Our 2023 batch of Bamboo Sabre is creamy, rich and brothy with a zingy little punch of dragon fruit and bamboo to get the saliva flowing. It is a tingly tea with a potent energy.
We have some of our 2022 batch still available at a ludicrous price for this highest grade Zhu Ye Qing. It is a rich tea with more rounded edges than the fresh 2023 harvest - they are both great and are from the same producer so it is a fascinating way to taste the difference in vintages and a year of ageing.
These are the highest grade Zhu Ye Qing made from early pluckings of 50+ year-old heirloom cultivar tea bushes.
We have been tasting Zhu Ye Qing Green for nearly 20 years, but I have never selected this tea for Mei Leaf because I often find it too green and astringent - it mostly reminds me of raw leaf rather than a crafted tea despite its huge popularity and high prices. To be honest, I had almost given up on this famous Sichuan Green and figured it was just not to my taste.
But we pushed further and reached deeper into the inner circle of tea aficionados in Emei, Sichuan to try to see if there was a version that we could swoon over and in 2021 we found this producer. One taste and I was smitten. Yes, their Bamboo Sabre has all of the verdant, bright and Spring-like notes that I wanted but this is balanced with a rich brothiness, a smooth creaminess and an ability to be brewed hard without any of that persistent astringency.
Then I found out the price and the background of this tea (we always try to taste blind). These are early plucked teas which are highly prized for its more gentle and brothy nature. More importantly (in my view) is that their Zhu Ye Qing is made from the Laochuan Qunti Zhong variety - this is the heirloom variety of the Bashu region (the old name of the area encompassing Sichuan). I am convinced that this variety makes all the difference, creating the spectacular balance of this tea.
You can certainly brew this 'Grandpa Style' in a tall glass with 80-85c (175-185F) water and just keep topping up as the water goes low and the tea becomes stronger. I personally prefer brewing in a half Gong Fu style (using a fair amount of leaf for about a minute infusion) for at least the first 3 infusions and then I would move to 'Grandpa Style' or cold-brewing to get the most of these gorgeous buds.
I advise tasting next to Sweet Dew - another Sichuan tea to understand the differences between these famous Greens.
