San Francisco, USA

Other names: Dong Fang Mei Ren, Oriental Beauty, Bai hao (白毫)東方美人, White Tip Oolong

The smell from the leaves is similar to many of the medium oxidised oolongs I've tried from Taiwan over the years, which are along the lines of Da Hong Pao and Wu Yi styles but not as oxidised as either. This sometimes and indicator for me that the tea will "fall between two stools" of neither being a light green oolong nor a nicely oxidised one. However the champagne oolong has the all the taste of a Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) 

The colour is a light brown, and it finishes with a subtle sweet note (a little bit like Vital Leaf Tea's Blue People Ginseng Oolong). 

Similar Teas: Te Luo Han,