White Monkey

Trying to get around to reviewing things that I’ve neglected lately, so I finally opened this sampler package. Delicate looking fluffy greens, aroma of sweet clover.
I just took the last sip.
Mild taste of alfalfa, slightly sweet, very bland compared to the other greens I’ve been drinking of late.
Now my mouth is dry.

I wasn’t looking to add a tasting note when I decided to make this. The downside of my Zojirushi is that once my temp is set to 175, I really have a hard time justifying bumping it up to 205 for one cup of black tea, because it takes what seems like ages for the temperature to go down again…so I wind up looking for other teas I can drink at a lower heat setting. I hadn’t had this one before, and it sounded like a good, mellow choice for a cup of tea to watch the sun come up with (on the tail end of a long stretch of consciousness, having been up all night).

It’s good. I like it. The other notes have said virtually everything that I could say about it — sweet, vegetal, light — with the exception of the fact that I got a slightly smoky scent at one point that made me wonder if I was losing my mind. Of course I think it’s not smoky in the least — it’s just the vegetal note — and for one odd moment my tongue misreferenced. Strange. It seems to combine good, basic green tea flavor with some qualities of white tea that I like, so while I doubt I’ll ever be ranting or raving about it, it surprised me with how much I liked it. Enough to write this very unambitious tasting note, at least! Perpetually drinkable.

The cup brews to a rather pretty light yellow. First steep was sweeter, second steep is still good. I’m not sure how many more I would take it to, though.

The leaves smell perfect – that buttery toast scent. And I love how cute and curled and twisted the leaves are.
I smelled the liquor as it was brewing – it went through a couple interesting cycles. First it smelled just a buttery and wonderful as the leaves did. Then it went through a bitter cycle and then caramel notes came out. I’d be interested to try this next time, stopping it after 1 minute.
The final scent of the liquor is a caramel creamy scent.
The flavor I found lacking. None of the butteryness or creaminess came through. There was some nuttiness, but in a more bitter way than I like. The aftertaste has some nice mellow nutty notes though.

Geeze, what is it with me and being so critical? Am I too picky? I think I’m just comparing all teas to the one incredible tea I had a few years ago. I had a small sample of Jade Tie Guan Yin from teaspring and no other tea I’ve had recently has been as good. Yes, it was an oolong and this is a green so it’s not a fair comparison but it was just such an example, to my palate, of a really complex interesting tea.

I’m having a green tea type of day. Not really I just got in my adagio sample order in which I ordered several different samples of green tea. This one is slightly sweet and has the faintest hints of butter when I do that slurpy thing with my mouth. I like it but do not love it.

Savory, steamed veggie-like aroma. Starchy like a boiled potato.

Fresh, green leaf taste. Somewhat bitter. Very light. More boiled potato manifests itself, as it cools. But it stays amazingly fresh and green in flavor—like I can almost detect the chlorophyll.

Pretty satisfactory tea experience. It’s tasty, but a bit too mild for me. I will definitely finish up my sample tin, though.

The leaves are absolutely beautiful with the mix of green and white slightly crumpled curled forms. The scent dry was of a nice green tea with bit of “grass”(vegetal?) edge to it. When wet, the leaves smelled light, sweet, slightly grassy. I found this tea lovely through the whole pot, since instead of like so many greens, the grassy note is not allowed to become the loudest, and instead as a note in the harmony of the drink.

Wonderfully sweet and vegetal with just a hint of a buttery note. I love playing with the curly leaves before steeping and the fat, juicy buds afterwards.

When I think about a generic Chinese green tea, this exact flavor profile jumps to mind: slightly sweet and smoky with a vegetal background. There is absolutely nothing memorable about it but it isn’t unpleasant either. This particular tea is also on the mellow side with the dry finish that bites you on the tongue after each sip.

The second infusion is virtually identical to the first and I didn’t like the tea enough to go on with the third. The leaf looks and smells nice, the value is here but still the flavor is awfully boring.

I have to say, I like “monkey” teas, and it’s nice to have a green alternative. All out now… but enjoyed the last cup!

Mmmm Tastes very smooth and nicely sweet. Really light yet flavorful tea. One of my faves.

I made some white monkey today and used my perfect tea maker from Teavana. It had a earthy smell during steeping, and was a fairly run-of-the-mill, mellow green tea with slightly earthy undertones until the finish which was intriguing. After every sip there was this unique flavor sensation that I’ve never come across before.

The best way I can describe it was the smell of water. It was a cool, bright brassy note after every sip that stayed on he tongue for just about a second, but it was consistent and definitely there. It was almost metalic in its brightness, but not heavy or cloying like metals. A really interesting flavor to say the least. I’ll be buying more of this one.

Having White Monkey along with my toast slathered with cinnamon and honey. Good stuff, but darn if I can tell White Monkey and Xue Ya Ballad apart. :/ Short of conducting a side by side test, the two are just interchangeable in my mind. In fact, in the morning when I want my daily green, sometimes I just open both tins and level them out and see which one has more leaves, then I get two pinches from that one to balance the other out. Maybe I just want to be fair to both, I don’t know. It once occurred to me, why not just mix the two to get a Snow Monkey blend of sorts, but then the purist I never knew I had in me became horrified at the thought. Oh well. Back to alternating consumption then.:p

I’m just thankful pi luo chun is a little more remarkable. It’s probably standing there next to the tin of Genmaicha and Gyokuro, feeling relieved it has that fragrance to set it slightly apart.

I like this tea, but not enough to re order it.
When dried the leaves smelled like dried fruits and honey. The taste delicate, to say the least, and was clean and vegetal. It must be my water but I’m not getting any sweetness and it taste a bit stale and vaguely chlorinated.
A classic green, but nothing particularly intriguing.

I know this sounds a little odd but the smell prior to steeping reminds me of buttered vegetable with a pinch of pepper. The coloring seemed to be a typical green tea color. The taste is smooth and light with a bit of sweetness. A good starter tea for those who are unsure or not used to greens. I think I like it. :)

I enjoyed this tea! The smell reminds me of a field of freshly cut alfalfa and if I were to give that a flavor I would say it’s spot on. It doesn’t have a bold flavor and is fairly smooth on the back end (wine speakery). After a few sips I gave it a bit of agave for some sweetness, since I have that kind of tooth, but enjoyed it that much more …

With years of coffee snobbiery I have created a finely tuned palate, or so I thought. Either that or this tea demands too much concentration in order to taste anything.

This tea removes the flavor from hot water.

I have tried 3,4,5min steep times and varying water temperatures to no avail.

Very delicate green that reminds me of both Adagio’s White Symphony and Green Anji. As with many greens, more of the flavors come out as the tea cools. It also tastes sweeter as I go.

It has a murky, pale green color. Smells like my grandmother’s old house – specifically the kitchen – which was stuffy because she never opened any windows.

Light in taste, and very smooth. It’s a little sweet, but mostly tastes like vegetables. Or grass, maybe grass. I think it’s one of those teas you drink on chilly, foggy days. Not rainy days, but damp and gloomy. The days where you have absolutely nothing to do. I miss those days. I’m rambling.

I did not have high hopes for this one upon opening the package. It smells like alfalfa. How could it possibly taste good? Well, if alfalfa tastes like White Monkey, I’m going to Petsmart and brewin’ me up some alfalfa.

Steeped to Adagio’s recommended 2 minutes I found it much too light. Steeping to 3 minutes provides the best initial steep in my opinion. It’s still quite light, but 3 minutes gave me a flavor more akin to tea than hot water. Delicate, clean, and refreshing, White Monkey hides a pleasing sweetness under all that alfalfa bluster.

I’m often a fan of brewing directly in a glass cup, and for White Monkey this yields an interesting change in the taste profile if left unfiltered. What starts out light, sweet, and without a hint of vegetation (and frankly orgasmic) slowly becomes richer, more buttery, and pleasingly vegetal. The scent moves from a nice fresh alfalfa to a gross overcooked broccoli with a connecting flight in boiled spinach. This tea is a filthy trickster, its scents belying its flavors.

A second infusion doesn’t recapture the initial sweetness, but does develop a surprising honeydew melon note. It also takes on a lingering creamy mouthfeel I don’t particularly care for in tea, but it’s not bad. A third infusion at 5 minutes cut back the creaminess while introducing a vaguely citrus, vaguely melon rind flavor to the honeydew. You could probably squeeze out a fourth, but I took the rind note as a portend of bitter doom.

It is what it says, a light vegetal green tea with a nice sweetness. A slight brothiness which I like. By no means my favorite and sadly forgettable even now as I write this. It’s ok.