I've been sent a liang of fujian green from a mate in China. It's called
DONG GONG SHAN YE CHA (DONG4 GONG1) or
Cave Palace Mountain Wild Tea.
I don't know what the wild signifies - haven't come across it before as a tea classification in China. Possibly it means it is picked in the wild rather than in a plantation (does that happen in Fujian?) - anyway I just know what my friend told me (I was sent no labelling), so I can't verify that its a fujian or that the ye character is indeed "wild" rather than "leaf" (his Mandarin's better than mine tho' so I trust his translation of these easy characters). My guess is that it's picked from a mountain named Dong Gong Shan, but my tiny China atlas doesn't come with a mountain name index so I just don't know.
Well its very nice. The dry leaves are top buds with a little stem, very dry and somewhat twisted, about an inch or two in length and very thin. Brownish dark green now but obviously a lot of yellow in there when not so dry (and its last year's crop so it may well be drier and browner than the fresh crop). The brewed leaves and liquid are yellow green, and the leaves unwrap a bit to about a quarter inch span (hope I'm not boring you all here).
I'm brewing it fairly cool - 60 to 80 I'd say - and I let it sit around a lot with a lid on the cup. A perfect jar drink, actually; it takes quite a few infusions, tastes good after a brief brewing or after a long sit, the leaves stay in the cup throughout and it never get bitter or thick. Only thing is, above 80 or so it cooks so it might not be so good for the travelling jar where you don't have control on yr water temperature.
Well its like a lot of this kind of chinese green (hou kui and the like) - a nice light liquor but with enough flavour to fill the mouth, some sweetness. Aside from that, the 'wild' sometimes kicks in - a couple of times (when drinking fairly hot), there's an overwhelming taste of iron, which makes my teeth feel nice and fresh. And two times (today, drinking a much cooler cup, first infusion, that had stood a while) there's been a strong hint of coconut!