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Keemun Vs Golden Monkey

Today I have received a tea lot from my mainland Chinese friend includes Keemun Mao Feng(KMF), Hao Ya A and Golden Monkey(GM). No tea sources satisfy me with this Golden monkey what my friend offers me. Once I shared this GM with Holly and some other tea mailers. Holly agreed this one was her best GM experience. Do you remember Holly?

Lately I have observed Keemun is loosing its unique character year after year as well as Golden Monkey. Is it my imagination or the tea processing is also facing the same fate as Darjeeling? Lately Darjeeling is loosing is dark brown color and becoming more greenish. I am talking about the top grade Darjeeling only. I know the mass market Darjeeling is still dark brown.

Anyway, I brew and tasted KMF and GM side by side. I don't know why I am getting so disappointed by the KMF compare to the GM. My friend is not a vendor he is simply a tea lover as me. He supplied me this GM after a year. I was pushing him last one year for this tea but he always said he couldn't manage the quality I was looking for. My personal opinion is a good GM is more subtle, balanced and full bodied compare to KMF. The thick, malty, slight spicy, sweet liquor is so sensual and intense in taste.

My question is did you observe Keemun is loosing its original taste? My friend also informed me it is getting very difficult to collect good Golden Monkey now a days. I am planning to try some other vendors GM because I need 5-6 cups of GM a day. Could you please advice me some American or European sources you like. I would like to do a random tasting session on Golden Monkey. I am totally addicted with this tea now.

Thank you advance,

Ripon Arlington, VA

Reply to
riponz07
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Thats similar to what the guys at Jing tea told me,

its getting hard to acquire good quality keemuns, the processing gets rushed and you end up with less oxidation.

Reply to
SN

Hi Ripon,

I got some Golden Monkey from Specialteas...I can't say it's as good or not as good as what you have but I liked it. It was more balanced and less sour than the golden yunnans I've had lately. (Yunnans are kinda wearing on me, I'm not caring for them as much as I once did). I agree about the Keemun but I'm unsure as to whether it's the tea or my tastebuds that are changing...it seems to me that I had a Keemun Mao Feng a couple of years ago from Upton that was very chocolaty and rich to me at the time, but my latest order of it from them doesn't strike me as much that way, I think its leaning more towards the smokey yunnan-ish flavor. I am also enjoying Ying de hongs from Jing's lately, strong "tea" taste and sort of fruity to me. Tasty but different maybe than what you are looking for.

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda

My pragmatic answer:

Most people are moving away from drinking teas such as these. The tea market in China is fickle and immature; it mostly follows fads and speculation concerning where the most work will be put in tea production. Qi Men for instance, you CAN NOT find down in these parts, as well as most of the other most famous teas besides Pu'er and Tie Guan Yin. There are but a few dealers that sell other teas. For instance, in the city I live, the only place you could get Dancong was to buy it off some people from Chaoshan like it were some kind of drug or something. "Hey man, you got any good Dancong?" A few shops have opened up sporadically and closed soon after around here, though.

It's just following the law of supply and demand. In Guangdong, you can find tea shop owners driving cars into work, but in Anhui many still ride bicycles. In Hangzhou, the farmers have 2 or 3 storey houses and cars in the driveways, but in some more remote parts of the country, people sleep in the storage areas of their shops. Shop keepers and wholesellers are more interested in trying make money and less interested in the ramifications of a tea losing it's power/ flavor. In China, integrity almost always bends down to cashflow.

That's what I see, at least.

As for myself, I bought a box of the pu'er Sheng tea that I enjoy; have just enough Shu to go around if I want a change in palate; I get fresh Sichuan greens from local friends n the tea trade in a few different places; and I am really enjoying exploring teas from the deep countryside locations in Guangdong which are turning out to have fresher, nicer aspects that many famous brand greens I've seen in most shops. I ain't doing so bad but I do miss good Longjing from time to time.

Reply to
Mydnight

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