I am generally a pretty easy going guy. Today trying to get everything organized to make a cup of tea proved to be almost too big of a task. I didn’t completely loose my cool to the point of embarrassing myself, but it was close. Didn’t break anything but there are a number of tea puddles that I am attempting to clean up.
This tea. This is my third Huang Shan Mao Feng. It is the first nonpareil. I looked at my reviews of the other versions after I tasted this one. This wins hands down. I used the entire sample, a Finum basket and a mug. It started as like clean mineral water that quickly changes to a smooth creaminess. The flavor begins, to my tastes, as grain (oats) accompanied by more vegetal notes. What I call oats, other reviews refer to as chestnut. Next, a wonderful green astringent bite kicks in. TeaVivre calls it brisk, and it is, but not like the bite I associate with Assam based tea. The aftertaste is fresh and hangs around like it is begging me to take another sip. So of course I must oblige. There is a fair amount of cooling sensation present as well.
As you can tell I really liked this one.
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What does nonpareil mean? I’ve seen this tea around lately, but it’s a totally new word to me.
According to Wikipedia it means without equal. This version is also pre-ming – picked very early in the season, before tomb sweeping day (which I don’t know what that means) The Te Gong refers to this being a tribute tea (I think). Mao Feng means a bud and two leaves. Huang Shand means yellow mountain. I love Google.
Oh, sounds very fancy!
I think Ching Ming is a sort of Chinese Spring Festival and they clean their ancestors’ final resting places at that time. Ching Ming is considered premium stuff, pre-Ching Ming even better!
Ashmanra – that’s kind of my understanding as well. From my looking in to this, I think the tomb sweeping day and the spring festival just kind blended together over time. It occurs so many days after the winter solstice.
What does nonpareil mean? I’ve seen this tea around lately, but it’s a totally new word to me.
According to Wikipedia it means without equal. This version is also pre-ming – picked very early in the season, before tomb sweeping day (which I don’t know what that means) The Te Gong refers to this being a tribute tea (I think). Mao Feng means a bud and two leaves. Huang Shand means yellow mountain. I love Google.
Oh, sounds very fancy!
I think Ching Ming is a sort of Chinese Spring Festival and they clean their ancestors’ final resting places at that time. Ching Ming is considered premium stuff, pre-Ching Ming even better!
Ashmanra – that’s kind of my understanding as well. From my looking in to this, I think the tomb sweeping day and the spring festival just kind blended together over time. It occurs so many days after the winter solstice.