Organic Taimu Maojian Green Tea

Mmmmm… this is delicious. I think this might be my favorite of the samples Teavivre has sent me. And of course it serves me right that this is currently out of stock since I took so long to get to reviewing this one. This will come back on stock soon, right? right??? Puppy dog eyes

I’m always surprised how flavorful the teas from Teavivre can be even when the liquid is so lightly colored. It’s a lovely light color though. Pale yellow-y green. Like new spring. :) The smell and flavor is like a cross between gyokuro and chun mei green. This brew is sweet and green and nutty with a overall sense of savory goodness. It’s completely smooth with no drying sensation whatsoever. It also complements my homemade spicy shrimp fried rice amazingly well.

Yum. So smooth and sweet and savory… Time for steep 2!

Thank you to Teavivre for sending a sample of this my way…

I thought this was very enjoyable, perhaps my favorite of the plain greens I have tried from the company. I stepped mine at 2 minutes around 180 F and used approximately 1 tsb of leaf for 12 oz of water.

The long and slender leaf really look very green after steeping and smell sweet and vegetal.

My cup is a light olive color and has delightful sweet and chestnut notes along with some slight vegetal ones. A bit artichoke-y, a bit spicy but not bitter at all. To me it seems more robust and flavorful than the dragonwell. It seems very “nourishing” and refreshing. I’ll definitely be tempted to pick some of this up when my sample runs out.

_{Backlogging, and based almost entirely on my notes}

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

Age of leaf/date of brewing: advertised as spring 2011. Received fall 2011, brewed up days later.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: < No notes here >

Brewing guidelines: 3 small TSP, 2 cups H2O (from my notes it looks like I did two completely separate brewing ‘sessions’ with this tea, one day apart); < I have no notes on what teapot I brewed this in, but I likely used my glass Bodum >; stevia added; standard Chinese green tea steeping times and temperatures; four steepings for the first session, three for the second.

Color of tea liquor: yellowish (“like a lite beer”).

Flavor of tea liquor (by steeping): (based on both sessions) 1st: mild, but good, standard vegetal flavor (no weird or off flavors); 2nd: decent; 3rd: good (notes say “Definitely good: better, sweeter, reminds me of a Dragon Well”); 4th: mild flavor.

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: looks and smells like any quality, fresh, standard mid-grade green tea: “lots of good buds, many leaves (some torn), and a few stems (no bud-sets).”

Value: again, great value for a decent green tea at Teavivre (my notes show $2.27 / OZ)!

Overall: I don’t have many notes on this tea, but overall I remember (and based on my notes) that this was a decent tasting green tea (I drank it about six months after it’s harvest). I should be getting a sample of a similarly named green tea (Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng) from the 2012 spring harvest, soon, so I’ll be curious to see if I like it any better (they currently list this tea as out of stock, so I don’t know if they plan to get a new harvest of this exact green tea or not).

Second tea of the morning…….

I received this sample a several weeks ago from TeaVivre and have been putting off reviewing due to my seasonal allergies. It is hard to taste things very well when your sense of smell is off. I am a little sad it is out of stock, but am hopeful that there will be more for the next season.

This is nutty, and more vegetal than the Premium Dragonwell. There is the slightest hint of bitterness, but it works to cleanse the palate. It is a surprisingly refreshing tea, and there is not a hint of aftertaste. I would never have guessed that the lightest amount of bitterness could work so well in ones favor. It can be a good thing, when in the right amount. I am sure it will be a great resteeper, and I will thoroughly enjoy the sample. I hope to add a few more notes on this one because it is so interesting how flavors I thought were not of interest to me actually are! Thank you, again, to TeaVivre for the opportunity to sample this one.

190 water, about 2 tsp tea in a 15 oz mug. 3 minutes. No additions.

This is another green tea that I requested from Teavivre with my samples based on its description so that I could broaden my tea horizons. So thanks again to Teavivre for providing me with these!

The dry leaf has that kind of “green tea” scent that I associate with a standard green tea. The leaves are fairly long and twisted but they also are relatively curly so they pack fairly well and I think my measurement of them should be fairly accurate. They are dark green when dry but after steeping they have turned a very bright yellow green, and the liquor is a medium yellow color. The steeped tea smells really good, and not like I would associate with a green tea. The description mentions chestnuts, and I definitely am getting the kind of nutty aroma I might associate with them. Also maybe roasted sweet corn? It is a scent that is familiar but that I’m having trouble placing. As it cools a definite buttered cooked veggie aroma is coming more forward.

I definitely get sweet, nutty, buttery, cooked vegetable notes in the flavor as well. It’s a hint bitter, so I’m wondering if I used a tad too much leaf (or maybe I should have done a 1 minute steep). Either way, it’s not too bad and I definitely love the other flavors going on. This one actually has the same combination of flavors that add up to a cookie-type note like I experienced with Verdant’s Jingshan green (in a blend), which is totally unexpected for me but I really like it. If I can figure out my optimal steeping parameters for this tea I might just fall in love.

So, I have had this for a really long time and I’m just now getting around to trying it. Sample provided very generously by Teavivre!

Steep notes: 3-4 tsp. leaf to 500 ml. water in my Breville at below parameters.

I really wanted a black tea tonight but for some reason I didn’t have any in my cupboard. I mean, I did, East Frissy and David’s Breakfast blend are in there, but I wanted something…not breakfasty? I don’t know. I’m fickle, it’s cold and rainy and windy and I wanted some warm, no frills (no dessert!) tea.

So in this one went. The dry leaf had almost a malty smell to it, which is a characteristic I normally find in Assams and which made me very happy. Dry leaf looked like long spindly blades of grass.

The steeped liquor is a yellow green and has a vague buttery scent. Taste wise, I get buttery and nutty. The nutty flavor especially lingers as an aftertaste. It’s very smooth, though, and slightly (pleasantly) astringent.

I like this – it’s a very delicate flavor that would go well with dinner, as I find most green teas do. It works well for night when you just really don’t want anything heavy.

This is my last Teavivre tea to review. Then I’m onto random things again.

I think this might be my second favorite of the greens I’ve tried by this company. The scent of it was fresh and especially sweet. Inviting. It brewed up to a shade of pale greenish yellow, and smelled almost fruity aside from the usual green tea scents. The taste is very naturally sweet and delicious. Even at such a short steep time, it’s strong and complex. But I still prefer the more bitter and smoky Chun Mei.

Once I go through the rest of these green teas Teavivre sent me, I’m gonna have to have them all again together and really decide which one is my favorite.

The characteristics of this tea pretty much define everything I love about a lot of the greens I’ve tried so far. I love the sweet, vegetal taste with a hint of nuttiness of this one. The dry leaf smelled to me a lot like hazelnuts for some reason…but then again I don’t think I have a clear idea of what a chestnut smells like so that could be it.

Also I always have enjoyed wondering about brewing instructions only to be pleased with the results. I wasn’t expecting a green tea that brews just fine at a high temperature! But it works out just fine.

I am enjoying the flavor of this lovely green. A beautiful color and aroma. I was very generous with the amount of leaf and the steep time was about 2 minutes. It also has that gorgeous green tea energy that many love. This would make a great every day.

So I’ll preface this by saying a few things…

1) I was at work when I first tried this and,

2) I’m not terribly good at describing the subtle tastes of things like wine or coffee or tea and,

3) I’ve been more a Japanese green tea drinker in the last few years than a Chinese one.

With that said, I did delve into this green tea, one of three that Angel from Teavivre sent. I picked this one because of the reference to chestnut flavours…though I’m fairly uncertain what chestnut actually tastes like.

The dry leaf is dark green in colour, and sort of thin spindly leaves. The smell is clean and earthy and a little roasty toasty. Brewed, they expand and turn into a mossy green colour. The liquor was pretty pale and yellow, and still smelled much like the dry leaf. The taste was crisp and clean, and reminded me a bit of a green oolong. There was a little roasty toasty flavours though. There was a barely noticeable astringency, but I wouldn’t say bitter by any means. I think that the main flavours I picked up were vegetal, and reading about asparagus as a flavours, as odd as it is, I think I can make that out, but I’d never know it unless I read others saying that.

My preparation was electric kettle boiled water, left to rest about 3-5 minutes before adding thee strainer with he tea leaves, of which I used about two bamboo spoons wort. The tea is so lightweight and thin that it was a little difficult to get a good measure. Steeped about 2 minutes in between running back and forth from customers.

Overall, I like it and will be interested to see how it compares to the other greens and oolongs I got from Teavivre. I’ll be interested to see if I can discern any subtleties in them.

I am head over heels in love with Chinese greens lately. Thanks TeaVivre for sending some delicious samples this way! I want to finish each green individually so I get a good idea of the taste and subtleties, since my taste buds have been slightly dulled by super strong coffee over the years.
This is my first Mao Jian as well, and it reminds me of the premium dragonwell I sampled recently from this company; more vegetal and less buttery. I have been enjoying several cups after work lately and it makes me feel cleansed. I would say this tea caps at four steeps. That was a stretch for me, but it seems like four was the max for some other people as well. I suppose it depends on your taste buds though.

Sample provided by TeaVivre, thank you!

I haven’t tried Mao Jian before and I was a taken aback by brewing instructions (90C water) and 36-month shelf life which is like a double for random green tea.
Dry leaves have a dark olive tone and are long and twisted with some white tips and mild toasted aroma. I quite experimented with this one (still have to try cold brew method though) and I find it to be sensitive to both steeping time and temperature.

TeaVivre’s brewing instruction for this tea:
" Just like all green teas, brew Taimu Maojian at approximately 194 ºF or 90ºC for 1 to 2 minutes. TeaVivre’s Maojian can be infused 6 or 7 times, and you should add about 25% to the brewing time and using slightly hotter water for each infusion."

When I first brewed it (followed the instructions) I used minimum 60 seconds for first steep and added 15 seconds to second steep. What I got was delicious first infusion with clear jade tone and similar profile as Bi Luo Chun: fresh, slightly vegetal with sturdy chestnut background and some pleasant astringency that quickly fades and turns into sweet finish.
Second infusion seem to keep all the previous characteristics with a big scoop of bitterness. It wasn’t the one that would wrinkle your face but still it makes one focus more on bitterness itself than on savoring nuttiness and sweetness that are included.
I kept on brewing it with 15 second increase per steep, and third infusion brought less bitterness than previous with accent on sweetness and nutty aftertaste. There was a significant drop of astringency as well. I also got some kind of tickling sensation on tongue.
Forth steep (105 seconds) is where I pulled the plug. Taste started wearing out to the point that I might not want to drink 5th infusion. It still retained some sweet and vegetal notes with fair nutty background. Tickling sensation on tongue is more notable than in 3rd infusion.

I think I got seldom results for my first try.

On second try I managed to make it right! First two 60 second steeps (and 90C water for all) brought out an even profile of first infusion in my previous attempt. I also noted some starchy dryness this time. As I moved toward third infusion I noticed how that nutty background reminds me of dry leaf of particular Long Jing I had recently. Sweetness lingers and lasts long after sipping. This tea reminds me somewhat of Bi Luo Chun, that I don’t particularly enjoy due to its astringency, but astringency of this Mao Jian fits perfectly to my taste.

Wet leaves have accented nutty profile and I could toss them in salad or something (it’s organic after all).

P.S.

I noticed that there’s only 200g left of this tea in TeaVivre’s stock. I immediately snatched 100g … only one more bag left…