Xin Yang Mao Jian

Last year in July, we decided to travel to northern China and look specifically for classic Chinese courtyard buildings. Beijing, of course, has the most famous and the most renovated. Shaanxi, however, has several times more than anywhere else in China. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shaanxi was pretty much the financial center with Pingyao being the most famous. In fact, if one travels in eastern China, one can see the evidence of this success as many of the Shaanxi business people moved to other locations and became equally successful. So why am I writing about this trip in a tea blog?

Our trip began in Yuncheng, Shaanxi and then we traveled to Henan Province so my wife could visit the famous Shao Lin Temple not far from Luoyang. Since Henan is home to one of the top ten teas in classic Chinse tea history, I figured to find some so I could say I bought it in Henan. Thus, for my first tea tasting in Thailand, I dug out the Xin Yang Mao Jian we bought in Luoyang. Chinese Tea Travelers we are!

Here is the sample of Mao Jian bought in Luoyang. I do not recall the exact price for this, but it was not cheap. I do remember my wife not wanting to buy it because it was too expensive. We bought a half pound from the tea merchant's freezer. It has the characteristics of what I have read about Mao Jians - dark green and tightly dried with points at each end.

Before actually preparing this tea, I did some search (again) on the internet to find out if it had some interesting features for which I should be aware. At the Half Dipper tea site (my favorite tea site), I read the article on Xin Yang Mao Jian that saved me a lot of pain. Basically, this tea is very delicate and the water temperature has to be just right for the better Mao Jian from Henan. So I followed his advice for the first steep and used cooled boiling water. Was I rewarded?

This tea matched the Half Dippers comments about an expensive tea. It was refreshing, delicate and kind of reminded me a bit of lemons. I immediately shared it with my wife and she was delighted. Only problem was I did not empty the tea out of the teapot (my only expensive teapot) and when I went for more after about six or seven minutes of continued steeping, the tea was flat out bitter. Wew, it was as bitter as any tea I had ever tasted.

More experiments proved that the tea we had bought in Luoyang was probably the real deal. Too hot of water and it becomes common. Steep too long or use too many leaves and it gets really bitter. Do it right and one has truly one of the best teas in China. Amazing stuff this Xin Yang Mao Jian.

When China Tea Travelers travel they not only look for tea but for tea stuff as well. Here we negotiate for some really fine tea cups. All nice but what I was looking for was the Luoyang Jun pottery made famous during the Ming Dynasty with its three colors. Believe those on the left are the Jun style pottery. Not cheap but we did get a few as well as some of the other ones. Fun to be Tea Travelers indeed.

After our tea shopping trip, we stopped at a nice small restaurant and had some of the local dishes. This one is the most famous vegetarian dish. We broke out our Mao Jian tea and enjoyed it with our meal.

This is not a famous pork dish from Luoyang as we have eaten this all over Sichuan. This dish, however, was especially good with our nice Xin Yang Mao Jian.

I will have more on our trip to Shaanxi and Henan at my Emei blog later on.

My First New Tea of the New Year: Xin Yang Mao Jian

On our last trip to Chengdu, we bought this tea pre-packaged to give it a try. I had read that it was considered one of those "top ten Chinese teas" I keep reading about. The price was around 8 Yuan for 100 grams and I had to get it to try.

The following is a quick compilation of several sites (mostly commercial tea sellers) that provide information about this tea. I read them all and then put together the information.

Xin Yang Mao Jian

Xinyang Maojian is produced in the top of Xinyang, Henan Cheyun mountain, Jiyun mountain, Tianyun mountain, Yun wu mountain, Zhenlei mountain, Hei Longtan, Bai Longtan and other mountains. The end products' color is green, the pekoe revealed. The color of tea is bright-green, the fragrance is thick, the flavor is good and the leaf bud strong, light green even.

This Xinyang area has a superior climate and earth soil conditions ideal for green tea production. A couple of thousand years of perfecting the manual system tea craft, causes "the Xinyang Maojian" to be unique and unequalled. Tea Saint Lu Yu in his "the Book of tea", stated that Xinyang Maojian is the high-grade tea, Song Dynasty big literary giant Su Dongpo also placed " Huai Nan tea Xinyang first " among great teas of China.

Xinyang Mao Jian attained the famous tea high quality certificate in 1915 at the Panamanian international exposition; In 1959 it was listed as one of ten big famous teas of China. In 1982 it was, once again, evaluated and given the ministry-level high quality famous tea of China.

Though Xinyang is on the edge of the arid North China plain, the mountainous southern and western parts, crisscrossed by streams and brooks, have plenty of the clouds and mist needed for good tea. The processed leaves are in fine, taut strips. They make a delicious tea with a chestnut flavour and a long-lasting aftertaste. This tea was produced with only very simple equipment. What makes it different is the skilful hand movements of rolling, adjusted to the heat and softness or dryness of the tender leaves.

Front of the package.

From the back of the 100 gram package we bought:

Xinyang maojian lies in mountains of Xinyang with densely covered rivulet and fog. It is finely made by tender bud as raw material. It is adopted traditional craft and modern science and technology to produce. It owns features of elegant and slender shape, peak green, little white, clear green in water, fine aroma, special style. It is special tea titbit.

The back of the package contained the above description and date of production. It states that this tea can be stored for around 18 months.

Ok, enough preparation for this tea. Let's find out how it tasted

The tea looks pretty much like the other Mao Jians we have tried from Emei Mountain and elsewhere. It was dark green and twisted nicely together. It looked to be about the same density as the Emei Mao Jian.

My close up shot reveals nothing out of the ordinary. This tea looks like any other Mao Jian one can buy locally.

And, of course, the proof is in the cup. This tea is good, really good. Since we bought it pre-packaged, one can probably figure it to be a lower grade of tea than one could buy in its loose-leaf form. Nevertheless, this tea is great. It is smooth with a full-bodied sensation and a sweet and fairly long lasting aftertaste. The word "cooling" comes to mind whenever I take a sip. We really like this tea and when we go back to Chengdu, we plan to stock up on it.

I did about five infusions before it ran a little weak. Do believe if I let it set longer, I could have gotten a couple of more infusions. A truly great green tea worth drinking regularly.