Tian Jian天尖茶

Tian Jian is a hunan-dark pu-erh & dark tea from Anhua, Hunan, China. Brew it at 100°C with 6g of leaf per 100ml of water; expect up to 9 short infusions in a small gaiwan or teapot. A quick rinse is recommended.

Tasting notes

Tian Jian — 'heavenly tip' — is what Anhua hei cha looks like when someone actually cared. Loose-leaf, not bricked, packed into long bamboo baskets and left to settle. Open a fresh bag and the smell is unmistakable: cold pine smoke from the basket drying, dried longan, a whisper of bamboo. The first two or three infusions lean smoky and a little astringent — don't fight it, steep short (10–15s) and let the tea find its legs. By the fourth cup the smoke pulls back and the real character shows: a clean dried-fruit sweetness, a soft woody mid-palate, and a huigan that sits in the back of the throat for a long minute after you swallow. That returning sweetness is the whole reason to drink this instead of a cheaper hei cha. Good Tian Jian will go nine or ten steeps without thinning out. Also excellent boiled in a side-handle kettle on a cold afternoon. The most approachable of the Anhua tip grades.

Flavor profile

The highest grade of Anhua's three tip teas, made from tender buds and young leaves. More refined than its siblings (Gong Jian, Jin Jian) with a pine smoke aroma from bamboo basket drying, balanced by a clean sweetness. Astringency in young examples transforms into a pronounced returning sweetness (huigan) across infusions. Remarkably durable — full flavor after 8+ brews.

Terroir

Mountainous Hunan (200-1000m), fog-heavy, mineral-rich soil

Brewing

Rinse: Rinse 10 seconds — especially important for older Tian Jian stored in bamboo baskets.

1. Quick rinse — pour off immediately.
2. Steep 1: 15 seconds
3. Steep 2: 20 seconds
4. Steep 3: 25 seconds
5. Steep 4: 30 seconds
6. Steep 5: 40 seconds
7. Steep 6: 50 seconds
8. Steep 7: 60 seconds
9. Steep 8: 80 seconds
10. Steep 9: 120 seconds

Keep early steeps short to manage any initial astringency. The sweetness builds progressively — later infusions are often the best. Can be brewed or boiled.

Aroma & taste

Processing

• kill-green
• rolled
• pile-fermented
• dried
• loose-leaf (traditionally stored in bamboo baskets)

Sources

• https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/understanding-anhua-tian-jian-dark-tea
• https://yunnansourcing.com/collections/hunan-tian-jian-tea
• https://white2tea.com/products/2021-anhua-tianjian
• https://white2tea.com/products/2022-tian-jian-mini