Cucumber Melon Green Tea

Oh man, this is a good tea! The dry leaves smell fresh and and faintly melony and there are little bits of dried cucumber and melon mixed in with the (resonably whole) green tea leaves.

The tea itself is awesome; light and golden-coloured, the green tea base is very smooth and quite mild aswell. I can pick up both the freshness of the cucumber and the lightly-sweet flavour of the melon. The melon – honeydew melon I think – is very natural-tasting and it doesn’t have that artificially sweet quality some melon-flavoured teas have.

Also, I’m happy that this tea manages to taste like cucumber without smelling like a mix of cinnamon heart candies and dill pickles (yeah, I’m looking at you Adagio; seriously what did you put in that tea?!).

It resteeps well too, which I don’t find with 52Teas black blends, so it’s a nice surprise.

I bought this specifically for the purpose of having it iced (which Cofftea says is delicious) but I don’t have time to make this iced right now.

The dry leaf smelled like cucumbers and melons (imagine that!) and there were chunks of cucumbers mixed in. Once steeped, it smells more vegetal and the cucumber smell is more prominent than the melon.

This is pretty vegetal from the cucumber. It has the tiniest hint of sweetness from the melon, which is a very nice touch at the end. I can tell that this would taste delicious iced and sweetened. I think I made the water too hot (I really need to get a variable temperature kettle) so I’m not really getting the full oomph from this. However, even with having prepared it wrong, it still tastes good! That’s always a good sign! Next I’ll try this iced.

Okay…so…if you were to ‘juice’ a cucumber and heat up the juice this would be it! This is the closest I have tasted to ANY tea that actually tastes this close to Cucumber! This is really good and really refreshing. I think I am going to save my last sample for an ICED attempt.

Yet another goodie from LiberTEAs…she’s such a peach! :)

The dry leaf smells like a cucumber as you pick it from your garden with the skin still on it where as the post-infusion liquid smells like a cucumber once you start to cut it in chunks or slices! It’s truly amazing!

The taste is so pure and clean it just makes me smile! WOW! I really, really like this green tea…it seems to be the complete package (as long as you like cucumber!)

Made the 1st infusion for my mom so I can’t review it yet.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 heaping tsp
Water: 1 Zarafina cup
Tool: Zarafina Green-Loose-Medium
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: like cucumber melon hand lotion (not in a bad way, I always think they smell good enough to eat)
Steeped Tea Smell: Mostly cucumber, hint of melon and hint of vegetal
Flavor: cucumbers and melon and green tea, not really blended but in a dance of layers
Body: Light
Aftertaste: slightly vegetal but a pleasant way not bitter or astringent
Liquor: translucent nearly clear yellow-green

Next time i want to try with sweetener or iced.

Resteep:Zarafina Green-Loose-Strong weak, bitter, still cucumber melon, next time will try medium

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/52teas-loose-leaf-green-tea-cucumber.html

I brewed some of this last night for iced tea today. So crisp, light and refreshing. Delicious. Absolutely delicious!

Here is my full-length review of this tea: http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=11198

I was slow to taste this. Firstly, I do love cucumbers and I love melons. They are clearly related in texture and affect: how they do love to return! Green tea is not my favorite. But yesterday I had an impulse to try this. 52teas has never led me astray nor have I ever had one of their teas that was not flavored brilliantly.

And this is another winner! The green tea leaves are large and unfurl beautifully. The melon and cucumber tastes nicely complement each other. On a cold February day, it felt like a perfect antidote to the grey-flannel sky.

The tea is remarkably full-flavored for a green tea and it will have me revisiting my prejudices about green teas. 52teas has done it again. They never stint on flavor.

Salad in a tea? Cucumber and melon don’t go together do they? Well… yes they do, who would have known.

It’s a very fresh tasting green tea, not massively cucumbery (that’s a good thing) but you can definitely tell its there. The lovely sweet melon comes through and works well.

I imagine this would be really nice as an iced tea but am yet to try it.

It seems I have been living in the engineering building. I really need to figure out a way to bring tea with me, cause I crave it so bad all day long!

I decided to brew some of this. I’ve always had a tough time steeping greens correctly since they’re not really that forgiving with water temperature and I have no way of regulating temperature.

The smell is very sweet, and the color is a pale yellow green. Hmm, I’m thinking I didn’t get all the flavor out of this cup. It tastes kind of watery, then again I did sort of make it in a rush since I wanted tea so bad! I definitely taste some melon flavor, and the green tea flavor is sort of there as well. I know it’s a sencha taste, but I always thought sencha was more bitter and stronger than what I’m tasting? I’m not a green tea expert though. The more I drink, the more flavor comes out, and I’m really liking it. It’s a pretty subtle tasting tea, at least this cup was, and I’m liking it. I think I’ll hold off on a rating for the next time I drink it.

ETA. Okay, after finishing my cup I really liked this tea a lot. It had some sweety flavor from the melon but at the same time I really did feel like I was drinking a salad from the cucumber and green tea flavors mixed. Very nice flavor and tea :)