Description
Enshi Yu Lu “Jade Dew” Green Tea
Enshi Yu Lu is a classic green tea from Enshi in the west of the Chinese province of Hubei. There the tradition of its production goes back to the second half of the seventeenth century (Qing dynasty). It comes from the “Enshi Qun Ti Zhong” mixed cultivar, which prevails in the Enshi region.
A special feature of this type of Chinese green tea is the oxidation stop by steaming instead of the roasting that is otherwise common in China. When it was first presented in Japan in 1945, the tea was given the nickname “Chinese Gyokuro”. And the meaning of “Yu Lu” (“jade dew”) corresponds to that of the Japanese term “Gyokuro“ .
In addition to its excellent taste properties, Enshi Yu Lu is particularly rich in soil-born selenium. Also, the gentle steaming ensures the optimal preservation of valuable ingredients contained in the tea leaf. Among these are catechins and tannins, for example. Due to its high popularity in China, the tea often appears on the “10 Great Teas of China” list.
The Tea Garden
Our Enshi Yu Lu comes from a close-to-nature tea garden looking down on Enshi town from almost 1000 meters. The natural character of the tea garden results on the one hand from organic cultivation. On the other hand, it comes from the dense forest surrounding of the tea garden. The shading effect achieved in Japan by close-meshed nets also takes place here in a natural way. That is, the dense mist shrouding the tea garden almost all year round provides an effective UV filter. Overall, tea cultivation in the Enshi region benefits from the prevailing subtropical climate. This in turn is characterized by warm days, cool nights and high levels of precipitation and humidity.
Picking
The picking time for our Enshi Yu Lu “Jade Dew” green tea falls in the second half of April. This is the time when the tea plant produces its first young spring shoots. In these, in turn, concentrate the active ingredients that have accumulated during the winter picking break .
As in the old days, the picking of our Enshi Yu Lu green tea takes place by hand. At this, the applicable picking standard is the classic 1 + 2 “king standard”. This means that one still unopened young buds each together with its tow youngest adjacent leaves qualify for picking. For finest quality, avoiding to pick any stem portion along with the one bud and two leaves is mandatory.
Processing
After picking follows a phase of withering the tea leaves for several hours on airy, generously dimensioned bamboo trays. Then ensues the stopping of the enzymatic oxidation processes in the tea leaf by means of gentle steaming. The leaves are then left to cool down before swirling them against one another with hot air feed. This serves to increase the tea leaves’ suppleness in favor of further processing. In order to achieve evenly straight needles, the subsequent rolling of the tea leaves takes place in 2 steps.
The final drying, reducing the residual moisture in the tea leaf to about 5%, marks the last processing step. Ultimately, a final quality sorting, with our Enshi “Jade Dew” as its most exquisite result, rounds up the procedure.
Taste and Appearance
The hot air feed during processing causes the ready-processsed needle-shaped tea leaves to turn gray. However, they turn back to bright green in the infusion. The jade-green-yellow cup wins over the connoisseur with a complex, vegetal-spicy bouquet, reflecting in the tea’s taste , playfully surrounded by fresh spring-floral notes.
Zubereitung
For preparing Enshi Yu Lu green tea, we recommend following the standards applicable to Japanese Sencha teas. Accordingly, with a dosage of 2-3g/100ml, the infusion temperature should not exceed 75°C for the first infusion. Let steep for a good minute. Subsequently, gradually increasing the infusion temperature over 2-3 possible subsequent infusions ensures the optimal exploitation of the active ingredients in the tea leaf. At this, the second infusion gets by with 75°C and a steeping period of just a few seconds. Ensuingly, a third infusion does well with slightly increased infusion temperature (around 80°C) and steeping period (1 min). And a fourth infusion with boiling hot water (90-100°C) and 3 minutes steeping is definitely still worth the effort.
For more Chinese green teas, check the following link:
https://www.siam-teas.com/product-category/teas-from-china/green-tea/
And for Japanese Gyokuro teas please click below:
https://www.siam-teas.com/product-category/tea-from-japan/gyokuro-tea/
Gongfu Master (verified owner) –
You will find that this golden liquid is surprisingly potent for a green tea, with strong nutty floral aromas and a steep amount of bitterness. The palate dies slowly as the intense character fades into a light-sweet floral aftertaste with perhaps a slight hint of liquorice in the distant background. You can perfectly balance out the colour and hefty nutty and flower character relative to the time of your infusions and the amount of leaves used. Good value for sparkly mornings, especially while sitting at the campfire in a forest or park. The flavour is rich in minerals as well, you can just taste them so purely due to the oxidation stop being performed by steaming rather than roasting, conserving more of the flavour during the process.
oskar (verified owner) –
An interesting tea that I have been wanting to try for a long time. A steamed Chinese tea!
Its appearance is grey-green, not really jade-like, or intense green as in the case of Gyokuro, which I must say is a tea that I am not always enthusiastic about despite its fame.
The shape of the leaves does remind me of Japanese steaming and there are narrow needles, smaller than in the typical roasted Chinese tea.
The clean yellow infusion comes with a dense and pleasant tea, more elegant than overwhelming, which reminds me of Kagoshima sencha mixed with some subtle Chinese green tea. I find it has very harmonious notes between mineral, floral and green that linger in the mouth.
I found it to be a very interesting and tasty tea, for being the most economical Chinese green tea from Thomas I think it is a great buy.