I had someone asking about this…yesterday? Saturday? the past crazy weekend is a blur…but since I hadn’t tried it yet, I called over a co-worker of mine who is big into greens. He stated that he loved it, and said that it reminded him a bit of gyokuro, but that it is quite a bit sweeter. Which all made me more curious to try it myself. Since I’m feeling a bit under the weather at the moment (although I think now it might just be some inexplicable allergic reaction), green tea sounded nice.
And hey, this is quite nice.
I’m pretty sure my water was a smidge too hot when it hit the leaves, but nothing that made them un-salvageable. I’m drinking it unsweetened, but it doesn’t have a strong vegetal or grassy taste to it that would normally put me off the taste of an unsweetened green. There’s a few sweet notes in it
Oh my god, okay, it’s cooling now, and there’s some notes coming out that are really awesome. Scratch “some sweet notes,” there’s actually a lot of sweetness around the edges and maybe three-quarters back in the sip (is a spacial designation that specific utterly ridiculous? but I swear that is where it is) that is very pure, like golden honey. It’s kind of heavy, like cream…if you don’t mind sweetener, I bet a few drops of actual honey would really make that pop.
There’s another taste here though which is dominant, but which I was at a loss to describe. Autumn Hearth is the only other person who has reviewed this tea so far, and she described this tea as having a “umami” taste to it. I admit that I had no idea what that was, but I’ve seen several people describe green tea with it. It is clearly an important taste to understand, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Wikipedia sez:
“A savory taste […] Now it is widely accepted as the fifth basic taste. Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5’-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and inosine monophosphate (IMP). Although it can be described as a pleasant “brothy” or “meaty” taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue, umami has no translation. […] Umami has a mild but lasting aftertaste difficult to describe. It induces salivation and a sensation of furriness on the tongue, stimulating the throat, the roof and the back of the mouth…"
Well! That must be it! That’s what I’m tasting. Thanks, Autumn! (Also, a combination of “sweet” and “umami” basically describes my entire diet…)
…Oops, work just called me in. On my day off, sigh. (We have a guy who is quitting, he probably won’t ever show up again.) So I gotta go, and cannot review a re-infusion of these leaves, so it will have to wait.
Still, I’m happy! I think I finally found a green tea that I like enough to replace that orchid-infused green from Teaopia.
