I’m still suffering from braindeadness but must review newly tried tea! Sadly, no Magnetic Poetry this time. I just consider myself lucky that I’m not drooling on my keyboard – anything more than that is pretty much a bonus.
I think I maybe have had one yellow tea before. (Very definitive, yes?) Considering that my brain isn’t working well enough to remember what I had for breakfast, there’s no way I can remember my impressions of the previous yellow I’ve had (or honestly, if I even have actually had one or just wanted to try one for long enough that now think I did). Regardless, it means I really have no idea what to expect from this tea other than something that is not quite a white but not quite a green.
The leaves look like dried Silver Needle. It’s simulatenously sad (because I do love the furry SN-type leaves) and nifty because they don’t look unhappy – just dehydrated. The smell (post-brewing) is like a sweet Chinese green. And oh, look at that! It tastes like a sweet Chinese green, too! A velvety, smooth, sweet Chinese green. There’s a little mineral-y taste that is similar (but much milder) to the salty taste I get from most Chinese greens but this also has a lovely little treat at the end of the sip – a bit of honey and maybe plum? Apricot? Something stonefruit-y. It’s sweet, but more fruit – or perhaps nectar – sweet than a more grass or vegetal sweet. There’s also a bit of an unexpected astringency that hits the middle of my tongue and makes my mouth water fairly pleasantly.
Considering that I couldn’t find the info sheet sophistre included in the teas she sent me (which means it wasn’t stapled to my head and I couldn’t manage to make the effort to look through the stuff on the kitchen table to find it) I think this turned out pretty nicely for guesstimating parameters. I don’t know how expensive it is, but assuming it’s not priced like titanium, I could see wanting to keep some of this around for the times that I crave something like a Chinese green (which always ends up being better in idea than in practice unless I have some sweeter, smoother greens on hand – this would fit nicely).
