Wednesday, August 26, 2020

2020 Essence of Tea Jinggu Forest: Thick Vegetal


I got this complimentary sample with my re-order of the powerful 2020 Essence of Tea TianMenShan GaoGan which is currently out of stock.  This 2020 Essence of Tea Jinggu Forest used to sell for $40.00 for 200g cake or $0.20/g and is also out of stock.  David and YingXi have put a great line up together this year and it looks like 4 of the 11 are already sold out.  This Jinggu was billed as a budget option that came from a wild forest environment…

Very compressed chunk of dry leaves smell of very vegetal sweetness with a creamy sweet edge.

First infusion has a smooth creamy vegetal taste with a cooling pungency which brings a wave of creamy sweet pea like vegetal in the aftertaste.  There is a slight soapy finish in the mouth.  Nice soft slippery slicky mouthfeeling.   There are edges of candy tastes that aren’t ready to come out in this first infusion.

The second infusion has a creamy buttercup milky vegetal that reminds me of Alishan Oolong.  There is a thick oily mouthcoating and a mild cooling pungent that pushes creamy, vegetal, and almost candy like sweetness out on to the breath.  The throat feel is mildly mid sticky opening.  This puerh has a very full and smooth presentation.

The third infusion has a vegetal buttery sweetness but a bit of mild bitter vegetal appears.  There is a very mild cool pungency that returns a vegetal and still slightly bitter creamy almost sweet dandelion buttery creamy sweetness.  The mouthfeel is a touch more engaging with a slight simulating throat.  There is a hypnotic Qi developing…

The fourth infusion has a bitter vegetal onset with a buttery creamy sweetness almost sweet pea.  Mild breath pungency brings a returning creamy sweetness with vegetal bitterness.  The texture is moderately oily and the mouthfeeling is mildly gripping which nicely simulates the upper and mid throat.  An almost candy like taste quickly moves out before the mainly vegetal somewhat bitter and sweet aftertaste.  A spacy and hypnotic Qi starts to build mildly.

The fifth has a buttery vegetal grassy taste with a slight bitterness creamy lime taste.  It has a really refreshing feel to it and a somewhat oily presentation with a slighter gripping mouthfeeling.  Tastes grassy and lime here.  The Qi is really nice smooth relaxing even dozy, hypnotic feeling.  The mouthfeeling is sticky slight gripping.  I can feel it’s fresh sheng energy beat a bit at my empty stomach.

The sixth infusion has a buttery grassy slight astringent bitterness.  There is a fresh lime/grass taste.  The mouthfeel is a bit gripping, the throat a bit simulating.  There is a long fresh green vegetal grassy and a bit creamy sweet aftertaste.

The seventh infusion has an almost milky Taiwanese oolong onset with a grassy mild bitterness with creamy sweetness.  The mouthfeel is a touch oily and kind of sticky puckering with a bit of throat stimulation.  I feel mildly stoned from the hypnotic Qi here.

The eighth infusion has cooled to room temp before consumption and it gives off a creamy moderately oily thicker mainly creamy sweet and vegetal.  There is a splash of lime and grassy sweetness.  The bitter and astringency is gone in the cool cup.  Qi is nicely hypnotic and makes me feel high.

The ninth infusion has a milky silky vegetal grass and pea onset with a vegetal creamy sweetness that is dumped on the breath.  There is a chalky oily feeling to the mouthfeeling and a nice not overly strong by relaxing hypnotic Qi feeling in the mind.  The oily mouthcoating is nice here and even leaves a powdery feeling in the throat but it can’t generate too much aftertaste despite this.

The 10th infusion has a soapy almost floral sort of mild bitter astringent vegetal with mild creamy sweetness in the background.  The feature with this puerh is its oily chalky mouthfeeling that will do it well as the taste develops over the next years.  There is a chalky, grassy almost sweetness to it on the tongue after swallowing.  There isn’t much going on in the body but the mind feels relaxed and a touch hypnotized, mellow.

The 11th is a cooled down cup again and it gives off a creamy chalky thick oily mainly creamy sweetness over a thick oily tongue coating a mid- open throat.  Relaxing Qi.

The 12th infusion has a mellow lime, refreshing fruit taste with a creamy sweet finish.  The mouthfeeling is thick and somewhat oily.  It finishes a nice long floral in the mouth with a touch of creamy sweet and barely vegetal.  These late mid- infusions really open up nicely in the mouth there is an oily thickness to this puerh that is really nice overtop of a fairly standard Jinggu vegetal and sweet taste.  Qi is nicely relaxing.

The 13th infusion is a mild, mellow barely vegetal, barely sweet taste.  I’m still at flash infusions and choose to steep longer in the hopes something interesting comes up…

The 14th is at 30 seconds … and pushes out some lime vegetal creamy tastes.  There is a bit of rubbery astringency underneath.  The mouthfeel has more pucker as well.  Relaxing, mellowing Qi.

The 15th oops… left the water on for a few minutes there… it gives off a thick chalky vegetal slight bitter astringent brew with some creamy sweetness…

I put this one into mug steeping… and it gives off thick olive oily vegetal tastes with a full tongue coating and subtle bitter astringency with a bit of a creamy sweet finish.

Overall, this one is all about decently thick and at times olive oily mouthfeeling/tongue coating.  It has decent stamina and a mellowing Qi which, early in the session, is slightly hypnotic Qi.  It doesn’t offer much as far as bodyfeeling goes but has a thicker vegetal taste and presentation than most Jinggu.  Still has a bit of astringent bitterness to it. 

It kind of reminds me of a thicker and more Jinggu vegetal version of the 2018 Essence of Tea Bamboo Spring.  The Bamboo Spring is lighter, ethereal, floral sweet actually after a session of the Bamboo Spring it is really nothing like this thick vegetal Jinggu Forest.  The almost olive oily 2020 Essence of Tea Jinggu Forest reminds me strongly of a Jinggu I have had in the past 2 years… maybe Yunnan Sourcing… I have a few sessions with some 2018 Jinggu samples- very nice but not as olive and still can’t satisfy me…

I like this oily thick Jinggu…

Shah8's Tasting Notes

Peace
 

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