I just got my mail this morning. The postwoman dropped it off so late I didn’t even know there was anything there. Happened to check this morning and there was my monthly package from The TeaCupany! I had mixed feelings about this tea. It’s been years since I’ve had gunpowder tea. It wasn’t my favourite then but back then I never knew how to brew green tea properly either. On top of that when doing a search for basic gunpowder tea on Steepster, there were not very promising reviews from any tea company. I was curious though and wanted to give it a chance. Meant to brew this for 2 min at 185 but it extended to 3 min.
This is a very robust green tea reminding me a bit of black tea (which may have been why I didn’t like it too much then). It’s not grassy , mellow, or vegetal. It’s got a bit of a bite and the unexpected delight was the bit of buttery flavour that comes through. No doubt about it though, this tea is strong. 3 min was a bit too much. I would go for the 2 or even less for the next time I have this. This doesn’t fall into some of the really good green teas but it’s not really bad either.
I left that review before I finished my cup. At the end of the cup, the tea became so bitter I couldn’t drink it. Brewed up a 2nd infusion and steeped only 1 min 30 sec. After steeping I had something to do so left the tea for 5 min. Came back to it and it was bitter. Then I asked myself, why am I spending time with this tea? It just doesn’t agree with me. So I ditched the cup and moved on to something else.
I see on Teavivre’s website they have instructions on how to brew gunpowder tea so next time I will try that. The Teacupany did not put any brewing instructions on the package.
