JING Assam Breakfast Black Tea

JING always seems to bring the best to the table. There are certain high-profile companies that seem to be notorious with the elite society types based on name alone, but JING exudes quality, pure and simple. All of their teas that I have sampled thus far have been exquisite, and their Assam Breakfast is no exception. Assam teas are generally not all that thrilling. Let's face it. It's a basic black tea that gets the job done in the morning. When there are so many delicious flavors and blends and varieties of tea, I rarely find myself purposely choosing an Assam tea. It's generally reserved for when I'm out in a restaurant and I have to "settle" for some Joe America, Wal-Mart-shopper-type of soccer mom bagged tea, and Assam teas generally fit into that mold quite nicely. However, leave it to JING to elevate it to the next level. Just looking at this tea makes me think it will be delicious. Rather than a uniform mix of mono-toned brown-black leaves, JING peppers in some golden-tipped leaves amidst the typical mahogany hued leaves. The aroma of the dried blend has a pungent autumn spice on the nose - something unique and refreshing. JING recommends a 3-minute steep, but for me a 4-minute steep seems to work magic with these tea leaves. The water turns an immediate shade of copper, slightly deepening in color over the 4 minute brew to a final heavier but equally transparent gorgeous tone. The aroma in the cup carries a ton of malty scent. Extremely fragrant and engaging, it begs for a sip. The palate is immediately engaged in rich flavor, leaving a sweet aftertaste. The bold, malty flavor is unlike any Assam on the mass market today. This is what true Assam tea should taste like, and the layman quickly realizes that every single bagged tea in his/her former tea-drinking life is utter garbage. I almost never add sweetener or milk/cream to my teas (with Masala Chais being the rare exception to the rule) but nary a half teaspoon of pure sugar and an equal amount of cream makes this cup truly sing in your mouth. However, this tea is intensely satisfying with only one or the other of those ingredients, or in fact with none. Despite my prior conclusion-jumping tendencies to relegate Assam tea to the land of the banal, I find myself wondering if I'll be drinking any other tea for the rest of the week.

The Breakfast Assam has short, broken leaves, very small and pale chocolate in color. I steeped my leaves for about 3 minutes, using about 1.5 tablespoons for a 23 oz. pot and nearly boiling water. The leaves open up and unfurl to color the steeping tea a deep and rich amber. Its mellow, rounded scent I suppose could be described as malty. I found the flavor to be more to the slightly sweet and honeyish than the malty, but when I think of malty, I think of beer, and this wasn't beerlike to me at all. The color of the tea is gorgeous, full and dark, reminiscent of coffee. The scent of the tea is rich and the flavor is so rounded and easy to drink that I was hooked at once. I did taste the slightest bitterness as I finished my first cup, so I'm glad that I limited my steeping to 3 minutes. More would have been to excess, and I will knock 30 seconds off my first steeping of this tea next time around. I had one other great infusion from this tea, also steeped for 3 minutes, and then a weaker third infusion that nudged me to give up the leaves to the compost as the taste was expiring. I have to say that this naturally sweet, smooth and beautiful deep amber tea was really something wonderful. It would be delightful iced, and I expect that it might bring out a different set of flavor strengths. This tea opens up the world of black teas to me. The assam really impresses me as it is so without bitterness, and the flavor has a sweet fullness that I associate with perfectly ripe, completely in season fruit - like raspberries picked from backyard canes. Full and mellow, richly sweet. Delicious!