Backlogging and based entirely on memory.
I’m trying a different format for my reviews with this one, in the hopes of making it easier to read. I am open to any feedback about this format (or my standard one).
Experience buying from Seven Cups http://steepster.com/places/2824-seven-cups-online-tucson-arizona
I bought 100 grams of this tea in April of 2011 and finished drinking it by the end of that year. I used standard times and temperatures for my Chinese greens steeping this wonderful tea in a glass Bodum pot with metal the infuser/plunger; stevia was always added.
The leaf looked similar to Teavana’s Three Kingdoms Mao Feng (T-TKMF), but I believe it was lighter in color: light and dark green, medium-sized curly leaves and buds, with a somewhat fresher aroma than T-TKMF. I remember that this tea was comprised mostly of whole leaves, buds and bud-sets, and that it looked fresher than the T-TKMF. The flavor was standard for a quality green tea, being vegetal and sweet (tasted slightly better than the T-TKMF). Teavana’s T-TKMF produced a somewhat cloudy liquor, while this teas liquor was clear. This tea blended well with T-TKMF. Since it was well beyond it’s harvest date, this tea went for 70% OFF of its original price (at something like $5 / OZ), and I remember it came to about $1.50 / OZ (I just found the discounted price: $5.43/100g).
Overall, I was very happy with everything about this tea. T-TKMF was my second quality, loose-leaf green Tea, and this was my third (a dragon well from a local Asian store was my first). This tea was better than T-TKMF in every respect, which amazed me, as I wouldn’t think T-TKMF was from an earlier harvest date than this one (I bought the T-TKMF during Teavana’s year-end-sale just months before at the end of 2010, so I would think it was probably from the 2009 harvest at the earliest). Since I was enjoying the flavor of this tea about four years after it’s harvest date (I just checked to verify it was indeed 2007, and not, say, 2009), I learned that not all green teas are created equal. This is also a reason why I have much respect for Seven Cups. I would probably buy this at full price if they offered it again, but I have yet to see them offer it from a new harvest (even at $5 /OZ it would be one of Seven Cup’s least expensive teas, as many of their green teas are over $10 / OZ).
