High Mountain Green

Another one from the sampler pack. The leaves are dark green and have a wonderful vegetal aroma similar to spinach. The wet leaves have a higher aroma with notes of butter and brussel sprouts. I brewed this one in my 12oz mug, again being too lazy to brew gaiwan style.

I happened to be starting the computer up as I started to brew this and so I had left it brew for much too long making the first infusion very bitter. I added some honey hoping to make amends, but to no avail. But through the bitterness I could taste a nice creamy, buttery, vegetal green tea with hints of corn. I could tell this would have been an awesome tea had I not royally screwed it up.

So, I poured out the first infusion and made a second. Even after having the first one sit for at least 4 minutes the second infusion still had plenty of flavor in it! Here I could taste the wonderful creamy, vegetal green tea without any bitterness. The flavor was a bit muted simply because of the long steep time in the first time around.

This tea holds up surprisingly well, I bet you could get quite a few good infusions out of it…dare I say you could get 5??? Even through my mishap this still turned out to be really good.

I really liked this one!

It has a light sweetness that is very similar to Verdant’s Laoshan green. I’m getting a lot of sweet pea/corn type flavors here. It definitely seems to have a very clean quality as well. No trace of bitterness or astringency which is great for me. Very refreshing and quenching as well. I only wish I had more of this sample so I could try cold brewing it. I think I will be getting more of this some day!

Picked this up the other day, but for whatever reason haven’t starting drinking it yet. Yum. It’s lovely stuff. Nice, mellow, yummy green tea.

Sorry I’m not more descriptive or pithy – I’ve got a cold coming on.

Gosh, I nearly forgot the daily sample!

Sample Week continues with a hastily chosen random sample of randomness. It was literally then topmost one in the basket.

I have a tendency to prefer Japanese greens, or greens that are similar to Japanese greens. Therefore, I’m feeling slightly wary of this. Because as far as I can tell, it’s not Japanese. Chinese greens are bit touch and go. I’ve never met one that I absolutely didn’t like and I’ve met plenty that I do like, but there is just such a large group of green Chinese teas that I can’t feel more than indifferent about. (Unless they’re flavoured, but that’s a whole other crate of fish)

There’s something I want to watch on tv soonish, so considering the amount of time it usually takes me to write these posts, I’ll try to be brief.

The aroma is, in quick summary, not particularly strong, quite ‘thick’ in character, and it has a strong note of fresh greenery. Not grassy as such, but leaning in that direction. It seems slightly salty as well, but again not particularly much. Not enough to put my off at all.

The flavour rather reminds me of Dragonwell. It’s got that same sort of boiled spinach-y kind of note to it. Again, the same greenery note from before, I think. Funny thing is it tastes exactly like it smells. I could just repeat verbatim what I wrote about the aroma and it would be true.

It’s not that very strong in flavour, not nearly as strong as Dragonwells are, and it’s a bit like taking a sip and then having to pass through some sort of curtain of hot water before getting to the flavour. It’s very smooth, and quite ‘thick’, a fat flavour, but not a buttery one. Although I think this is the character that people think about when they say a green has a buttery note. For me, though, it has to be a lot stronger before I’ll call it buttery.

This is a friendly cup. It doesn’t demand a lot from the drinker and it doesn’t attack and overwhelm the mouth completely. It just compliantly sits there in the cup, waiting to be sipped and doesn’t require a whole lot of attention in order to be enjoyed. It’s the sort of tea that would go quite well along with reading a book or watching something on tv.

Speaking of which, I seem to have written this post in record time and now have 15 whole minutes before my program actually begins. Zoooooom!

Really good green tea. The leaves are beautiful, dark twisted green leaves that brew up a gentle cup of sweet green tea with no bitterness and a slight buttery flavor.

At first sniff it smelled like spinach. A very vegetal smell and taste. Lovely delicate green color. Not bitter at all. Very wet and quenching. I am not horribly fond of green teas, but this one seems to be pretty high quality. If you like light, vegetal flavors you’ll love this tea. My rating is based on the quality of the tea, not whether or not I liked it or will buy it again. Greens just aren’t my cuppa. :)

Another great tea from Shang! I prefer his white teas, but this green has a very subtle and smooth flavor that can be easily steeped 5-6 times. Enjoy!

Awesome green, hot or iced. Not too grassy, just right!

Beautiful tea very much similar to Verdant’s Laoshan Green. Needs to be brewed properly or it quickly turns bitter. Will write more later.