Spring 2025 Jingmai Sun-dried Black Gushu

Processed in mid April 2025

Ancient tea garden material from Da Ping Zhang

Powerful, with a good balance between acidity, sweetness and bitterness

Keep the brews short!

This year, Yubai made a lot of black tea during the Spring harvest. She used Gushu material from the second flush. Around the water-splash festival in mid-April, there's often a window during which people aren't too busy, tea is cheaper, but the rain hasn't come, and the leaves still taste good. This is a good time for making black tea. 

Yet, making black tea with such a powerful material will not always give the best results. It creates a very strong black tea. 

Powerful material is often kept for low oxidized teas (Pu-erh, green, low-oxidation oolongs). When you're drinking a highly oxidized tea, you are expecting a warming feeling and a soft tea. This is not what this tea gives. It tastes strong despite the oxidation. In this state, the material delivers acidity, bitterness and sweetness, the job of the tea maker is to balance these three characteristics by controlling the level of rolling and oxidation.

This tea packs a punch, the long rolling time means the juices are already on the surface of the leaves and will be extracted fast when you brew the tea. It is recommended you start with flash brews and only increase the time if you feel the tea is too weak, such black teas are the easiest to overbrew.