2020 Jinhua Fuzhuan White Tea

Name: 2020 Jinhua Fuzhuan White Tea

Year: 2020

Material:  plantation tea

Harvest: spring

Area:  Fuding County, Fujian

Weight: 450 grams

(2020 Jinhua Fuzhuan White Tea)

This tea is not the typical 金花 （Golden Flowers）Heicha compared to the classic An Hua Jin Hua Heicha because it uses Shou Mei White Tea from Fuding County in Fujian.

The producer of this tea is a small factory in Hunan founded in 2010. 

Their tea is processed using traditional methods and holds high standards for product quality.

The factory fermented the tea using wet-piling special techniques to make Heicha in Hunan, then compressed them into bricks where the golden flowers flourished. Note that the Golden Flowers are inside the brick and are not visible on its outer surface. The water content inside the brick is higher, which is why microorganisms only thrive inside.

The factory pressed each tea brick by hand. In addition, they compressed it using a wooden block, beating the leaves gently inside a vertical mould with a rectangular shape. Since the mould is in a vertical position, to see the whole leaves you should look at the brick from its upper part as you can see in picture number 4. To pry the brick open without breaking the tea leaves, do it as demonstrated in picture 8.

As with our Jin Hua Sheng Puer Tea, the White Tea and the Golden Flowers blend well too. The Jin Hua character is not dominant. 

You can also taste the distinct White tea notes in this blend.

The White Tea leaves provide a delightful blend of flavors, including hints of honey, vanilla, and a gentle maltiness. Moreover, they possess a distinctive Jin Hua flavor that offers a delightful combination of sourness and sweetness.

The tea has no bitterness and nearly no astringency. It also has a creamy, thick and sweet tea soup.

The soup remains very sweet and causes one to produce profuse salivation at the sides of the tongue until the last infusion.   

Note: The Golden Flowers’s scientific name is Eurotium cristatum. It is a fungus with some health benefits. That aside, there is something that you can experiment with while brewing teas with Golden Flowers. They make teas sweeter and smoother due to various chemical reactions produced by them. 

Brewing tip: You may prepare your tea using a ceramic, porcelain, clay teapot, or gaiwan. To get a stronger taste, boil it in one of those kettles designed for Heicha, in a cooking pot or any other setup.