The free sample explosion continues.
I have to confess to always preferring Japanese shaded green teas to most Chinese varieties. Some of the pan fired options bring an interesting, roasted note, but otherwise I tend to find them very flat.
Dragon Well are always the exception to this trend. In fact, I find that most Dragon Well taste very similar to a Japanese shaded green tea — bright, green vegetal notes, a hint of ocean water tang, and high mountain air. Nothing brown, roasted or floral going on here and that’s the way I like it.
Once again, Teavivre is providing exceptional value for money with the quality of what they have on offer. I have to say that so far I am extremely impressed with the amount of flavor in the cup for what their website tells me they charge for these teas.
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
I am a fan of the Japanese shaded green teas as well. Gyokuro was my first love in the world of tea. The one that just opened everything up for me. I most recently enjoyed the Shaded Leaf Kabusecha by Mellow Monk, which is very good and worth trying if you have a chance. I’ll have to look through your backlog of notes sometime to find leads on worthwhile shaded greens to try.
I was drinking a lot of shaded greens from TeaGeschwendner’s Edmond’s collection back some time ago. But the more tea distributors I find, the less and less price competitive TG seems to be — they claim of course to be selling only the best of the best, but I have tasted very few teas from them that justify the price point compared to what I can get from other vendors.
My most recent shaded greens came directly from Japan as my wife was over there doing field work this past Summer.
Seeing that… “Today TeaGschwendner has more than 130 shops in seven countries on four continents…” I think it’s safe to assume a significant percentage of their price point can be put off on paying for the massive overhead of their operation. I get the same sense about Samovar, based on reports I’ve heard.
The annoyance with that is that TG only has, as far as I know right now, only two of those retail shops in the USA. The original in Chicago and a very recently opened one in Manhattan. I believe the other six countries are all in the EU.
You really nailed this one.
Ocean water….I like that comparison!
I am a fan of the Japanese shaded green teas as well. Gyokuro was my first love in the world of tea. The one that just opened everything up for me. I most recently enjoyed the Shaded Leaf Kabusecha by Mellow Monk, which is very good and worth trying if you have a chance. I’ll have to look through your backlog of notes sometime to find leads on worthwhile shaded greens to try.
I was drinking a lot of shaded greens from TeaGeschwendner’s Edmond’s collection back some time ago. But the more tea distributors I find, the less and less price competitive TG seems to be — they claim of course to be selling only the best of the best, but I have tasted very few teas from them that justify the price point compared to what I can get from other vendors.
My most recent shaded greens came directly from Japan as my wife was over there doing field work this past Summer.
Seeing that… “Today TeaGschwendner has more than 130 shops in seven countries on four continents…” I think it’s safe to assume a significant percentage of their price point can be put off on paying for the massive overhead of their operation. I get the same sense about Samovar, based on reports I’ve heard.
The annoyance with that is that TG only has, as far as I know right now, only two of those retail shops in the USA. The original in Chicago and a very recently opened one in Manhattan. I believe the other six countries are all in the EU.
You really nailed this one.
Ocean water….I like that comparison!