River Rain

This really truly tastes like rain, or “less salty ocean” for those of you like me who have forgotten what rain looks like and have no rivers nearby. After being corrected, yes, rain, I remember this feel.

You know how it smells when it’s just rained in a grassy area? That’s how this tastes. It’s really not grassy overall, there’s just hints of it. And the jasmine notes give it this freshness that I can’t even put into words. This is how I imagine, without any weird chemicals and the like in the air, collected rainwater that you immediately drank would taste.

It’s a very light cup, but even with just a minute it is bursting with flavor despite its physical appearance.

Second steep, +15 seconds: it’s still a very strong flavor, just like the first cup! I’d say though the one major difference is the jasmine is a lot less floral. But seriously it’s like it was never even steeped in the first place, that’s how bright the same notes are.

I can’t wait to try this one out in my gaiwan. And also have a third steep preferably much later on today, too full of tea already haha.

I am super impressed with my Whispering Pines teas! Haha, I’ve probably said this already :P but yeah, oh and also, I forgot to mention the hand-written note that came with my teas was a nice surprise, good customer service! I had a cup of Honeysuckle White tea by them earlier and didn’t rinse my cup, so there might be a bit of honeysuckle taste in this cup that is not normally present lol. I’ll have to write a review about that one at some point too! Anyways, onto this tea.

First off, this one has a very faint green tea scent dry, nice and light. I steeped for 1.5 minutes at 175 degree water. The steeped smell is of jasmine, fresh little buds of it. The taste is very delicate and fresh, I definitely taste a floral element, whether that is the honeysuckle adding to the jasmine from the previous cup, I’m not sure, but it is quite nice. The green tea is very light and smooth, with the slightest hint of grass. I can see how this is likened to rain in a forest or on blades of grass, it is just fresh and sweet and pure.

Overall, I am quite enjoying this cup, I am finding it quite relaxing and I love the images of a forest it evokes for me. Ahh feeling a bit Zen-like, much needed after a busy busy day at work. I will hold off rating until I try it in a clean cup to make sure the white tea isn’t messing with the flavor.

This was a wonderful sample from Rachel!

This is a very nicely done blend. It’s lightly vegetal with notes of chestnut and wafts of jasmine. The jasmine is not strong at all, it’s delicate and very well done. This tea really does resemble its name, a light rain in a field with wild flowers with a creek flowing through it. Beautiful tea, thank you for sharing this one with me Rachel!

I tried really hard not to spill the beans about the new stuff I picked up on my trip…clearly I failed. Haha. China might need to be an annual trip. This one will need further ratio changes but is by far the greatest green tea blend I’ve come up with.

I searched high and low to build a tea around the description (which I wrote about 6 months ago). This has been one of my longest projects – and I’m VERY excited about the outcome!

Estimated by the 15th. :) So excited – Back to the grind on Saturday!