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Frosty Garden from Mellow Monk

Steepster Score 4 Ratings Rate This Tea

80/100

Frosty Garden

Green Tea by Mellow Monk

Monk’s Bliss™ is a shiraore, luscious sencha green tea with some white stems. That, plus a slightly different tea-crafting technique, results in a completely different tea—a rich, thick mouthfeel, a dry texture, and a surprising smooth, lightly tasty flavor. This tea is always first flush—made from the first harvest of spring leaves.

In Aso, this tea is often given as a gift on occasions like New Year’s or as an ochugen, or summer gift.

10 Tasting Notes

Amy oh
98
Amy oh 5 tasting notes

This came in my recent order with Mellow Monk so I thought I’d try it out today…

This was steeped for around 90 seconds at approx. 170F (I was guesstimating)

Ooooh, I really like this! A light green sencha with white stems. My tea liquor is a light chartreuse color. This is exceedingly mild and mellow, perhaps because of the white stems? It ha a definite brothy, vegetal tone with slight notes of seaweed and a sweet finish with a tad bit of astringency, a slight grapefruit element here.

I’m a big fan of Japanese green teas and this one is really nice! Mellow Monk describes it as luscious and I would agree. It just kind of rolls around on your tongue in a delightful manner. One of my favorite senchas to date.

2012-07-26 15:08:31 -0400
175 °F / 79 °C
1 min 30 sec
11 comments

Green tea of the morning – yeah I brought this one to work and I sure do like it. :) It’s a bit pricey but you can get 2-3 steeps out of it. Come on theanine! Do your job. ;-)

2012-08-15 12:21:55 -0400
5 comments

This is one of my favorite Japanese green teas and I will be getting some more when it runs out… see previous notes for more info. I am really enjoying it today, it’s so fresh and sweet tasting for a sencha.

2012-11-08 13:43:37 -0500
180 °F / 82 °C
3 min 0 sec
2 comments

hmm. not much more to say about this one aside from the fact that it is sooo delicious and one of my favorite Japanese green teas. see previous notes for more details.

2013-02-04 12:51:49 -0500
170 °F / 76 °C
2 min 0 sec
0 comments

It’s a sipdown!

Finished off a pouch of this today. I will miss it but am going to try and drink some of my other green teas before I buy anymore. My skeptical bf thinks I buy way more tea than I can drink. Of course he is right… lol

see previous notes for more info on this tea

2013-04-29 14:15:29 -0400
170 °F / 76 °C
1 min 30 sec
0 comments
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Will
77
Will

I’m not normally a fan of Japanese green tea, but I picked this one up on a whim. It is very mild and not too vegital, so it has been a very enjoyable tea for me. It took a few tries for me to brew it correctly, so be careful. It is easy to over steep.

2010-10-10 22:15:45 -0400
155 °F / 68 °C
2 min 30 sec
0 comments
sherubtse
87
sherubtse

Quite vegetal (think buttered steamed asparagus) on the first infusion, and mildly astringent after that. Surprisingly flavourful and long-lasting for a karigane!

First infusion – 5 g. per 8 oz water, 60 deg., 45 sec.

Second infusion – 5 g. per 8 oz. water, 60 deg., 1:30 min.

Third infusion – 5 g. per 5 oz. water, 60 deg., 10+ min.

2013-04-09 18:34:59 -0400
140 °F / 60 °C
0 min 45 sec
0 comments
Christopher Cox
75
Christopher Cox

The white stems of the leaf are left attached and it has a unique overtone that I can’t quite describe… Perhaps ‘herbal’?

As of late November (last night, actually) this tea was renamed from “Monk’s Bliss” to “Frosty Garden.” I assumed this was done to help others differentiate between it and Mellow Monk’s “Blissful Buds.”

2010-11-28 00:47:00 -0500
170 °F / 76 °C
1 min 0 sec
0 comments
Tristan
Tristan 2 tasting notes

~2 tsp for 120 ml; loose-mesh stainless steel strainer in small ceramic cup

Delicious complex smell of dry leaf warmed in cup. Heady with grass, sweetness, herb.

01 (1m30s; 158F): Most notable is the mouth, which is smooth, fairly thick, and buttery. Flavor is much less sweet than the dry leaf and liquor smell, tending more towards herb. Some level of drying, though only after (little astringency in the mouth). Not getting the sweet, sweet salivation I have in the past from other gurichas.

02 (25s; 160F): Less thick/heavy mouth. Less drying. Somewhat sweeter flavor. Perhaps a little too short steeping.

2013-01-23 08:45:17 -0500
160 °F / 71 °C
1 min 30 sec
0 comments

~2 tsp for 80ml; loose-mesh stainless steel strainer in small ceramic cup

Dry leaf warmed in cup. Delicious, complex, and full smell of sweet grass.

Changed up the parameters a bit—greater ratio of tea, even lower temperatures. It is interesting trying to find an ideal brewing process with this tea, as it seems fairly forgiving.

01 (1m30s; 155F): Very full flavor and velvety feel, though not overwhelming or bitter. The attack has a flavor that’s somewhere between salty and umami (possibly, not sure about my sense of umami). Perhaps a little too high of a ratio on this steeping, as the mouth notes were a bit muddled together. However, the finish was impressively long in the mouth—I had to run a quick errand after finishing this cup and each breath of unseasonably warm, humid air gave me an opportunity to consider many of the flavors which were more difficult to discern while drinking.

02 (20s; 155F): Much less muddled, as I compensated by steeping a little more water, perhaps a bit short too. Nice sweet and grassy notes, though a less velvety feel and little to no salt/umami.

03 (50s; 155F): Still tasty, very similar to 02.

04 (2m; 160F): You know …

2013-01-30 17:05:45 -0500
155 °F / 68 °C
1 min 30 sec
0 comments
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