Don Mei : Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei
Leaf. In this video : Fermented Purple Tea.
In this video I'm going to be tasting a very
unique tea - the latest edition to our cooked
Puerh tea selection. If any point in time
you enjoy this video then make sure you hit
it with a "like", and if you're not following
us on all of our socials then go click that
button. Finally, I get to release this extremely
unique tea for me. This is "Gem Juice Outlaw".
Take a look at the cover, [which is], as always,
designed by Celine. This is "Gem Juice Outlaw".
I know that [some of these pictures] have
been leaked already, but finally I can announce
it officially. [This is] one of the most unique
teas that we've tasted this year - Gem Juice
Outlaw; a cooked Puerh tea. Let me quickly
give you a bit of background about this tea.
This tea is a cooked Puerh tea, but it is
made from purple tea trees. What do I mean
by that? Well, I've done a full video all
about purple tea, [and] I'll put a link in
the description below. But [for] a quick recap,
purple tea is not a separate type of tea.
It's not like Oolong tea, or black tea, or
yellow tea - because those are dependent upon
processing. With purple tea it's all about
the fact that the leaves are having a purple
hue, or a purple color. This can happen in
nature naturally. The plant can react to certain
environmental stressors, and can sprout purple.
This is very rare that tea is made from these
purple, sprouting leaves. But instead, you
can also get varieties of the [tea plant]
which naturally sprout purple leaves. There's
some in Kenya. So [there's] a lot of purple
tea coming out of Africa, and there are also
these wild tea plants specifically growing
around the De Hong region of Yunnan [province].
These wild Ye Sheng varieties [tend] to have
purple leaves as well, and we have one tea
made from that called "Purple Bud". Again,
I'll put a link in the description below,
if you want to check out that tea. However,
there's also another type of naturally-sprouting
purple leaf tea variety, and that's called
the Zhe Juan variety. [The Zhe Juan] variety
is actually more of a kind of man-made hybrid.
It comes from crossing a Fu Jianese purple
sprouting tea with the Assamica variety - so
the stories go - around the kind of late 80s
[to] 90s. And since then this created, hybrid
cultivar has been cultivated all around Yunnan
province - not in huge amounts, but it certainly
has been cultivated. Now, in the video that
I did about purple tea, I said that I wasn't
very into the Zhe Juan variety... [TIME CUT]
There's something that tastes very lightweight
about it. It doesn't have the depth that comes,
I feel, from natural hybridization...I have
gone to Yunnan many times, and I've tasted
Zhe Juan tea, and I have one particular farmer
that has been trying to get me onto Zhe Juan
tea for a while. I first went there, and he
gave me some raw Puerh tea made with Zhe Juan,
and I knocked it back. I then went back there,
and he gave me some green tea made from the
Zhe Juan, and some black tea made from the
Zhe Juan. Again, [it's a] very pretty color,
[with] kind of this pink-purple hue to it,
and it has a very interesting, light, slightly
citrusy taste to it, but I always felt it
was a little bit too thin, and I always knocked
it back, and I said, "No." This year, when
I went to Yunnan province, the farmer pulled
out some cooked Puerh tea. This is the first
time that I had tasted a cooked - or ripe
- Puerh tea made with the Zhe Juan cultivar.
The moment I taste this batch - I tasted a
few - but the moment I tasted this Gong Ting,
very fine-picking - batch, I fell in love
with it and we had to make some cakes. So
the result is this - "Gem Juice Outlaw". Let
me quickly SCOPE the tea for you. So, this
is, [for] Season, this sis pring 2013. So
this has been picked in 2013, it was cooked
in 2013 - or fermented in 2013 - and it's
been aged for five years, to really dissipate
any of that fermented smell, and really get
a very clean-tasting tea. So it's been fermented
in 2013, and stored in Meng Hai since then.
This is now 2018 that I'm speaking to you.
[For the] Cultivar, as I said, this is the
Zhe Juan purple variety. [As for] the Origin,
this comes from the Bu Lang mountain area
in Yunnan province in China, where they produce
all of this great Puerh tea. [For] Picking
and Processing, as I said, this is a ripe
Puerh tea, which means it's gone through a
fermentation process. The picking on it is
very fine Gong Ting pickings. The Gong Ting
pickings are very young leaves and buds - the
finest picking for ripe Puerh. Then it's gone
through the fermenting, or ripening, process.
For those of you who don't know, that means
that means that they pile of these leaves
on floors which have been seeded with these
kind of microorganisms, they keep the leaves
in piles in a hot and humid, wet environment,
and that allows the tea to ferment. It's a
very skilled and labor-intensive process,
but it produces excellent ripe tea. The Elevation
is 1,200 meters. Okay, as I said, when I first
tasted this tea in Yunnan this year [this
is the first time] I look at him and said,
"You got me! You got me! Okay, now I'm interested
in this Zhe Juan variety." And I think, for
me, it's one of the most unique teas that
we've tasted this year. [The] artwork [is]
by Celine. As I said, what we have here is
a magpie, and the magpie is stealing away
a necklace. But I'm going to talk more about
what that necklace represents later.. The
name of this tea - as I said - [is] "Gem Juice
Outlaw". Let's take a look at these leaves,
shall we? Take a look at that. [They're] really,
really, really dark leaves. [They're] dark.
but you can see a slight purple hue to it.
I'll bring it to this camera, [so] hopefully
you can see that there's a slight purple hue
to it. It's not your average [ripe] Puerh
tea, which has more of those kind of browns
and chestnuts. That [has] much more got that
slightly cooler tint to it, looking a little
bit more purple to it. Right. Let's dig into
this. I am excited to taste this tea. It's
been a few weeks since I've tasted it. Now
what we're going to do is I'm brewing in this
Jin Shui pot. This Jin Shui pot is about to
come in - or has come in - so check it out.
If you're looking online, we 're going to
do a video about Jin Shui pots. So stay tuned
for that. Right. These leaves look beautiful.
So this pot is 180 [milliliters]. I recommend
about 5 grams of this per 100 [milliliters].
So we're going to be doing something like
about 8 grams of this tea. Let's see how easy
it is to break. You see, it's very easy. You
don't even really need the pick. What's that?
That's four. I'm going to take the pick out
to avoid breaking too much. This is a 100
gram cake, but because this is a cooked Puerh
tea it's not so difficult to break. [One hundred
gram] cases for raw teas can be much more
challenging, as I'm sure many of you are very
well aware of. There you go. [That's] 8.23
[grams]. That sounds good to me. I'm going
to put this away. [I'll] wrap it up quickly.
Okay, we're going to be brewing with 99 degree
[Celsius] water. [That's] very hot water.
That's what I recommend. You can go slightly
cooler if you would like to control a little
bit of the astringency. But as you'll see,
this tea is all about that astringency, so
don't be too frightened of brewing hot. So
I've got some hot water here. This is going
into our Jin Shui pot. Jin Shui pots are great
for cooked Puerhs. So we're just going to
warm this teaware up. I'm going to pour a
lttle bit on top as well. Because it's clay
and it's thick, it's going to take a little
bit more energy to warm it up. [POURING] As
I said, we're going to do some videos about
Jin Shui pots, but you can check it out now.
Okay, let's stick these leaves - ooh, we've
got to break them up. The beautiful thing
about these Gong Ting pickings is you just
literally need to [pinch them] and they will
crumble into lovely leaves without me breaking
too much of the leaf. But because this has
been fermented and ripened it's going to be
a lot more broken. [It's a] beautiful color,
as I said. [It's] purple-black, but you can
also see that there's some little chestnut
buds in here as well - [these] little chestnut
colored buds hiding in amongst all of that
deep purple-brown-black. Okay, let's pour
these in, and let's give this a smell. So,
[for] "nose dry leaf" [we have] a nice warm
pot. [SMELLS TEA] [So [for] the Zhe Juan variety
- and what you're going to hear me saying
a fair amount, I think, in this video - is
[that it] has this very zesty, bright character
to it. And I think the reason why I didn't
really respond to it with the black teas and
the green teas is that I felt that that bright,
citrusy character came out too much, and it
didn't kind of have enough balance to it.
Because with those raw teas you may want some
of that citrus, but you also want that honeyed
sweetness - or you want that smooth, syrupiness
to it. Whereas this felt much more bright,
much thinner, [and] much more citrusy. [SMELLS
TEA] But when you ripen the tea you get this
fascinating juxtaposition between the warmth,
the fudginess, [and] yes, some wet cavern,
but really much more about walnuts, [SMELLS
TEA] and caramel and fudge. And then [that]
juxtaposition plays really with the cirtusy
notes of this. So you're [also] getting lime,
and you're getting lemon. And at first sniff
itis a bit disconcerting, because you're getting
this warmth, and then you're getting this
citrus, all in the same breathe, and it feels
like this tea surely can't work together.
It's fascinating, [SMELLS TEA] but you çan't
imagine that it would work together on the
mouth. It's a really interesting smell. Let's
give this a wash. [We'll] pour the wash in
here. Right. you can already see, I hope,
that the color of this liquor has this kind
of slightly [pink-rosy hue] to it, which is
this purple cultivar. [I'll] pour this in
here. Right, here we go. Let's give this a
sniff. [SMELLS TEA] So whát's happening is
that those two extremes - that warm, nutty,
fudgy, and the zesty lime-lemon - are starting
to come together here. [SMELLS TEA] I'm getting
cranberries - [SMELLS TEA] dried cranberries,
[with] sour tang. But now [it's] starting
to get a bit sweeter. [SMELLS TEA] [It's]
cranberries, [and] jujube - those red dates;
which is a very common aroma profile in cooked
Puerhs. So you can imagine those red dates
going to cranberries. [It's] very, very tangy
- but sweet - dried berries, [SMELLS TEA]
and I'm still getting some of that warmth.
But [SMELLS TEA] the fudginess has turned
more into a slight chocolatiness. [SMELLS
TEA] [It's making] my mouth water [laughter].
[It's] a little bit like brownies - milk chocolate
brownies, with red date and dried cranberries.
You can see how that's starting to merge.
If you can imagine those flavor profiles that
starts to sound a lot more delicious than
fudge and lime. Okay, let's brew this up.
So we're going to brewing approximately 10
second-ish, [or] something like that. I'm
going to go through a filter, just because
i know that with this fermented, cooked tea
you're going to get more broken leaf. Okay,
let's pour that away. [It's a] beautiful color.
[I'll] take the lid off, and I will show you
the color of this liquor. [It's] hard to see
it through the camera, but with the light
shining through there's a definite pinky hue
to it. It's got like a purple-grey-brown,
with a pinky hue to it. [It's] definitely
different to your average cooked Puerh. You
can certainly see that this has been made
with a different variety. I'll pour some,
actually, [into] a white cup, just so you
can hopefully see it a little bit clearer.
[It's] lighter than your average cooked Puerh,
and definitely with a little bit more pinks
and purple hues going on in there. Cheers
everybody! [SIPS TEA] Let's focus on texture.
The texture on this - because it's a Zhe Juan
tea - [is] light [and] juicy. It's still smooth
in the mouth. [SIPS TEA] It's still got that
nice, smooth character that you're looking
for in a ripe tea, but it's definitely lighter
in body, and juicier. [SIPS TEA] What do I
mean by that? Immediately, I can feel an intense
physicality coming out when I have the liquor
in my mouth. I can feel like as if you've
kind of sucked on a lemon. You're not getting
the acidity, but you're getting that reaction,
where your mouth is kind of reacting to the
minerals - the compounds - in the tea, and
you're getting that juiciness developing.
[SIPS TEA] Really, at first sip, [it's] very
refreshing [and] very quenching. Right. Let's
focus on some flavor profiles here. [SIPS
TEA] What I'm getting is, again, this marriage
between warmth... We're talking about nuts,
like I would say [SIPS TEA] ... I said walnuts
before. I think so - walnuts, pecan nuts,
[and] chestnuts; those sweeter, more flowery
nuts. And then you're getting, on the aftertaste,
this very distinct tang. The tang is like
currants, [SIPS TEA] black currants [and]
red currants. Again, not the sourness that's
related to it, but the feeling, and this kind
of tangy note when you breathe out through
your nose. [It's] almost like you've had a
lemon, or you've had some red currants which
are very kind of tart, and after you've swallowed
it's just left with - through the nose - this
tangy, fruity note to it. [SIPS TEA] The reason
why we called this "Gem Juice Outlaw", and
we have this imagery is because we tasted
a lot of those juicy berry fruits. So the
magpie is stealing away a necklace made with
either black currants or red currants. You
can see the detail there, hopefully, in the
necklace - that it's a necklace made up of
currants, specifically black currants and
red currants. Because that tang - that acidity
- again, not in taste but in feeling, is what
makes this Zhe Juan tea so special. Because
when it was produced as a black tea, or as
a raw Puerh tea, I didn't feel that balance
worked. But with this cooked Puerh it's just
so fascinating. It's such an interesting [SIPS
TEA] flavor profile. You're getting that kind
of [little] bit of chocolate still going on.
I'm getting burnt brownies. I'm getting chestnut
puree, and all of those nice, warm sweet notes.
And then, after you've swallowed, I'm getting
red currant. I'm getting black currant. I'm
getting cranberries and red dates. I'm going
to brew up another one here, so we can get
a stronger infusion, and then I'm going to
start to talk to you about probably my favorite
part of this tea - apart from the taste - and
that is the finish on this tea. [SIPS TEA]
Mmm! Yum, yum. I'm also getting a spice towards
the end, like [SIPS TEA] vanilla and a little
bit of fennel. It's not too anisey - for those
of [the] people who are allergic to anise.
It doesn't have that, but [it has] just a
little fennel sweetness coming through. [SIPS
TEA] [There's] a little fennel sweetness,
and some vanilla coming through as well. I'm
going to try unfiltered. Let's see what this
Jin Shui can do, in terms of filtering out
the leaf. Not too shabby. [It] looks good.
[SMELLS TEA] Oh! Okay, [now] the second infusion.
I will show you the color of the liquor. [It's]
pretty similar. This is going to be consistent.
You're going to get definitely over 10 infusion
- closer to probably 15 infusions out of this.
It is lighter than your average ripe Puerh,
so you might not be able to extend way past
12 infusions. But as you'll see, this is the
character of this tea. [SIPS TEA] Mmm. [It's]
much stronger. I'm getting those chestnut
purees. I'm getting "walnut whips". I don't
know if you know those. "Walnut Whips" is
something that we had in the UK - [and] probably
still have - which is milk chocolate with
like a walnut cream inside, and a walnut on
top. I'm getting that [SIPS TEA], but then
the spices come in. [There's] vanilla, fennel
sweetness, red currant [and] black currant.
[It's] really, really nice. Now 'let's talk
about the finish on this tea, because the
finish on this tea - as you may be hearing
- is extremely physical. This is a very physical
tea. Immediately after [you] swallow it is
dry. It is bone dry. All the way from the
tip of my tongue, all the way to the back
of my throat, it's like this really, really
quenching mineral dryness. [There's] no bitterness.
There's no bitterness in here. It's just a
quenching, mineral dryness [SIPS TEA] that
is quite extreme. And the joy of this tea
is sipping on it [and] letting that dryness
set it, breathing out through your nose, [and]
getting that tang of the black currant [and]
the cranberries, and waiting. And slowly,
slowly the dryness releases, and you get this
tingling, salivating sensation, which is now
starting to come - starting [with] the back
sides of my tongue, moving forwards. So my
tongue starts to become juicy and lubricated
with this gentle, syrupy sweetness, but it's
still very, very quenching. And the last part
which releases is in your throat. Suddenly,
you get this release, and this transformation
from "bone-dry" - from really probably one
of the most dry teas that I've tasted in a
while... and the fact that the dryness covers
everywhere with no bitterness. It's very interesting.
And then, as you wait, it just kind of tingles
and releases, and it's so pleasant. It's like,
you [have a choice]. You either lubricate
your mouth by drinking more, [SIPS TEA] which
makes the tea very "moor-ish". You keep wanting
to drink more, because you get this dryness
set in, and then you want that liquor in your
mouth. Or you wait, and as you wait it releases,
and you get this kind of cooling, kind of
sweet [SIPS TEA] and still slightly tangy
aftertaste. It is absolutely fascinating.
For me, [it's] one of the most unique teas
I've tasted this year. As I've said, the moment
I tried it I knew I had to get some in, because
this is something different. [SIPS TEA] [It's]
really, really, really refreshing, quenching,
and [just such] a fascinating experience.
They come in 100 gram cakes. I highly recommend
picking up a 100 gram cake, just to experience
this physical sensation, and this strange
marriage between warm, fudgy, vanilla, and
sour tart-tang. The combination is just so,
so interesting. [As for the] body sensation
on this, [SIPS TEA] I'm getting warmth, [and]
I'm getting perspiration. In general, I find
that this tea gives me more of an uplifting
feeling than your average cooked Puerh, which
tends to be - for me - more settling, [and]
a little bit more kind of loungy [and] sit
back. This feels like it's giving me a little
bit more energy, [and] a bit more lift to
it. So it's interesting. I think that different
people will react differently to this tea.
Let's quickly smell this empty Gong Dao Bei.
[SMELLS TEA] [It's] totally, totally - and
utterly - different from any ripe Puerh empty
cup - or empty Gong Dao Bei - I've ever smelt.
[SMELLS TEA] This has a saltiness to it. [SMELLS
TEA] It has like a brimey nature - [SMELLS
TEA] like olives. It's like green olives.
[SMELLS TEA] Yeah, it's got this really interesting
salty aroma to it, but then there's also a
sweetness as well. [SMELLS TEA] I'm also getting
some of those brownies - burnt brownies - [and]
milk chocolate. There's a slight burnt - almost
like sherbert, acidity, with a burnt note
to it. I'm trying to kind of piece them together.
[SMELLS TEA] [It] may be the smell of matches
which have been struck and extinguished. So
if you strike a match, let it burn, and then
just extinguish it. [SMELLS TEA] [It's] very
gentle. Theré's that slight burnt note coming
through, [SMELLS TEA] but again, like burnt
brownies as well. And then this sherberty
acidity that comes through as well. [It's]
really, really interesting. As I said, [it's]
unlike any other ripe tea that I've ever tasted.
[It's] a fascinating tea, the Gem Juice Outlaw.
I highly recommend [you] trying adding [it]
to your collection. Here you go guys. Go check
it out if you can. [It's the] Gem Juice Outlaw,
Zhe Juan Gong Ting cooked tea from 2013. [It's]
such a fascinating tea. [It] really, really
is. [SIPS TEA] I think there's going to be
more and more cooked Puerh teas made with
the Zhe Juan cultivar. That's my prediction,
because the flavor profile on it is totally
and utterly unique. That's it teaheads. If
you made it to the end of this video then
make sure you hit it with a "like". Follow
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HQ. If you're ever in London then come visit
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If you have any questions, comments, or video
ideas, then please fire them over. Other than
that, I'm Don from Mei Leaf. Thank you for
being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from those tea bags, keep drinking
the "good stuff", and spread the word, because
nobody deserves bad tea. Bye [WAVING]
