Invader Zim

This was a free sample I received from Zen Tea. The dry leaves are beautiful, green and white curled leaves. The aroma is that of a light vegetal scent with floral notes, a mineral note, and a hint of a smokey note. The taste is just as good. It doesn’t taste overly vegetal like a lot of green teas can. This is vegetal, but more like sweet roasted vegetables with butter on them. The green vegetal notes you would expect are there, but hiding, the roasted vegetable notes definitely take precedence here. It’s good, really good. There is a soft floral note. And in the second steep I can get a hint of the mineral and smokey notes, just hints of them. There is no bitterness or astringency. This tea reminds me of Laoshan green tea from Verdant but not as creamy.

Thank you Zen Tea for this lovely sample!

I’ve been playing around with my new yixing that I got a few weeks ago and I’m drinking this western style. I have two yixing teapots, one little 3.7 oz from Zen Tea and a 10 oz one from Teavana that I got a while ago but mostly because I liked it, not for its actual purpose. so, that one is dedicated to Jasmine silver needles and the smaller one for dancongs. The Teavana one is surprisingly absorbent.

Anyways, this tea. I can taste the puerh just fine, the nice pastry notes. I just realized I don’t think I’ve posted a note for the puerh by itself even though I’ve been drinking it…later. This tea now. I like this puerh by itself, so that’s a plus. I hate licorice, but I can’t taste it in this tea, a blessing in its self. I’m not a big fan of ginger, I like it, but in small amounts; i find it easily overdone, same with peppercorn. They are not overdone in this blend. The peppercorn is light, the ginger is warming, the elderberry adding a taste of sweetness. There is a slight numbing sensation on the tip of the tongue that tingles slightly in the aftertaste, from what I’m not sure, I just know it’s there.

I find that I really Verdants puerh blends more than the puerhs by themselves. I have enjoyed all the puerh blends that I have tried, too. I have to admit, this is my least favorite puerh blend that I have tried from them. Even at that, I still really enjoy this tea.

Playing with my yixing teapots, my typically mug I use for western style brewing, and my new teacups from Verdant.
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Someone mentioned I should try this tea, I’m pretty certain is was Jim Marks. I was drinking some oolong and mentioned how I like the lighter roasted ones and he mentioned this one. Out of the lighter roasted oolongs, I prefer dan congs. I’m glad I did try this one.

The dry leaves are a nice dark brown with the mineral-stone notes that I find in all da hong paos. But this one also seemed to have a slight floral note. When steeped, the leaves are actually green with the edges being brown. There was the obvious roasty mineral-stone notes. There was also a hint of a stone fruit.

The taste of this tea is very nice. It’s, again, lightly roasty with mineral-stone notes. There is a juicy quality and some pastry note. I’m also getting a slight floral note that I had smelled earlier. This is a light tea, it’s not in your face with it’s flavors or roasty notes. It’s soft, like a classy lady who wears a dress tight enough to let you know she’s a woman, but loose enough to let you have some imagination. She’s not throwing it all in our face or letting it all hang out. She’s quiet, but not without a mind. This is a very lovely tea that yielded many steeps, and I tried it western style. I’ll have to brew it gaiwan style to see how the flavor profile changes over many steeps with less water. Thank Jim Marks for recommending me this tea!

Beautiful emerald green, twisted leaves with a strong vegetal aroma. This tea is naturally very sweet, highly vegetal with hints of creaminess. There’s nothing spectacular about this tea, nothing fancy about this one. I find it is a good everyday green tea, especially if you like the strong vegetal notes.

Backlogging.

This was a sample provided to me from Rachel!

I was so excited to try this tea, especially with all the rave reviews! I opened the bag and smelled genmaicha with a hint of the marshmallow root. Brewed up it’s very much genmaicha with sweet marshmallow root added to it. It’s good, it’s unique, it resembles a marshmallow treat, but I’m not finding it nearly as good as most others have. I’d just rather have a gemaicha tea and eat a rice krispies treat. Thank Rachel for sending me some of this and allowing me to try it!

Backlogging

I’ve enjoyed the Guava Pineapple white tea from Republic of Tea, so I decided to to pick some of this up and give it a try. I bought it a few months ago and I remember not being impressed when I tried it. So, I decided to pick it back up and see if there are any changes.

Unfortunately, no there weren’t any changes from tea or my palate. At first sniff the tea has a honey scent and a slight floral scent with hay underneath. But there is a very odd sour scent that is very off-putting. My best guess is that it’s the additional flavoring that was added to the tea.

Upon steeping it still has that odd sour scent, but there is still the other notes of hay, honey, and floral. Tasting reveals the same. There is a nice honey mouthfeel to this tea, hay notes underlying with some hint of a floral note. I could taste the paper of the teabag too. But there is still that sourness that seems to overlay everything no matter what.

It’s still a drinkable tea, but not one I’d get again. I passed it off to my sister who loves flavored white teas and doesn’t mind teabags as much as I do. She thought it smelled delicious when I opened it for her, so she’s already off to a better start than I am.

This is one of the best green teas I have ever had. It easily ranks up there in my top 5 favorite teas of all time. I have had the spring and autumn harvests, two autumn harvests (2011, 2012) now. I have to say that while Autumn made me like Laoshan greens, the spring made me appreciate them, Summer harvest made me love them.

It’s very rich and creamy for a green tea with a hint of salt. The vegetal notes are green beany, soy bean, edamame, not at all bitter and absolutely no astringency. It is naturally sweet and crisp and creamy and I know it sounds contradictory but it’s there…I tasted it and it was good!

I could drink this everyday, but I don’t want to lose my appreciation for it and take it for granted. I can typically get five really good steeps out of it. First steep is typically around 165* for about 30 seconds. After that about 175* for 30 seconds. Then I just up the steeping by a little bit, 45 seconds, then a minute, then a minute and 30 seconds. After that the flavor starts to get dull with a bite of bitterness to it. I need to try this gaiwan style!

I received this as a sample with my order. Now I don’t drink a lot of cherry green teas, I don’t find myself craving them a lot but I do enjoy them a lot…if they are done right. So often I will try a cherry flavored tea and it will taste like cough syrup. Other times there’s a lot of hibiscus added to help bring in extra tartness. This has neither of those bad qualities.

This is a very nice smooth cherry rose sencha tea. I had one a few years ago that I really liked and could never find who did made it. I think it was a local store blend that you could only buy to drink in house. You couldn’t buy any to take with you. But this tea tastes a lot like that one. It’s silky smooth sencha that’s not totally buried, but the grassiness is subdued. The rose is nice and floral soft. The rose doesn’t overpower as I find it does in so many other blends. The cherry isn’t really tart at all, kind of tastes like those jarred cherries that you use to top sundaes, I have no idea what they’re called, but they are nice and sweet. This is a really nice tea, plus it can be steeped at least 3 decent times. I’ve gotten it up to five already with plenty of flavor left!

This was one of the teas I received in the grab bags 52teas was selling a few months ago. So, when I opened the package I saw this one first. Green tea with a cute kitty on the front? Sold! I’ve been drinking this for a while now, just a little slow to logging it!

Anyways, upon opening the bag I am hit by lemon, reminds me of Pledge, with a marshmallow note underneath. The wet leaf is a sweeter lemon, like a lemon pastry of some sort. The taste is sweet lemon with vegetal green tea, and marshmallow, mostly in the tail-end and aftertaste.

It definitely reminds me of some sort of lemon pastry, it’s good! The green tea is surprisingly not buried underneath the lemon, it has a butter-like taste to it that only helps to amplify the pastry taste. Butter croissant with lemon icing maybe? Either way, it’s yummy, and the adorable kitty on the front, well it’s fun to stare at while sipping the tea!

Another one from Rachel, thank you for sharing this with me!

I forgot what was in this tea, just by looking at it, I thought it was an herbal tea. I saw some pieces of green tea in there, but the needles far outweigh the green tea. As soon as I opened the bag I smelled a pine forest. Needles crushing underfoot, pine cones scattered across the ground, I could smell the pine sap dripping down the trees. It was beautifully crisp and quiet, like an early morning sunrise before the world wakes up.

What a lovely tea. The bancha gives a nice soft buttery taste. The pine needles aren’t strong in taste at all, they are light and crisp. I feel like there is a little hint of jasmine in here, more feeling than taste. Thank you Rachel for sharing this with me, it is lovely!

Ooh, this is nice! I love anything mint, so this was bound to be good. I can taste the mint, the cinnamon, and the oolong. No one flavor overpowers the others. The oolong type is not specified. Looking at it it is a roasted oolong, smelling it and tasting it makes me thinks it is Big Red Robe. It has a definite mineral/river stone quality to it.

It reminds me of being out in the woods, but not in the way that a puerh would, it’s not earthy, just fresh and crisp. Is there a pine note in here or am I just imagining it? I don’t know, I don’t see anything mentioning pine notes, but I can taste it, might be the mint playing with me. Either way this is a nice tea.

Thank you Rachel for sharing this with me!

This was a wonderful sample from Rachel!

This is a very nicely done blend. It’s lightly vegetal with notes of chestnut and wafts of jasmine. The jasmine is not strong at all, it’s delicate and very well done. This tea really does resemble its name, a light rain in a field with wild flowers with a creek flowing through it. Beautiful tea, thank you for sharing this one with me Rachel!

This is for the 2012 harvest. I noticed there isn’t a separate tea log for the new harvest, so I’m just adding it here.

I brewed this in my 12oz mug. It brews several times, I start with short steeps (about 20-30seconds) working up to 2 minutes. I can usually get about 5 steepings this way with plenty of flavor.

This tea is creamy, beany, smooth as usual. Like soy milk. It’s good. This harvest, this year, seems to have more smokey notes to it with a hint of a salt note. I get a nice oatmeal note mostly in the aroma, but definitely some smoke and a hint of a roasty note. This is not a bad thing, I typically don’t like smoke, but it fits this tea, this harvest. It’s more bold, more robust, but not in the way that a black tea is, it is in its own way. This tea, no matter the harvest, is always a pleasant companion.

Story
I’m always a little hesitant about telling stories, I feel as if I’m letting something so terribly personal out to the world, as if I am somehow judged for my memories. This story is a new one, one that I am always even more hesitant to tell people. Whenever I tell people this story I know they judge me. I feel as if I am put on a higher pedestal because of it and I am unable to live up to it.

Today is Veteran’s Day, I want to honor the veterans who are serving, those who have served and those who have paid the ultimate price. I have comrades in each of those categories. Some are family, some are friends, most were coworkers. Yes, I am a veteran. I had served 5 years active duty, I was a helicopter mechanic, and yes I did go overseas to the Middle East.

But in my eyes I did my job. I did nothing more, I did not sacrifice anything more than my own personal comforts and some frame of mind. I feel, if anything, that my eyes were opened to the world, my mind broadened. I learned to live with less, a more simplistic lifestyle, for the better, that I didn’t need all these materialistic things to keep me happy. I learned what I really needed to keep me alive and healthy and happy. Food, shelter, companionship, family. I also meet my husband in the military.

I was in a war zone, but I never fought. I just repaired the damage. And in many ways I am thankful for that. I know many that have, and not a single one comes back the same. Never. I never wanted to be a destroyer, I wanted to help, not hurt. Even if all I did was repair helicopters, those helicopters were used for anti-piracy, cargo and mail loading, and as air ambulance. There was an incident were those that I worked with died in one of our helicopters. Four people I worked with gone in a flash. Investigators never did find out what was the cause. That was 6 years ago, almost 7. It was within my first six months of actual service.

Twice a year, once in January when they died, and on today, I think of them. I think of those I worked next to, served with, served after me and before me and no matter how hard I try I cry every time I hear taps. It’s amazing how such a simple piece of music can carry such emotion and memories. So, to those who have served, to those who are serving, to the families, and to those who have sacrificed everything, Thank you.

I love coconut and am always on the lookout for a nice coconut green tea. Key word being green. I’ve had a few coconut oolongs and pouchongs which are all fine and dandy, and some red rooibos which aren’t for me, but I wanted a green tea. Now Teavana came out with a green coconut cream tea that’s exclusive to their website, you can’t get it in the store. I bought some thinking I was going to like it, I didn’t. It was sencha with coconut and white chocolate pieces…I don’t like white chocolate and I certainly don’t like it in my tea and it was too much and too creamy for me.

So, I go to Zen Tea and find this gorgeous little yixing teapot that grabs my heart and I don’t find too many teas that grab my attention. Then I see this coconut green tea, again coconut with sencha and figure why not. I thought of grabbing just a sample but did 50g instead. Glad I got 50g instead of a sample! The yixing pot is too cute at 3.72 oz which will be dedicated to dancongs.

And this tea is so simple and delicious! It’s a nice sencha base with dried coconut pieces and apparently some flavoring which I can only imagine to be more coconut. Upon opening the bag I smell the sweet grassy sencha and the sweet coconut. This coconut is different from oolong or pouchong in that it is much lighter. It reminds me of sweetened shredded coconut used for baking, the kind that I will sit down and eat straight out of the bag…I like coconut :) But the greatest thing about this tea is that it was green tea and coconut and that’s it, no extra anything! No pineapple, no lemongrass, no rhubarb, no mango, nothing! It’s great I love it! The sencha is the perfect base for the coconut and the neither the coconut nor the sencha overpowered the other, well balanced. If you like coconut and green tea go try some!

Pics of new yixing! You can see my cup of the coconut green tea on the table.

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I got this in the mail today with other teas I ordered, some new and some replenishing favorites. I opened all my tea packets and sniffed each in turn trying to figure out which one I wanted to drink this evening. I ended up picking this one out of the bunch.

It smells like winter. There is no other way to really explain it other than winter. Maybe it’s the juniper berries? But it’s been cold out and rained a little and I think there was some sleet in the mix too, but it was cold and this called out to me.

Western-style this brews a rich, dark almost murky reddish brown color. I can smell mostly the juniper berries, but there’s also the underlying musky earthy richness of the puerh. This tastes good, the flavors blend seamlessly. The coriander brings out the natural sweet cinnamon of the puerh. The tulsi and juniper add to the earthy muskiness. The chrysanthemum brings out the hint of floral and add depth to the earthiness of the tea. I can still taste sweet caramel and raisin from the puerh through all the added notes.

It sounds like a lot but it all does well together, they play nice together. No one note overrides the others. Even though I brewed this western style I’m still getting a lot of steepings out of this. Granted it’s not 10 or more, but I’m at 7 and the flavor is starting to fade and get weaker, so, I’ll probably stop after this one. But it still holds up well western-style.

I have noticed that in the 6-7 steepings that the coriander starts to stand out more and it reminds me of Old Bay spice for seafood. I found that odd and interesting. Even with that weird anomaly, I like this tea. If there are teas that just seems like they’re great for winter, this is definitely one of them.

Today is a puerh day. After I finished Xingyang 2007 I decided to sample another puerh I have yet to try and this one came down from the shelf. I opened the package and was greeted by a smell so very faint. Kind of like an old book. Call me crazy, but I love the smell of books, new and old alike.

I’m sitting here trying to write what I can smell of dry leaf, wet leaf, infusion, and then my mom calls. Being a mother she worries, and she’s worrying even more now with this storm hitting. Apparently, since my parents are closer to the coast, they are getting hit with 70 mph winds and a lot of rain. The highways are closed. Everything is closed. The creeks and yards are flooding. And the storm hasn’t even hit full force yet. She was asking me how it was here…rain and a little wind. Nothing bad here yet, just a small storm for us for now.

But she was making sure we had our provisions set up…you know, candles, working flashlights, water, early showering, a tub full of water for the toilet for when the electricity goes out, food, toilet paper…storm provisions. She was saying how the cats were freaking out and I thought how young the cats are and that they never experienced a storm like this before. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we had a storm this bad. It’s been years.

When I was little I remember having bad storms, like watching the barn across the street have the roof and two sides removed by the wind. I remember sitting in the living room with the electricity out watching the storm shake the windows so bad I thought the house was going to come down around my head, but be so fascinated by the storm, that I couldn’t move away from the window. Such force created that it can only inspire fear and awe.

This is such a wonderful tea for memories. It’s so light and wonderful it just begs for memories and imagination. It has notes of linen and stone, with a soft silky texture that glides over the tongue leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. It hints at something old, something that remains just out of grasp, forever out of reach. For today and the coming days, this tea is the perfect companion.

No one, not even Bonnie, has made a note about this one yet??? Bonnie, you’re slacking!

This one was odd to me because upon opening the sample pack I was greeted by what looked like loose leaf black tea, not nuggets or any sort of pressed cake. It smelled very pleasant with notes of light earthiness and mushrooms, raisins, caramel, and a hint of jasmine.

The wet leaf smelled of caramel, raisins, whole wheat flour, and a slight mushroom note. The infusion was a nice rich dark color with notes of mushroom, caramel, with a hint of salt and a hint of jasmine.

I brewed this gaiwan style with two quick rinses and started off with a 2 second steep, adding a second for every steep, working up to 10 seconds. The taste was really nice and different. It was light, but note weak. It reminded me of the way the Huang Zhi Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong was. How it was a dancong, but it was lighter, not POW in your face. That’s how this puerh is, nice and light, not aggressive at all, very pleasant.

As for the actual notes I got, and I’m not going to go through steep for steep, started with light notes of earthiness, mushrooms, raisins, and caramel dominating. There were lingering notes of cinnamon and other spices, with a musty note coming and going. The aftertaste of the first few had a salt note to them.

Somewhere around steep 5 and on I started to get a cake note in the tail end of the sip that was very fleeting. It was similar to angel food cake without the sweetness. It’s hard to explain, it was a plain cake taste, not those vanilla or chocolate or icing covered cakes. Just a plain sponge-type cake.

Further on a tingling sensation crept over the sides of my tongue and a nice wildflower honey note came through. The honey note was more texture than it was taste, but even at that it wasn’t a very strong texture, just enough to let you know it was there and be pleasurable.

I never did taste the jasmine note I had found in the dry leaf. Aside from that, this was a very nice mellow puerh. It still had those earthy notes that I found to be characteristic of shu, but they were mellowed, making it a much more pleasant cup.

After looking through the reviews I saw Bonnie had the similar experience of tasting ash and decided to try it western style hoping for better results like her.

First and seconds steeps: 12 oz cup, boiling water, 1 minute. I got the sweet tobacco, a juicy texture, a hint of ash, vegetal note in the background and a slight mouthfeel. Still some ash in there, but not mouth coating, not nearly.

Third steep: 1 minute 30 seconds. No ash! Sweet, tobacco, vegetal, juicy. Definitely getting better but I’m disappointed about not having the almond note in there. That’s what kept me going gaiwan style was that wonderful almond note!

Fourth steep: 1 minute 30 seconds. Again sweet, tobacco, vegetal, juicy, no ash, and a hint of almond. The almond may just be my mind trying to make it appear because I want to taste it that much!

Fifth steep: 1 minute 30 seconds. Juicy, sweet tobacco is fading but still present, vegetal, no ash, no almond. also, strong tingling on the tip of the tongue in the aftertaste.

Overall this one is a mixed bag for me. I got much better results brewing western style but I really wanted to taste those almond notes again from gaiwan style in this without the ash. I also wanted to taste what I was smelling in the dry leaf, that rich dessert smell. Unfortunately I didn’t care for this that much because of all that. This might turn out better for me if someone else made it for me.

I only got a sample of this instead of a cake. I was tempted to get a cake due to price but I never tried it and just wanted a sample first. Dry the leaf smelled so good, so sweet! Kind of like a mix of brown sugar and caramel…mmmm! There was a hint of a spicy note, like cinnamon, and a hint of pepper with underlying creaminess. It smelled like a nice rich dessert!

I brewed this gaiwan style at boiling after an initial rinse. The wet leaf was more spicy and sweet, it kind of reminded me of a darker oolong rather than a puerh. There was a hint of tobacco I was picking up. The infusion was a lot like the dry smell, nice sweet and creamy.

The first steep was 5 seconds and amazing! It had notes of sweet caramel, it was smooth with a bit of creaminess and a nutty note. It was very similar to almond the way the notes and textures blended together.There was a hint of a floral note that I couldn’t pinpoint, the was also a juicy fruit-like note that I couldn’t pinpoint either with a vegetal note in the background.

The second steep was for 6 seconds and tasted like tobacco but still retained the sweetness from before. But along with the tobacco was now an ash note that was not pleasant. I let it cool off a bit and the ash note faded and the almond note came back with vegetal note in the background again.

The third steep was for 30 seconds and apparently way too long. The ash note was strong and coated my mouth in a very unpleasant way, akin to licking an ashtray…yeah not good.

Fourth and fifth steeps I took back down to 3 seconds and was rewarded with vegetal notes and sweet tobacco notes. I’m afraid that I’m still tasting a little bit of ash, but I can’t tell if it’s from these steeps or lingering from the last one.

I’ll leave unrated for now until I try again.

Thank you QueenofTarts for sharing this with me. After having read so many good reviews of this I needed to try it. When I first opened the bag I was reminded of the Cornfield Shu Tuocha but once I unwrapped the little guy it was definitely rice aroma.

After rinsing it, I brewed this gaiwan style (5 oz) with a 5 second steep with boiling water. The color was really light, and the leaves were green. I tasted of rice, kind of reminded of genmaicha, but that may only be because of the rice and nothing more. The taste was really light, closer to watered down actually.

I handed it over to my husband and asked him if he wanted to try it. The look he gives me says that he doesn’t want to but he does anyway, he knows I’ll quite pestering him once he tries it. I didn’t tell him what kind it was or what to expect, just handed him a cup of tea. The first thing he said was “meh” but that’s what he always says. Then he said it tasted like rice, the kind you get at an Asian restaurant. I was impressed and told him that was indeed what it was supposed to taste like!

So, since the first steep was watered down, the second steep I kept at boiling but upped the steep to 12 seconds. Too much time, it was bitter and I ended up tossing the cup, way to bitter. The whole tuocha feel apart on this steep and may have been factor to why it was so bitter.

Third steep. I went back down to a 5 second steep, this time I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and left the water at 200*F instead of boiling. Still to bitter, metallic tasting even. Again I dumped this cup.

Fourth steep. I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and steeped for 5 seconds with water temp at 176*F. Since there’s so much leaf and the leaves are green and all my cups have been bitter I thought treating it as a green tea would help. The verdict? I need to wash out my mouth. I think the bitterness and metallic flavor is having adverse side effects and skewing my taste at the moment. Not quite as bitter and metallic but it’s still there.

I’m going to stop with this one for now since it’s frustrating me and give it another try later. I’m going to leave the rating off it for now since I’m fairly certain that it’s due to my error that this tea is not tasting as it should.

I’ve been drinking this one for a while and never logged it, although I thought I did. Anyways. This one was so good that I had to re-buy it, but I can’t really say what compelled me to buy it in the first place. Cherry flavored anything makes me leery because it’s not usually done right. But since it is a gunpowder base, which is a stronger green tea, I figured it would hold up to whatever was being added to it. But it was a green tea. So, I more or less bought it on a whim.

I wasn’t disappointed. The first I tried it I got too many cherries in my scoop and the first two brewings tasted a little too tart, these aren’t sweet cherries. But after the second steeping the cup rounded out very nicely. The cherry is very present but not in a bad way, it doesn’t taste fake or cough syrupy at all. The almond lends a nice smooth nuttiness to the cup helping to balance out the tartness of the cherry. The gunpowder base held up nicely and was still present through the additions.

After having buggered up the first time I tried again a few days later with a better balanced scoop and all I can say is it was yummy. The flavors blend wonderfully, no flavor overpowers the tea.

The other thing I really love about this tea is that it brews several times, I would say upward of ten times. It’s amazing, and it holds up great in a travel mug!

Teavana is what started this huge tea journey for me years ago and while I have mostly moved on to other tea companies that have better quality teas that are typically cheaper, I still come back to Teavana once in a while to see what they have to offer. When they came out with the new teas this year I wasn’t particularly excited. I know most of their teas have too much add-ons and not enough tea and their straight are typically too expensive.

Anywho, to this actual tea. When I finally went onto the site to see what new stuff they added I was surprised to see a decent straight green tea that wasn’t $20 for 2 oz. Granted this was close to that but I decided I had to try it. I wasn’t very disappointing either. The first steep was really nice! It was fresh and slightly creamy and sweet with a hint of umami. Yum! It almost reminded me of a Japanese green tea. Very delicious!

Now the what’s keeping me from rating this any higher, because based on the first steep this would be a lot higher, is the second steep. The first steep holds so much wonderfulness, the second steep…well, not so much. It seems that the first steep takes everything good out of the tea and just leaves behind a typical green tea. Not to say that the second steep is bad, just not nearly as good as the first. The second steep leaves a lot to be desired is the best way I can put it.

At any rate the first steeping of this tea is pretty delicious and I wouldn’t lose an ounce of sleep if all I ever get out of this tea is only the first one.

Finally decided to take the plunge and buy this tea. I’m glad I did. I figured it was more or less a sencha and it pretty much is. It’s a little different in that the grassy-spinach taste is a little subdued compared to the in-your-face senchas I’ve had. I was a little disappointing to have found absolutely no umami factor in it though.

Even with that, it is very creamy with a hint of some juicy quality. And I think there was a slight note of pistachio. I got some sort of nut note and while trying to figure it out I kept thinking pistachio. It may not be pistachio but the color of the tea kept making me think of the green nut! Either way…pistachio!

Speaking of color, the dry leaves are a nice dark emerald, wet they become this bright, vivid, vibrant emerald green. It was very pretty. Even the infusion had a greenish cast to it, very cool, kind of like a sencha or genmaicha infused with matcha powder. This is why I think I was coming up with pistachios and not some other nut…so much green!

I found a slight hint of astringency, but it wasn’t the typically blech bitter-astringency I always taste. This was a silky-astringency. It was actually quite pleasant. I never thought I would say astringency in tea being pleasant…I abhor astringency. But this was just a slight drying of the mouth with a bit of a silky mouthfeel. Very pleasant, what I always thought astringency could be but never actually found it to be, at least not in green teas.

This is such a pretty and good tasting tea, definitely worth trying out.

I brewed this in my 5 oz cup at 175* for about 30 seconds the first time then about 2 minutes the second time because the first one was pretty weak. Even at that the first steep was reminiscent of a Japanese green tea. It was like a watered down sencha without the really nice savory notes that sencha has. But it was nice a nice sweet vegetal green tea.

The seconds steep was really odd. I couldn’t figure out what I was tasting but it felt familiar. I went through the other two tasting notes on this tea to see if someone else had a good descriptor of what it was I was tasting. I found it. Amy Oh had written at the end of her tasting note “If Dragonwell and Sencha gave birth, would this be their love child?” And I could not have said it better myself.