I got this as a free sample from The Tea Table, and I’m glad it was free, because I still don’t know what I think of it…! When I prepared it, I didn’t know anything about it (except that it was loose tea), not even that it was a green tea. Reading on this page that it’s green, I don’t totally see it. The brew in the mug is a medium-to-light golden brown. Except for a certain grassy element to it, it doesn’t taste like green teas I’ve had. The predominant flavor is a nearly metallic base—call it “oxidized”. Not a deep or bitter flavor, just a sort of round, baked kind of flavor. I’m not tasting sweetness, and if this is “toasty” apparently I’ve been making toast wrong for years. It’s almost bread-y. This is also the only smell you can get from the brewed tea.
Not that this is necessarily bad. I am drinking the whole mug and will probably finish the sample. But I probably wouldn’t buy more of this, and if this is Lung Ching, now I know that Lung Ching is missing some of what I look for in tea: brightness, and a variety of flavor notes.
