My name is Erin, and I'm a green tea novice.

Erin, it’s ABSOFREAKINLUTELY worth getting! And don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter to get a discount off your 1st purchase! Check out my tasting notes for the ones I’ve tried. Aside from matcha, their apple sencha is my fave. I’d seek out companies that exclusively deal w/ greens. Definitely check out their steeping paramaters. I’m not sure if the same goes for Chinese and other greens, but not all Japanese greens are created equal so don’t believe it even if a company gives you the typical steeping parameters.

Harney & Son’s has sample sizes of a lot of their teas as does Samovar.

As far as Adagio goes, both samplers look really good- here are the ones that I’ve tried- bold ones are my fave:

anji duet
dongshan dolce
dragonwell
genmai cha
gunpowder
kai hua crescendo
xue ya ballad
apricot green
artichoke green
citron green
cocomint green
ginseng green
mango green
rhubarb green
spiced green
green chai
vanilla green

If you find the flavored greens aren’t in your face enough, you can always steep them according to Premium Sencha parameters for more of a punch- I do that all the time.

I definitely second Cofftea: GET THE SAMPLER! :D It comes with two bagged teas, and four loose samples. The loose ones that came in mine were Sencha Fukamidori, Genmaicha Extra Green, Houjicha, and Orange Sencha. The bagged were Sencha and Genmaicha Extra Green. It also came with a catalog, tea filters, and brewing instructions. REALLY a lot for $3! :)

Aside from the sampler, I bought Tencha-Kuki Houjicha and I LOVE it! It’s definitely one of my favorite teas EVER.

That looks like a great deal! I might have to get it too :) I’m not big on green tea either, for pretty much the same reason: “grassy” just isn’t something I look for in a beverage :/ Most green teas I’ve tried taste a lot less grassy when iced, though, so you could try that (if you haven’t already). Adagio’s Dongshan Dolce is also one of the less grassy greens I’ve had (I got it as part of a chinese sampler pack from them), much more of a buttery/nutty/bakey character

I have just ordered and will soon receive a lot of small samplers from Upton’s Teas. I had a prejudice against green tea—-probably caused by an antique Gunpowder tea-bag when I was young. I thought it had no taste. Recently I tasted a couple of green teas and was a bit put off by the sense that I was in steep, danky vegetation. I got some neat ones to taste from the wondrous Travelling Tea Box.
I sent off the Tea Box to the next recipient and woke up one day absolutely craving that vegetal taste.

I am now awaiting green teas from Silk Road, Upton, and Tea Spring. There are a few places where you can get samples at a modest cost: Norbu is one of them.

I seem to be on a similar trajectory as you are, Erin.

I’m jumping on this bandwagon — it really does look like a great value! (Thanks for posting about this!)

Yay, welcome to the world of greens! I’m a total newb myself, but they do grow on you!

The first thing that I can definitely say is that a sampler like Den’s is probably a good idea. I’ve never done Den’s, but from what I’ve heard, their stuff is high-quality. I think that’s the thing that really separates greens out from other teas. The quality of a green tea makes a tremendous difference. A mediocre black tea is forgivable. A mediocre green tea can be undrinkable.

A big thing about greens (especially those pesky Japanese ones) is steep time and temperature. Make sure that the temperature of your water is low for stuff like sencha (160 degrees) and even lower for some (gyokuro goes at 140, with the lid off). Steep times are usually a minute, tops for first steep on delicate stuff like sencha. Even kukicha isn’t steeped for too much longer than that.

Again, though, I’m still a newbie, and I’m slowly finding that I prefer the grassier Japanese greens to the Chinese greens, which sometimes taste too much like vegetables for me to handle.

maeda-en has some great greens. Auggy sent me some gyokuro from Teance that was to die for. I’ve heard good things about Den’s. Samovar and Rishi have some excellent greens. If you’re going green, go quality. Seriously. But more importantly, EXPLORE AND HAVE FUN.

I thousandth the recommendation for the Den’s sampler. Their greens are amazing and cheap. I love the Genmaicha Extra Green and the flavored senchas.

Hi Erin,

Nice to meet you. Get DENS! NOW! =]

- Ricky

Sorry, I was just responding to the subject :)

I second (third?) the recommendation to watch your steep time/temperature. Every green tea is different from the next and one tea harvested in a different year might be different from one harvested earlier. So you’ll have to experiment with each tea to get it “right.” If you’re drinking a Chinese green and it tastes grassy or too vegetal, then consider reducing your steep time, reducing your temperature and/or reducing the amount of leaf you use in your brewing vessel. All three are important with fresh teas. When I say “right”, I mean the tea liquor has a light greenish tint to it (not yellow), and smells of fresh wild-flowers. This applies to fresh oolongs and white teas as well though with oolongs the smell is more of roasted honey. White tea is actually the absolute hardest to get right because the temperature variation to open up all the flavours and aromas is less than 2 degrees C. Anyway, experiment with temp/steep time and leaf quantity and just enjoy. When you hit that perfect cup, you’ll never forget it!

I love green teas!! In about a month (from what I am told) I will get 3 new green teas in. I have the samples that I just can’t give up because they are awesome. I owe Cofftea samples of them when I get them in.