Early. Pretty Good. Cheap. Damn Cheap.
Public Enemy #1 for Central and Eastern China tea producers are everyone's favorite leaves grown on the wrong side of the Sichuan Basin. Two full weeks before any amount of green tea was ready in Jiangsu or Hubei, trucks loaded full of Enshi Yulu and Biluochun were already taking off from Emei and Ya'an. Long before the first "genuine" or affordable Jinjunmei hits Fujian tea stores, copycats are already being sold from Chengdu through Tiktok livestreams for cheap, much too cheap, impossibly cheap prices.
In this sampler we have assembled four teas from Emeishan that can give one a sense of the Sichuan teas that are recently dominating the domestic middle-end market.
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Wild Black (25 grams)
- Gold Bud Black (25 grams)
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Emei Maofeng (25 grams)
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Bamboo Needle Jasmine (25 grams)
Wild Black and Gold Bud are two red teas that street merchants outside of tourist sites in Enshi always have on offer. The Wild Black is made using late Spring picks from local Sichuan varietals, left to naturally grow unpruned, giving it a characteristically rough and rustic shape. The much finer, early pick gold bud has the color and look of Fujian's famous "Jinjunmei." Rich, luxuriant, full of chocolate malt and yam sweetness, it's a crowd pleaser at a bargin.
Jasmine Bamboo Needle and Emei Maofeng represent two extremes of Sichuan green tea. The Jasmine Needle is expertly shaped, re-baked with jasmine flowers, and almost never consumed by Emei locals. Unlike low-end jasmine teas, no jasmine extract is added, and a second batch of dry flowers are mixed into the final product to be extra yummy on the eyes. Emei Maofeng meanwhile is a vegetal, balanced, almost citrusy green tea that locals young and old enjoy. It is a humble cooling green tea perfect for summer.
