Shoshin - Grand Cru Jasmine
Offer jasmine tea to a hardcore Oolong or Puer drinker and you'll likely be met with thinly veiled derision dressed as refusal. Despite the craft and precision that goes into making a good jasmine, the tea is scented, which to some gets in the way of the purity of the leaf and is dismissed as not being real tea.
Shoshin is a term that comes from Zen Buddhism and is used to describe the concept of beginner's mind, in that the practitioner lets go of any preconceived notions and fosters openness to the subject being studied, seeing the world through a fresh set of eyes.
We gave our jasmine silver needles this name because of the power it has to change the perception of what jasmine can be. Scented twice the number of times most normal jasmine tea is scented, it will make up for all those watery pots of jasmine during dim sum and for those uninspired green teas masquerading as jasmine at the grocery stores. It is unabashedly jasmine yet so much more.
With notes of alphonso mango, sarsaparilla and golden magnolia, this tea holds strong through multiple steeps. It is the next best thing to being at a jasmine scenting factory in China where each night for four months, delicate pea sized blossoms (picked that very afternoon) are carefully blended with the tea of choice, releasing their fragrance into the room like no other. Open up your mind and let the light shine in.
Silver Needle
Location - Beishan, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province
Harvest Time - Early April 2023
Cultivar - Fuding Da Bai
Jasmine Scenting
Location - Hengxian, Guangxi Autonomous Region
Scenting Time - July 2023
BREWING INSTRUCTIONS
- Gong Fu - This tea works great in both porcelain and semi porous vessels. Since it is only tea buds and doesn't pack well, we recommend filling a third to half of the vessel with dry leaf.
- Western - Use 1 heaping teaspoon per 8 oz of water. Add 212F water and steep for 4-6 minutes. Can be re-steeped several times, adding 2-3 minutes to the original steep time.