Liu An Gua Pian Green Tea

I have not had tea for the past few days because I was sick. I am so glad to be getting back to my teapot and my calming evening cup of green tea!

This is a sample of the 2013 harvest sent by Teavivre. Many thanks!

When I made this tea, the kitchen lights were all out but one, so I saw the dry leaves only dimly. Everyone was getting ready to head to bed. After it steeped, it wouldn’t have mattered if all the lights had been out. The leaves were such a vibrant green they would have lit the room. They were so beautiful – fresh, alive, and crying out that they were the newborns of spring!

The aroma was of soft spinach, no hard or bitter edges. The liquor was a much paler color than I expected after seeing those electric green leaves.

The flavor is mild and smooth, nothing harsh or biting is to be found here. There is almost no aftertaste, which is having the effect of making me drink more and more because I want to keep experiencing the flavor.

Hubby came in after I had already finished two cups. He poured himself a cup, then another, and was about to pour another but the pot was empty. I asked if he wanted a resteep and he said, “Yes, please!” I made the second pot and he drank a cup and told me he had to go to bed now. He left the room and was back in less than three minutes pouring another cup of tea.

There is a mineral freshness to this along with the vegetal flavor, rather than the butteriness sometimes found in a vegetal green. My mouth feels so fresh and clean, yet there really wasn’t any astringency. I have really enjoyed these two pots of tea tonight, and hope they go a long way to rehydrating me!

Thank you, Angel and Teavivre, for these beautiful samples!

This is a part of the batch of samples that Angel and Teavivre sent me to try out. Thanks guys!

I think this is the best green tea I’ve tried so far. It’s the least stewed-veggie tasting green I’ve tried. I do get a just a bit of that to start off with but then it moves into a sweet almost spice taste. It’s really interesting that I can’t put my finger on actual spice this flavor comes closest to. It reminds me of several different spices, almost. I just get to thinking it’s like so and so and then I lose it and it’s different. It’s chameleon tea! Now I have to talk Dylan into to liking this enough that it’s the green he wants to keep around. ;)

The scent of the dry leaf reminds me of a fresh summer field. The leaf is long and plump. From the description I was expecting a strong grassy green. Instead the sip is like buttery beans. Maybe creamy is a better word. This is definitely classic Chinese green tea in flavor.

There is no bitterness, and no harsh edges. The longer you sip the sweeter it becomes. It has a healthy drying affect on the tongue. Strangely, the aftertaste disappears rather quickly.

On the second cup I immediately caught a nice amount of a spicy almost floral taste. Though familiar, I couldn’t pull a name for these notes out of my brain today. Let’s just call it tasty. The second cup seems less creamy and more ocean or mineral. As the cup cools it is tasting a little peppery.

Thank you TeaVivre for the sample. This is another very nice cup.

I got a sample pack of this from my swap with aisling of tea! Thanks dahling!

Usually I have a straight up black tea in the mornings, but today I had a hankering for a pot of green.

This is such a pleasant, gentle tea. I find the taste to be light and delicious – no astringency and so gentle, in fact, that I kept my leaves in throughout drinking the entire pot and it just got tastier and tastier, without a hint of bitterness!

The taste is slightly sweet and spicy, like a pink peppercorn. Definitely not heavy like a Dragonwell – I think it’s like comparing a thick juice to a flavoured water! Very quenching.

As I get to the end of the pot, the aroma is grassy and the flavour reminds me of fresh black olives – juicy and savoury – just a bit nutty.

So happy I got to try this one!

I was in the mood for a green tea this evening and I picked a good one. The dried leaf has a nice aroma but my spider senses tell me it’s the 2011 harvest. I have a Liu An Gua Pian that was sent from Anhui that looks much fresher. That tea is definitely this years harvest. This is still a very vibrant tea with a nice full flavor. This tea is also making me perspire on my forehead. I can feel the purifying effects of this lovely tea upon my body and mind.

This tea was really quite excellent. It has a sweetness to it that overlays the light vegetable flavor to it very, very well. Absolutely delicious.

However…

Once this tea cools down, it’s downright undrinkable. I had given a little cup of this to Sandy at work, and she really didn’t like it. I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that she let it cool down… because it’s really taking on an unpleasant, rubbery taste. So yeah, absolutely fantastic tea when drank warm.

These leaves are beautiful! Long, narrow, perfectly straight, vibrantly green leaves. They’re quite large actually and thus hard to correctly measure. But I think I did all right. The aroma is lovely, fresh green tea.

The taste is even lovelier than the aroma. Light, fresh, vegetal, and sweet. Light is the perfect description. It’s not heavy like Dragonwell.

There’s also virtually no aftertaste (as in the taste doesn’t linger). I haven’t decided if that’s good or bad yet. But it is definitely a noticeable characteristic of this tea. The aroma is grassy, but luckily for me that grassiness doesn’t make it into the flavor much.

Overall, this is a wonderful green tea. The second steep for two minutes was just as flavorful as the first, and I’m sure it could keep going for several more infusions, if I was so inclined. This tea is quite affordable for such high quality. It’s deserving of my stamp of approval! I highly recommend!

A sample that came with my recent order of Longjing. I was curious what one of Teavivire’s most expensive greens tasted like. I was struck by the long spear-like vibrant green leaves, uncharacteristic in comparison to the other greens I’m used to.

Overall I’m pleased, but wasn’t knocked out. I initially steeped for about 30-45 seconds, and I’m imaging I should have let it be, but I was hoping for something more overt and allowed it to brew another 30-40 secs. I think that was a mistake. I ended up introducing a bitter note to what had been a smooth, lightly sweet, mellow vegetal, milky brightness. I think what I was hoping for would have been better corrected with more leaf and less time.

2nd stepping, I backed off and played it safe at about 40 secs.. Not quite enough flavor for me and I introduce a bit more steeping time (10-25 more secs). I’m playing on the edge of bitter, but I like where this tea is going. My tastebuds don’t appear to be so dialed in today, but I’m getting the continued sweet notes and a dry mouth feel. That bitter is just hanging there…. I’m not sure I’d make an investment, but if I had some more of this, I’d certain enjoy and afternoon of playing with quantity, steeping times and temps, getting to know it. But alas, it’s price and with my first impressions, I’m not inspired. But let’s see where this tea continues to go.

My 3rd steep and I think my impatience with this tea has stripped it of what it has to offer. Flavor is weak. There’s not much left to this. I’m tempted to request another sample next time I order from Teavivre.

This tea comes in a 5 gram sample, unlike most of their other teas which are usually 7 grams. I think they’re doing themselves a disservice. Brewing in a my little Finum, which is like a 5 oz cup, I think I would have had a better experience with 7 grams of tea. But then the nature of the size of these leaves would have made it difficult to fit them all and get an even steep.

I’m going for it with the 4th steep leaving it in for a solid 2 mins as recommended by Teavivre’s gaiwan instructions. There is certainly a long-lasting sweet aftertaste, bordering on saccharine. Even as I have abused this tea, there’s still a distinct vegetal smell. Bitter is gone, and surprisingly enough, I find this steep somewhat satisfying. What a weird little trip.

From a caffeine/theanine standpoint, I’m honestly a bit jacked from this tea. But then that might have been all the dark chocolate nibs I had earlier…. Or it might be that these leaves are considered more mature. Who knows. Interesting experiment overall, results inconclusive.

Thanks again to Angel and TeaVivre for this new sample!

Let me quickly again sum up my feelings about green tea: not much into it. However, I am always willing to try new varieties, and have found a few that I’ve liked, not enough to make them a daily habit, but they’ve been tasty.

The flat bright green leaves in the sample package of this selection had a sweet grassy aroma. I steeped them for two minutes at 175 degrees as recommended in the instructions (176 degrees was recommended, but close counts).

The brewed liquid was an extremely pale golden green. The steeped aroma was very faint and slightly sweet.

It took several sips before my brain and taste buds could process enough flavor information to classify it. Then, I began to discern a sort of sweet, slightly spicy, kind of grassy taste. The flavor was smooth, very light, and too delicate to produce any bitterness.

This tea was pleasant to drink and may be a fine late afternoon or early evening selection, but I prefer stronger and more robust flavors. To be fair, I should also mention that we are now in peak pollen and allergy season here in South Carolina, so my tasting apparatus isn’t as sensitive as it is at other times of the year.

Having said that, there is nothing at all wrong with this tea’s amiable flavors. The volume just isn’t pumped up enough for my preference.

This is the second tea I ordered from Teavivre (the other being Yunnan Dian Hong-Golden tip) and overall, the second Liu An Gua Pian I’ve ever had (my first one was the small sample that comes in Teavana’s Forbidden Kingdom tea gift set). While I did enjoy Teavana’s offering, I’m always trying to compare their quality with other vendors and boy, I was not disappointed with this one.

The dry leaf of this tea is very pretty, long and tubular, these richly green colored leaves were all perfectly preserved and almost identical to each other. This tea has a hefty green aroma, like if you were walking among trees during the summer.

I brewed this tea according to the suggested brewing guidelines of 175F water and 1-2 min brew time in a Gaiwan.

I brewed this tea twice. My first cup was brightly green with a light grassy aroma. The tea has a very nice sweet flavor, slightly grassy, and a heavy mouthfeel with a slightly smoky/spicy finish. To be precise, the taste reminds me a lot of Japanese green teas, like a more flavorful and heavier bodied sencha. My second cup was even better than the first, as all the flavors were slightly more pronounced.

I was amazed with the wet leaf. In this department, the tea reminded me a lot of Pouchong, as in the way how the leaves slowly unfurled in to perfectly shaped leaves. After my first infusion, the leaves were still slightly curled up, meaning this tea had still a lot more to offer. After the second infusion, the leaves unfurled completely into perfectly shaped bright green leaves. They’re so attractive to look at, you might think someone grabbed some leaves from a nearby tree and just placed them in there.

When I first had Liu an Gua Pian, I was very pleased with its flavor and Teavivre’s offering was even better. Like I said, It is similar in taste like that found in Japanese greens, but with a unique Chinese twist. I would greatly recommend this tea.

Profile: Liquor is a pale yellowish green. Aroma is mildly vegetal. Taste is mildly vegetal as well; fresh green beans with a hint of smokiness. Aftertaste is brief and clean. Mouthfeel is thin and slightly drying to the tongue, without any bitterness.

Other notes: One could compare it to Dragonwell, though it is thinner and without nuttiness. Also worth noting is that I detected no spiciness or sweetness, which is contrary to other reviews.

Verdict: An inoffensive cup, but not my preference. The complexity of flavors simply wasn’t there, and while it is bolder than some other Chinese greens, still too mild for me.