Green Needle

Dry leaf: Brown-green leaf color, slightly fuzzy leaves that are more brittle than soft. Sweet, grassy, musky aroma reminiscent of pine trees and a stormy ocean breeze.

Brew: Very pale grey-gold liquer more similar in color to a white tea or light colored oolong than most greens.

Drinking: Has a much fuller flavor than expected from such a pale brew. Smooth and grassy with hints of violin rosin and a very slightly fishy flavor. Reminds me of walking by the fishing docks on an overcast morning (in a good way) Turns bitter very quickly if brewed too hot or for too long. Second steeping is nice, with a slightly smoother feel and more pronounced ‘sea breeze’ taste.

Reminds me of: Fishing docks on an overcast day, coniferous forest after a heavy rain.

Summary: A very nice and slightly unique green (at least in my limited experience) with a slight tension like the calm before a storm (seeing a pattern here :P) Overall a tasty tea at a reasonable price (a steal at its current sale price)

Pros: Complex and masculine aroma, unique, smoothe taste
Cons: Bitter if brewed too long, dryness of leaves

My first impression of these long blades, after their distinctive appearance, came from the aroma: strong and… citrusy? A dried out bouquet? This is the first loose leaf to remind me of Lipton tea bags. That might not be a compliment.

The flavor is nondistinctive. Not bad but nothing special. It’s smooth, though, which I like. This is a good backup tea for when I run out of the good stuff. I wouldn’t buy it again, but I won’t throw it out.

I’ve been pretty picky towards Adagio naming its teas lately and this isn’t an exception.

Why would they call it Emerald Needle? It has drab brown appearance,at least my sample does. It smells brown – woody and spicy. And finally it tastes brown – dry and almost with coffee-like bitterness. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. This truly is Brown Needle, the name maybe not so poetic of course but very descriptive of what you get.

On the other note I have a weird relationship with this tea, it started with something close to hatred (brown aspect contributing a lot to this fact) and now by the end of the sample it has migrated to the I-quite-like-it stage. The taste is really unique and grows on you.

I’m very close to repurchasing so I’m giving it 70 for now. I usually repurchase only the teas that score 75 and higher in my rating system and this one is almost there.

P.S. Adagio renamed this tea into Green Needle recently.

I have become a devoted fan of Silver Needle. I picked up a sample bag of this. It is half way from a light Chinese green to the silver needle. It’s good, but drinking it makes me long for silver needle! It is different, light, and tastes great iced. Very mild and neutral.

A nice tea, but it suffers from the same fate as so many greens (and a few blacks) in my book: Its just meh.

The color isn’t overwhelming. Its a light green with a slight hint of brown.

And the flavor, its light. In my greens I’m looking for either a nice sweetness or a slight bitterness. This tea seems to be trying for the former, but just ends up too weak really make much of an impact. Instead, it ends up reminding me of a white tea.

A good tea. Possibly a good tea for someone looking to try a green tea for the first time, or someone who finds the green’s they’ve tasted to be too bitter or grassy, but not the right tea for me.

I brew most of my greens for 1 minute for the first infusion and up the time from there for each additional infusion. I might have give this more time in the future.

Brad – tasted like pine needles
Sarah – hated it

I mixed this with the lemon grass. I like this green tea, but I don’t reach for it often enough to buy it again. Great for blends though.

This tea has a fairly sweet / floral flavor. It is nice when I’m not in the mood for a really “green” flavor. I like it, but it isn’t an everyday tea for me.

This tea has a very interesting flavor, hard to describe. I’m not sure yet whether I like it or not.