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Extremely Rare Chinese Emperor's Golden Eyebrow Loose Leaf Black Tea

2 reviews
£248.49
£248.49
Sale Sold out

£2.00 per cup

Style

Emperor's Golden Eyebrow, also known as Golden Beautiful Eyebrow and Jin Jun Mei.

This is an extremely rare exquisite black loose leaf tea - quite possibly the rarest of them all.  Hand rolled from the most delicate spring buds by Master Wen in the protected forests of Wuyishan.

Never will you have a deeper, richer, more complex black tea.

Tasting Notes

It has the sweetness of the spring buds, containing natural sugars long stored over winter, but married to a complex depth with subtle notes of tropical fruit, violets, honeysuckle and burnt toffee. Dark caramels lie behind bright fragrance. There is a strong character hidden behind an elegant impression. The flavour is intense yet extremely complex and faceted. Layer after layer of flavour is revealed through many infusions. The first infusion gently wakes up the leaf revealing the first notes of burnt toffee and a wondrously silky mouth feel. The second infusion opens up the tropical fruits - gentle but bright notes of pineapple. The third and fourth infusions reveals violets. By the fifth you may note kumquats and cape gooseberries. At six and seven the burnt sugar is softening to rich caramel. At eight the tropical fruit returns - but softening. Nine and ten are soft and sweet like the drops of nectar in the base of a nasturtium flower. By eleven and twelve the leaf are becoming exhausted and may need a longer infusion - but we enjoy them best cold infused in 200ml of water overnight - so that the next morning you might savour the last precious drops and the memory of the previous days delights.

Cost Per Cup

£2.00 per cup based on 3g of tea per 150ml of water and 6 infusions.

Origin

Wuyishan, Fujian province, China.

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Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    To truly experience this leaf, we recommend quick, small infusions - 3g of tea for 70ml of water.

  • Temperature

    Use water at 95°C - hotter than you might expect - but the infusions will be very quick.

  • Time

    Infuse for about 20 seconds - and strain to the last golden drop.

  • Infusions

    You can infuse this tea at least six times, often more if doing multiple small infusions. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

1 3

More infusion tips

How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

Origin & Craft

This tea comes from deep in the forests of the Wuyishan Nature Reserve, in Fujian Province, Eastern China.

It is one of the most precious and rare teas in the world - a black tea made only from tiny spring buds. Like silver tip white tea it is made entirely from these tender spring buds - no open leaf. The buds are painstakingly plucked before they unfurl to the first flush of spring leaves. The varietal used yields only tiny slender buds, unlike the Big White of silver tip. These extremely tender, delicate leaf-buds are then delicately hand rolled. This Jin Jun Mei was rolled by Mr Wen, one of only three masters who roll Jin Jun Mei tea of this grade. He needs over 100,000 buds for each kilo. The tiny tea gardens allowed within the Nature Reserve can not produce more. So this is it.

"I was incredibly privileged to get the chance to meet Mr Wen and be able to purchase a little of his most precious craft. I was offered a great deal of money for this tea in Beijing, but I brought it home. I wanted you to have the chance to taste it. If I'm ever going to see my revolution take place - where people in the West once again appreciate tea like wine - and buy and drink it for quality over price - we need access to the very best. This tea has true value - it's utterly delicious."

Henrietta Lovell

We suggest pouring each infusion into a jug and then sharing it in small tasting cups or your finest wine glass. In this way each sip, and the intense aroma can be savoured.

Mr Wen made the tea 12 times in a row - the same leaf infused over and over again. Infusions 3-7 were the most exquisite.

Shipping, delivery & more...

Shipping Information

UK Shipping Rates
FREE UK Tracked when you spend £30 or more
FREE UK Express - Next Day* when you spend £60 or more
UK Tracked - Two Day Tracked £3.99
UK Express - Next Day* Tracked £5.49
UK Express - Next Day* Courier from £8.49

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FREE DHL Tracked/DHL Plus Tracked when you spend $30 or more
DHL Tracked/Plus Tracked from £4.99
USPS Priority from £8.99
FedEx Home Delivery from £16.99

Europe Shipping Rates
FREE Europe Tracked when you spend £50 or more
Europe Tracked Delivery from £4.99
Europe Express Courier from £21.99

Canadian Shipping Rates*
FREE DHL International Tracked when you spend $40 CAD or more
DHL International Tracked from £5.99
FedEx Courier Delivery from £34.99

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FREE Worldwide Tracked when you spend £50 or more
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ROW Express Courier from £20.49

*Subject to next day cutoff and postcode location. Availability of rates depends on location and order weight. For a complete overview of our shipping rates please see our delivery page. All prices quoted in GBP and will be converted to your local currency if available.

IOSS for EU Orders

Rare Tea Company uses IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) for EU orders placed on the website.

How IOSS works and how it is applied on the website.

The IOSS scheme allows us to collect VAT during checkout on your behalf, meaning that no VAT is due when your order is assessed by your local authority.

  • If the combined value of the products in your cart are equal to or below €150 (excluding tax), VAT will be included at the point of sale and you should not be charged any fees when your order arrives.*
  • Once the €150 threshold is exceeded VAT will be removed from the items in your cart and from this point onwards when your order ships you will be liable for local VAT, duties and import fees.**

To avoid unnecessary import charges, keep your orders under €150 (excluding tax and shipping). Tax is included on all applicable products at Rare Tea - if your order is applicable for IOSS tax will be shown at the checkout.

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Your order confirmation and shipping confirmation emails will also confirm whether your order is valid for IOSS.

As with all complex shipping methods, the IOSS system isn't foolproof, and orders that are valid for IOSS are occasionally incorrectly charged VAT by customs.

If an order shipped via IOSS and that you have paid VAT on does get incorrectly assessed by customs, please don't worry. It's usually just a mistake that can be fixed by contacting customs and explaining that the order shipped via IOSS with VAT already paid.

If this does happen to you then we suggest the following:

  1. Please contact us before speaking to customs.
  2. We will double check that the order was valid for IOSS.
  3. We will provide a VAT receipt and a shipping label as evidence.
  4. Contact your local customs for assistance, using the shipping label as evidence.
  5. If all else fails we will attempt to get our shipping provider to investigate, but this process can take a while.

*Please note - this does not include any applicable duty charged when the item is cleared. Within the EU tea is free from duty, but your region might have a different rules for non-tea items such as tins and teaware. Any duty charged is payable by you, the customer before delivery via your local customs authority.
**In special cases where custom fees have been unexpected we have retroactively refunded these in select cases. As of the 15th February 2023 (the start of IOSS) we have discontinued this process.

What is IOSS?

The Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) is the electronic portal businesses can use since 1 July 2021 to comply with their VAT e-commerce obligations on distance sales of imported goods.

Up until the 1st July 2021, no import VAT has to be paid for commercial goods of a value up to EUR 22. New VAT eCommerce rules abolished this provision as of 1st July 2021. Thus, from 1 July 2021, all commercial goods imported into the EU from a third country or third territory is subject to VAT irrespective of their value.

What is IOSS for?

IOSS allows suppliers and electronic interfaces selling imported goods to buyers in the EU to collect, declare and pay the VAT to the tax authorities, instead of making the buyer pay the VAT at the moment the goods are imported into the EU as it was previously the case (for products over 22 EUR).

What are the advantages of IOSS?

IOSS facilitates the collection, declaration and payment of VAT for sellers making distance sales of imported goods to buyers in the EU. The IOSS also makes the process easier for the buyer, who is only charged at the time of purchase, and therefore does not face any surprise fees when the goods are delivered. If the seller is not registered in the IOSS, the buyer has to pay the VAT and usually a customs clearance fee charged by the transporter.

What countries does IOSS apply to?

IOSS applies to the EU member states of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

It does not apply to the EEA.

How much tax will I get charged?

Tax will be charged at the base VAT rate of the shipping country.

Full details of IOSS can be found on the European Comission website.

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