Our most famous tea series continues!
Jade Star VII is overflowing with big fruity aromatics and fresh florality, all underpinned with the aged flavours of leather, woods and pear brandy. An unmissable aged White for your collection.
Jade Star began in 2015 as a little oddity. On a trip to China I found some aged 2011 White tea (a new thing back then) which had been created using a blend of Bai Mu Dan (buds and medium leaves) and Shou Mei (larger leaf pickings). It was uniquely delicious with a very distinct body sensation, so I purchased some for our clients. The response was incredible, and we set out on a mission to create more of these custom blends.
The requirement for Jade Star is not just to find some excellent aged White but to find two excellent teas (preferably from the same year) which would blend well together. A Bai Mu Dan to give the tea texture, nuttiness and vigour and a Shou Mei to add fruity and woody depths with a more woozy energy. This combination of pickings is the key to Jade Star - expressing the aged flavour and energy of the whole tea plant, from buds to large leaves. This would be impossible without blending.
For over 7 years we have been sampling aged Whites to create Jade Star. In the beginning, this was easier - there were quite a few good aged teas out there since the boom for aged Whites had just begun and producers didn't know that they were sitting on treasure.
Now they know.
Aged Whites have been the 'must-have' tea for a number of years, and most of the good quality aged Whites have been sold or attract the most ridiculous prices. A lot of the aged tea which remains (over 5 years old) has not been purchased for a reason - the tea is not good enough. This is one reason why we have started our new series 'Simple Dreams' - to provide delicious fresh White tea cakes for you to age yourself rather than pay those mad prices for aged tea.
So, sourcing Jade Star has become a difficult mission for us, and we refuse to release a Jade Star unless we are wowed by the teas on the table. I honestly have no idea if there will ever be a Jade Star VIII.
Luckily, our contacts in Fujian are deep and we have managed to find some spectacular Bai Mu Dan and Shou Mei from two different producers, both produced in 2016. Welcome to Jade Star VII.
This Jade Star is one of the most bud-heavy releases to date and has already moved its way up to rival my favourite JS predecessors.
The tea hits your nose with an avalanche of aromatics across the full spectrum of White tea. The milky fresh nuts and custards soften the deep strawberry and cherry candies, the new leather and antique wood depths are brought to life with bright clean florals of lotus and fresia, the rosehip and apricot zing is tethered to the sweet fermented heftiness of over-ripe banana and pear brandy.
This is already a White tea with a rare complexity and richness - my imagination of how it will develop over more years makes me giddy.
Talking of giddy, let's touch on the crucial body sensation - warm, comforting and happy but with a cheeky and bubbling energy. I love it and I expect an extra year of cake ageing to merge these feelings into a more trippy state as the fermentation kicks in. Please store relatively airtight at about 60% humidity for the perfect conditions.
A winning tea worthy of the name which will become a future classic in your collection.
PS We don't talk about JS6 - this tea is a special project which we are working on.
