Li Shan Black Tea

It seems nowdays that along with death and taxes a new universal constant has burst onto the scene.
I can honestly say when Jing decides to offer one of its exceptional black teas (usually with an exceptional price!) the results so far have been unreproducable and stunning.

My first tinkering with one of Jings supreme blacks was last year with the now infamous Imperial Concubines Smile.
I have previously stated in its own review that i consider this tea only rivalled in brilliance by the Lord God Him/Herself.

To give that review some perspective it should also be said that prior to trying the ICS Black Tea i have been an enthusiast of high quality tea be it black, puer, green yellow or oolong.
I should also say that I have never had a tea which tastes so magical, and is made to such an impressive technical degree.

Until now…

Li Shan Black is a strange beast altogether, and one i intend to compare to the Legend that is Imperial Concubines Smile.
The reason i choose to compare these two is not because they are both from Jing, and also not because they are both obscenly expensive.
No, the reason i compare is because they share a great many traits in quality, taste and feel.

Having felt rather miffed last time that all the big archivable packs of ICS ran out of stock i vowed the next time Jing offered such an offering i would take a leap of faith and order a sample pack to try and a 50g pack for future use (no worries here, black tea is pretty stable in an unopened pack)

One of my deepest joys with tea is the initial opening of the pack and planting my nose straight in!
Although dry leaf smell seldom means much it is always for me a vital part of the experience.
However, I was surprised to notice Li Shan Black had little smell at all in its dry leaf form.
And although i know this seldom if ever reflects taste i did start my new tea adventure with more than a hint of trepidation, possibly more oh (expletive) ive got 60g of this lol.

So, i took my Jing Glass 250ml Gong Fu Teapot (if you dont own one of these you must, they are THE best thing for brewing tea, forget your Yixing get one now)
I weighed out presisely 2.5g, hey its a standard, everyone needs a standard!
Although i admit to some this may represent a weak brew.

I took my trusty batchelor sized kettle (dont really need to hear this bit but im on a roll) and boiled Lidl's finest spring water (almost as good as highland spring, half the price)

I pour about 50ml into the pot, swirl very quickly and discard, agony of the leaves and all that pavlova.

Now its time for a brief smell of the et infusion, they dont call this process waking the leaves for no reason! it is one of the best pleasures in the entire tea process, do not skip! (unless green yellow or white!)

I must say i Wasnt overly taken with the smell at first, I would agree partially with the Jing write up but also, lol, with an aroma that can only be described as something subtlely like fairy liquid.
Dont fret though, most if not all of the classic brilliant teas have an aroma which often either escapes identification altogether or triggers the brain into thinking of something quite leftfield, its all to do with the genius of the leaves! (patented phrase!)

A quick few seconds to bring the kettle back to boiling, big faux pas probably but the difference is neglible.

With help by my trusty iphone 4 i brewed this first cup for 1min.

In my excitement i drunk most of it whilst it was alittle too hot. Never do this with black, it does need 3-4 mins to settle, the tongue absorbs flavours much better at this temp, i as just like a giddy school girl and couldnt resist it!

One thing i do hate about tea is describing flavour, its almost allways unique to the individual and short of a few mono flavoured teas hich have a predominance of one or two major flavours most teas will vary tongue to tongue.

However what i notice immedietly is an old friend lurking on my tongue, nothing strange I assure you! the old friend could in fact be Imperial Concubines Smile!

Im picking up subtle hints of what made that tea so darn interesting, its a complexity and flavour that you really cant put your finger on.
I agree with jing about the floral flavours, what i call high frequency flavours, much like a qimen but without the single mindedness, more eclectic, less focussed.

For brew 2 i again used 1 min.
the flavour and mouth feel is far more pronounced now, this is a very thick tea, almost brothy.
There is a new flavour lurking here, i cant for the life of me describe it accurately, but its slightly vegetal, not like a long jing, cant put my finger on it! It does however accompany the thick texture superbly to create an incredibly encompassing experience.

brew number three, this time one minute thirty.
OK! Wow, this is a darn good tea! thickness is still there, floral notes tappering off and something spicy, almost like chilli is joining the party.
Vegetal flavour much stronger now, not unpleasent at all i have to say.

Brew number 4, judging by the decent nature of number three i opted for 1 min 40.
slightly weaker than the 3rd brew, however this is brew time nothing more! the tea can still give another infusion.

Brew 5 2mins 30
the show is now starting to come to a close, whilst this cup shares many of brew 4s characteristics it is milder, interesting point to note though, that chilli has shifted to a light pepper taste!

Im tired and want to go to bed, but by dang it im not through with Li Shan yet.
DHL amazingly delivered this package tonight at 7pm!
Amazing service!

Only annoyed that 20 mins prior to that i had started off a pot of Menghai 1993, so a mere 9-10 cups until i can try Li Shan, thankfully family helped out and a fun time was had by all.


Im actually drinking brew 5 as i type this, the hour a refreshing 1:28am, but its xmas so evenings of tea tasting are par for the course.

I Will be entering a sixth brew and i believe it to be the final one, the end is near for Li Shan, although its efforts have been little short of prodigous.
I will brew this final (i hope lol) cup for 6 minutes.

If you have made it this far through my review thankyou! Grab yourself a cookie, Youve earnt it!

Brew six
Colour still excellent but taste in ever decreasing circles now. Strange thing though thick soupyness has had something of a revival.

In all honesty im not going to push this to a 7th cup,it becomes a bit law of diminishing returns after a while.

To sum up I have to say Mr Eisler has very fine taste in tea!
I too would be honoured to call this my fave tea of 2010.

If anyone reading this has tried Imperial Concubines Smile and is depseratly pining for more you need to try this!
Throughout this review i have been comparing it to ICS but in reality it isnt like it on a superficial level, however all the traits, feel, character and technical that i appreciated in that tea are present in this outstanding Formosan offering.

if Imperial Concubines Smile is queen of all teas then Li Shan makes an excellent king and successor to a now departed legend.

Enjoy.
D Ralph