Lu Shan Yun Wu Green Tea

Sipdown! (20)

Taking one of my new teapots out for a spin with a single sample packet of this tea! For some reason, I have about a million black and green tea samples from Teavivre… I sort of just picked a green tea out at random.

I expected this to be much stronger and more harsh than it is, just based on the appearance of the leaves. They were a rather muted medium green, thin and somewhat wiry, and curled up into little loops.

But this is actually a very mellow and smooth tea. There are strong and delicious creamy nut and chewy grain notes that I love. It’s definitely a rich nut, like a cashew. There’s a green-ness to this as well, and combined with the creamy quality it reminds me of edamame or lima beans, perhaps approaching sweet shelled peas as well. I do get a light mineral note and there’s a tiny hint of pleasant bitterness at the end of the sip.

Overall, it’s very easy-drinking without much of the grassy or vegetal notes that often turn people off of green tea. And its fairly light flavor is perfect for the afternoon or evening!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJrcEdogvO9/

So vegetal. Steamed green beans, spinach, asparagus, slightly nutty, buttery, slightly sweet, some nice chestnut notes, stonefruits, umami…

Really enjoyed my sample of it yesterday. Would love it get more and give it the gongfu style treatment. This time, I use my new TeaVivre glass and 185℉, grandpa style.

I’ve tried all my Teavivre 2019 teas so far but haven’t gotten around to leaving a review. Just yesterday I got my 2nd Yunnan Sourcing order and my tea cabinet is getting full so I figured I would get around to start leaving a few reviews.

I normally like to try a few brewing methods but I find for me and Chinese greens, usually it tastes much better Western brewed. Just a simple cup and infuser. I don’t have a really large cup and that first infusion, if done right, is perfection. That doesn’t go for all green teas (and definitely not for Japanese) but in most cases , it works. Take the best and discard the rest.

So brewed this at 80C, about 6 or 7 oz water , and approximately 3 grams of tea for 1 min 45 sec. This was my favourite green from Teavivre last year and it’s still performing well for the 2019 tea. Intense green bean flavour , slightly nutty & sweet. It’s like a taste of spring.

Angel was kind enough to include this in the last batch of samples she sent me in Spring 2018. And wow. This is lovely. The dry leaf is bright green curly dry moss. Pretty to watch as it unfurls and tints the added water. The liquor is nutty sweet roast chestnut and green pea. And possibly a bit asparagus. Delicious.

If I might add a suggestion for TeaVivre in terms of packaging of samples. The packaging itself is great. However, the font in the English text is far too small to read for an English speaker and further, the letters all run in and blur together. Add to that, that the names of the teas are in Pinyin and mostly unknown. aside from the names of the most famous teas, this can make for a most frustrating experience.

This tea, for example, with my glasses on, looks like it could be La Shun You Wu or Lo Shan You Wa or Lu Shan Tou Wu and so on and so on. I tried to type this many times in steepster before I gave up and went to search for this tea on TeaVivre’s site and eventually found it. It needn’t be so frustrating. Make the font larger.

Thank you, Angel, for the sample. I really enjoyed it, aside from the challenge with the name of the tea.

Sipdown! 230/365!

Finishing off a sample packet of this that was opened – I recently inventoried the majority of my straight teas, and pulled out open samples, greens, and sipdown-level samples, so I will be drinking a bit more of that sort of thing in the near future. I think I’m well ahead on my sipdown goal, though, so no end-of-month quick roulette like last time.

This is another still-really-tasty-despite-age tea. Some of the complexity gone, and there are some spice notes here that are perhaps from contamination, but no metallic flavours, just sweetness and green bean-y umami. Thanks for the sample, Teavivre!

Also – I talked myself out of a Taiwan Tea Crafts order today, which I’m pleased about, especially since I just got a Verdant order that I probably could have waited on. However, I’m excited to see that TTC has 10g samples – not sure they had those last time I ordered, as I bought 25g of everything, which is more than necessary when you’re just curious. I also noted they have free shipping for sample orders of $25+, so this is on my list for some refills of high mountain oolongs and baozhongs at some point.

For those interested, my current tea count is 693 (oh – 692 with this one removed)…. but this does not include my most recent Verdant order, any of my paid-for and incoming teas (AQ2T, 52teas, Bird & Blend), almost all of the Anne-era 52teas, almost all Butiki, all Lupicia, nearly all misc company teas and swap samples. I’ve only inventoried 5 of my 12 bins of tea (though they were the fullest and oldest, excepting Butiki, which I just haven’t run through a second time yet). Yeesh.

Ooo, this is lovely! The dry leaf is beautiful: slender, twisty silvery-green leaves with a rich, nutty fragrance. It brews up to a nice pale green color with plenty of nutty, vegetal flavor and a lingering sweet aftertaste. Smooth, sweet Chinese green teas are my absolute favorite and this is one of the best I’ve tried. I would definitely consider re-purchasing this one!

My second tasting of the day is Lu Shan Yun Wu green tea, also known as clouds and mists, and this is awesome. The leaves are tiny, deep green and blossom when put into the water. The first aroma that hit me was an intense buttery vegetal scent that made me not even want to wait for the steep.

A 30 second steep at 175 produced a clear light yellow green liquor that has a wonderful mouthfeel and a full strong buttery vegetal aroma and taste with a hint of asparagus. It also had slight sweet, astringent and bitter flavors as well, but none of them are overpowering.

The second infusion also at 30 seconds was a bit more intense in both sweetness and astringency, Im guessing the leaves needed to open up a bit more, as I found the second infusion more pleasing, but dont get me wrong the first was good as well.

I highly recommend this tea for people who have struggled with bitter greens as the bitterness and astringency are there, but are mild enough for even the most bitter adverse person.

This is a nice Chinese green—mildly savory and vegetal with a little nuttiness. I’m not sure I would pick this to order over some of the other similar Teavivre greens I’ve sampled, as it’s not super distinctive—but I’m not sure that I wouldn’t, either. It’s very mellow and drinkable. Thanks for the sample, Teavivre!

So, I’ve already had too much caffeine today, but the SO decided she wanted to try a green tea today and this is the one she chose. We couldn’t agree on this one from the get-go. She kept smelling things like rotisserie chicken and other dinner smells, I was getting roasted chestnuts more than anything else, which gave me high hopes for the flavor itself.

I followed Teavivre’s preparation recommendations for this one. She says it tastes like dinner. To me, it tastes like slightly bitter roastiness. Not getting the chestnut or nutty flavors the aroma had me expecting. Neither of us wants another cup at the moment, so I wait an hour to resteep.

The second steep is better, which leads me to believe I didn’t wash this quite long enough the first time around. Smooth in texture, lightly nutty in flavor and lightly vegetal. I guess I’m not used to the concept of the second steep being best applying to green tea. I now take the time to admire the very light golden liquor in my clear cha hai.

The third steep is also light and pleasant, and the leaves seem to have expanded nicely. I’m getting some buttery notes in this steep. Fourth steep is super light and what flavor is there is mostly buttery.

This tea taught me that it needs to be washed in order for me to enjoy it, and for longer than the recommended five seconds. It was a good learning experience, and I’ll finish up the rest of the sample, but I don’t think it’s quite up my alley enough to ever put in a full order of it.

Steep times:
20/30/45/60

A huge thank you to Teavivre for the opportunity to win this tea along with 4 other spring greens in a giveaway!! I have received the teas after a long journey and am excited to get back into tea with some new ones in my cupboard. It’s been a while in a tea rut for me so maybe I’ll spring out of it now!

The dry leaves smell so yummy and vegetal, reminiscent of Laoshan green from Verdant to me, I wonder if it’s coincidence that Laoshan and Lu Shan sound similar haha :) the leaves are fine and slightly curled in appearance. Smellso so fresh! I steeped these Western style for 3 min with 175 degree water.

The steeped liquor smells richly nutty and vegetal, with a slight salted note. I want to say cashews, even though I have never eaten themy cuz of my peanut allergy lol.

As for the flavor, wow this is so rich and good! Very nutty, I’m not sure what kind of nuts but that is the main flavor, with a beany soy and vegetal greens note. The aftertaste is salty nuts and lingers for quite some time.

Overall, this is a very satisfying and rich tasting green tea. Not overly light in flavor, it has lots of body. Hopefully the caffeine doesn’t snack me too hard haha. Once again, thank you Teavivre and especially Angel for ensuring this tea arrived after a long journey :)