Qimen Jin Zhen "Gold Bud / Gold Needle" is a tippier, more delicate grade of the globally recognized "Keemun Black Tea".  This tea offers a nice harmony of floral, honey, and fruit aromas/flavors framed with a light-medium mouthfeel.  A small harvest window, low yields, higher pay for tea pickers, and a more exacting oxidation process due to the sensitivity of these delicate bud pickings, all factor into the craft of this more specialty grade of Qimen red.

Tippy bud-only red teas can't undergo the standard 揉捻 rounian rolling step after withering; their delicate structure can only handle a light bruising.  Since this can't ensure full, even oxidation in the same way, to compensate many tea producers utilize a heated humidity room for a covered piling step to ensure complete oxidation after gentle rolling.  This heated humid piling can easily go on for too long, contributing to a common but generally unwanted sweet potato-y root vegetable flavor.  This one stays right in the honey zone.

This one was crafted in the Likou-based Li family backyard: Li Shan, where they have family-owned natural tea gardens established back in the 1980s.  While some cultivars have come into the area, mostly to support the green tea operations, the Li family still uses the seed grown local variety there, referred to as 槠叶种 zhu ye zhong for all their red teas.

Inspired by Fujian hong cha styles, Qimen red tea was developed in the late 1800s and gained recognition beyond its domestic market to become the primary export commodity black tea coming out of China, competing with the leafy, maximally oxidized, and robust expressions of Indian black teas, and eventually winning gold medals at international tea expos throughout the 20th century, as well as becoming a favorite of the British royal family.  It is now in the ranks of the Four Major Black Teas in the world, alongside Darjeeling, Assam, and Ceylon black teas.

As the domestic market demand for more specialty varietals increased in the late 20th century, this more delicate Gold Bud varietal was developed by highlighting a tippier plucking grade during its harvesting.  Whereas the existent 祁红毛峰 Qi Hong Mao Feng features a later harvest with more leaf mass, Gold Bud features a meticulously gathered pickings of 1 bud - 1 partially opened leaf in the early spring; its harvest window only lasting a couple of days and requiring much attention to detail with low yield.

checking out the heated humidity room for oxidizing reds, primarily for tippier delicate reds like this one that can't undergo aggressive cell-wall bruising

A precursor to Jin Jun Mei?

Jin Jun Mei, a tippy, early spring-harvested red tea from Tongmu Guan, played a key role in further invigorating the red tea market in the mid-2000s. Its creator, Liang Junde, may have drawn inspiration from Qimen Gold Bud during a visit to Qimen County just before developing Jin Jun Mei. When this new government-backed varietal debuted in 2007, it set record prices for red tea, sparking a shift in the market toward higher quality production; the success pushing farmers to meet the growing demand to improve versions of existent red tea. While Qimen Gold Bud may have influenced Jin Jun Mei during its inception, it has in turn benefited from its descendant's success, becoming not only a gourmet varietal within the Qimen family, but a premier rival to the monumental Jin Jun Mei.

While not from Tongmu so therefore not an official Jin Jun Mei, this year's Zhenghe County "Jin Jun Mei" crafted by white tea legend Yang Feng serves us another tippy, gourmet red.  While sure to be in the shadow of the real Tongmu Jin Jun Mei, we recommend Qimen Gold Bud and Zhenghe JJM as ideal alternatives due to their competitive quality at a much more approachable price.