Xue Ya Ballad

I’m not feeling this one and it’s my second time trying it. Any tea that has a description of “smelling of crab” should have thrown up the good ole warning flag. And I get it…there is a faint crab…err, krab smell.

There is a natural sweetness to this tea, but the sharp veggie dryness kills it. I’m glad this tea was part of a free sample pack…I would never re-order it. As a matter of fact, this tin will probably go into the drawer of misfit teas and wait until it can be swapped.

Any takers for the krab tea?

The dry tea is an interesting-looking dark-green/grey colour shot through with silver. It has a scent sort of like hay with a bit of nuttiness. But wow does it ever change drastically when I add the water! The smell morphs into something that I can only liken to dried seaweed – some people have called it ‘fishy’ but it’s not really that – to me it smells like the nori used to wrap sushi.

The tea isn’t fishy either (thankfully) it does have a savory note to it that gives the tea more body – this isn’t a fresh, light, delicate-tasting green. It has a nutty quality to it and a sort of green sweetness aswell.

I’m not sure what I think of this tea – I don’t love it, but it’s isn’t gack-worthy either. I think I’d have to be in a particular mood to drink this tea – I don’t think it’ll become my go-to green or anything like that.

The literal translation of “xue ya” is “snow buds”, and (someone correct me if I’m wrong) it’s usually a moniker for white tea. Here it’s describing a first-flush green. The smell while the leaves are steeping reminds me a little bit of crab, though I don’t get any of that after I take the leaves out. 2 1/2 minutes at 180 degrees this time around, but I have a feeling it’ll take a bit more trial and error to bring out the awesome.

Thanks to Lena for the ‘krab’ tea!

3g/6oz/175/2:30 – Smelling this and thinking of sea food, I can totally see the crab comparison. Or maybe lobster tank – that sort of salt + crustacean smell? Something like that. The initial taste has that same flavor, too, but while I can see it, it’s probably not my first thought. My first thought is “oh, Chinese green”.

My description for a lot of the Chinese greens I’ve tried includes briny. This one gets it a tiny bit but as it cools but what really surprises me about this is that as it cools, instead of the brine taste getting stronger, there’s a delicate sweetness to it, especially in the tail, that shows up more. And that pretty much makes me love it because I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a Chinese green. So woo hoo!

And thanks Lena!!!

Not sure why but this one reminds me of Ali Shan a little bit. It does have a sweetness to it before and during the steep. It’s also a little buttery going down. I am liking it but interested in oversteeping as well so time will tell…so far I like Ali Shan better…but this one is fairly good too.

This tea isn’t bad, but it isn’t really good either. It’s got a very sweet taste without any grassy aftertaste, and it has a slight charcoal taste to it as well. While I wouldn’t describe this tea as bland, I also wouldn’t describe it as distinctive either.

The last of the sample. I might buy it again some day. The second steeping is better than the first.

Just tried this tea for the first time. I like it. It has a nice sweetness to it and smells good to me. Its nice to have another green that is not so grassy sometimes yet still has that green tea undeniable taste.

I drank this. I literally had no reaction to it, positive or negative. Hence, the smack-dab-in-the-middle rating of 50.

Prepared in Adagio IngenuiTEA teapot.

180 degrees for 4 minutes. Too light for my tastes. Might try a longer steeping.

This tea has a non descript aroma when in the tin. I steeped 2.25g of tea leaves in 6oz purified water heated to 175 degrees F for 3 min. and I’m glad I didn’t steep it any longer. It does have a pale yellowish green liquor as the description states, but that’s where the accuracy ends. There is nothing fruity about this tea at all. I did not sweeten this. I became leary about this tea even before tasting it. It smelled of dirt. Sure enough, it tastes like a very weak pu erh, kind of like I dropped a good tasting green tea on the ground. I’m not sure this tea would appeal to anyone. If you don’t like pu erh, you won’t like this tea. But then again if you like pu erh this may be too weak for you. If you like pu erh maybe steep it for 5 mins like a black tea. I normally like to try all teas both hot and chilled and see how many infusions I can get before the flavor dies, but I’m not brave enough to try this a 2nd time no matter how it’s prepared.

Pretty good tea. not very strong, has a pretty decent natural sweetness to it.

Nice light tea. Its among a family of light green teas that aren’t very bold, but are still pretty nice and would be a good intro to green teas for someone who hasn’t tried them before. One last cup from this order of Xue and I’m all out.

1.5 tsp tea in about 12 oz water at 175°F. I added 1 tsp white sugar.

Very mild green tea, slightly smoky. I’m not sure I have all that much of an opinion on it.

I’m not a big green tea fan but I like this as it reminds me of a black tea. One reviewer likened this to pu eth but it doesn’t remind me of that at all!

Quite possibly my favorite green tea thus far – it’s perfectly delicate, smooth and light, with a very yummy sweetness that reminds me of honey, but not quite.

This tea was really smooth. Not a strong flavor. It was a very mellow tea, and quite good.