My box of samples arrived from Teavivre today and this was the first one I tried. I don’t have a lot of experience with tea, especially green tea where it was mostly limited to what I got at Asian restaurants. That was usually on the bitter side or Jasmine tea. So, this was definitely my first experience with this tea.
I did a quick rinse followed by three steeping of 30, 60 and 90 seconds. The dry leaf had a smell that reminded me of spinach even though it wasn’t exactly spinach. I’m frequently finding it hard to find the right descriptors for the smells and tastes and this is no exception.
After brewing the first steeping the now wet leaves had the same smell only much more pungently. The first steeping was a very pale yellow and had the same taste but not as strong. The taste reminded me of sort of a spinach/peas/zucchini combination. As the tea cooled, the taste became a bit more pronounced. There wasn’t any bitterness or astringency in the first steeping.
The second steeping was quite good with just a hint of astringency at the finish but in a good way, not at all unpleasant. The third was starting to become a bit more astringent but was still quite drinkable. At that point I’d reached my saturation for the night so called it quits there.
Overall, though I found the smell of the wet leaves to be almost too intense to be pleasant in the tea it was much more subdued and the overall effect was quite nice.
Flavors: Spinach, Sweet, Vegetal
